My friend Joy is one of the best athletes I’ve known.
Webster’s definition of athlete is a “person trained in exercises or games requiring strength, skill, stamina.” Joy Hakan still checks all of those boxes and will be 86 next month.
She was married to the late Joe Hakan, whose architectural firm was the local partner in building the Smith Center, plus renovations and upgrades to Kenan Stadium and many other jobs on campus.
The Hakans loved basketball the best. The first time I was at their home, I saw a newspaper clipping with Joy in her uniform. Turns out she played in Lawndale in the days when guards and forwards were both restricted. In that old-timey girls’ game, Joy still starred.
By then, Joy’s basketball career was reduced to games of HORSE, at which she was pretty much undefeated, including embarrassing me on three straight occasions.
Her next sport was tennis, and she was pretty good at that, too. But after years of wear and tear on her left knee, she had it replaced at Duke. Several hernia surgeries made her a full-time spectator.
Like the rest of us, she missed attending games during the pandemic season. And when her right knee grew weak and painful, she had a decision to make for when basketball returned to normal. She went to see an orthopedic surgeon at Duke, who happened to have been a reserve defensive back for Mack Brown in the 1990s.
Despite having stage-four kidney illness and continuous bouts with skin cancer, Joy wanted to see the Tar Heels in person again. She scheduled another knee replacement with Mike Bolognesi, who had recently replaced Brown’s knee. Mack assured Joy that Bolognesi was a better surgeon than football player.
Joy came through the operation with flying colors and was driving, shopping and getting ready to play HORSE again.
Then came another surgery to repair something from the last hernia. The doctors told her it would be a long and difficult recovery, but Joy had no choice. Even in her semi-conscious state, she wanted to know how the team is looking for the coming season.
No doubt, at 86, Joy will be back at the game in her seat, this time cheering on two good knees. She’s an athlete.
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