Two items Mike McGlinchey's parents made sure they had before heading off to one of their son's youth basketball games: A water bottle and his birth certificate.
"Because people always questioned whether he belonged on the team or not," his mother, Janet, said.
You see, the McGlincheys' oldest child stood out among peers the way a tiger would in a room full of house cats. He was big out of the cradle, was called "Big Mike" while he was still a grade schooler and didn't stop growing until he went off to college.
His parents wouldn't let him play football at age eight, for example, because their town's weight-based league would have put him on the same field as eighth and ninth graders.