Unified Sports: Unified Goal, Unified Effort
By
Mark Uyl
MHSAA Executive Director
April 11, 2019
The following publisher's note and cover story were featured in this winter's edition of the MHSAA benchmarks magazine.
At its best, sport breaks down barriers and differences through promoting teamwork, inclusiveness and humility. At its worst, we’ve seen sport do the opposite.
Obviously those involved in school sports aim to create a culture within every school which fosters the best of what all of us can be. Those places that do this best have created a culture in every hallway, classroom, playing field and gymnasium filled with diverse students pulling for one another and working together regardless of the different backgrounds, races, religions, abilities, physical stature or academic acumen of each person. A culture of understanding and acceptance is what we strive for in each of our school communities.
On Nov. 24, such a scene played out on the grand stage of the playing surface at Ford Field in Detroit. In what we hope will be the launching pad for many more such events, Unified Sports competitors from four MHSAA member schools competed simultaneously in two games prior to the MHSAA Division 7 Football Final.
Unified Sports is an inclusive sports program within Special Olympics which pairs students with and without intellectual disabilities as teammates for training and competition.
From the time competitors walked through the tunnel to perform in front of family, friends, and the appreciative crowds from New Lothrop and Madison Heights Madison awaiting kickoff for the 10 a.m. game, the enthusiasm was unmatched.
Following competition these Unified teams were given tours of the facility, including a visit to the Detroit Lions locker room. We intended to deliver a day filled with an experience and memory for a lifetime for our guests, and feedback suggests that was accomplished. But, make no mistake, the session left lasting impressions on the staff here at the MHSAA, as well.
Brighton, Holt, Mason and Sparta – schools represented at the 2018 Football Finals – are among the 300-plus schools statewide which are Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools®, and it is our hope that the number continues to grow around Michigan and throughout the country.
The MHSAA and Michigan Special Olympics have a wonderful relationship, and we will continue to plan with our valued partner for future events as opportunities present themselves.
There is no limit to the benefits of these games and such a partnership. And, no limit to the enthusiasm of its participants who are helping to redefine school cultures by helping us break down barriers and build inclusive school communities around this great state.
***
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
The pass was lofted high, and floating toward the end zone nearest the tunnel where teams enter the playing surface at Ford Field.
As players from both teams converged, the intended receiver came away with the ball, clutching his prize and raising his arms in jubilant triumph.
It was arguably the best catch of the Thanksgiving weekend football feast in Detroit, and undoubtedly a memory this player will never forget. Moments later, the ear-to-ear grin remained as he high-fived spectators and family members on the way to the tunnel and up to the locker room.
And all of this happened before the second day of MHSAA 11-Player Football Finals kicked off Saturday, Nov. 24.
The play was one of many memorable moments to take place during the first-ever Unified Champion School event held in conjunction with the MHSAA Football Finals. If this year’s exhibition was any indication, it will be the first of many to come.
“The event far exceeded our expectations, and in discussions with the students, coaches and parents involved, I think it exceeded their expectations as well,” said MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl. “The feedback was positive, and the thanks and appreciation we received was overwhelming.”
Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools® (UCS) is an education-based project that uses sports and education programs to activate young people to develop school communities where all youth are agents of change – fostering respect, dignity and advocacy for people with intellectual disabilities.
Last summer, as Uyl was settling into his role as executive director at the MHSAA, Tim Hileman was acclimating himself to a similar role with Michigan Special Olympics. Both were replacing long-time leaders – Jack Roberts at the MHSAA and Lois Arnold at Special Olympics, who both had served their organizations for more than three decades.
The similarities brought Uyl and Hileman together, and they began to nurture seeds that had been planted by their predecessors.
“Mark reached out when the announcement was made that I was to become CEO of Michigan Special Olympics,” said Hileman. “We strongly believed in the benefits of a partnership between the two organizations. We talked about long-term plans and the goal of growing a culture of inclusion within our schools. A more immediate component was exploring existing opportunities to highlight a partnership, and what greater way to do that than at Ford Field during one of the most prominent weekends of the MHSAA sports season?”
The inaugural event included students from Brighton, Holt, Mason and Sparta school districts, each of which sponsor Unified teams.
Brighton, which has been in the game since 2016-17 and involves a combined 75 general education students and students with intellectual disabilities (I.D. students), recently earned national recognition for its Unified program.
“Andy Doupe, a faculty member who teaches special education here, brought the initiative to our district and it was a no-brainer that we needed to implement the program,” said John Thompson, athletic director at Brighton High School and a member of the MHSAA Representative Council. “It was a great opportunity to be supportive of all students in our community.”
Brighton Unified coach and faculty member Jody Renicker has helped take the lead.
“The foundation of Unified Sports is pretty simple,” Renicker said. “It's the idea that training and competing together is one of the fastest ways to friendship and understanding. The students discover that they are much more alike than they are different. This helps to dissolve the preconceptions and stereotypes often associated with people with disabilities.”
Just up the road in Holt, that community was gaining its own recognition, bringing home the Gold Medal from the USA Flag Football Championships in Seattle last summer. The lessons and experiences proved even more valuable.
“Athletes roomed with UCS partners,” said Val Suszko, a coach for the Holt/Mason program, which involves roughly 80 students with and without disabilities and is in its sixth year of existence. “The friendship that they developed over those 10 days was priceless. They are friends for life. They care for and protect each other. Without this experience, they wouldn’t have ever met.”
That’s the overriding goal of Unified athletics: to break down barriers within schools and communities while introducing young people to those with various challenges, offering opportunities to lead and assist.
“The inclusion of special needs kids and how it makes them feel is a wonderful part of the school community and program,” Thompson said. “We have a young lady with a prosthetic leg who never wore shorts because she was embarrassed. Now, being part of our basketball team, she wears shorts all the time.
“Naturally there’s a huge upside for the special needs students, but the general ed kids are being provided an opportunity to grow and develop leadership skills. The experiences open some eyes and break down some divisions that exist to make for an improved culture throughout the school. The melding of kids with different backgrounds of any kind is always good for perspective.”
Unified programs offer increased participation opportunity for the general education population as well as the I.D. students. For students who may not make the cut for school teams, or prefer to focus on academics or part-time jobs, the Unified option provides just what they are seeking. Others are varsity athletes looking for competition outside their preferred sport seasons.
“We receive a lot of interest from those partners who might have wanted to play on freshman, JV, or varsity teams but couldn’t meet the eligibility requirements or physically do not make the cuts at those levels of team tryouts,” said Renne Wyman, Unified coach at Sparta High School. “So they wander into the gym and join us. What happens is, the level of play ratchets up a notch or two. These kids initially come here to play, not necessarily help the intellectually disabled kids.
“But, then they start giving shooting advice, or directing them where to move offensively or whom to cover defensively. Suddenly they are talking to each other, and no adult staged the mentoring. It carries on between quarters, at halftime, before games and practices. They start texting and offering a seat in the cafeteria at lunch. I’m talking about major culture change in our building.”
This type of interaction serves to reduce the number of negative incidents in the hallways.
“Statistics show that these programs have proven to reduce bullying of the intellectually disabled population,” said Suszko of Holt/Mason. “To have an organized sports team and school support team is invaluable. The students with intellectual disabilities gain so much. They train together, play together and develop friendships through sports with the general school population.”
With such important life lessons in the balance, and 300-plus schools around Michigan sponsoring school programs, the time was right to further shine a spotlight on the product. In the past, Unified basketball events have been showcased during MHSAA Hoopfest events in conjunction with the Boys Basketball Finals, and it was time to take the next step.
“A partnership between the MHSAA and Special Olympics is a natural fit, and our goal is to assist in promoting inclusiveness and leadership components of Unified Champion Schools as opportunities at our tournaments allow,” Uyl said. “These are such worthwhile endeavors, and the student-athletes involved truly symbolize the best in school sports.”
The Ford Field event provided a chance for some serious competition on the field, along with countless smiles – and some tears – from onlookers and support groups following the action.
“My favorite story from that day came as Mark (Uyl) was addressing the group in the Lions locker room and thanking them for being there,” Hileman said. “I looked into the corner of the room and there’s a man – pretty good sized, tough-looking – standing there with his wife, and they’ve got tears in their eyes. The dad came up and told me, ‘I never thought I’d see my son play any kind of sport, and here he is at Ford Field. I’ll never forget this, and never watch a Lions game without thinking of this.’
“So many of our athletes are told what they can't do. Special Olympics is about showing what they can do.”
For Suszko, the highlights began earlier in the morning.
“The most memorable moment for me was watching the expressions on all of the athletes’ faces as they walked through the tunnel onto the field,” she said. “What a great opportunity. The hospitality that Mark Uyl, Nate Hampton, and the rest of the staff gave us was appreciated so much. The parents were excited. They loved seeing their athlete participating alongside the other high school football teams. Watching barriers being broken and teamwork being established is what inclusion is all about.”
There were plenty of emotions to go around, from the guests and the hosts.
“The kids and parents were over the moon when the invitation came. Ford Field, the MHSAA Finals, it really resonated with the kids, the school and families,” Thompson said. “Nate and Mark and all staff involved went out of their way to make it a wonderful and meaningful experience. They did more for the families and kids than anyone expected. We are very appreciative of the MHSAA continuing to work toward inclusion, and events like these help to spread the word.”
Spreading the word will help bolster an already strong movement both in Michigan and nationally. Hileman is excited for the future in partnering with the MHSAA for events like the one in November, which generate a high level of enthusiasm. In the near future, he has some more immediate goals.
“We are concentrating on expanding league play. That’s what sports are; athletes competing, and our athletes want to compete,” Hileman said. “We have league play in the O-K Conference, and in the Lansing area. Our goal and vision is to continue to build on the Unified conference experience; more competitions during the season.”
The Sparta program has been in place for four years, and numbers have increased from a handful to a total of 60 partners and Special Olympics athletes combined. Volunteers are a vital part of the initiative, and Wyman says hundreds of people donate their time at affiliated service projects held twice yearly. The school offers Unified flag football at the league/conference level each fall, Unified ski/snowboard on a smaller scale, Unified basketball at the league/conference level in the winter, and is looking to add Unified track & field at the league/conference level this spring.
Make no mistake; athletes of all kinds like to compete.
“My kids are learning the game like they never did before. The partners don’t dumb down the vocabulary or slow down what they teach. This occurs in real-time scrimmaging with a need to adjust quickly,” said Wyman. “So our Unified athletes are being coached and challenged to increase their skill and conditioning at a level I just can’t replicate in my Special Olympics Physical Education class where no partners are present.”
One also cannot replicate the related successes outside the gyms and away from the fields, where Wyman reports that I.D. students are now being offered rides to school for dances and athletic events, improving their grades to be eligible to participate in the program and becoming healthier through the activities, all while gaining confidence in themselves.
Renicker believes that seeing is believing, and encourages people to attend events in neighboring communities. The impression will likely spur action.
“My No. 1 suggestion would be to come and witness how special a Unified Game is,” Renicker said. “It will give you hope for our future and highlight some pretty amazing things that are going on in schools every day that don't make the front page of the newspaper. I feel so lucky to be part of a school community that values this program and the culture it has created.”
Hileman recently attended a national Special Olympics event and heard International Chairman of Special Olympics Dr. Timothy Shriver proclaim his dream: that just as every high school sponsors boys and girls athletic programs, he hopes that one day every high school in the country will become a Unified Champion School.
It is a big dream, but the slightest nudge can put things in motion, as Wyman has seen.
“It can start small. You only need one or two partners to commit and you can get something going,” Wyman said. “A lot of kids would love to help in supporting roles, whether it’s running sporting events, officiating, keeping stats, designing, or organizing. In the beginning, it is one person reaching out to one school seeing if they can get together and play the game.”
With that, the guidance of Special Olympics, and assistance from partners like the MHSAA, maybe the ball can keep rolling all the way around the state.
***
Inclusion is Primary Mission of Special Olympics UCS
Team sports bring people together. Special Olympics Unified Sports® teams do that, too, and much more.
About 1.4 million people worldwide take part in Unified Sports, breaking down stereotypes about people with intellectual disabilities in a really fun way. ESPN has served as the Global Presenting Sponsor of Special Olympics Unified Sports since 2013, supporting the growth and expansion of this program that empowers individuals with and without intellectual disabilities to engage through the power of sports.
Promoting Social Inclusion Through Sport
Special Olympics is dedicated to promoting social inclusion through shared sports training and competition experiences. Unified Sports joins people with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team. It was inspired by a simple principle: training together and playing together is a quick path to friendship and understanding. In Unified Sports, teams are made up of people of similar age and ability. That makes practices more fun and games more challenging and exciting for all. Having sport in common is just one more way that preconceptions and false ideas are swept away.
States Embracing Unified Sports
Young people with disabilities do not often get a chance to play on their school sports teams. More and more states are adopting the Unified Sports approach that Special Olympics pioneered.
Unified Sports is also an integral part of Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools, which was founded in 2008 and funded through the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education to use Special Olympics as a way to build inclusion and tolerance in schools. Unified Sports are now in more than 4,500 elementary, middle and high schools in the United States. Seventy percent of Unified Champion Schools (Pre-K through Grade 12) are engaging in Unified Sports! Also 215 U.S. colleges and universities have Special Olympics College Clubs on campus, providing ongoing Unified and inclusionary activities for students and Special Olympics athletes. Seventy-three of the 215 U.S. colleges and universities activating Special Olympics College conduct ongoing Unified Sports on their campuses. Learn how to get involved at www.playunified.org.
Mission: Inclusion
As part of the Special Olympics-Lions Clubs International “Mission: Inclusion” partnership, the LCI youth network-Leos have become a strong global partner in expanding and implementing Unified Sports together with Special Olympics. The Leos have helped start and sustain Unified Sports in a number of nations worldwide, and serve as one of the movement’s strongest youth leadership networks in bringing inclusive programming to communities across the world. From Zimbabwe to Brazil and from California to India, the Leos continue to amplify the voice of athletes and embody the creed: Play Unified. Live Unified.
Major sports organization, league and event support to Play Unified
Many high-profile, professional sports organizations and events have also showcased Unified Sports as a vehicle to show the power of inclusive sports! This support includes:
• National Basketball Association (NBA)
• Major League Soccer (MLS)
• Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)
• National Collegiate Athletic Association, D-III
• ESPN's X Games Aspen
• National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS)
• National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA)
PHOTOS: (Top) Unified teams from Brighton and Mason/Holt play during the second day of the MHSAA 11-Player Football Finals at Ford Field. (Top middle) Participants from those three schools and Sparta took part in the morning's games. (Middle) Sparta athletes stand together for the national anthem. (Below middle) A Brighton coach and players exchange high fives. (Below) Brighton's Unified basketball team plays during a celebration for receiving national recognition last fall. (Photos by John Johnson.)
Flyers to Terriers, Quakers & Orioles
December 15, 2020
By Ron Pesch
Special for Second Half
Education and all that comes with it, in case you haven’t noticed, is changing. Of course, that’s always been the case. Virtual learning is simply the latest transformation.
Once we were a nation filled with one-room school houses. By 1910, postcard evidence shows that, at least in Michigan, nearly every town of size had a high school, and that these buildings were showcases for community pride. From wood to brick to limestone, many of the earliest structures had bell towers. By the 1920s, in larger cities, small schools run by neighborhood churches were quite common. Most from those days were multiple-story buildings.
In hindsight, some of those buildings seem incredibly large for the communities they served. Others, too small – especially come the post-war baby boom era, when the suburbs exploded with growth and opportunity and Michigan’s major cities began to shrink in size. The 1950s and 1960s saw numerous Upper Peninsula and rural schools consolidate, while various big-city suburban districts split into two.
Continued development beyond the first ring of suburbs and decreasing birth rates have combined, with the introduction of school of choice in 1996, to played havoc with enrollments and facilities in more recent times. Today, public and private academies seem to pop up and disappear overnight.
For someone trying to follow along, there are plenty of challenges.
A TOOLBOX
Historians, like many others, require a toolbox to accomplish their work. One of my favorite tools is a spreadsheet that I created several years back. I refer to it as “The List.” It’s my Master List of Michigan High Schools, and I reference it often. But lately, the document has been in a bit of disarray.
It’s been a mess before. Without a focused sabbatical or a grant, it likely will never be polished quite to my satisfaction.
Lost somewhere in time
Scattered to the four winds are details about the naming of schools, their consolidations, relocations and closings. Sadly, stories of how and why schools selected nicknames are often forgotten.
Parochial schools can present challenges of their own. Seemingly countless have opened, closed, consolidated or relocated over the years in Michigan. The city of Detroit alone has played host to a least 32 “Saint” high schools, from St. Agatha to St. Vincent.
Detroit Catholic Central’s history includes five sites in three separate cities. As noted in my document, Catholic Central is an “All-Boys” school and today located in Novi. Few recall that, beginning in the fall of 1928, there was also a Detroit Girls Catholic Central. It closed in 1969.
Grand Rapids Catholic Central, founded in 1906, states it is the “oldest coeducational Catholic high school in the nation.” They have been known as the Cougars since 1930 or before. Muskegon Catholic Central consolidated three local schools – St. Mary, St. Joseph and St. Jean – and opened in the fall of 1953.
Flint Powers represents another example. My spreadsheet notes that the school’s full name is Flint Powers Catholic Central, and that it was named in honor of Rev. Luke M. Powers. The athletic teams are nicknamed the Chargers. The school was formed by the merger of seven Genesee County schools in 1970 – Flint Catholic schools Holy Redeemer, St. Agnes, St. John Vianney, St. Mary, St. Matthew, St. Michael and Mt. Morris St. Mary. Within the spreadsheet, I also capture their team nicknames: Flyers, Crusaders, Hornets, Wildcats, Panthers, Warriors, and Shamrocks, valuable information in case I find opportunity to write about their athletic accomplishments.
Garden City High School split into Garden City East and West in the mid-1960s, then reunited beginning with the 1982-83 school year. Royal Oak divided into Dondero and Kimball high schools in the late ’50s. They again unified in 2006. Pontiac High School split into Central and Northern in 1958. They merged back into Pontiac High in 2009.
More recently, in 2012, Wyoming Park and Wyoming Rogers merged. Ypsilanti Willow Run and Ypsilanti High School consolidated into Ypsilanti Community Schools in 2013.
Flint’s oldest high school, Central, shuttered in 2009, followed by Flint Northern in 2013. Albion was absorbed into Marshall in 2013. Word is Saginaw and Saginaw Arthur Hill will soon unite.
Once, Michigan had four high schools that used “Flyers” as their nickname: previously mentioned Flint Holy Redeemer, Detroit St. Andrew, Grosse Pointe St. Paul and Willow Run, which used the nickname as a nod to the area’s ties to Airforce Plant 31, constructed by Ford to manufacture twin-finned B-24 bombers during the early 1940s for the war effort. Today, there are no schools left in Michigan that carry the nickname.
“The List” reminds me that Ferndale changed from the “Railsplitters” to the “Eagles” when they moved from old Ferndale Lincoln High into the newly-opened Ferndale High School in the fall of 1958. They are not to be confused with the “Railsplitters” of Ypsilanti Lincoln or Lincoln Park.
Caledonia once used “Scotties” as the nickname for its athletic teams, but the students chose to change the nickname to the more intimidating “Fighting Scots” in the late 1960s. (I’m still trying to chase down the actual school year of the alteration.)
“The List” explains why the Midland “Chemics” have a lion named Vic for a mascot. (It seems that in 1938, a new high school was built and “the Student Union decided to start some new traditions in order to display pride in their new high school. The school purchased a stuffed lion – a symbol of pride – to be used as a mascot. The name Vic was chosen for the mascot in short for the word ‘Victory’, voted in by the students.”)
Uniqueness
Distinctive nicknames fascinate me, but I always want the story behind the choice. I have written on the subject previously. Digging around the internet, I recently found a reference that was new to me. Alpena St. Anne’s high school athletic teams apparently were nicknamed the “Couturemen.”
The dictionary describes “Couture” as a designer, maker and seller of custom clothing. The word is French in origin. So I shipped off an e-mail the other day to a parish secretary in Alpena, with a question about the very unusual nickname. My question worked its way to Fr. Frank Muszkiewicz.
“St. Anne Church had been the "French" church here in Alpena when there were the more ethnic heritage Catholic communities,” he responded. “My understanding is that St. Anne had a high school until 1951, when Catholic Central High School opened in Alpena …
“Looking at a history book of St. Anne Church in Alpena,” he continued, “I did see a couple of pictures of boys' basketball teams from the 1920's and 1940's, however it seems the team name was the "Big Reds". So, I'm not sure where the "Couturemen" name came from that you found.”
From the late 1920s into the 1940s, it became quite popular to tie nicknames to teams. But before a moniker was assigned, it wasn’t unusual for newspaper writers to refer to a team by the school colors, or blend the last name of a coach with the word “men” when penning a story about a local squad. For example, Bay City Central’s teams often were called “Nevittmen” after coach Garland Nevitt before taking on the nickname “Wolves” around 1927. Muskegon’s teams were “Jacksmen” after their coach, J. Francis Jacks, before they were called the “Big Reds.”
A December 1940 newspaper, covering a game between Ludington St. Simon and St. Anne, gives a hint that this might be the case at St. Anne’s. A player at St. Anne, who happened to foul out of the game, had the last name, Couture. Perhaps there is a similar connection in St. Anne’s history.
Identities
In September 1928, Lansing Eastern athletic teams became known as the Quakers. “The name is derived from the location of the school,” stated the Lansing State Journal, explaining the unusual choice. “Pennsylvania was the original home of the Quakers of the Colonial period of our history, and the new high school, being situated on Pennsylvania Avenue, will be known by the name of the original settlers in the Keystone State.”
In a November 1929 contest conducted by the State Journal, East Lansing, “long without a nickname,” became the Trojans. “The nickname was the choice of more than 50 per cent of the students.”
In May 1930, The Ludington Daily News noted that “Recently the Northern Michigan Big Six Athletic conference stimulated interest among pupils of the six cities in athletics and team competition … High School pupils of the respective towns proposed nicknames for their school teams and indicated their favorite by vote. Manistee chose the name of ‘Chippewas,’ Traverse City, ‘Trojans,’ Petoskey ‘Northmen,’ Cadillac ‘Vikings’ and Big Rapids ‘Cardinals.’ The time-honored name of ‘Orioles’ was voted to be retained by Ludington high school pupils, completing the list of six schools.”
Impressed, the Daily News quickly went to work to sponsor a county-wide contest with schools in Oceana County to select team nicknames. Later in the month, they announced results of the project.
“Scottville high school teams will henceforth be known as ‘Spartans,’ and Freesoil aggregation as ‘Buccaneers.’
“The team nicknames were decided upon by pupils of their respective institutions under a program of selections sponsored by the News.
“Two schools, Custer and Shelby, will retain their original team titles, (Ludington) St. Simon’s and Hart have not announced a final decision and Pentwater and Walkerville have made no report.”
Scottville’s choice of “Spartans” succeeded the name ‘Canners’ which had been used for a number of years, “a significant, but an unpicturesque appellation.” A rich agricultural part of the state, Scottville was home to a huge W.R. Roach and Co. canning facility. It closed in 2000 after nearly 90 years in business, displacing nearly 300 workers. “Wolverines” had also “won a goodly number of votes as did ‘Hornets.’”
“Cardinals” was retained at Custer.
“Word from Coach T.T. Thatcher at Shelby discloses Shelby’s choice as ‘Pee Wees.’ A selection made last year.
“Shelby voted in 1929 to use that name,’ he says, ‘and since then we have used an emblem on all our suits showing a Pee Wee and S.H.S on it. Our school colors are purple and white so the name is symbolic of the colors.”
For two of the schools, the decisions must have been relatively short-lived. By 1934, Shelby was using the nickname “Tigers.” Freesoil’s nickname had evolved into “Pirates” by the 1940s.
Earlier this year, the Hillsdale Daily News did a series of articles on the history of nicknames for schools in its coverage area. Hillsdale became the ‘Hornets’ in October 1932 following a poll of current football players and faculty. The Daily News at the time announced the nickname had won by a wide margin. Pittsford, it’s believed, first introduced its use of “Wildcats” “around the time the district consolidated in 1938.” At Waldron, “Spartans” was selected over “Lions” and “Bears” in a contest run by the school newspaper, also in 1938. “Students at the time were likely influenced by Waldron’s proximity to Michigan State University, among other factors,” noted the paper.
The Daily News piece on Litchfield was of special interest to me. The only high school in Michigan nicknamed Terriers, I didn’t know much about its origins – only that from my previous research, the nickname had survived a proposed alteration by the Litchfield Student Council during the 1956-57 school year.
“They aroused quite a discussion within the student body as to the idea of changing the name of our team – Terriers.” stated the school’s yearbook. “But the idea was dropped.”
“According to Litchfield schools employee Judy Bills, the Litchfield Terriers mascot came about through the influence of former teacher and coach Al Terry in the 1930s,” stated the Daily News article. “It was while Terry was teacher and coach in Litchfield schools that the athletic teams became known as the Litchfield Terriers, Bills said.”
For a historian, sometimes answers spur more questions.
Was Litchfield’s team nickname also swayed by Major League Baseball?
Allen Terry coached at Litchfield from 1932 through the fall of 1940 before continuing his career at Plainwell High School.
Interestingly, during that same timespan, a future MLB Hall of Fame inductee, Bill Terry, served as player-manager of the New York Giants. His team’s often grabbed newspaper headlines with a reference to the phrase, “Terry’s Terriers” in the connected article.
Did the sharing of “Terry” as a last name influence the nickname selection in Litchfield?
Who knows what the future holds for education, school districts and team nicknames across Michigan. Ypsilanti Community School students in grades 7-12 picked Grizzlies over Trailblazers and Flyers in 2013. There are six “Bears,” two “Black Bears” and a single “Polar Bears” on the MHSAA current active lists. Now there is one “Grizzlies.”
Today, “The List” contains 1,438 active and inactive high schools and totals 289 unique nicknames.
Wait.
There’s a St. Helen Charlton Heston Academy? It’s named after the actor, who played Moses in “The Ten Commandments.” It seems he spent part of his childhood in the area.
Make that 1,439.
(Thanks Eric Albright for the ‘Vic the Lion’ Story. I continue to seek out information on old departed high schools in Michigan as well as the stories behind nicknames. Please drop me a line.)
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) Logos which have come, and sometimes gone along with those MHSAA schools through the years. (2) Kalkaska High School – from a postcard postmarked 1908. (3) Old Pontiac High School, built in 1913-14, became known as Pontiac Central once Pontiac Northern opened in 1958. (4) Ypsilanti Willow Run’s Flyers logo. (5) The logo used by Lansing Eastern’s Quakers. (6) Litchfield’s Terrier, as it appeared on the cover of the 1963 yearbook. (7) The logo for St. Helen Charlton Heston Academy’s Patriots. (Images collected by Ron Pesch.)