Bouncing Along Iverson’s Basketball Career Takes Him Around The World While riding a train, Chuck Iverson awoke with a jolt in the middle of the night. The University of South Dakota graduate — who had enjoyed a brief stint in pro basketball — was traveling in Europe with South Dakota basketball all-stars. The three-month swing included around six weeks in the former Soviet Union. The year was 1976 — the United States’ bicentennial. But it also marked the depth of Cold War tensions, making the U.S. basketball team’s visit to the Soviet Union both historic and chilling. “We were among the first independent teams to go behind the Iron Curtain,” he said. “We played the equivalent of their pro teams.” Iverson, now living in Yankton, vividly recalls the 1976 incident when Soviet authorities halted the train with the U.S. team. “We were traveling from Finland to Russia, and our train was stopped in the middle of the night,” he said. “We looked out, and it was like a lighted football field at the border. We knew we were entering Russia.” While the team thought they knew their location, Iverson said they had no idea what to expect next. “We sat there for a half-hour or 45 minutes. Then the door opened up, and we had a 65-year-old woman in a military uniform who spoke broken English,” he said. “She was accompanied by two soldiers with rifles, and they went through all our clothes and possessions.” The team members had been given a list of forbidden items in the Soviet Union, Iverson said. “We were told not to take any reading materials, except for maybe sports magazines or books. We weren’t allowed to take any news magazines, like Newsweek, with us,” he said. “We had to declare any money on us, and we weren’t to have any religious symbols with us (in the officially atheist nation).” The team members weren’t allowed to get dressed during the search, Iverson said. “We were standing there, in our underwear, while the guards went through all our things,” he said. “We didn’t know what to expect or what they might do to us.” The train search finally ended and the U.S. team was allowed Practicing the gentle art of modern dentistry. New Patients and Emergencies Welcome! 1101 Broadway Ste. 105, Morgen Square 605.665.2448 • www.scottfamilysmiles.com Experience Gentle, Personalized Dental Care For Your Entire Family! 16vHISVOICEvSEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017