Class in Session: A History in Classification
July 24, 2017
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
This is the first part in a series on MHSAA tournament classification, past and present, that will be published over the next two weeks. This series originally ran in this spring's edition of MHSAA benchmarks.
Conversation and discussion at the March 2017 MHSAA Representative Council Meeting leaned heavily toward the subject of 8-Player Football and how to properly balance its tournament with the growing number of schools sponsoring the sport.
While the proposal to split the tournament into two divisions beginning with the 2017 school year was adopted, the MHSAA then faced questions such as when to set the divisions, how to determine qualifiers and where to host the championship games.
The topic continues to create a buzz in Class D schools across both peninsulas, and likely will do into the start of school this fall.
Likewise, the lone holdouts still conducting tournaments by class – MHSAA Boys and Girls Basketball and Girls Volleyball – took center stage at the May Council discussion, and following the 2017-18 school year, class is out for good. Both genders of basketball, and girls volleyball, will move to divisional formats thereafter.
There is much to be decided to be sure; but as those in education are well aware, history is the best teacher.
Fortunately for the sports in flux and for all sports under the governance of the MHSAA, the Association more or less wrote the book on the subject of sport classification. Following is a history lesson, with a little advanced division thrown in.
Class structure
Credited with being the first state with multiple tournament classifications, Michigan’s attention to trends and shifts in philosophy aimed at fair play and equal tournament opportunity can be traced from 80 years ago to the present.
In the earliest years of the MHSAA, there were four classifications for elections and tournaments – Classes A, B, C and D. Classes C and D had far more schools than Classes A and B. For example, 80 years ago (1937), there were only 58 schools in Class A, 94 schools in Class B, 297 schools in Class C and 253 schools in Class D.
Gradually through the years, as Michigan’s major cities spawned suburbs, there was a shift in the other direction to the point 30 years ago (1987) when school size became more balanced: 173 Class A schools, 178 Class B schools, 179 Class C schools and 182 Class D schools.
Up until 1987, the MHSAA published the dividing line between each classification, after which schools submitted their enrollments. Then, for 1988 and thereafter, the MHSAA adopted the plan of gathering all enrollments first and then placing 25 percent of the schools in each of four classes. This completed the equalization of the number of schools in each class for elections.
However, the change for 1988 did nothing to equalize the number of teams actually entered by each class in each sport. And unlike the early years of the Association when there were many more Class C and D teams than A and B teams, there were more Class A and B teams than C and D teams entering MHSAA tournaments decades later.
Moreover, the difference in number of teams entered in the different classifications for a sport continued to increase as many small schools, the fastest growing portion of the MHSAA's membership, sponsor only a few sports, or they sponsor no sports at all but enter into cooperative programs with other schools.
Because of these differences, Class A or B schools sometimes had to win twice as many games as Class C or D schools to reach the MHSAA Finals in a sport. At times, the larger classifications had District Tournaments, even rat-tail games, and/or a Quarterfinal game, and the smaller classifications did not. Most Class D Districts have had four teams (some only three), while Class A Districts often had seven or eight teams. In Regional levels of individual sports, the number of entries in the larger classification once greatly outnumbered those in the smaller classifications of the tournament for the same sport.
Over the years, these dividing lines between classes escalated gradually, as did the differences in enrollments of largest and small schools in each class. In 1937 the dividing lines were 700, 300 and 100 between Class A and B, B and C, and C and D, respectively. By 1987, the dividing lines were 1,129, 571 and 298, respectively, leading to the current method of collecting enrollments and then setting the classification.
With the pendulum swinging well past center by the late 1980s, coaches associations, MHSAA sport committees, tournament managers and school administrators began discussion and offered proposals to correct what many believed had become a flawed system of MHSAA tournament classification.
At the 1996 MHSAA Update Meetings, ¾ of 858 respondents to that year’s annual survey indicated they favored a system that would divide schools which actually sponsor each sport into two, three or four nearly equal divisions.
Problem solving
At its meeting May 4-6, 1997, the Representative Council defeated a motion that would have adopted in one action a coordinated plan of reclassification for all sports to equalize the number of schools in each tournament for each respective sport. Instead, the Council discussed and voted on each proposal that had been presented from sport committees.
This resulted in the Representative Council adopting four equal divisions for baseball and softball, four equal divisions for boys and girls tennis, four equal divisions for boys soccer and three equal divisions for girls soccer, effective with the 1997-98 school year. Helping in the decision was the success of the 1995-96 MHSAA Wrestling season, which saw the sport move to four divisions for its tournament structure
The Council delayed action on similar proposals for football and boys golf at that time to glean additional input. The same decision was made with respect to a proposal from the Ice Hockey Committee that would have split the Class A schools in two divisions and left the Class B/C/D Tournament unchanged.
“The gist of the move from classes to divisions was to equalize the path to championships for students of all schools, regardless of the size of those schools,” said MHSAA Executive Director Jack Roberts.
While the restructuring accomplished that goal for the majority of competitors, opposition exists now as it did then. The primary argument in opposition to the changes is that, in some sports, it increases the range between largest and smallest schools in the division for smallest schools, even as the range is usually reduced for other divisions.
Larger schools offered a counterpoint.
“The larger schools suggested that while they may have more students, they also attempt to sponsor more sports than the smaller schools, in some cases spreading the enrollment as thin as a much smaller school with fewer sports,” Roberts said.
“Even today, the idea of four equal divisions can be unpopular among some Class D schools which feel especially burdened by the equal division concept,” Roberts said. “There was enough opposition in 1997 that equal divisions were rejected for boys and girls basketball and girls volleyball, and some of that opposition remains.”
The numbers of schools sponsoring each MHSAA tournament are still close to the totals today, with the exception of soccer in both genders, which has enjoyed substantial increases. This spring, 466 girls teams were scheduled to compete in the MHSAA Soccer Tournament, while 473 boys teams will suit up this fall.
Since the beginning of MHSAA divisions in 1996 with wrestling, 147 additional team champions have been crowned and countless individuals have known the thrill of victory due to an extra level of Finals in various sports. Girls soccer has seen the most growth in opportunity, moving from two classes in 1987 to three divisions the following year, and then four divisions in 2000. Boys soccer had enjoyed four classes for two years prior to the new four-division format, and it was the sport of soccer that helped to create a caveat in the nearly equal division movement.
Lower Peninsula boys and girls swimming & diving expanded from two to three divisions in 2008, while boys and girls bowling are the most recent sports to enjoy increased tournament opportunity, adding a fourth division in 2010.
“Fairness is in the eye of the beholder. While having the same number of schools in each division is one kind of fairness, holding in check the enrollment range between the largest and smallest schools in Division 4 is another kind of fairness that is dear to a great number of people,” Roberts said. “Because more schools sponsor basketball and volleyball than other sports, Class D schools would have been least affected by the equal divisions concept in those sports; but that, and ‘tradition,’ did not dissuade the opponents in the 1990s.”
The shift to divisions not only paved the way for student-athletes, but also assisted administrators and schools hosting tournaments. MHSAA tournament mangers looked to equal divisions to more closely equalize the number of schools in District or Regional Tournaments and to better equalize the length of day required for these rounds of tournaments, both for management and participating teams and individuals.
Pinning down an answer
Wrestling became the first MHSAA Tournament to be conducted in nearly equal divisions when team and individual champions were crowned in Divisions 1, 2, 3 and 4 rather than Classes A, B, C/D for the 1996 winter championships.
The movement was well received, as schools saw more opportunity for success: four champions where there once were three at the District, Regional and Final levels, and a smaller range of enrollment between the smallest and largest school in all four tournaments, leading to the impetus for the Fall 1996 Update Meeting Survey of schools regarding similar movement in other sports.
Team champions that year were Holt (D1), Petoskey (D2), Middleville Thornapple Kellogg (D3) and Dundee (D4).
Getting their kicks
When the "equal divisions" concept was approved by the Representative Council for most MHSAA Tournaments for the 1997-98 school year, there was opposition from the smallest schools which, under the equal divisions, are forced to play against larger schools than reside in Class D. Compelling arguments were made – and still are – that an enrollment difference between schools with smaller enrollments (e.g., Class D) is more difficult to overcome in athletic competition than an even larger enrollment difference between schools with larger enrollments (e.g., Class A).
The opposition was most intense in soccer because of the number of students needed to field a team and the physical nature of the sport. As a result, from 2000-01 through 2010-11, soccer operated with a “20-percent modification.” This placed 20 percent of all schools that actually sponsored soccer in Division 4, and the remaining 80 percent were placed equally in Divisions 1, 2 and 3.
At the time the 20 percent modification was adopted, it was also established that soccer would return to four equal divisions when the largest Division 4 soccer school had an enrollment equal to or smaller than the mid point for Class C schools. That occurred in 2010.
Last class on the schedule
In the same volume of “history being the best teacher,” one can also find the adage, “times change.” While the division format was a welcome change in some sports, others were left to hold class without change.
In the sports of boys and girls basketball, and girls volleyball, the number of schools sponsoring the sports were so close to the overall membership of the MHSAA that divisions were not necessary; the enrollment breakdowns themselves were enough to delineate equal opportunity for tournament success.
That is no longer the case, according to MHSAA membership. The last move from classes to divisions occurred for the 2006-07 school year following Council action. Before this May, that is. Action at the most recent Representative Council meeting, May 2017, called for the shift to divisions for MHSAA Boys and Girls Basketball, and Girls Volleyball, beginning with the 2018-19 season.
“Because the MHSAA Volleyball Committee had requested this change several times a number of years ago, and because the Council felt the change inevitable, there should not be further delay,” Roberts said. “It is an important detail that the Class D maximum has dropped 50 students over the past decade so the objection that much larger schools would be competing in Division 4 isn’t very strong now.”
Using the 2017-18 enrollment figures, just eight Class C schools would be competing in Division 4 for boys basketball, 11 for girls basketball and 14 for girls volleyball.
Good things came of the previous most-recent switches in 2006-07. Competitive Cheer was re-classified from Class A, B and C-D into four equal divisions assisting in the rapid growth of sponsoring schools (approximately 80 schools per division). Alpine skiing was changed from Class A and B-C D to two equal divisions.
At that time, the MHSAA Basketball Committee had recommended to the Council the study of increased classifications, but status quo remained.
Back on the grid
As such, MHSAA Basketball and Volleyball remained the only holdovers of the MHSAA class structure. Discussion resurfaced periodically during the last two decades to bring those tournaments in line with the other MHSAA sports.
Regular-season football-playing schools are separated by class, then are reshuffled by divisions for the playoffs. Football, as we know, underwent a significant postseason facelift in the late 1990s.
While MHSAA Football also remained a class sport through 1998, it had expanded from four to eight classes from 1990-98, becoming the first MHSAA sport to crown more than four team champions. Member schools were asked to consider a pair of options in November of 1997. One called for eight equal divisions, and the second would leave Class D by itself as division 8, and split Class A, B and C schools into seven nearly equal divisions.
After much discussion, retooling, and crunching of formulas, the MHSAA unveiled its revised Football Playoff model that continues to roll today, nearly 20 years later. It was determined that 256 teams would qualify for the tournament based first on a minimum of six wins, then by Playoff Points determined by formula. From there, the field would be divided into eight divisions, with the field being filled out by a nearly equal number of five-win teams in each division as needed to reach 256.
Eight championships would indeed be enough, until football sponsorship among the MHSAA’s smallest schools – some with rich football traditions – began to trend downward. The MHSAA again went to the drawing board, examining the viability of 8-player football. After an experimental year in 2010 without a tournament, the 8-player game was playoff-ready for 2011, with a field of 16 qualifiers embarking on a four-week tournament.
Not only did the 8-player option restore recently canceled programs, but it also created teams in schools which previously had none, and convinced some 11-player schools that this new division was the best path to take.
What did this do for the Class D holdovers staying in the traditional 11-player game? Well, a couple of things, positive and negative. As two and three dozen Class D schools opted for the 8-player game, the remaining 11-player Class D schools at times found themselves in disrupted leagues and had to travel further to complete schedules. They also competed against larger teams in Division 8 of the 11-player MHSAA Football Playoffs.
However, the growth of the 8-player game among the smallest schools also resulted in more Class D schools qualifying for the MHSAA Football Playoffs than ever before. In 2012, an all-time high 44 percent of Class D schools sponsoring football qualified for either the 8-player tournament or Division 8 of the 11-player tournament. That compared to 42.2 percent of Class C schools, 44.9 percent of Class B schools and 41.6 percent of Class A schools which qualified for the 2012 playoffs.
Much is to be determined in the most recent chapter of MHSAA Tournament expansion as the 8-Player Football Playoffs welcome a second division. As the past illustrates, there will be pluses and minuses. History also shows that the MHSAA has received maximum input from its constituents, researched all possibilities, and will find solutions to questions still in the balance before an additional group of athletes hoists a new trophy in November.
Through the Years
A chronology of when which sports moved from Class to Division in the MHSAA.
1995-96: LP Wrestling
1997-98: Baseball, Boys Soccer, Girls Soccer, Softball, LP Girls Tennis, LP Boys Tennis
1998-99: LP Boys Golf, LP Girls Golf
1999-2000: Ice Hockey, LP Boys Track & Field, LP Girls Track & Field
2000-01: LP Boys Cross Country, LP Girls Cross Country, UP Boys Cross Country, UP Girls Cross Country, UP Boys Golf, UP Girls Golf, UP Boys Tennis, UP Girls Tennis, UP Boys Track & Field, UP Girls Track & Field
2002-03: LP Girls Swimming & Diving, LP Boys Swimming & Diving
2005-06: Boys Bowling, Girls Bowling
2006-07: Girls Competitive Cheer, Boys Skiing, Girls Skiing
2018-19: Boys Basketball, Girls Basketball, Girls Volleyball
Note: Boys and Girls Lacrosse has been a divisional sport since it began in during the 2004-05 school year.
Century of School Sports: Boys Basketball's Best 1st To Earn MHSAA Finals Titles
By
Ron Pesch
MHSAA historian
March 11, 2025
Administratively, the world changed when the present Michigan High School Athletic Association was formed in the fall of 1924. That October, Battle Creek High School’s Alden W. ‘Tommy’ Thompson was hired on a full-time basis as state director.
“This position, which is a new one in Michigan, has for its purpose the centralizing of authority over all secondary school athletics in the state, including public high schools, and all private and parochial institutions,” noted the Battle Creek Enquirer at the time of his hiring. “It will take the place of the old Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Association, which was composed of the principals of the high schools of the state.”
Coach and director of athletics at Battle Creek since 1919, Thompson moved to Lansing following the close of Battle Creek’s football season and began his new position on November 17. While the job included full management of tournaments, there was little time to alter processes and procedures for the winter season. So, the 1925 basketball tournament – now celebrating its 100th year under guidance from the MHSAA – really did not look much different from the year previous.
Tournaments to name Michigan boys basketball champions date back to 1916. A recent enlargement of Waterman Gymnasium at the University of Michigan prompted the school to host a tournament in 1917. With four available courts, it was felt that the tournament could handle more than 60 teams and still be run in three days.
In 1920, the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Association took control of prep athletics and the tournament. Among its first actions was to split the finals between Ann Arbor and East Lansing each year. That year, Class A final-round games were played at U of M in Ann Arbor, while Class B games were hosted at Michigan Agricultural College (M.A.C.) – now Michigan State University – 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 Thompson and staff added a championship round for Class D to the mix.)
The Mechanics of a Tournament
In January, Director Thompson announced that District tournaments (sometimes referred to as sectional) would be held at six locations across the state, designed to reduce the field of contenders to 24 teams for the final three rounds of the tournament. They would be held at Central Normal in Mount Pleasant (two teams advancing each from Class A, B, and C), Western State Normal in Kalamazoo (two teams each from Class A, B, and C), Michigan State Normal in Ypsilanti (two teams each from Class A, B, and C), the Detroit public schools (two from Class A), Petoskey (one from Class B and two from Class C), and Northern State Normal at Marquette in the Upper Peninsula (one regardless of Class to play in Class B) in mid-March.
The final rounds of the 1925 games were scheduled for March 26–28. Continuing the set-up of rotating sites, winners and runners-up in the Class A Districts received invitations to the playoff at M.A.C. while the Class B and C pairs were invited to the tourney at U of M.
Class A was defined as schools with enrollments of 500 or more students, Class B – 175 to 499, and Class C – 100 to 174. Schools with enrollments of fewer than 100 students comprised Class D and had the option to play in the Class C tournaments. Those hard and fast enrollment numbers meant an imbalance of teams in each class. Simply put, there were fewer schools in Class A and Class B than there were in Class C, and hence, fewer games needed to establish a final field of teams.
This method for setting the field for the final rounds certainly fashioned some stellar matchups. Sampled news from the time – sometimes conflicting in the account – gives a feel for the coverage by sports reporters from the daily and weekly newspapers.
Narrowing the Field
The seventh annual District Basketball Tournament hosted at Central Michigan Normal School – now Central Michigan University – featured a whopping 76 teams! Due to the number of schools of small enrollment competing, officials split opponents across six classifications: A (4), B (11), C (16), D (20), E (16), and F (9), with only A, B, and C eligible for the upcoming M.A.C. and U of M events. Games kicked off on Wednesday evening, March 18, with five Class B games. According to media coverage, this was the largest of any high school District tournament ever held in Michigan, with games played across four floors. A total of 66 contests were played during the two days and three evenings of the tournament.
“The city was almost taxed to capacity by the big crowd of players and rooters,” stated the Isabella County Enterprise in coverage of the games. “The athletic department wishes to thank the citizens who co-operated by renting their rooms at a very reasonable price to our guests.”
“Between 700 and 800 boys were entertained in Mt. Pleasant homes. From all parts of the district came scores of automobiles bringing rooters from the home towns,” recalled the 1925 Central Normal yearbook in its two-page remembrance of the event. “Effervescent high school youth was in its glory. … The large gymnasium was packed with spectators hours before the principal games started, and crowds filled three other floors where elimination contests were in progress. Cheer after cheer echoed through the Normal gymnasium from eight o’clock in the morning until after eleven o’clock at night. The court became a kaleidoscope of colors as new teams arrayed in brilliant hues followed each other in quick succession.”
Class B was declared as the most exciting series of the Central Michigan tourney. Among the entries was Reed City, state champions among the Class C teams in 1924. With enrollment just slightly above the limit, they bumped into Class B but still finished the regular season unbeaten. In the opening round that Wednesday evening, the team “celebrated its advent into faster company by defeating Lapeer, 36-8,” according to special coverage of the tourney in the Saginaw News Courier.
On Thursday evening, the Red and Black found themselves in a front-to-back thriller with Alma. Trailing 10-9, Reed City nailed a field goal just as the timekeeper’s final whistle blew marking the game’s end. The crowd rushed the floor in victory. But simultaneous to the shot, a referee had called a foul. After the two officials consulted with the timekeeper, it was determined the foul occurred before the attempt, so the basket was waved off. The court was cleared, the teams called back, and Reed City was awarded two shots from the line. The celebration was dramatically short-lived. “Due to the extreme nervous tension attending such a situation, neither of the free throws was successful,” detailed a sympathetic writer in the Osceola County Herald.
The “Southwestern Michigan Sectional Tournament” held at Western Normal – today’s Western Michigan University – featured 60 schools: nine in Class A, 16 in Class B, and 35 in Class C. Grand Haven, the defending Class B champion, and St. Joesph, runner-up to the 1924 title, were again expected to emerge as representatives in 1925. To the surprise of many, Sturgis topped St. Joseph in the semifinals, 19-11, then downed Grand Haven, 21-16, in the final round of the ‘B’ games. Front page news in the Grand Haven Tribune noted disappointment. “The Havenites took the floor in foot-weary condition and couldn’t get started until the final half when they outscored Sturgis. … The entire Grand Haven team was tired from their three hard preceding games and the effects of (a) hard season of basketball were easily seen.” Still, as runner-up, the team would have a chance for redemption in Ann Arbor.
Jackson, the defending Class A champion, again emerged from a field of eight Class A schools in the District tournament at Michigan State Normal College in Ypsilanti.
At Northern Normal, Lake Linden – located about 30 miles from the northern-most point of Michigan – beat Negaunee, 33-26, for the right to play in the downstate tourney.
At Detroit, the city league championship tournament established Southeastern with clear claim to the metropolitan crown, but Detroit Northwestern and Detroit Southwestern tied for second place in the final league standings. Time would not allow a playoff between the two teams to determine a logical second representative.
Owen. A. Emmons, supervisor of athletics of Detroit high schools, initially pitched the idea of sending the three Detroit schools to the M.A.C. tournament. Thompson rejected the idea stating each District could send no more than two teams. Emmons countered with sending the schools that tied for second to East Lansing and giving Southeastern an automatic berth to the era’s prestigious annual National Cage tournament hosted by the University of Chicago, entering its eighth year that April. Thompson volleyed back that “only a state championship team which had won its title on the playing floor was eligible to represent Michigan at Chicago.”
Forced by Thompson to decide, Emmons chose Southwestern as the second representative based on a better overall showing in the regular season, and a point differential displayed in the league championship series.
With that determined, the field was set for the championships.
The bigger task for the MHSAA and their director still lay ahead.
“There has been some fault found by the schools in the manner of conducting the district tournaments in basketball,” noted the Detroit Free Press. “It is claimed that 60 or 75 teams cannot (properly) decide a district champion in the space of two or three days. Teams that are up in the running for the honors must play two and sometimes three games a day, and the district tourney gradually develops into an endurance contest with the title depending more upon brawn than upon skill and cleverness of play.”
Thompson recognized this and stated he was working on a new plan with the state’s athletic council, with a goal of determining a new approach following the 1925 tournament.
The 1925 Championships
According to the Lansing State Journal, “permanent trophies will be awarded the winner and the runner-up, while individual medals will be given members of the two teams.” Drawings for first-round matchups took place during the afternoon of Thursday, March 26, once coaches arrived. A consolation tournament was scheduled for Class B and Class C teams defeated in the opening round. There would be no such tournament for Class A.
Jackson and Kalamazoo again went head-to-head in the first-round quarterfinals at M.A.C. Kalamazoo had entered the postseason with a dismal 4-9 regular-season record. Among its losses was an 18-11 defeat by Jackson in January during which Kalamazoo led 9-5 at the half, shutting down Jackson star Jessie Drain, who was 0-9 shooting before the break. But Jackson tied the game in the third quarter, 10-10, then cracked the visitors’ defense in the fourth for a convincing win.
Minus their captain, Bruce Masselink, Kalamazoo put up a major fight in the rematch. “Jackson had anything but a walkaway when if defeated Kalamazoo Central 29 to 21 in an overtime game,” stated the Jackson News. “Time and again Kalamazoo had opportunities to put the game on ice in the last quarter, but missed easy shots and kept Jackson in the race for the state championship …”
Jackson held a 13-7 lead at the half, but watched it rapidly evaporate. The deficit cut to 17-13 at the end of three quarters, Kalamazoo tied the game, 19-19, with a minute to play. A shot by Kalamazoo with 30 seconds remaining would have likely won the contest, but it missed the mark, forcing the five-minute extra frame. The Orange and Black “in the overtime period showed some of the fastest basketball displayed during the entire first round … working the ball down the floor for five easy baskets …”
The State Journal estimated that “about 700 saw the four” Class A Quarterfinal games at M.A.C.
In Class B at Waterman Gymnasium, Grand Haven and Sturgis were rematched in the Quarterfinals. C.O. Reed covered the game from the “historic floor” in a special report to the Tribune.
“Battling fiercely and with an even chance to win until the final whistle blew, Grand Haven High School lost to Sturgis 19-16. “Both played in whirl-wind fashion (and) were exchanging score for score with rapidity and the guarding was terrific.” Tied 16-16, a free throw by captain Laurence ‘PeeWee’ Clemmons and a hook shot field goal by Don Grove allowed Sturgis to advance.
Jackson St. Mary’s had grabbed a Regional title in Class C with a “bitterly contested” triumph over Farmington, which had been a semifinalist in 1924. In that game, the Blue Devils were led by “flashy little forward” Lawrence ‘Lorry’ Heuman. Trailing 9-7 late in the game, St. Mary’s broke up a Farmington stall, allowing Heuman to nail “a sensational side shot from near the center of the court” for an 11-9 victory. Heuman finished with 10 points.
The teams met again in the Quarterfinals, this time with late heroics by St. Mary’s Donald Tobin, who, sent to the foul line with less than 20 seconds to play, sank a free throw to break a deadlock, giving the Blue Devils a dramatic 15-14 win.
In yet another rematch, this time in the Class C Semifinals hosted Friday at Ann Arbor, Three Oaks and Bridgman – county rivals and final-round opponents at the Southwestern Regional – squared off. A quarterfinalist at the 1924 Finals, Bridgman had topped Three Oaks, 14-10, at Western. “Coach F.C. Reed’s (Bridgman) youngsters did not exhibit a brand of basketball that would set the world afire but was good enough to win five rounds of games during the last two days,” stated the Kalamazoo Gazette. Three Oaks flipped the script at U-M, defeating Bridgman 22-20 to advance to the title game with Jackson St. Mary's.
For the first time, a play-by-play account of Friday’s Class A Semifinal round games at East Lansing was broadcast by a radio station – Michigan Agricultural College’s recently-created AM station, WKAR. There, Detroit Southeastern trounced Grand Rapids Union 31-20, while Jackson dumped Detroit Southwestern 25-18. This set-up a rematch for the Class A title, won the year prior by Jackson, 17-11.
The Finals
That rematch, also broadcast on WKAR, sadly was a letdown as Southeastern crushed Jackson, 44-22. Jackson outplayed the Detroit squad in the opening quarter, leading 11-7, before its game collapsed. From that point on, Southeastern’s defense forced Jackson to shots near mid-court, and grabbed a 20-11 lead at the half, then a 28-15 edge after three quarters. “So effective was the Southeastern five man defense,” stated the State Journal, “that it appeared to the spectators as though a fence had been stretched across the floor.” Detroit’s Harold Hendricks and Norman Daniels led all scorers with 17 and 15 points, respectively, while captain Nolen Putnam added eight. Hendricks and Putnam were praised for their defense. Drain and Walter Hodgboom each connected on four field goals for Jackson.
The win brought the Class A title back to the metropolitan district for the first time in five years, when Northwestern defeated Northern, 17-13, in an all-Detroit showdown in 1920. With the win, Southeastern earned the trip to Chicago for a spot in the National Cage tournament.
In Class B at Waterman, Sturgis and Lake Linden, both 20-plus point margin winners in the Semifinals, skirmished. In a tight ballgame into halftime, with the U.P. representatives leading 15-14 at the break, coach Andy Carrigan’s Sturgis squad proved “too fast for the Lake Linden quintet and slowly but consistently piled up” a 36-25 triumph. Clemmons led Sturgis with 10 points followed by the Grove brothers, Roger and Don, with nine points apiece. Senior center Wayne Nestor led Lake Linden with 12 points.
The Sturgis squad returned home to huge acclaim, with University of Michigan basketball coach Edwin J. Mather speaking to the team at their postseason banquet. Mather picked a Class B and Class C all-tournament team following the games.
Interestingly, after graduation Roger Grove earned All-America honors in football and basketball at Michigan State, then played five seasons in the NFL for Green Bay. Nestor went on to letter in baseball and basketball at Western Normal, then taught and coached at, ironically, Detroit Southeastern. In 2020, the estate of Lester and his wife June left a $2.5 million endowment to Lake Linden-Hubbell Public Schools, with investment returns funding annual scholarships for graduating seniors.
“Without a doubt, the most thrilling encounter of the afternoon was the final game of Class C,” noted U-M’s newspaper, The Michigan Daily. Once again, St. Mary’s forward, Heuman, was the star of the game. “A see-saw battle throughout, with less than two minutes to play,” according to the Jackson News, “Three Oaks was up 20-19, when “standing alone in mid-floor (Heuman) shot the ball through the net, without even touching the rim” to give St. Mary’s the lead. A pair of free throws by Saroldi gave Three Oaks back the advantage 22-21, with 50 seconds to play.
“Keen passwork brought the ball to the basket,” wrote a “staff correspondent” from the Citizen Patriot, one of two papers in Jackson recapping the game for readers. “(Fred) Smith, pivot man, cut across court at the opposite side,” stated the News. Heuman shot a pass to Smith “standing unnoticed about six feet to the left of the loop,” said the Citizen-Patriot report. “Smith jumped, caught the sphere,” according to the News, “and heaved it through the hoop to complete one of the greatest plays of the entire tournament.”
“Excellent stalling … was enacted by the Blue Devils for the final eight seconds of the game,” continued the Citizen-Patriot.
“The gun sounded and St. Mary stood crowned the Class ‘C’ champions of Michigan. … For the first time in the history of interscholastic athletics in Michigan, a parochial team won a championship sanctioned by the state high school league,” concluded the News.
Heuman led all scoring with 11 points, while Robbie Decker paced Three Oaks with eight, followed by Joe Savoldi and Richard Potts, each with seven. Smith added six points for St. Mary's.
Earlier that school year, St. Mary’s laid claim to a Michigan parochial football title. Struggling financially, parish members and alumni used the success of the athletic teams to rally support.
In total, Heuman scored 30 of the team’s 58 points during the trip to Ann Arbor. The 5-foot-5 all-around athlete was a back on the football team, then attended Michigan State Normal for two years before signing a minor league baseball contract. An arm injury sent him back to Jackson to coach and play baseball in the city’s recreational Twilight Leagues. Switching to the infield, he was remembered as one of Jackson’s all-time finest.
Previous "Century of School Sports" Spotlights
March 5: Everything We Do Begins with Participation - Read
Feb. 25: Slogans & Logos Remain Unforgettable Parts of MHSAA History - Read
Feb. 19: MHSAA Tickets Continue to Provide Fan-Friendly Value - Read
Feb. 11: We Recognize Those Who Make Our Games Go - Read
Feb. 4: WISL Conference Continues to Inspire Aspiring Leaders - Read
Jan. 28: Michigan's National Impact Begins at NFHS' Start - Read
Jan. 21: Awards Celebrate Well-Rounded Educational Experience - Read
Jan. 14: Predecessors Laid Foundation for MHSAA's Formation - Read
Jan. 9: MHSAA Blazes Trail Into Cyberspace - Read
Dec. 31: State's Storytellers Share Winter Memories - Read
Dec. 17: MHSAA Over Time - Read
Dec. 10: On This Day, December 13, We Will Celebrate - Read
Dec. 3: MHSAA Work Guided by Representative Council - Read
Nov. 26: Finals Provide Future Pros Early Ford Field Glory - Read
Nov. 19: Connection at Heart of Coaches Advancement Program - Read
Nov. 12: Good Sports are Winners Then, Now & Always - Read
Nov. 5: MHSAA's Home Sweet Home - Read
Oct. 29: MHSAA Summits Draw Thousands to Promote Sportsmanship - Read
Oct. 23: Cross Country Finals Among MHSAA's Longest Running - Read
Oct. 15: State's Storytellers Share Fall Memories - Read
Oct. 8: Guided by 4 S's of Educational Athletics - Read
Oct. 1: Michigan Sends 10 to National Hall of Fame - Read
Sept. 25: MHSAA Record Books Filled with 1000s of Achievements - Read
Sept. 18: Why Does the MHSAA Have These Rules? - Read
Sept. 10: Special Medals, Patches to Commemorate Special Year - Read
Sept. 4: Fall to Finish with 50th Football Championships - Read
Aug. 28: Let the Celebration Begin - Read
PHOTOS (Top) At top, the 1925 Sturgis boys basketball team. Bottom left: Detroit Southeastern. Bottom right: Jackson St. Mary's. (Middle) A newspaper clipping announces 1925 championship games will be broadcast. (Below) This set of portraits celebrates the 1925 Southeastern team and its accomplishments. (Photos courtesy of Detroit Southeastern High School and MHSAA archives.)