STILL SPORTS SAVVY AT 98 YEARS OLD

South Florida resident Ray Mooney was watching this year's NBA All-Star Game, but like everyone else not at the Toyota Center in Houston, she was unaware of an unusual occurrence in the fourth quarter. During a timeout, the Miami Heat's 51 to 80-year-old dance group called the Golden Oldies stole the spotlight with a performance to the hip-hop song "Gold Digger." But back east, Ray hardly missed a move, heating up her own sports fever as a super golden oldie. Just shy of her 98th birthday, she is the oldest member of a sports-simulated aerobic class at her Forest Trace retirement community in Ft. Lauderdale. It seems as though she couldn't control her game-time emotions solely on the edge of her couch.

"I can't participate in sports, but by watching sports, it stimulates me," Mooney says. "It stimulates me mentally, it stimulates me physically. I get excited. I jump up and cheer for my players, my teams. And when I go to exercises, even our exercises simulate organized sports. We do it sitting down in a chair. In one of our exercises, we pretend that we're rowing. We bend forward, move our arms back, move our arms forward. And then we pretend that we're swimming and we do the breast stroke, we do the overhand stroke, we do the back stroke. So even our exercises simulate sports."

She thinks it's a wonderful idea that the Heat showcases a senior citizen booty-shaking troupe, especially when most in-game entertainment uses a youthful, tootsie-roll approach. But the sports audience is aging as the baby boomer market expands. I spoke further with Ms. Mooney to understand why sports has stuck with her through the years, how her senior residence promotes game-time participation and how she thinks television can market more toward the elderly.

Q: Tell me about how you first fell in love with sports.
A: Until I was about 14 years of age, I was never interested in sports. But while at Erasmus High School [in Brooklyn], I joined a field hockey team. Those of us who went to high school were all required to enter some sport. There we met young men who were into basketball, so we learned about basketball. We became cheerleaders for the team. We became involved with the sports. It was activity that was pleasurable and we enjoyed it. It was fun. I remember when I was 16, I had a boyfriend who played basketball for his high school. And although I never saw him play, he would tell me about his games and I became very interested in them. Actually, as an aside, he suffered a very serious injury and developed infections and they were not able to cure him and eventually he had to have his leg amputated. But when I was about 17, I had a date to a Columbia versus Navy football game. I was working at that time as a bookkeeper and one of my early boyfriends was attracted to me and took me to the game. I was wearing a raccoon coat - in what those days you used to wear - and it was very cold. I had never been to a football game - that was the first time I ever had, which is why it's my greatest sports memory. He enjoyed teaching me about football and I enjoyed learning about football and watching it, so it was pleasurable for both of us. And then, if we married - as many of us did - to a man who was a lover of sports, they introduced us to sports as my husband, David, did to me. When I met David, he was a basketball player. He played center for his team. He was one of the tall ones. In that generation, six feet was very tall. Of course, I went to all his games and learned more about the games and the more you learn about a sport, the more interested you become in it and the more you want to see more sports. That's what it's all about. If you're exposed to it when you're young, you continue with that love that you seem to develop when you are young. And it continued on.

Q: How did it progress?
A: Later on, my two sons contributed to my interest in sports. When Steven became an oarsman, we went to see all his boat races. When Leonard became a swordsman, we went to all his fencing meets. When my grandchildren participated in their sports - basketball, track and field, etc. - they increased my love of sports. And my husband and I became interested in all those sports and the more we knew about them, the more we watched them on TV. From that, I went to the newspapers and started to read about sports. I owe my interest in sports, and the fact that I am keeping up with sports today, to the fact that along the way people taught me the rules and what to look for and why certain things were important - what the scoring was about, who some of the referees were, etc. Sports have really sustained me through the years when more or less now I'm committed just to watching them on TV and I continue to read about them in the newspapers.

Q: What sports do you like?
A: I enjoy tennis, I like baseball, I like basketball, I like football. I don't care for wrestling, I don't care for boxing. I think ice hockey is too frivolous. I've been watching the Winter Olympics and some of those feats that they're performing are absolutely death-defying.

Q: How would you say Forest Trace and its residents view sports?
A: I live in a retirement home where we are between 70 and 102 years old. Many of us are ardent sports fans and enjoy watching the games. As an example, I sit at a table with six people for dinner and out of the six people, and we're all women, three of us enjoy sports. Our management is also sports-minded and, because they are, it keeps us alert, stimulated and happy. They turn our residence into a "sports stadium" on special sports event days, such as the World Series, the All-Star Game and the Super Bowl. On these occasions, our dining room is decorated with pictures of the sports teams with pendants, and even our staff as well as all the residents come to the dining room dressed in T-shirts with the name of their favorite team or favorite athlete emblazoned on the back. The food served in the dining room is what we would be getting at the arena: hot dogs, hamburgers, soft drinks and even beers. After dinner, we all enjoy watching the game together on [Forest Trace's] giant TV screen. The cheering, the applauding, the booing make it seem as if we are right there at the stadium. We're so proud of our young athletes - their skills, their athleticism - and we only wish that more of them would remember that there are many, very young people who are also proud of their prowess and look up to them. It is the responsibility, I feel, of these star athletes to lead law-abiding and healthy lives - free from drugs - and to be good role models for these youngsters.

Q: Are there notices posted for upcoming sporting events?
A: They make announcements, it's on the bulletin board, it's in our newsletter. Although there are over 400 people living here, many of them are home-bound and can't come down to watch. Or sometimes it's too cold and they don't go out. But we had about 60, 70 people who came down to see the Super Bowl, so it's a big turnout for us because they have to walk outside to go across to the TV room. Sometimes, the TV room is too small and we go into the big theater.

Q: Is there any betting going on?
A: [Forest Trace] allows us to bet a dollar on the winning score or the score at the end of the half or the particular player who is scoring the most points.

Q: Does Forest Trace provide transportation to sporting events?
A: They've taken us to the horse races. They've taken us to the casinos.

Q: Have you ever gone?
A: I went to the horse races. In fact, one time I was one of the people chosen to appear with the winning horse. They took pictures with us and everything.

Q: When you attend a game or watch it on television, do you feel that your demographic is under covered?
A: No, I don't think so. I think they give us a lot of pleasure. They make us feel young, they make us feel that we're not old at all, that we're back in our youth at the stadium itself enjoying the roar of the crowd, the excitement. No, I don't think they leave us out at all. They appeal to my generation as well as to the middle-aged generation. They appeal to all ages. They appeal to all races. You don't even have to know the language to enjoy them. I think that sports is a wonderful thing.

Q: What are your thoughts on sports ads associated with alcohol?
A: That doesn't bother me. But I don't like to see people drinking anything to excess. I don't enjoy them throwing bottles down on the field and sometimes injuring some of the players because they were angry when the players didn't do something right. I don't mind moderate beer drinking or a cocktail or two. I don't think that's offensive to any of us. I don't think they should be guzzling beer - that would be awful and if they showed pictures of that, I wouldn't like it at all.

Q: So, what would be your ideal commercial?
A: I think older people have a lot to offer to younger people because most of us have led good lives, most of us have supported children, grandchildren, sacrificed our roles for better living. They can make a commercial like that. That would be good. I mean, there are many people here who can be role models for the younger people to see what happens after living a life of poverty and who were working hard and succeeding at what we do. Certainly, they would have a lot to contribute in a commercial. Absolutely. In the world, at least the United States, the average age is up in the 70's. The life span used to be like the 55 range, but now you have many 100-year-old people. My two sisters died at 103.

Q: Sports attitudes and perspectives have also significantly changed within the last 10 years. Does anything jump out at you?
A: I think everything changes as sports have changed also. The rules have changed. I think that in some instances the rules have been an improvement and in other instances, I feel that not enough attention is paid to physical things. I mean, some sports are too physical and it's heart-wrenching to us to find somebody ending up in a wheelchair because of something that happened on the field. I feel that some of the fouls that they call are not punished enough. They should absolutely take somebody off the field all together if they use violence. I don't like that at all. That is not something that has changed for the better. Years ago, you didn't see that.

Q: Do any of the residents surf the web for sports news and scores?
A: No, there are very few residents who use the computer. They would like us all to be computer literate. They have three computers downstairs. But I don't think you can get enough older people going to websites. Their memories aren't good. From one lesson to the next, they'll forget. They do what they can for them, but their memories... Even I - I'm looking for words that I can't even find - common-usage words I've used all my life I have forgotten. I just don't remember. Our memories don't last very long. It is what was in the past that we remember. We don't remember the present so much. They did give us lessons for a while, but they've stopped now. Last time we had someone to teach us, three people showed up. The people here, at our age level, they're more concerned with their daily living - getting by without getting into trouble. Last night at dinner, one of them dropped dead right in the dining room. They cordoned off the whole area. They gave him CPR, they used a defibrillator, they did all kinds of things to him, but he was gone. So, you know, these are the things you see. If you see a person today, tomorrow the person might be gone or at the hospital.

Q: I understand. Well, for the ones who are able and healthy, what would you recommend to get them more involved in sports?
A: There needs to be more teaching of the sport itself and you'll get more older people watching. Old people, who can be home-bound or who just have no other form of entertainment, spend a lot of time watching TV, so if they learned more fine points about the games, they would watch them more often. At least I would. That's what old people need to know - they need to understand the games in order to develop an interest in them. For instance, I've been watching poker on TV. They play some kind of strange poker, Texas-style poker. But before every broadcast, they explain exactly the importance of certain cards, what a pair is, what's better than a pair, what's better than a flush. When you watch the actual play, they show you the cards in the hands and it's very interesting because you know that one hand is better than the other hand.

Q: Overall, what are the benefits of being part of a sports-friendly family?
A: I think it kept us together as a family. We all shared a common interest. When my grandchildren grew up, they joined the little leagues. We all went to watch them play ball. We were united by watching them play and enjoying the sport. It's very important for families to share things together, especially in today's times when people are so far apart. When I talk to my family when they're in New York and I'm in Florida, we're talking about sports and this is a wonderful thing. It's something that we're both interested in and we can share together.