by michelle | Feb 18, 2024 | Traditional
Muskegon Heights football ruled the area – and the state – for an unforgettable 27-game stretch from Sept. 22, 1945 to Nov. 15, 1947. During that magical run, no team, not even the mighty and hated Muskegon Big Reds, could match the Tigers’ wrecking...
by michelle | Feb 18, 2024 | Traditional
Cal Tatum came from a family of basketball players, but he proved to be the best and most successful of all. Tatum made his mark at Muskegon High School in the late 1960s at the height of the Vietnam War, amazing fans with his combination of speed, ball-handling,...
by michelle | Feb 18, 2024 | Traditional
Mark Konecny was the first player from the academic-rich Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association to make it to the NFL. In doing so, the 1981 Mona Shores graduate broke through the glass ceiling and proved that talent and desire are more important than playing...
by michelle | Feb 18, 2024 | Traditional
The name Jock Callander still brings a smile to the face of Muskegon area hockey fans, who remember him as a dominant center on some of the great Muskegon Lumberjack teams of the early 1980’s. Callander first came to Muskegon a 1984 and helped ignite a golden...
by michelle | Feb 18, 2024 | Traditional
Karel Bailey was a true pioneer of girls high school sports in the Muskegon area and the first female coach to be inducted in the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame. Bailey, a Pontiac native and a three sport star at Western Michigan University, begin teaching and...
by michelle | Feb 18, 2024 | Traditional
Few towns have had a longer-running love affair with their hometown team than Shelby and its 1971 and 1972 Tigers. “Oh my goodness,” said Mary Beckman, whose older brothers, Fred and Stan Sanford, played on those teams along with her husband, Bob Beckman....
by michelle | Feb 18, 2024 | Traditional
A three-sport star at Muskegon Heights High School, “The Wizard of Oss” took his athletic skills to Arizona State University before returning home to serve more than 30 years in the Muskegon Heights school system. Along the way, McCarty became the first...
by michelle | Feb 18, 2024 | Traditional
Dan Brink was one of the first area wrestlers to win a high school state championship, pulling off the feat in the early 1970s at Orchard View. It turns out he was just getting started. Brink went on to earn All-American honors at both Muskegon Community College and...
by michelle | Feb 17, 2024 | Traditional
A past president of the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association, Jack Schugars solidified his place in local history on a cold and rainy night in Hart back in 2004. After an extremely rare 0-3 start, his Oakridge Eagles stormed to a 43-8 win over Hart. The...
by michelle | Feb 17, 2024 | Traditional
For the first 38 years of the school’s existence, Mona Shores had only one wrestling coach. Don Mosley’s record is one of incredible longevity and winning. Between 1962 and 2001, his teams racked up a 489-186-4 record, winning an amazing 72 percent of their matches....
by michelle | Feb 17, 2024 | Traditional
Rick Ley coached the Muskegon Lumberjacks for many of the seven years from 1985 to 1992 that Dave Michayluk ruled the L.C. Walker Arena. Back in 1988, Ley had this to say about his star player: “Dave Michayluk is a very hard worker and he comes to play every game....
by michelle | Feb 17, 2024 | Traditional
One year before the movie “Hoosiers” immortalized tiny Milan High School’s magical run to the Indiana state championship, the Newaygo High School girls basketball team took its small town on a similar, storybook run to the Class C state championship....
by michelle | Feb 17, 2024 | Traditional
A large number of Muskegon-area racquetball players submitted a letter to the MASHF board, indicating that if the board ever decided to honor their sport, Lynn Hahn should be the first inductee. The board listened. Hahn earned widespread respect from all of his...
by michelle | Feb 17, 2024 | Traditional
Mark Grimmette is the only area athlete to win an Olympic medal, earning a bronze and silver in doubles luge, while bringing attention to the community and the luge run at Muskegon State Park. He grew up across the street from Muskegon’s Winter Sports Complex. ...
by michelle | Feb 17, 2024 | Traditional
A three-sport star at Orchard View in the early 1990s, Josh Keur was not only a dominating, four-year starter on the OV football team, but a two-year varsity starter in basketball and one of the state’s best discus throwers. His unique combination of great size and...
by michelle | Feb 17, 2024 | Traditional
Most remember Lee Gilbert as the longtime coach of the powerhouse Muskegon Heights basketball teams, but he was also one of the best players to ever come out of the Heights basketball factory. An all-state guard for the Tigers in 1970, Gilbert went on to play two...
by michelle | Feb 17, 2024 | Traditional
Maybe it shouldn’t have been a complete surprise that Dan Bylsma took over as coach of a floundering Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team on February 15, 2009, and less than four months later led them to a Stanley Cup championship. After all, Bylsma always has been good...
by michelle | Feb 17, 2024 | Traditional
A very good way to start a fight, or at the very least a heated discussion, is to gather some former Muskegon professional hockey players and fans together and ask them what was the greatest single team in Muskegon’s 50-year professional hockey history. One thing that...
by michelle | Feb 17, 2024 | Traditional
A Muskegon Heights kid who delighted in exceeding expectations, Trinity Townsend led the Heights’ Quiz Bowl team to state prominence, but it was on the track where he left his biggest mark. Townsend was a 400-meter state champion who went on to become a four-time...
by michelle | Feb 17, 2024 | Traditional
A prep star at Muskegon St. Mary, Fred Storck was a reliable bat and a popular player throughout an 11-year baseball career. Storck started his professional career in 1946 as a pitcher in the Cleveland Indian organization, but would ultimately find his niche in the...
