|
|
||
|
|
The Saginaw County Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2005
By Jack Tany The Hall of Fame, which will induct its fourth class this fall, will be housed in a wing at the Jack Ryder Center on the campus of Saginaw Valley State University. Plaques for individual inductees and teams are located along the hallway adjacent to the main walkway near the entrance of the Ryder Center. Hall of Fame officials also announced voting results for the Class of 2005. Eleven individuals and three teams will be enshrined November 4, 2005, at ceremonies at the Horizons Conference Center. Tickets are $35 apiece and can be obtained from any board member. For additional information, you can check out their website at saginawcountysports.com. With this year's class, a total of 44 individuals and 14 teams from throughout Saginaw County will be in the Hall of Fame.
The Class of 2005
includes: In his 11 years as football coach, he coached the Trojans to five Saginaw Valley League championship football teams and shared one other title. In 1923 he became athletic director and added basketball to his coaching duties. One year later he helped form the Michigan High School Athletic Association and sat on the council for seven years. He was one of the originators of the Michigan Sport Sages. In 1931 he resigned his coaching duties to concentrate on his role of math teacher and athletic official. Beatty gained great respect as an official, steadily progressing to where he was working major collegiate conferences and professional games in Detroit. He also officiated the top high school games around the state and authored a book on football officiating. In addition to his teaching duties, Beatty was employed at Saginaw Steering Gear from 1942-63. His math background led Valley Parochial League officials to enlist his knowledge in taking over the executive secretary's duties for the rapidly growing conference. He held that position for 10 years through 1956. He retired at the end of the 1960 school year at the age of 68. In 1979, he received the Charles E. Forsythe Award "for outstanding contributions to athletics in the state of Michigan." He was a life member of the Michigan Sports Sages, the MSU Varsity S Club, the Michigan Coaches Association, the Michigan State Alumni Association, and honorary member of the Saginaw High School Lettermen's Association.
The Sports Sages,
organized by a group of men who had devoted 25 years to athletics, honored
Beatty with an honorary life membership - one of only two to earn that
distinction at that time. Beatty died January 18, 1981, at the age 88 and
is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery. He was a batboy on his father's Saginaw Bolters 1979 National Championship fast pitch softball team and started pitching competitively at the age of 15 at Hoyt Park and is still going strong today. He pitched Major Open Division teams to18 state titles - 10 in Michigan, five in Illinois, two in Ohio and one in Florida. He pitched for two National Championship teams and two runner-up teams.
In 1985, Gillis won 43 games for Ashland (Ohio) Faultless-Gerber and in 1987 he hurled Pay-N-Pak to the 1987 ASA Major National Championship. Gillis earned a silver medal in the 1989 Olympic Festival and spent one winter pitching in New Zealand. He was first team ASA All-America in 1998 and '99. In 2002, he was a Gold medalist at the Pan Am qualifier in Guatemala. On August 7, 2003, he pitched a perfect game in the Pan Am Games for Team USA.
As an assistant
coach with the Saginaw Valley State University women's team, he helped
guide them to a national championship in 1989. He is the owner of the Doug
Gillis Pitching School and Softball Academy. He is responsible for
training nearly 200 students a week at his school from September to April.
He also runs a variety of coaching clinics as well as individual fast
pitch hitting and pitching camps. In 1929-30, he was Senior Class and Student Body President as well as editor of the school newspaper. After graduating in 1930, Kelly began his coaching career at Cass City High School where he had an eight-year run, before coaching at Mount Pleasant High School for four years. He continued his prep-coaching career at Arthur Hill High School from 1942 to 1951. He won the Class A state basketball championship in 1944 and his Lumberjack teams won seven Saginaw Valley League cage titles and a total of 25 district and regional championships.
Kelly coached
track and field just one season and the Lumberjacks won the state title in
1944. His career coaching record in football at both Cass City and Arthur
Hill was 128-47-8. As a Fordney Club member he was instrumental in helping
finance and build Arthur Hill High School's Memorial Stadium.
He was named
Michigan Small College Coach of the Year in 1959, and was the Central
Michigan athletic director from 1959-66. He is in the Michigan High School
Coaches Hall of Fame and was elected into the Central Michigan University
Hall of Fame in 1985. The school's Kelly-Shorts Stadium was named in his
honor. Laeding, who also coached baseball and was an assistant football coach, coached Saginaw High's basketball team for 24 years. He became the director of physical education and athletics for Saginaw Public Schools in 1963, retiring from the school system in 1980. He was a member of the Michigan High School Coaches Hall of Fame and the Michigan Sports Sages. Laeding was inducted into the Western Illinois University Hall of Fame in 1982. The football field at Saginaw High School is named in his honor. He died May 28, 1993 at the age of 82, and is interred at Roselawn Mausoleum.
Macon led the Knights to two Class B state final appearances, one as a freshman. BV won the state crown during his junior season. The 6-5 guard was a four-year starter for Temple University, guiding the Owls to a 94-35 record and three trips to the NCAA tournament. His 20.6 points-per-game scoring average his freshman year earned him Freshman of the Year honors by United Press International, United State Basketball Writer's Association and NBC-TV. That same year he was one of 11 finalists for the John Wooden Award and just the third-ever freshman to be nominated (Virginia's Ralph Sampson and Georgetown's Patrick Ewing were the others). Macon was named All-America three times and finished his college career as Temple's all-time leading scorer with 2,609 points. He also had 281 career steals. Macon was the Owls' leading scorer for four consecutive years and is the only four-time first-team all-Atlantic 10 Conference performer. In his senior year he was named Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and was drafted eighth overall in the 1991 National Basketball Association draft.
He played a total
of 251 NBA games scoring 1,685 career points with the Denver Nuggets and
Detroit Pistons, and his best season was his rookie year when he averaged
10.6 points and 2.9 rebounds per game. He then played three years in
Venezuela, Italy and China. He is presently an assistant coach at Temple. He was named to the "one-team" all-state squad in 1947, a team selected from all four classes. In 1948 he was named to the all-Valley Parochial League team as the only unanimous choice. The SSPP center and team captain scored 40 points on several occasions and once scored 49 points in a game. McColgan led his team to a 74-2 record in his three varsity seasons - including 52 consecutive victories - and scored 1,443 points during his career. During his senior year, when he scored 548 points in 26 games, he was named all-state by the Detroit Times and Detroit News. He was also a four-year starter on the football team playing quarterback, halfback and end. He was all-Valley and all-state two seasons and team captain. McColgan was the Midgets leading scorer in every game during his four years at SSPP. In the one season he played baseball he threw a no-hitter. He attended Michigan State College on a basketball scholarship and earned a freshman letter. He then transferred to Villanova University and played two years.
McColgan then
continued his love affair with athletics, as he was a highly respected
athletic official in the Saginaw area. He officiated basketball and
football games for over 25 years, including several state championship and
college contests. He died May 27, 1980, at the age of 49.
Playing for the Battle Creek Crickets in 1910, he played 89 games and batted 321 times for a .312 average. McKee was then drafted by the Indianapolis Indians of the American Association and was sent to Springfield, Ohio, in the Ohio State League but returned to finish the year in Indianapolis, playing two years for the Indians. He was Saginaw's first-ever Major League baseball player where he was a catcher for four years for Ty Cobb's Detroit Tigers, beginning in 1913. That year for the Tigers he played in 68 games and had 53 hits in 187 at-bats with one home run, 20 RBI, 18 runs, seven stolen bases and a .283 batting average and .946 fielding average. The Detroit Tigers held a "Red McKee Day" at Navin Field in his honor as he was tied with Sam Crawford in hitting as both sported a .304 mark early in 1913. For the next three years he played for the Tigers, ending his four-year Detroit career with a .254 batting average and two home runs among his 110 hits, along with 49 runs-batted-in. From 1917-19 he played for the San Francisco Seals.
In 1920 he was the
playing manager for the Saginaw Aces of the Michigan-Ontario League and
tied for a league batting title when he hit .387. McKee played for nine
different professional minor league team and helped San Francisco win the
Pacific Coast title and helped lead Toronto to the International League
pennant when he averaged .323. He barnstormed with Babe Ruth and Lou
Gehrig and has a Detroit Tiger commemorative brick in his honor at the
entrance way of Comerica Park. He died August 5, 1972 at the age of 82 and
is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery. After graduation, he spent the next 18 months in the U.S. Army before going to Michigan State College where he earned three varsity letters playing for the Spartans under Al Kircher and Pete Newell. It was under Newell he found his greatest success as one of the Spartans' top defensive standouts. He was the Spartans' co-captain in 1952 and averaged nine points-per-game while drawing the opposition's top scorer. Means was being groomed to be a basketball coach and soon after graduating from Michigan State he accepted the head basketball coaching position at Owosso High School.
After four years at
Owosso, he returned to the East Lansing campus and coached the Spartans'
freshmen team for three years. He then coached at Omaha University for two
years and was an assistant coach at St. Louis University for four seasons
before returning to MSU in 1965 as an assistant coach. He accepted the
head coaching position at Western Michigan University the next season and
stayed four years before accepting the head-coaching job at Adrian College
(1971-74). He retired in 1987 and is now a golf instructor at the
Center-View Golf Course.
The Spartans'
coaching staff moved him from halfback to end during his freshman year in
1953 as the 6-1, 183-pound speedster possessed a great pair of hands.
Mendyk earned the nickname "Dennis the Mennis" during his collegiate
career mainly because of his penchant of being a thorn in the side of
Notre Dame.
He was a third
round draft choice by the New York Giants football team, but Mendyk wound
up in the Canadian Football League playing for both the Toronto Argonauts
and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He returned to baseball in 1958-59 playing
in the Class D league. In 1957, SS. Peter & Paul named the school's annual
Most Outstanding Athlete award in his honor.
He fought to a draw but the decision went to Apostoli. He found out two weeks after the fight that the referee was Apostoli's brother-in-law. He was the Michigan middleweight champion in 1933 when he fought to a draw with Ezzard Charles, who would go on to win the world heavyweight championship. He boxed until 1940 but never got a crack at a world title. Simmons fought 26 champions, including bouts with Archie Moore and Gus Lesnevich. He was knocked down only once - a TKO. His career record was 386-16 and he once won 80 consecutive fights. By his own admission, he also fought somewhere between 35-40 draws. He boxed until 1940 but never got a crack at a world title. His biggest paycheck was $48,000 which he won in Australia.
After the
government took their share and his manager took his one-third cut, he was
left with $8,000. When he returned from Australia, he and wife, Helen,
moved to California, first living in San Francisco and then in Los
Angeles. During that time he rubbed elbows with Clark Gable and Mae West,
two of Hollywood's biggest fight fans. He retired from fighting in 1940
and returned home and got a steady job with Wilcox Rich (now Eaton
Manufacturing). For the next 40-plus years, he was involved with the
Golden Gloves, Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) and union-sponsored (UAW/CIO)
youth boxing programs. He and boyhood friend, Butch Otto, wound up
training hundreds of aspiring amateurs over the years. When the Golden
Gloves flourished in Saginaw during the 1970's, they drew four-day crowd
totals of between 12-14,000. He died March 21, 1995, and is buried at
Roselawn Cemetery. In 1911, he started as an apprentice machinist in the machine shop of what became the larger Wickes Machine Tool Division of the giant, diversified Wickes Corporation. He served in several capacities with the Wickes firms until he was named president of Wickes Brothers, Wickes Boiler Co. and U.S. Graphite Co. in 1941. He continued as president and board chairman until October of 1964. In 1961 the company became the first Saginaw firm to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The Saginaw industrialist also earned a reputation for his philanthropy. In January of 1974, he gave security worth an estimated $1 million to Saginaw Valley College to build a 10,000-seaon football stadium. In the early 1960's, when the college was just getting started, he also pledged another $1 million towards its construction, an act that paved the way for other major contributions. In 1963 he was awarded the Delta College President's Medal for distinguished community service. Two years before that he was selected for the Arnold Boutell award for his outstanding community service. Wickes Park, the 93-acre riverfront development in South Saginaw, is a permanent community asset derived from the Wickes Foundation he established in 1945.
The Wickes Foundation has helped many organizations with substantial grants, including the YMCA, YWCA and the Saginaw Gun Club. It was his pledge of $1 million, which attracted other needed support for Saginaw Valley College. In 1953 he was appointed to the Citizens research Council, which pioneered organization of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce.
He was named a
Michigan Industrial Ambassador in 1960. Ran was president of the Greater
Saginaw Chamber of Commerce, its Manufactures Council, the Saginaw
Manufacturers Association, and the Salvation Army of Saginaw. Grants
bearing his name helped build the Saginaw Valley State University football
stadium and the softball/baseball complex in Saginaw Township. He died
October 6, 1974 at the age of 85, and is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery. The 1947 team was picked as statistically the best team of all four classes in Michigan. The 1947 and '48 teams coached by Frank Brogger outscored their opponents 646 to 93 using their famed V-formation. The fast-striking Bulldog squad scored 13 touchdowns on their first play from scrimmage in 18 games those two years. In '47, St. Andrew's beat Bay City St. Joe's 21-19 to end that team's 17-game winning streak. In that same year they beat Flint St. Michaels for that team's only loss of the year. For special measure they pounded rival SS. Peter & Paul, 51-0. 1948 scores: St. Andrew's beat Jackson St. Johns, 18-6, Flint St. Michael, 20-0, Bay City St. James, 44-6, Saginaw St. Mary, 46-6, Saginaw St. Joseph, 47-7, Bay City St. Joseph,13-0, Detroit St. Martin, 26-7, Pontiac St. Michael, 37-12, and SS. Peter & Paul, 60-18.
Frank's brother,
Joe, coached the team in 1949. The 1949 team amassed 332 points and
allowed only 32. They beat Jackson St. Johns, 24-0, Flint St. Michael's,
27-7, Bay City St. James, 38-0, Saginaw St. Mary's, 12-0, Saginaw St.
Joseph, 68-0, Bay City St. Joseph, 26-13, Beaverton, 47-0, Pontiac St.
Michael, 52-6, and SS. Peter and Paul, 38-6. For their torrid three-year
rein, St. Andy's outscored its opponents 978 to 125. Halfback/fullback Pat
Brady received honorable mention All-America honors in 1949 as he scored
18 touchdowns and 13 PAT's for 121 total points. The 27 consecutive
victories was the second-longest string in state history at the time.
|
|
|
|
Enable frames | |
|
home | out/about | events | personal | store | classified | real estate | forums | archives | contact |
||
