'Retro' Award Rewards 1st Hoops Legends
January 4, 2017
By Ron Pesch
Special for Second Half
Before the start of the MHSAA’s 2009 Boys Basketball finals, Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan director Tom Hursey stopped by my seat at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center to say hello.
Our chat would alter a decade of my Michigan winters.
Somewhere between hello and goodbye, our chat included conversation on one of my favorite BCAM ventures. In 1981, the Michigan High School Basketball Coaches Association, as BCAM was once known, named its first “Mr. Basketball.” I was two years out of high school when Lansing Eastern’s Sam Vincent edged Eric Turner of Flint Central for that first award. Designed to honor the state’s top senior, the award was named in honor of Detroit Free Press writer Hal Schram. “The Swami,” as he was nicknamed, Schram began covering high school sports for the newspaper in 1945.
The 2009 selection was 6-foot-9 Derrick Nix of Detroit Pershing. I mentioned my affinity for the Mr. Basketball program to Tom, but stated that I always thought it a crime that the award didn’t start years earlier, at least when Michigan hoop fans became infatuated with a kid nicknamed “Magic.”
Earvin Johnson prepped at Lansing Everett and was the talk of the state in basketball circles before becoming a household name during his time at Michigan State and with the Los Angeles Lakers. Earlier this year, ESPN named Johnson the greatest point guard to ever play the game. Tom noted that “Magic” was really the inspiration for the “Mr. Basketball” award.
Then I posed a question to Tom.
What about creating a “new” award, designed to honor those greats from the past?
As my hobby of researching the history of high school sports in Michigan and beyond had grown over the years, I’d found the Great Lakes state had always produced shining stars on the basketball court. The crime was that the “Mr. Basketball” award hadn’t been launched many years before.
Harry Kipke, was perhaps the state’s first true basketball star. He won 12 varsity letters at Lansing Central and guided the basketball team to the semifinal round of the state tournament in 1920 as a senior, before heading to the University of Michigan where he earned letters in football, basketball and baseball. After stops at the University of Missouri and Michigan State, Kipke would serve as Michigan’s football coach, guiding the Wolverines to two national gridiron championships.
As a junior, the basketball antics of Grand Rapids Union’s Royal “Red” Cherry captured the state’s attention when he led Union to the state basketball championship. Considered the best all-around player of the tournament, Cherry led the team to a second consecutive title as a senior. He, too, attended Michigan, earning laurels on the basketball court and the baseball diamond.
Many other legends of the hardcourt populated Michigan’s past: Saginaw’s Ernie Thompson; the Burton brothers, M.C. and Ed, of Muskegon Heights; Detroit Pershing’s Ralph Simpson and Spencer Haywood; Dave DeBusschere of Detroit Austin Catholic; Willie Betts and Blanche Martin of River Rouge; Ron Kramer of East Detroit; Benton Harbor’s Chet Walker and L.C. Bowen.
After a few weeks of research, discussion and thought, Tom agreed, and over the next several months the framework for the “Retro Mr. Basketball” project was developed
The idea was to try and mimic the current model. Only seniors, and their high school basketball careers, should be considered. While any “senior” player would be eligible, a ballot of the state’s elite would comprise the candidates for the award. Like their modern-day equivalents, where the events of life that would follow high school graduation had yet to occur, post-high school life would be disregarded as much as possible for “Retro” candidates.
Finally, the program would follow a 10-year arc, kicking off in the spring of 2010. This December marks my eighth year of research tied to the mission. Two more will follow.
Since the Schram “Mr. Basketball” award began in 1981, the “Retro” award would honor basketball players from the years 1920 through 1980. That first year, a ballot comprised of players from the years that ended in zero - 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970 and 1980 – was created. A senior for each year would be named the winner of the “Retro” award. That meant with the selection of “Mr. Basketball” and the six “Retro” winners for the years 1929, 1939, 1949, 1959, 1969 and 1979, scheduled for the spring of 2019, BCAM would be able to point to a combined list of Mr. Basketballs totaling 100 of the state’s finest.
To identify each year’s award winner, a committee of veteran BCAM members was formed to study a ballot of candidates and select a winner.
Technology, combined with scanning old-fashioned reels of microfilm, has helped with research of potential candidates. In those very early years, personal statistics were rarely kept. Rather, an assessment of a player’s skills, tied to the position he played, often served as a means to identify an area’s top athletes. Tournament play was often the only time an athlete’s abilities were on display to a larger audience. Scouring newspaper articles for all-tournament teams and yearbooks for additional details and years of study helped uncover the state’s top senior players. Understanding the game and its evolution was important. The center jump after each basket emphasized the importance of a tall, skilled center in those games played before the winter of 1938-39.
Beginning in 1935, all-state teams began to appear in state newspapers. Eventually, the Detroit Free Press, the Detroit Times, the Detroit News, The Associated Press and even United Press International became involved in identifying the state’s top basketball players and naming all-state squads. Much work is involved in parsing the 15,811 names (not including honorable mentions) found in those lists. When duplicates are removed, the names of 8,430 prep players remain spread over the 61 years that mark the “Retro” field of possible candidates.
Research to identify seniors, players named by multiple media outlets, and mini biographies are compiled for the top players. The field of candidates is then narrowed to 10 or fewer. Over state championship weekend, the ballots are brought to the BCAM committee for discussion, and finalists are named for each year. Finally, one player is named for each eligible season.
Like the modern day award, the selection may create some controversy. Some amazing ballplayers have landed on the finalist list, but were denied the Hal Schram Mr. Basketball award: Traverse City’s Dan Majerle, Roy Marble of Flint Beecher, Detroit Southwestern’s Jalen Rose, Detroit Northern’s Derrick Coleman and Draymond Green of Saginaw are among a few.
The same applies to the “Retro” list. Fennville’s Richie Jordan, Robert “Bubbles” Hawkins from Detroit Pershing, Dennis Bankey of Detroit St. Thomas, Bill Chmielewski of Detroit Redeemer, Highland Park’s Terry Duerod and Detroit Kettering’s Lindsay Hairston all have been honored on the finalist lists, but fell short of the top prize.
In many cases, Michigan was loaded with prep talent – it’s tough to name Roy Marble Mr. Basketball when Flint Northwestern’s Glen Rice was on the same ballot, or Rose the state’s best when Country Day’s Chris Webber was another candidate. While the “Fennville Flash” amazed the state with his eye-popping statistics in 1965, Bowen led Benton Harbor to back-to-back Class A titles. Named an all-state basketball player as a junior, Hairston grew an inch and improved his game as a senior, but Pontiac Central’s “Campy” Russell dominated headlines that season, and was the “Retro” Mr. Basketball selection for 1971.
In some cases, it’s a challenge to look at the final balloting results without judging selections based on future basketball success. That certainly is the case with 2008. That season, Michigan’s Mr. Basketball award went to 6-foot guard Brad Redford, who posted incredible back-to-back high school seasons at Frankenmuth. Runner-up to the award that year was Saginaw’s Green. Considering Green’s success in the NBA, that’s hard for many to believe.
While the debates may never be settled, the beauty of Schram and “Retro” Mr. Basketball balloting can be found in the argument. With those disputes, people recall, research and learn about Michigan’s incredible prep basketball past.
The remaining three years of the “Retro” project will include many more legends of Michigan High School basketball, including, among others, DeBusschere, Walker, Haywood and Simpson.
This season, that “Magic” kid will be one of the names among the mix. Forty years after high school graduation, will he earn the honor that eluded him in high school, only because the honor didn’t yet exist?
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: (Top) Lansing Everett’s Earvin Johnson drives around a defender during his celebrated high school career. (Middle) Grand Rapids Union’s Royal “Red” Cherry. (Below) Detroit Austin Catholic’s Dave DeBusschere drives to the hoop as an opponent gets in position to rebound. (Photos from MHSAA and Ron Pesch historical files.)
Unearthed Recording Will Soon Allow All to Recall Memorable 1971 CHSL Matchup
By
Ron Pesch
MHSAA historian
January 17, 2025
The box, labeled “Property of CC Athletic Department,” sat in the front closet of the Blackwells’ Detroit home for decades.
Contained within was an open reel of tape – unlabeled. Morris Blackwell has no recollection of how he ended up with it. But the lore that surrounds the content has been relayed countless times within the Blackwell family and likely among families with the last names Moreno, Rojas, Simpson, Williams, and Miller.
The details, from a game played on a Sunday night at the University of Detroit in February 1971, also may have even been discussed among those with the surname Tanana, Jonca, LeGarde, Rzonca, Bluitt, and Mei, but the memories may not have been as positive.
Now, thanks to a transfer of the tape, the complete game between Detroit Catholic Central and Detroit Holy Redeemer – a legendary battle for a Detroit Catholic League’s First Division title – can soon be watched by all.
The game was recorded using the EIAJ format – a black and white reel-to-reel standard created in 1969 for early video tape recorders by Japanese electronic manufactures. The high expense of EIJA units meant broadcast organizations and educational institutions primarily owned units. Extremely few individuals owned recorders at home, as cartridge tape systems like Beta and VHS did not come along until the mid-1970s. Hence, the family mostly ignored the box and its likely content.
“It’s pretty cool,” noted Ben Blackwell, Morris’ son, who, after a few failed attempts to transfer the unusual format, tracked down a company in Florida to move what was captured to modern-day media. ”Not perfect, but cool nonetheless.”
Detroit’s Catholic High School League
Organized for baseball in the spring of the 1925-26 school year, the “Greater Detroit Catholic High School League” played for a first league football championship in the fall of 1926, then opened its first basketball season with 12 city and suburban parochial schools participating. Since the league’s creation nearly a century ago, more than 125 schools have been members of the CHSL at one time or another.
That year, Detroit St. Leo and Wyandotte St. Patrick ended the “regular scheduled season tied for first place with identical 9-1 records,” hence a championship game was scheduled to determine a titleholder. Scheduled to start at 8:30 at the University of Detroit gym, according to the Detroit Times, “the largest crowd that ever witnessed a Catholic league game was on hand” for the title game, won by St. Leo, 13-5.
For the 1929-30 season, 25 schools made up what was briefly called the Southern Michigan Catholic High School Basketball League. “This year finds the league almost double its ’29 size when the league was divided into two divisions. A post-season game was held between the two division winners to decide the league championship. … This year a trophy will be awarded to … four divisional winners and a post-season series may be played to decide the city title,” stated the Detroit News.
Indeed, at the end of the season, winners of the Divisions 1 and 2 and Divisions 3 and 4 squared off in a “knockout” round. In the title game Detroit St. Theresa – the Division 1 titleholder and the league’s reigning champion – downed Division 4 victor Royal Oak St. Mary.
Between the 1930-31 and 1954-55 school years, using a post-regular-season playoff format, the league acknowledged champions across three divisions. For several years, playoffs were hosted at the Detroit Naval Armory – home of the University of Detroit’s cage team.
In May 1952, the University opened a new facility on campus – dedicated as the Memorial Building – and hosted its first basketball game at the facility in December of that year. In February 1953, the impressive arena served as a fantastic host for its first Detroit Catholic League triple-header championship. A crowd of 5,860 attended. Today, everyone knows the place as Calihan Hall, named in honor of the late Bob Calihan – athletic director, coach, and the Titans’ first basketball All-American – but that christening didn’t come until the autumn of 1977.
The Catholic League continued to swell in size, with 59 teams sponsoring basketball squads in 1956, broken into eight geographic sections spanning the three divisions built around enrollment and athletic success. Between 1956 and 1962 the league opted to move to a four-round playoff designed to name just one league champion regardless of regular-season Division.
By 1963, population growth, shifts to the suburbs, and hence, distance between schools, were altering makeup of the largest high school league in the country, now totaling 79 teams. The First Division included 32 squads split between four sections (Central, East, West, and AA ), 29 teams spread over four sections in the Second Division (East, West, Northwest, and Southwest), and 18 teams divided into two sections – the Third Division and the Macomb League division, according to the Detroit Free Press. At the beginning of that season, a decision was made to identify First and Second Division basketball champions – via a 16-team, three-round playoff that involved Division and section champions and various runners-up across the four divisions. (Two CHSL titlists have been determined annually through the 2022-23 school year.)
Unforgettable Seasons
By the 1970-71 school year, with closures and consolidations, the CHSL was down to a competitive and still impressive 44 teams. By the first of January, Detroit Catholic Central stood out amongst that crowd. Free Press prep guru Hal Schram had the team ranked No. 1 in his first weekly Class A rankings. Coach Bill Foley, who graduated from DCC in 1942, and who had guided the basketball team since 1952, was happy with the choice.
“Certainly we realize we’re on the spot … everyone will be shooting at us,” Foley said, talking about his Shamrocks, undefeated across five games, “but I’m certain I’ve got a squad that can live up to such a responsibility.
One day later, DCC dropped an 84-83 thriller to Detroit De La Salle on the Shamrocks’ home court. The Pilots had been quarterfinalists in the MHSAA Class B Tournament that past March. Because of the loss, the Shamrocks had fallen to No. 4 in Schram’s weekly rankings by early February. But the Detroit writer’s confidence in the squad was undeterred.
“The question you hear from all outstate precincts,” he wrote, “‘Who’s the team from Detroit who’ll give us the most trouble in the (MHSAA) March tournament?’” With the Catholic League playoffs about to tip off, Schram stated, “The answer in February remains the same as it was in December.” Detroit Catholic Central now donned a 10-1 record.
“The Shamrocks have height to burn” and remained “the best team in metropolitan Detroit,” according to Schram. “If he chooses, Foley can floor four youngsters 6-foot-7 or better. But only two of these schoolboy giants, 6-foot-8 Chris Rzonca and 6-foot-7 Rick Mei, start. ‘I doubt if any squad has two better guards than Frank Tanana and Ben Bluitt,’ Foley tells you. … Tanana has to be the best ball handler in our league.”
Foley’s Shamrocks had previously won an MHSAA Finals title in 1961, advanced to the MHSAA Semifinals in 1967, and won Catholic League First Division titles under Foley in 1952, 1961, and 1968. Most recently, the Shamrocks finished as league runners-up in 1970.
Other Catholic League entries scattered within Schram’s weekly ratings, each unbeaten, were De La Salle, No. 8 in Class A; Detroit Holy Redeemer at No. 8 in Class B, and Hamtramck St. Ladislaus, No. 6 in Class C. (Redeemer would see its 11-game win streak end on the night those rankings appeared in print, with a 69-67 loss to Detroit Benedictine, then drop another just days before the Catholic League playoffs to Detroit East Catholic. St. Ladislaus, unbeaten in regular-season action, was stunned by Orchard Lake St. Mary’s in the opening round of the Second Division tournament on Sunday, Feb. 7.)
Semifinal Trials
An unexpected crowd of 7,460 showed up for the four-game opening round of the 1971 First Division Catholic playoff, hosted at Memorial the following Sunday. Three of the four contests were blowouts, with 20+ point margins. Only Royal Oak Shrine’s come-from-behind triumph over Redford St. Mary, 65-59 in overtime, provided true excitement.
During Thursday’s semifinal round, DCC survived a major scare in its game with those same Shrine Knights, who held a 9-6 win-loss record. Trailing by seven points in the second quarter, Shrine knotted the game at 32-32 by halftime, and again, 45-45, on a Mickey Evans basket with two seconds remaining in the third quarter. Despite the significant height advantage, the Shamrocks were out-rebounded by Shrine. But Tanana, DCC’s all-state guard, ripped off 12 of his game-high 22 points over the final four minutes of the contest as Catholic Central finished with a 65-57 win over the Knights.
“Before the Shrine collapse in the waning minutes,” stated Detroit News staff writer Ken Williams, “Tanana had shared the applause of 4,233 spectators with rival Mickey Evans, who finished with 18 points.”
On the other side of the bracket, De La Salle was 14-1 on the year, with its only loss delivered by DCC in their regular-season rematch, and the Pilots were favored in their game with Holy Redeemer. The Lions, however, opened an 11-0 lead, and were up by 12 points, 35-23, at the half. The Pilots bounced back, outscoring Redeemer, 20-9, in the third quarter to pull within a point, 44-43, but could not close it out as the Lions held on for a 61-57 victory to advance to the title game.
The Sunday Finale
The First Division championship game between 15-1 Catholic Central and 14-2 Holy Redeemer was scheduled for 8:30 p.m. In that evening’s opening contest, staged at 7 p.m., Orchard Lake St. Mary’s downed previously-unbeaten Hamtramck St. Florian, 57-53, for the League’s Second Division title. St. Mary’s, powered by five juniors, had twice lost to the Lancers during the regular season. The win was the school’s first boys Catholic League tournament championship since the 1943-44 season.
In the First Division title game, significantly smaller in enrollment – and height – Redeemer struggled with Catholic Central. As most expected, DCC quickly opened a 16-4 lead in the first quarter, and according to the Free Press, “with two minutes left in the period it appeared the Shamrocks would chase Redeemer off the court.”
Yet Catholic Central still struggled on the boards, and by the half, the game was tied, 27-27. Nevertheless, by the end of the third quarter, the Shamrocks had opened a five-point advantage. The final frame was an all-out battle, with five ties and four lead changes. In the stretch, “Redeemer tied the score twice, (first) at 57-57 on Morris Blackwell’s field goal with 2:11 to go, and again at the 1:47 mark at 59-59 on a basket by Brigido Rojas. A (Tony) Moreno field goal and Rojas’ free throw eventually gave Redeemer a 62-59 lead,” stated the News.
“Then the pressure built up in the final 30 seconds. CC’s Ben Bluitt cut the deficit to 62-61 on a basket and Mike Miller countered with a free throw for Redeemer at the 16-second mark.”
A fifth personal foul pulled the Lions’ starting forward, Jim Williams, from the game with 11 seconds to play. Bluitt sank both free throws to tie things up, 63-63. That set the stage for a dramatic Hollywood ending.
Adding value to the taped broadcast is play-by-play provided by a pair of unknown individuals, according to Ben Blackwell. The label on the box is a tip-off to bias gleaned from some of the recorded observations. Their comments, regardless of leaning, are extremely valuable when, “for the lack of better words,” tracking or skewing issues with the tape’s content blurs the image of exactly what is happening on the court.
“With 7,425 fans screaming in ecstasy,” penned the Free Press’ Schram, “Moreno dropped in a 15-foot jump shot with two seconds left to give Holy Redeemer a 65-63 victory over favored Catholic Central.”
Tanana led all scorers with 24 points for CC, followed by Mei with 17 and Bluitt with 16. Rojas paced the Lions’ balanced attack with 17, including making 7 of 9 at the free throw line. Blackwell added 11, Moreno and Mike Miller each finished with 10, followed by Ralph Simpson with nine and Williams with eight.
Redeemer had won its first First Division title in 1964 with coach Joe LaScola, and again in 1969 under the guidance of coach Bill McCartney, later an MHSAA basketball state championship coach at Dearborn Divine Child, then a football assistant coach under Bo Schembechler at the University of Michigan before guiding the University of Colorado to a national championship in football.
It was a sweet victory for Redeemer’s current coach Stan Wegrzynowicz, the school’s football and track coach who added basketball to his duties when McCartney departed for the job at Divine Child in 1969. Wegrzynowicz, who once advised Moreno that he should skip basketball to focus on track after he had run an impressively-fast mile as a freshman, was thrilled his stocky 5-foot-8 guard had ignored his suggestion.
“As of now, the only folks who have viewed this are myself and my father,” stated Ben Blackwell of the recording. “He was over the MOON watching this footage he never really knew existed.” As they watched, the elder Blackwell was telling his son what was about to happen on the screen – more than 50 years ago – before it happened.
Soon after, a message was sent by the Blackwells to Redeemer’s other starters, who are all still around. Within minutes, three responded, asking the Blackwells about setting up a watch party.
Once that happens, Ben’s plan is to share the video of what many consider one of the greatest upsets in Catholic League championship history publicly via YouTube.
Another Surprise that Spring
Adding to the legend that school year, Holy Redeemer downed previously unbeaten Catholic Central in the Catholic League First Division baseball final, 4-0 in extra innings, in a game played at Tiger Stadium that June. Tanana – whose Major League Baseball career would span six teams over 21 years – had struck out eight and walked two, handcuffing Redeemer through four innings, but back muscle pain and a sore arm forced him to switch to first base. Lions’ senior Craig Barlow struck out 12 and walked four while surrendering just five hits across eight innings.
The 1971 pitching matchup had attracted Major League scouts to the game. One year previous, Barlow had pitched a no-hitter as Holy Redeemer downed Harper Woods Bishop Gallagher in the Catholic league title game.
“If Tanana stayed in, we would still be playing,” Morris Blackwell told the Free Press back in 1999 when the paper recalled two prep “Corner Classics” played at Tiger Stadium. “I don’t know who would have gone longer – Craig or Frank.”
Blackwell went on to play football, basketball, and baseball at Wayne State. Beginning in 1974, he hooked up with the Detroit Parks and Recreation Department, coaching baseball and softball to kids in the summer, notably at Detroit’s Clark Park on the West Side. Over the years, he has coached all three sports at college, high school, and youth levels and is still instructing kids today.
Ben Blackwell guesses the tape was passed on to his dad somewhere during his coaching years. The basketball game’s magnetic existence makes him wonder if footage of the baseball game may also have been captured.
“Dad said he has been asked probably 40 times in the past if he played in that basketball game,” Ben Blackwell said. “When he responds, ‘Yes,’ the next question always is, ‘How did you beat them?’”
PHOTOS (Top) The 1970-71 Detroit Holy Redeemer boys basketball team pulled off one of the most memorable upsets in CHSL history in a championship matchup with Detroit Catholic Central that season. (Middle) DCC’s Frank Tanana (44) puts up a shot. (Below) A screen shot from the video of that championship game indicates the full crowd surrounding the court. (Photos gathered by Ron Pesch.)