Photos | Courtesy John Hamilton
The topic of last week’s column dealt with Hobbit Park. This is a fabled destination — officially known in Mobile as McLean Park — where generations of participants gathered on Sundays for 40 years to play volleyball.
The impact of these “neighborhood” games has been long-lasting. However, no one may have been affected more than John “J.D.” Hamilton. The Mobile native has gone on to earn a place with the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) tour.
If a movie director pitched a script with what actually happened, it would be thrown out as unrealistic. And yet, it truly did take place.
“When I first started playing volleyball, I had gone to the park to do some skateboarding in a nearby ditch,” Hamilton, who now lives in Florida, told Lagniappe in a telephone interview. “I was 18 and a senior in high school.
“I saw some…
