by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 14, 2024 | Traditional
Rich Tompkins raised the bar for all of the area’s track and cross-country runners and coaches. A three-sport star at Hart High School in the 1960s, Tompkins went on to run at Michigan State University. Shortly after graduating from MSU, Tompkins went to Fremont...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 14, 2024 | Traditional
Dave Taylor was a middle linebacker through and through. Taylor played that crucial defensive position with a passion at North Muskegon High School, Ferris State College (now Ferris State University) and then the professional Grand Rapids Blazers. He was a one-man...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 14, 2024 | Traditional
Walter “Pete” Petroskey was a fearsome hitter for the semi-pro Muskegon Reds baseball team back in the 1930s, but baseball is not where he would make his mark. Petroskey is known as a boxer and boxing manager who turned professional at 16 while in the U.S. Army. ...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 14, 2024 | Uncategorized
Chuck Pavlich was not only one of the best football linemen to ever come out of the area but was one of West Michigan’s toughest individuals. The son of immigrant parents who settled in Egelston Township, Pavlich was a burly 195-pound lineman at Muskegon High School...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 11, 2024 | Traditional
Sherman Poppen was just trying to get his daughters out of the house on Christmas Day in 1965, so he bolted together a pair of kid’s skis, then gave the creation to them so they could ride down the Lake Michigan dunes behind his house. Who would have thought...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 11, 2024 | Uncategorized
It’s not much of a stretch to say that professional hockey in Muskegon was built around Joe Kastelic. An eight-year veteran of the International Hockey League, the left winger had spent time in Fort Wayne and Louisville before his arrival in Muskegon in 1961. The...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 11, 2024 | Traditional
Dave Boertman is a household word in the sport of drag racing, where he was among the best in the world for nearly three decades. The 1958 Muskegon Catholic Central graduate got his start in the sport in 1962, when he went with some friends to the Central Michigan...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 11, 2024 | Traditional
The North Muskegon football squads of 1941 and 1942 compiled a streak of 15 consecutive shutout victories, going undefeated, untied and unscored upon from the sixth game of the 1940 season through the fourth game of the 1942 schedule. No other Muskegon area prep grid...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 11, 2024 | Traditional
Like many Canadian youths, Bob Tombari dreamed of a career in the National Hockey League. Skating for the hometown Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, Tombari notched 65 goals and 57 assists during the 1966-67 season – his final year of junior competition. The...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 11, 2024 | Traditional
Muskegon’s Kenny Sutton became a world class champion in speed roller skating in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Competing against the world’s best speed skaters, Sutton consistently won gold medals and established new world record times,...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 11, 2024 | Traditional
For over half a century Grand Haven’s George “Yutz” Nietering was the most accomplished bowler in the Grand Haven – Muskegon area. From the mid-1930s up to his retirement from the sport in 1991, Nietering was consistently ranked at the head of...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 11, 2024 | Traditional
William “Flop” Flora, a teammate of the great Bennie Oosterbaan both in high school and college, ranks as one of the great football linemen from the Muskegon area. Flora was an all-state tackle on J. Francis Jacks’ mythical state champion Muskegon...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 11, 2024 | Traditional
The pitching talents of Grand Haven’s Howard Bailey made him one of the area’s handful of baseball players to rise to the highest level of professional baseball. He had the added good fortune of playing for Michigan’s own Detroit Tigers for three...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 11, 2024 | Traditional
Like his father, Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame member Jim Morse, Bobby was an exceptional football player, leading Muskegon Catholic Central to two state titles and one runner-up finish during his career. A four-year starter at MCC, the hard-charging running back...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 11, 2024 | Traditional
Jerry Fitzpatrick, better known as a coach and athletic director at Muskegon Mona Shores High School, was one of the greatest track and field athletes ever produced in the Muskegon area. Specializing in the sprints and the long jump, Fitzpatrick was a standout at...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 11, 2024 | Traditional
Ed Douma learned the basics of basketball at Muskegon’s Western Michigan Christian High School under the school’s great cage patriarch Elmer Walcott. Douma not only became a standout player, but also went on to an illustrious coaching career at both the...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 11, 2024 | Traditional
From 1954 to 1986, Roger Chiaverini established a reputation as a consistent winning football coach for five Michigan high schools with a 31-year total of 179 wins, 82 losses and 10 ties. His .793 winning percentage with two Muskegon area schools (Muskegon and...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 11, 2024 | Traditional
Beginning with a Class A state championship in 1954, the Muskegon Heights Tigers emerged two years later as one of the most dominant basketball teams in the history of the state tournament. The 1955-56 and 1956-57 squads captured consecutive Class A basketball...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 11, 2024 | Traditional
One of the finest three-sport athletes ever to hail from Hart, Fred Stevens went on to become a sports legend at Western Michigan Normal (now Western MIchigan University) in Kalamazoo. From 1936 to 1940, Stevens was without argument Hart High School’s finest...
by Maxwell Dinesen | Feb 11, 2024 | Traditional
The name Tom McShannock is indelibly linked to the great tradition of sports at his alma mater, Muskegon High School. His long career, beginning with his remarkable prep years as a three-sport athlete for the Big Reds, followed by some solid athletic accomplishments...
