Michigan HS Hoops Celebrate a Century
By
Ron Pesch
MHSAA historian
February 27, 2016
Today we know the campus, and the buildings and playing fields it contains, as Eastern Michigan University. But 100 years ago, the grounds were known as Michigan State Normal College.
On an unusually warm 2016 February day, down on the court of Eastern’s Convocation Center, the Eagles of Eastern and the University of Toledo Rockets warmed up for tip-off. Standing near the doorway of a suite, above the action, Chris Ming, athletic director at Marine City High School, showed off an oak plaque, adorned with a beautiful silver shield featuring a basketball design in relief.
“I can tell you, they don’t make them like this anymore,” Ming said.
At halftime, Ming and five other representatives from Michigan high schools met at center court to celebrate an event that had occurred a century ago on this campus. In March 1916, around 100 students total representing 12 high schools traveled to Ypsilanti to participate in what has been billed as the first organized high school basketball tournament in Michigan.
Historically speaking, the college was a perfect location for that tournament.
“In 1894 the Michigan State Normal College in Ypsilanti had started a new major in physical education. (Professor) Wilber Bowen was appointed chairman of that program,” wrote Dr. Erik (Rick) Pedersen, Professor Emeritus from EMU’s School of Health Promotion & Human Performance in a 2006 article for the Ypsilanti Historical Society. “Bowen had met James Naismith (who developed the game of basketball in 1891 at Springfield College in Massachusetts) through their involvement with the American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education in the late 1880's and early 1890's. To meet the needs of a new major program, the college had also completed construction of a new gymnasium in April of 1894. Bowen was looking for ideas to help with the dedication ceremony of the new gymnasium and recognition of the new major program. Consequently, arrangements were made to have the first basketball game played west of the Allegheny Mountains on May 18th, 1894, in Ypsilanti, Michigan.”
According to newspaper articles covering the 1916 high school tournament, the goal of the event was to arouse “greater interest in basketball in the smaller schools.” Around 300 invitations were sent out to high schools across the state having enrollments of “less than 200 students to take part in a basketball tournament.” It was through the efforts of the college’s Men’s Union, with cooperation from the Athletic Department, that the tournament was organized. According to the 1916 Michigan State Normal College yearbook, Aurora, the tournament also had a second goal. Acting in the best interests of the college, the Men’s Union wanted to showcase the “advantages offered at the Normal” in hopes of attracting future enrollment.
Enrollment at the time was fewer than 2,000 students. The college was the nation’s first teacher-training school to offer a four-year degree, and enrollment was dominated by females. The Men’s Union was formed in 1914 with the stated goal of bringing the male student body together socially, and to work toward recruiting more men to the college.
“Expenses related to transportation, room, and board (for the tournament) had to be provided by the participating schools,” noted Pedersen prior to the 2016 centennial gathering. “The Michigan State Normal College's Physical Education Department made it easier for schools to participate by making arrangements with local residents to provide food at 20 to 25 cents a meal and lodging at 25 cents a night for each player.”
As things fell into place in Ypsilanti, awards were purchased, and prior to the contests, the trophies were placed on display at The Rowima Company, a general store near the school, to help build excitement for the games. It was also announced that players of the winning team would receive individual medals.
“The event is the first of its kind in the state and will be made an annual affair,” it was stated in the Daily Ypsilantian Press prior to the start of the tournament. “It is the aim to have larger high schools included in the contest if the affair is a success and as interest develops a more extensive list of prizes will be arranged. A small admission will be charged for each session which will include three or four games.”
Spread over three days, March 23 – March 25, sessions were scheduled for 7:30 on Thursday evening, 9:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Friday, and Saturday at 9 in the morning and 1:30 in the afternoon at the Normal college gymnasium.
By Saturday afternoon, Dundee and Marine City had emerged as the tournament’s top teams, with 5-1 records, forcing a title game.
“Half the town turned out Saturday night to welcome the victorious basketball team home from Ypsilanti,” wrote a reporter for the Port Huron Times-Herald following Marine City’s thrilling 23-22 victory in the title game. “The silver shield, a trophy of the state championship, was proudly displayed by Coach Powers and every boy was glad to show his own individual (silver) medal.”
With a second-place finish, Dundee was awarded a handsome silver cup, while Milan, Mancelona and Farmington each received a banner in the Normal school colors of green and white, signifying a three-way tie in the tournament for third. Teams from East Lansing, Elkton, Middleville, Mount Clemens, Royal Oak, Saline, and Wayne also competed in the event. Teams were eliminated from play after two losses.
“… It was a great day for Marine City when her team won,” continued the Times-Herald article. “Each member of the high school can take credit for the victory as the money to defray the expenses of the clash was earned in a series of inter-class games played during the last two weeks.”
Conversations about the use of tournaments to identify a state basketball champion in Michigan had been kicked around in years past.
“As long as teams journey about the state taking on different teams, making a fairly good showing and then trying to win titles by arguments based on comparative scores, all that will result in argument and three or four champions,” stated coach Edbert C. Buss of Detroit Central High School in a 1914 article in the Jackson Citizen Patriot. “The only way I can see to settle the title on the proper team and make it undisputed is by dividing the state into three sections, an eastern, western, and northern district.”
After determining district champions, Buss suggested then a state tournament at a central location to identify a true state champion.
Teams in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan staged basketball tournaments as early as 1913, with Ishpeming claiming the U.P. crown that winter.
“Calumet claims an Upper Peninsula title for 1914,” said Robert Erkkila, a U.P. historian from the city. “We’ve never claimed it to be a state championship.” Yearbooks attest to the fact, indicating they beat Ishpeming 24-21 in the U.P. tournament hosted at the Ishpeming YMCA. “While (Notre Dame legend) George Gipp didn’t spend a lot of time in high school, and never played on Calumet’s football team, he did play basketball, and was on that team,” stated Erkkila.
In January 1917, Northern Michigan Normal College (today, Northern Michigan University) announced plans for the very first U.P. tournament, scheduled for March 2 in Marquette. Michigan State Normal College hosted their second annual tournament, beginning on March 15th, while the University of Michigan and the Michigan College of the Mines in Houghton (known these days as Michigan Tech) scheduled tournaments for the following week.
Again, 12 teams entered the Michigan State Normal College tournament, which still targeted schools with high school enrollment of 200 of fewer.
“Four games of basketball will be played at one time in the state normal gymnasium,” wrote a Flint Journal correspondent, describing Mount Morris’ planned visit to the Normal tournament. “While on this trip the boys will visit the University of Michigan and will do some sight-seeing in Detroit on the trip home.”
“The visiting teams were so well-treated and the tournament was such a success that this year not enough rooms could be found to provide for the teams, and so the offices of the Gym were turned into a veritable dormitory,” recalled the 1917 Normal annual, Aurora.
“The games were all played in quarters with a minute rest between quarters and ten minutes rest between halves,” added the Journal correspondent following the tournament. “The (Mount Morris) boys were accorded a splendid time, given free use of the swimming pool, shower baths and were treated to a banquet in the gymnasium hall by members of the faculty of the State Normal College Friday evening.”
Grayling emerged as the winner of the Normal tournament, winning four games over the two-day gathering. With a 49-9 win over Chelsea, the team earned a silver cup, while team members each earned medals. With confidence, the team stayed over, rested for a few days, then entered the U-M tournament, which was open to all schools of the state.
The interscholastic department of University of Michigan sent out around 250 printed circulars throughout the state, inviting teams to the “first annual inter-scholastic basketball tournament,” according to a January 5, 1917, article in the Flint Journal.
“Michigan’s first interscholastic basketball tournament is to be held in Waterman Gymnasium on March 22, 23 and 24, and replies from high schools of the State indicate that more than fifty quintets will battle through an elimination series for the State High school championship,” stated the February 1917 edition of The Michigan Alumnus. “This is the first time the University Athletic Association has attempted such a tournament and in view of the fact that Michigan is to have a Varsity basketball five next winter, the inauguration of the high school tourney this year becomes especially important.”
A recent enlargement of Waterman made the tournament possible. With four available courts, it was felt that the tournament could handle more than 60 teams and still be run in three days.
In total, the final field totaled 39 teams from 38 schools including squads from both peninsulas. Detroit Northwestern entered two teams, both coached by Bert Maris. The field was broken into four divisions.
“The meet is expected to result in a more satisfactory settlement of the scholastic championship than has been possible heretofore and to interest promising high school athletes in the University,” noted the March edition of the Alumnus.
The Michigan fraternities hosted the high school players during their stay with “a variety of entertainment … prepared to fill the odd hours,” including a hockey game at Weinberg Coliseum and a moving picture show at the Arcade Theater on Friday. A big dinner was planned for the final night of the tournament at the Barbour gymnasium, “at which the various cups and medals will be awarded,” according to the Alumnus. “The high school men were given the chance to get acquainted with University life and Michigan life in particular.”
“Three hundred high school players and coaches descended on the campus, and in a scene of mass confusion, 17 games were played on the first day alone,” wrote the late Dick Kishpaugh, historian for the MHSAA for 50 years. “Eventually, Detroit Northwestern, coached by Bert Maris, defeated Jackson, 24-21, to capture what virtually all observers at the time recognized as the first true state boys’ basketball champion.”
In 1918, the Michigan State Normal tournament marched on for a third year, with 16 teams participating. The title was won by Milan, with Grayling finishing second. World War I halted the University of Michigan’s plan to repeat the format of 1917. However, the desire to find a champion among the state’s larger schools saw the state’s top teams, Kalamazoo Central and Detroit Central, travel to Ann Arbor for a special one-game championship contest. The teams had split two previous meetings that year. The rubber match, and hence the title, was won by Kalamazoo 26-18.
“Just who was in charge of the tournaments was the subject of heated debates in the early years,” Kishpaugh added. “High school administrators and the University of Michigan shared the responsibility in 1917 and 1918, but then (Michigan Agricultural College) wanted a piece of the action, and the finals were moved to East Lansing in 1919.”
That year, competition was divided into two, Class A for the larger schools and Class B for the smaller ones, setting a precedent for class competition which has been the hallmark of Michigan tournaments ever since.
In 1920, the predecessor to the MHSAA, a group called the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Association, headed by high school administrators, took control of prep athletics and the tournament. Among their first actions was to split the finals between Ann Arbor and East Lansing each year. That year, Class A championship games were played at U-M in Ann Arbor, while Class B games were hosted at M.A.C. in East Lansing. Sites were reversed in 1921. The addition of Class C, segmenting the tournament further, came in 1922, and those games were played in the same city as Class B. The pattern was followed until 1926.
When the present Michigan High School Athletic Association was formed in the fall of 1924, Alden W. (Tommy) Thompson was hired on a full-time basis as State Director of the sport. Every tournament since 1925 has been under the direction of the MHSAA. In 1926, Class D was added, forming the approach taken to naming basketball champions in Michigan that we still use today.
Ron Pesch has taken an active role in researching the history of MHSAA events since 1985 and began writing for MHSAA Finals programs in 1986, adding additional features and "flashbacks" in 1992. He inherited the title of MHSAA historian from the late Dick Kishpaugh following the 1993-94 school year, and resides in Muskegon. Contact him at [email protected] with ideas for historical articles.
PHOTOS: (1) The Marine City boys basketball team won the inaugural high school basketball tournament at Michigan State Normal College. (2) A plaque commemorating the achievement hangs at the school. (3) The gymnasium at what is now Eastern Michigan University hosted the event. (4) Ishpeming won the first basketball tournament played in the Upper Peninsula. (5) University of Michigan hosted a tournament for schools of all enrollments in 1917. (6) Representatives of schools that played in the 1916 tournament at Michigan State Normal College receive plaques during a game this season at EMU. (Top five photos collected by Ron Pesch; bottom photo by Jonathan Knight.)
Hillsdale Driving Toward Undefeated Run
By
Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
February 10, 2017
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
“The pressure is on every year,” Hornets coach Brad Felix said. “I think everybody is complacent with it, they just assume we're going to win 18 or 20 games a year, and they don't realize how difficult it is to do that.”
It wasn't always that way. From 1968 until Felix took over in 2002, Hillsdale not only never won a District tournament, it won just four tournament games.
“We have a great historian around town who keeps up with the basketball program, and he informed me that I was getting into a rat's nest here,” Felix said. “He told me all the stats, with no tournament championships and the winless seasons.”
Still, it was a job coveted by Felix, who had been at Hillsdale for 10 years as girls basketball coach and boys junior varsity coach before he took over the boys varsity team. As a no-nonsense coach, he was prepared for the challenge of changing the culture.
“When I took over the girls program, they hadn't won a game in three years, so I was sort of ready for it and prepared,” he said. “I was extremely upbeat and younger back then, and I had a little pep in my step. I'm very demanding, and I don't really accept that attitude.
“I was fortunate enough to come in and have a lot of good players come through the program. You can't win without having horses in the race, and I've been blessed to have guys with good talent who bought into what I was preaching.”
Success comes in waves
Since Felix has taken over, Hillsdale has two Regional titles and five District championships. The Hornets also have had two unbeaten regular seasons, and after defeating Dundee on Thursday night to clinch the Lenawee County Athletic Association title, they are four wins from a third perfect regular-season run.
“We've mentioned it once,” he said of the potential undefeated season. “I brought it up halfway through the season. I remember the first year I had an unbeaten team here, and the Jackson Citizen Patriot listed all the undefeated teams in the area from 1980. It was like eight teams.
“It is an unusual thing that you might think happens a lot and doesn't happen a lot. It's so hard to do. You can have an off-night, have foul trouble, have injuries. Some team can just play well against you. It's a difficult sport.”
It also has been a somewhat unexpected run, even from Felix's perspective.
“This team has totally surprised me,” Felix said. “I did not think we'd be sitting 16-0. I thought we would be extremely competitive this year, and I thought we'd be a tough out, but for us to run the table at this point has taken me a little off guard.”
Any successful team has talented players, and this Hillsdale team is no exception. But the reasons for its outstanding season might go beyond that. There is a special motivation, and Coach Felix brought in a new defense that has paid off.
The players
The Hornets have talent, and they have a tough 1-2 scoring punch in senior forward Ethan Bernard and junior forward Bryce Drews. Both are averaging more than 20 points a game.
“It is unusual to have two guys average 20 or more, let alone 23 and 21, so if they both finish the year averaging 20, I'll be surprised,” Felix said. “At the same time, we push the ball, and we run a lot of stuff to these two guys and they are getting a lot of sets. They have the green light from everywhere. We go as they go, that's how it is.”
Drews, who was on varsity as a freshman, came into the week averaging 23.2 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists and a team-high 3.1 steals per game. Bernard, in his second full year on varsity, checked in at 21.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.9 steals per game. And both are shooting at better than 50 percent from the field.
“I can almost talk about those guys at the same time,” Felix said. “Offensively, they are difficult matchups for teams. Both are about 6-4, and if you put your big guy on them, they can go shoot the 3 ball. If you go small, they can post up. They both can put the ball on the floor and drive, so they're tough to guard.”
Hillsdale has gotten some more scoring from sophomore guard Spencer Eves, who is averaging 7.2 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game.
“People don't realize it because I've got two guys averaging over 20, so they get all the headlines, and this kid is getting his points, and he's doing it quietly,” Felix said. “You don't really notice him on the floor, and that's probably a good thing.
“He's not doing a whole lot of things wrong. We're really looking for him to take a big jump next year, but right now he's chipping in what we need.”
Senior point guard Connor McCosh inherited the biggest challenge on the team. He replaced three-year starting point guard Joe Philipp, who scored more than 1,000 points in his career. With Bernard and Drews around, McCosh doesn't have to have the scoring touch of Philipp.
McCosh is averaging 2.8 points and 2.4 assists per game, and more importantly, he has made just 1.4 turnovers per game.
“He played 10-to-12 minutes a game last year,” Felix said. “He's good at the point. He's not too worried about scoring points, and he can shoot the 3-pointer when he's wide open. He's more of a spot-up.
“He can run the offense, and he has a good IQ for the game, and he knows where guys are supposed to be. He really has filled in well because we lost a really good point guard in Joe Philipp.”
Junior center Collin Brown rounds out the starters. He is averaging 6.2 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, but the big plus is that he is averaging 2.9 offensive rebounds per contest. And he's getting better as the season progresses.
“He's out there because he rebounds,” Felix said. “He's one of the better offensive rebounders we've had here in a while. He does some dirty work underneath; that's where he scores most of his points.
“He's had a few double-doubles lately, and we hope he's kind of coming into his own. If he can do that for us, it's going to be huge.”
Guards Joe Wilcox, Sam Nash and Trevor Kornak see the most time off the bench. Wilcox brings a threat from the perimeter as he is making 44 percent of his 3-point tries. Nash is grabbing nearly two rebounds per game and Kornak is averaging 1.3 rebounds per game.
“We're not like years in the past when we have three or four 6-5 guys,” Drews said. “Ethan and Collin and me are the tallest guys, and we're 6-3, 6-4. We can play different styles of basketball, though. We can push the ball; we can play down low. We can pretty much play any type of game.”
The motivation
Despite going 18-2 last regular season, Hillsdale had a five-season streak of winning its conference championship snapped. That provided added motivation for this winter.
“You always want to win, and in this program you want to win championships,” Bernard said. “Not winning anything last year was kind of tough. You never want to be the class that lets you down, and actually, my first year on varsity, I was the class that let you down.
“So this year, we have a little chip on our shoulder trying to come back and win championships again.”
As mentioned above, Hillsdale is a member of the Lenawee County Athletic Association, but it began its run of conference titles in the Southern Michigan Athletic Association.
“We were kind of fresh to this league, and we won it three years in a row,” Felix said. “We finished the last league with two championships, so we had won five in a row going into last season.
“We were 18-2 last year, but we were kind of disappointed because both losses were to Onsted, which won our league. At the same time, Onsted was ranked No. 1 in the state; that was a special team with a 7-footer who went on to Michigan. You don't see kids like that very often.”
Then, in a District Semifinal, Adrian edged Hillsdale 42-39 to end the Hornets' season at 18-3.
“I think we got stuck looking ahead in the Districts and got upset,” Felix said. “We wanted to play Onsted one more time, and I think we overlooked Adrian a little bit and ended up losing by three.”
However, Felix goes back to the days in the Twin Valley and sees the move from that conference as a benefit to the program.
“I think it helped that we changed conferences,” he said. “Back in the 1990s when I was the JV coach, we were in the Twin Valley, and it was brutal playing schools that were twice our size. We got beat down every night. It was tough.
“I think the change in atmosphere of playing different teams and playing teams our size definitely helped.”
The new defense
Change can be good, and change has been good for Hillsdale this season. The Hornets have changed their defense, and it is paying off in a big way.
“What triggered it is that we played a team out of Indiana this summer that, quite frankly, we just couldn't score against them,” Felix said. “I was watching them a little bit, and in the second half I just sat down and let the kids play a little bit and watched. They were doing some things that I had thought about doing in the past.
“I didn't feel they were any more athletic than we were. They weren't any bigger than we were. I got with that coach in the summer, and we traded notes, and what they are doing with a few tweaks is what we were doing. I wasn't going to come in here and reinvent the wheel.”
Felix was hesitant to make a complete revision of the defense for a number of reasons.
“He told me it takes a year or a year and a half to put it in, and I said, 'I don't have a year and a half. I've got a good team coming, and I don't want to waste a good team,'” Felix said. “What he was telling me is that I was going to have to change just two or three things, and I thought we could handle that.
“There was some growing pains with it. I have to stay on them. It involves a little more work than in the past, but it's all half-court. We're trapping a little bit at half-court and rotating a little and shortening the floor a little bit and went a little bit to the run and jump in the half-court. I think the guys like it. It's fun.”
It also was important that the players would buy into the change, and they did.
“Defense was one of our main points of focus coming into this year,” Drews said. “We have a new defensive system that we all were excited about, and it's working out well. Usually in the first year of a new system, it isn't that successful, but this year it has been successful.
“We knew there was going to be little cracks and things we needed to figure out. Luckily, we started off good in it, and we found the weaknesses in it in practice and got a lot better at it.”
The coach
On Felix's most recent birthday, he was in the yard outside when his daughter came out to talk to him.
“She said, 'Dad, you need to come in the house real quick.' I come walking in, and there is my whole team for a surprise party,” Felix said. “They came over with all this breakfast food, and they cooked breakfast in my home for me. As tough as I am on these guys, they still surprised me.”
Felix played basketball and football at Bessemer High School, and he said that he played basketball for a coach who was not nearly as demanding.
“I don't know what brought that out of me,” he said. “I'm from a single-parent home. I grew up without a father figure, so I don't know if that toughened me up a little bit.
“Bessemer went to the state finals in football and quarterfinals in basketball. I wasn't one of the stars of the team. I led the team in charges every year. I was one of those gritty players who would dive into the stands for a loose ball.”
Maybe it's the Upper Peninsula thing. Felix likens his style and attitude to another successful basketball coach from the U.P., although on a much larger level.
“I'm not a Tom Izzo, but I would compare myself to his attitude,” Felix said. “I have that grittiness – kind of like Izzo – and I feel like I coach like he does. He's tough on his guys, and his players love him.”
Like all high school coaches, Felix has to adapt his style of play to the talents of his players instead of vice versa. That sometimes forces him to play a style that isn't what he would like – a style that he was able to employ on some of his teams earlier in his career.
“We don't press like we used to anymore,” he said. “If it was my choice and I could recruit, I'd play that style. I love it. It was fun, and the guys enjoyed playing that way. But now, we're more half-court – more like Hanover-Horton – a strict man-to-man with pretty good pressure.
“Our defensive statistics are actually better in terms of points given up, but we're playing a slower style. We still get after people, but not the full court.”
Felix tries to deflect credit for the turnaround at Hillsdale, but the numbers speak for him with the dramatic redirection of the program.
“I give a lot of credit to my players,” he said. “My wife gets mad at me and says, 'Why don't you ever just say you do a good job?' I'm not going to discredit coaching. When I came in, the press was huge, and I put that team over the hump.
“But I just think the little kids buying into what we do with our youth program and kids wanting to be a part of what we're doing and parents having their kids out dribbling a ball a little bit is so important. We went from a doldrum basketball community to one that supports us.”
Felix concedes he might not be the easiest guy for whom to play. But with all that, he has the respect of his players.
“He's awesome,” Bernard said. “He knows everything about basketball, and he has the best basketball IQ I've ever been around. I've learned a lot of things from him.”
Drews shared those thoughts.
“He's a great coach,” he said. “If you just look at the numbers – and we've consistently had 18- to 20-win seasons – and you can't find that at many other places.”
And in the end – maybe even more than the wins and losses – Felix cherishes the relationships with the players.
“I am sure I will reflect back on all of this when I'm done, but it has been fun to be affiliated with so many fine young men,” Felix said. “I think the biggest pride I have is how many guys come back.
“I'm not an easy guy to play for. I'm tough on my guys, but I think they all realize it's tough love. To see them come back – and my alumni come back for the alumni game we have every year – and to have the guys push our guys and tweet, 'You can't let us down, you're part of the Hornets,' is just great. And going to former players' weddings. I think all of that kind of stuff is where I feel the most pride.”
Chip Mundy served as sports editor at the Brooklyn Exponent and Albion Recorder from 1980-86, and then as a reporter and later copy editor at the Jackson Citizen-Patriot from 1986-2011. He also co-authored Michigan Sports Trivia. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Hillsdale's Bryce Drews drives the baseline this season again Ida. (Middle) Hillsdale boys basketball coach Brad Felix. (Below) Ethan Bernard splits a pair of defenders to get an open look. (Photos by Mike Linville and Matthew Lounsberry/Hillsdale Daily News.)