Patent ID: 7398888

Claim:
A sports equipment storage rack for supporting a variety of different types of sports equipment in an off-the-ground position, said rack comprising: (a) an elongated, cylindrically shaped body of a wire-type cage construction formed of a plurality of spaced apart vertically oriented frame struts that are connected together by a plurality of spaced apart generally arcuate span members; (b) said body sized to hold a plurality of spherically shaped balls; (c) said vertically oriented struts having arcuately shaped end portions that flare outwardly from said body; (d) a generally tubularly shaped top portion on the top end of said body that is formed from said end portions to provide a circular upper opening for receiving said balls, the diameter of said upper opening being larger than the diameter of said body to enable the placement of said balls in said opening; (e) said end portions being of differential length such that said upper opening generally lies in a vertical plane; and (f) a bottom portion on the lower end of said body that is arcuately formed to provide a ramp for holding said balls and has an upwardly extending wedge shaped retention node to normally retain said balls in said rack, said ramp extending from said body such that said node is located outside of said body.