Robichaud 3-Sport Legend Wheatley Selected to National High School Hall of Fame
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 11, 2024
The playing career of 1991 Dearborn Heights Robichaud graduate Tyrone Wheatley remains one of the most storied in Michigan high school sports history. His prestige gained during that early stage of his athletic stardom has been recognized nationally as well, as Wheatley was one of 12 honorees announced today as this year’s inductees into the National High School Hall of Fame by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
Wheatley – who grew up in Inkster and is currently the head football coach at Wayne State University – will be inducted as one of 11 honorees selected for the 41st Hall of Fame class at a ceremony during the NFHS summer meeting July 1 in Boston. The rest of the class is made up of three more athletes, four coaches, two former state association administrators and a game official. Wheatley was nominated by the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
Wheatley will become the Hall of Fame’s 10th inductee from Michigan, joining the MHSAA’s first full-time Executive Director Charles E. Forsythe (inducted 1983), River Rouge boys basketball coach Lofton Greene (1986), Warren Regina athletic director, softball and basketball coach Diane Laffey (2000), Fennville basketball and baseball standout Richie Jordan (2001), Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett boys and girls tennis coach Bob Wood (2005), Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook hockey standout Jim Johnson (2007), Owosso football, basketball and baseball all-stater Brad Van Pelt (2011); Vermontville Maple Valley baseball national record holder Ken Beardslee (2016) and retired MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts (2022).
To the greater public, Wheatley surely is best known as a star running back for University of Michigan who went on to play 10 seasons in the NFL for the New York Giants and Oakland Raiders. However, he is arguably most glorified in Michigan high school athletics for his accomplishments on the track, where as a junior in 1990 he became the first (of still only two) athletes to win four individual events at an MHSAA Lower Peninsula Finals – placing first in the 100 and 200-meter dashes, 110-meter hurdles and long jump. He led Robichaud to the Class B team title that day, scoring 40 of its 49 points. Wheatley completed his high school career in 1991 with three more Class B individual track & field championships and nine total over his final three seasons; he was injured in the 100 during that senior-year meet and could not run his final race to attempt another four-title day.
Wheatley’s meet records of 13.7 seconds in the 100 at the 1991 LP Class B Final and 23-10¾ in long jump in 1989 still stood when the four-Class track & field format was retired after the 1999 season. He also remains the only athlete to win the 100 three times at the prestigious Mehock Relays in Mansfield, Ohio, also finishing first in the 110 hurdles and 200 and runner-up in the long jump at that meet in 1991.
Wheatley was similarly accomplished on the high school football field, leading his team to a state championship in 1990 and earning a Parade All-America honor. Over three varsity seasons total he ran for a combined 4,257 yards and 67 touchdowns, including 2,010 yards and 33 scores on 208 carries as a senior in 1990 – the latter despite playing quarterback half of that season (and throwing five touchdown passes). He played quarterback, running back, defensive back, punter, kicker and returned kicks, and he scored 252 points over 13 games as a senior and 484 over 38 career games.
Wheatley also was a standout on the basketball court for Robichaud, averaging 14 points and 16 rebounds per game as a senior in earning all-state recognition in that sport as well.
“My city where I come from, Inkster, means the world to me. I grew up in an incredible era of sports in Michigan (with successful University of Michigan and Detroit pro teams) … but if you ask me who my idols were, they were the guys I grew up with playing on the playground,” Wheatley said. “After you come from a basketball game where you see Jarvis Walker drop 30, or Earl Jones running the last 200 of a race backwards … you hear people talk about them, you hear their reverence about them, and I just wanted to be put in the conversation of the best to come out of Inkster, forget the state. I can tell you this for sure: I’m not the best athlete to come out of Inkster, just the person who got the recognition. And my foundation was built watching, taking notes, preparing, working out and just trying to be one of the guys.
“(Robichaud was) the step. Because without Robichaud … Michigan, the NFL, me coming back to coach, it doesn’t happen,” Wheatley said. “Without the Robert Yaucks (his football coach at Robichaud), the Coach (Leit) Jones (his Robichaud track coach), the Coach (Mercer) Brysons, the (coach) Wade Cooks, the (coach Jeff) Flounorys, the Millie Hursins (his academic advisor) of the world, this doesn’t happen. Without my high school teammates, none of this happens. So it’s not just a step. What’s the saying – the first impression is the lasting and best impression? Robichaud was it.”
Wheatley returned to Robichaud as its varsity football coach in 2007 and led that team to a 9-2 record and the MHSAA Playoffs for the first time since 1994 – after Robichaud had finished 0-9 the previous season. He has served as an assistant football coach at four college programs including U-M and Syracuse, and with the Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars and Denver Broncos.
He also served as Morgan State University's head coach from 2019-21 and just completed his first season as head coach at Wayne State, which finished 3-8 – an improvement of two wins from 2022 and the program’s best record since 2019.
Wheatley graduated from University of Michigan in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. He and wife Kimberly have five children: Tyrone Jr., Terius, Tyrique, Tiana and Tamari. Tyrone Jr., an offensive tackle, played this past season for the New England Patriots.
“Many of us who grew up in Michigan grew up as fans of Tyrone Wheatley because of what he accomplished at the college level – but his legendary story begins at Dearborn Heights Robichaud, where his outsized athletic ability was on full display in every sport he played,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “Michigan has produced several professional athletes in a variety of sports and nearly 50 Olympians in track & field alone, and what Tyrone Wheatley achieved as a high school athlete remains a standard few have approached. We are ecstatic that he will deservedly take his place among the all-time elite high school athletes nationally as well.”
The National High School Hall of Fame was started in 1982 by the NFHS. The 11 individuals were chosen after a two-level selection process involving a screening committee composed of active high school state association administrators, coaches and officials, and a final selection committee composed of coaches, former athletes, state association officials, media representatives and educational leaders. Nominations were made through NFHS member associations. Also chosen for this class were athletes Joe Mauer (Minnesota), Takeo Spikes (Georgia) and Dot Ford Burrow (Mississippi); sport coaches Paula Kirkland (South Carolina), Gary Rankin (Tennessee), Roy Snyder (Pennsylvania) and Ronald Vincent (North Carolina); former state association administrators Mike Colbrese (Washington) and Marie Ishida (California), and baseball/football game official David Core (Oklahoma).
For more on this year’s Hall of Fame class, visit the NFHS Website.
PHOTO Tyrone Wheatley crosses the finish line first during one of his nine MHSAA Finals track & field championship victories. (MHSAA file photo.)
Sadler Primed for Big Finish to Championship-Filled Cass Tech Career
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
August 22, 2025
DETROIT — For C.J. Sadler, it all started with a token of generosity from a neighbor he calls “Mr. Johnson” when Sadler was just 7 years old.
Sadler recalls how Mr. Johnson – the grandfather of childhood friend Jalen Johnson, who went on to star at Belleville – paid for his for his initial registration for Detroit’s Police Athletic League.
Sadler said the elder Johnson noticed his aggressiveness while out playing with an older kid in the neighborhood, and saw something in Sadler that made him believe he was ready to give football a try.
So Mr. Johnson forked over $250 to help get Sadler enrolled in the youth football league.
“I’ll never, ever forget that,” Sadler said of Mr. Johnson, who has since passed away. “He’s the reason I’m doing this now.”
What Sadler is doing right now is establishing himself as one of the elite high school players in the Midwest.
A senior wideout/defensive back for 2024 Division 1 champion Detroit Cass Tech, Sadler is widely considered the state’s best player going into this season.
On Friday, he committed to play next for Bill Belichick at North Carolina, primarily because the Tar Heels will give him the opportunity to play on both sides of the ball in college.
“I definitely can pull it off,” Sadler said. “I know it’s college, and it’s the next level. But I told coaches I want to play both sides, and that’s what I want to do. Whatever I’ve got to do to do it, I’m going to do it.”
Anyone who watched Sadler during last season’s 42-20 win over Hudsonville in the Division 1 championship game sure knows what he can do on the field.
Sadler caught six passes for 47 yards and two touchdowns, finishing off a season that saw him catch 51 passes for 1,043 yards and 14 touchdowns total.
Defensively, he had three solo tackles and played his usual lockdown pass coverage in the secondary.
Sadler is entering this fall as a four-year varsity player, but he spent the first two years playing a lot of quarterback for the Technicians.
But when current quarterback Donald Tabron came into the fold as a freshman last year, Sadler approached Cass Tech coach Marvin Rushing with an idea.
“He was one of the gentlemen who approached us and said, ‘Hey, I think the team may actually flow better if Don is in the lead,’” Rushing said. “We had the opportunity to be more dynamic with him out on the edge. Obviously preparing for the next stage and college football, it was less wear and tear on him. He was fundamental and paramount in being able to transition because if your players resist, it’s hard to have that growth in the program.”
Before last season, Sadler made it a point to take the promising Tabron under his wing and help him get adjusted to varsity football and the tradition-rich program that is Cass Tech.
“He knows a lot about the game of football, and he knows a lot about Cass Tech football,” Tabron said. “He was just giving small tidbits when I need it and giving me small pieces of information to learn.”
After some initial growing pains, Tabron matured enough to help Cass Tech win another Division 1 title.
With the quarterback now a year older and more comfortable as a sophomore, Tabron to Sadler figures to be one of the most lethal passing combinations in the state.
Rushing said the biggest emphasis for Sadler has been taking care of his body and getting it ready for the next level, focusing on his flexibility, nutrition and hydration, which only enhances an incredible appetite to win.
“He despises losing, and it becomes contagious,” Rushing said. “Weight room, basketball, football. You could be playing video games with the guy. He doesn’t want to lose.”
Sadler actually has two state championship rings at Cass Tech, as he was a reserve as a freshman on Cass Tech’s basketball team that won the Division 1 title in 2023. He said he still communicates with the star of that team, Darius Acuff, who will be a freshman at Arkansas this year.
“That’s my brother,” Sadler said. “I just talk to him about his college life right now, and he’s telling me.”
A big senior season, a collegiate career and maybe even a professional opportunity down the road all are on the table for Sadler’s future.
No doubt, Mr. Johnson is above smiling and proud of it all.
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Detroit Cass Tech’s C.J. Sadler (1) stretches into the end zone for a touchdown during last year’s Division 1 Final at Ford Field. (Middle) Sadler has recently committed to continue at North Carolina.