The World's Longest Basketball Game

The following day, the boys played three hours, then took three hours off to eat or sleep if they could. The lack of spectators made it difficult for the players to stay motivated, especially in the early morning and during the day. Officials had doubts the  record would be broken, but a few new faces helped spur the players on.

By day four they were well past the halfway mark and the record was in sight. Most of the boys were playing in bare feet or thongs because blisters made it impossible to wear shoes or boots.    

Late in the afternoon of day five it was decided that the boys could swap over every 40 minutes in front of the anticipated large crowd. Despite over 100 hours of continuous play, the last 10 players on the court turned on a display of basketball that equalled any fixture game anywhere, and spectators responded by cheering them on to greater efforts.    

Finally, at 10.25pm, the record was broken. The boys played on. A big crowd appeared at 11.30pm and the boys continued as though it were a grand final. 

At 1.30am on Saturday 6 May, 1972 the game was stopped. The marathon was over, and a new world record of 110 hours and five minutes had been set, breaking the previous record by three hours, five minutes.