Era of basketball greats also golden for pitcher

Al Davis had just declined an interview request from a Flint Journal sports writer and was walking away, when something the reporter had said clicked and brought him back.

“Flint,” said the owner of the then-Los Angeles Raiders football team. “That’s where all the great high school basketball players come from.”

It was December 1984, at the Pontiac Silverdome after a Raiders-Detroit Lions game. Davis granted the interview, and it seemed appropriate that an owner whose motto was “Just win, baby” should acknowledge Flint’s reputation of prep hoops excellence.

The area’s harvest of 15 state basketball titles was just one highlight of a decade that once again brought national and world attention to a mid-sized city in the Rust Belt. From Ken Morrow’s Olympic role in the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980 to Jim Abbott’s meteoric rise to major-league baseball stardom in 1989, Flint’s assembly line of sports success stories never slowed in the ’80s.

For five consecutive winters, the Class A boys basketball title never left the city limits as first Central (1981-83), then Northwestern (’84-’85) ruled the state.

All-American guard Eric Turner started Central’s run, and later led the University of Michigan to the National Invitation Tournament crown. Mark Harris kept the streak alive with a 40-foot buzzer shot in the ’82 semifinals, and along the way the Indians tied Northern’s Class A record of 37 straight victories.

Northwestern smashed that mark with 60 straight wins, led by Jeff Grayer and Glen Rice, both of whom wound up in the NBA, Rice

stopping to pick up an NCAA title at UM in ’89.

Architects of this dynasty were Central coach Stan Gooch, whose 28 consecutive tournament wins set a record, and NW’s Grover Kirkland, the first Flint coach to reach 300 victories.

Beecher dominated the Class B level under coach Mose Lacy, who would have had his own three-year title run (’85-’87) if not for a 54-foot buzzer shot by Saginaw Buena Vista in the ’86 final. The Bucs’ biggest star was Roy Marble, who joined Turner, Harris, Rice and Grayer on the Team of the ’80s selected by area coaches.

Other hoop standouts included Central’s Darryl Johnson, an eventual MVP at Michigan State; Northern’s Demetrius Calip, a teammate with Rice on UM’s national championship team; Southwestern’s Andre Wiley, who played with 1988 finalist Oklahoma; and NW’s Trent and Craig Tucker, who may have been the first cousins taken in the same NBA draft (1982) by the same team (New York Knicks).

In girls’ basketball, Northern twins Pam and Paula McGee led the University of Southern California to two national titles, and Pam helped the U.S. win the 1984 Olympic gold medal at Los Angeles. Northwestern’s Tonya Edwards played on back-to-back national title teams at Tennessee.

Ken Morrow was a defenseman on the U.S. hockey team that stunned the Soviet Union and won Olympic gold in February 1980, but the Davison grad said it was a bigger thrill to capture the Stanley Cup with the New York Islanders a few months later. Morrow and the Isles defended the Cup the following year.

Jim Abbott captured hearts worldwide in the ’80s. The Central High athlete born without a right hand first gained statewide notice in 1984 when he came off the bench to quarterback the Indians to a football playoff victory.

But it was in baseball that Abbott’s hard-throwing left arm struck down doubters again and again. He pitched his way onto the UM staff in 1986, carried the U.S. flag at the opening of the Pan Am Games in ’87, won the gold-medal game at the Seoul Olympics in ’88 and made the roster of the California Angels in spring training 1989, accomplishing the rare feat of going directly from college to the major leagues. He won 13 games his rookie season, surprising batters with his 90-mph fastball and ability to field his position.

Abbott never made it to the World Series, but Carman’s Jeff Hamilton did, with the 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers.

Three area football players reached the Super Bowl � Carl Banks (Beecher, New York Giants), Jim Morrissey (Powers Catholic, Chicago Bears), Reggie Williams (Southwestern, Cincinnati Bengals) � and six others played in the NFL: Andre Rison (Northwestern), Mark Ingram (Northwestern), Brian Carpenter (Southwestern), Lonnie Young (Beecher), Eugene Marve (Northern) and Booker Moore (Southwestern).

Flushing’s Shawn Cronin joined Morrow in the NHL, but Flint’s own pro hockey fortunes rode a roller-coaster in the ’80s.

The Generals in 1984 claimed their first Turner Cup in 15 years of playing in the International Hockey League, but 15 months later, on July 9, 1985, the franchise moved to Saginaw. Team president Dr. Eugene Chardoul cited a lack of Saturday night playing dates offered by IMA Sports Arena management, and attendance had been wallowing around 2,500.

Fans criticized the Generals for their abrupt, overnight move out of town, but just 28 days later, a group fronted by NHL Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay announced IHL approval of a new franchise here. The Flint Spirits started poorly and were literally within an hour of folding in mid-January 1986, when a group headed by former General Bob Perani rescued the club. The revived Spirits reached the Turner Cup finals in 1988 and were still in town as the decade ended.

Genesee Eight Conference schools won an astounding 14 consecutive Class C wrestling titles, a streak that finally ended in 1989. New Lothrop claimed eight of them, but Montrose had the biggest individual stars. Gary Silva held the national record with 187 career wins when he graduated in 1981, and Mike Murdoch topped that with a 209-9-1 career mark through 1986.

Don Hargraves set a Flint bowling record with an 834 series, but a change in the way lanes were oiled led to an explosion in scoring later in the decade. Perfect games, which had numbered two or three per season, now exceed 60 every year.

Back to top

Index
Starting point for the 20th Century series. Includes an overview of all of the decades.