30-Hour Basketball Game Deemed Longest

[DelReyJ]

By Associated Press
Posted December 3 2004, 3:27 PM EST


BEATRICE, Neb. -- A 30-hour, 12-minute basketball game played at a Nebraska high school in August is officially the world's longest.

The organizers were informed Thursday the basketball marathon will be recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records.

"This is awesome," Jim Weeks, the event organizer and Beatrice High School boys basketball coach, told Beatrice Daily Sun. "We have been waiting and waiting and waiting."

Before all the waiting, there was playing and playing and playing.

The game started at 8 a.m. on Aug. 6 at Beatrice High between an Orange and White team. It ended at 2:12 p.m. on Aug. 7 with the Orange team winning 4,107-4,018. The previous world record was 26 hours, 42 minutes, set in March 2003.

Twenty-four people, from ages 15 to 35, played. Most players were Beatrice High graduates or were still attending the school. More than 200 people watched as the final minutes were counted down.

Players could leave the court for one hour but could not leave the gym for more than five minutes. Naps were allowed on chairs and air mattresses in the gym.

The idea for the game came after a 24-hour basketball marathon in Beatrice last year. Weeks learned the record was just three hours longer, and he thought it would be easy to break.

"I didn't know it was going to be that tough," Weeks told the newspaper. "It was more mental than physical."