OT: Greatest sports figures from your hometown?
It's kind of a slow day today, so I thought i'd throw this out there.
Seeing Bennie Oosterbaan's #47 jersey get unretired and donned by Jake Ryan got me thinking about this.
I'm from Muskegon and graduated from Muskegon High School, Bennie's alma mater. UM's Terrance Taylor, USC's Ronald Johnson, and MSU's Earl Morrall all called Muskegon their home.
Watching Oosterbaan get acknowledged instilled in me a great deal of pride not only for my high school, but my entire community. I wish I had a time machine so I could go back in time and watch arguably the greatest all-around Michigan athlete of all time get to play.
So what about you all? The MGoWorld is a vast one, filled with many a MGoPeople. Who are some of the greatest sports figures from your hometown/town?
September 9th, 2012 at 9:44 PM ^
Ligonier, IN
Glen Steele & Aaron Wellman - I graduated with Glen and Aaron was one year ahead of us, On our HS football team, I played OT/DE, Glen was TE/MLB, and Aaron was QB/FS.
September 9th, 2012 at 9:56 PM ^
My uncle played with Wellman at Manchester and I just played West Noble last friday, sorry for that 56-6 win ;)
Small World.
September 9th, 2012 at 10:33 PM ^
Haha yeah my old HS team has been really bad for decades now ;(
September 12th, 2012 at 8:28 PM ^
West Noble? I recently graduated from Lakeland!
September 13th, 2012 at 10:31 PM ^
Northeast Indiana reunion!
September 14th, 2012 at 8:27 PM ^
September 20th, 2012 at 1:55 PM ^
I haven't. Class of '13.
October 19th, 2012 at 5:25 PM ^
What school do you go to?
September 9th, 2012 at 9:51 PM ^
Derek Jeter, Greg Jennings, T.J Duuckett, Adam Hall, and Lindsay Tarpley.
September 9th, 2012 at 9:55 PM ^
There was a guy who played basketball for Sparty about 30 years ago. John Smoltz and the hockey-playing Millers (Kelly, Kevin, Kip & Ryan) get ribbons for participating.
September 9th, 2012 at 10:03 PM ^
September 10th, 2012 at 8:45 AM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 9:57 PM ^
Carl Pickens graduated from my high school. I played tee-ball in the 90's with an ex QB for Eastern Carolina University, James Pinkney.
September 9th, 2012 at 9:57 PM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 10:11 PM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 10:12 PM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 10:16 PM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 10:28 PM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 10:36 PM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 11:09 PM ^
September 10th, 2012 at 12:11 AM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 9:58 PM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 10:04 PM ^
Ohh only one LeBron James
September 9th, 2012 at 10:06 PM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 11:00 PM ^
September 10th, 2012 at 8:42 AM ^
September 10th, 2012 at 10:38 AM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 10:18 PM ^
we had one guy end up in the MLB in the last century. One with the Bengals for a stint, one as a backup with the Raiders and bouncing around with various practice squads right now, a couple minor league baseball and hockey guys, and that's about it. I had the opportunity to coach against Damon Moore who played a number of years with the Philadelphia Eagles, Charles Woodson who in my opinion was a better tail back than DB if you can believe it, Orlando Pace (Sandusky), Terry Mills (Romulus?) Ben Roethlesburger who was a wideout in his junior season because daddy's little boy had to be the quarterback. Man were most of the Findlay parents pissed over that deal...
September 9th, 2012 at 10:22 PM ^
Fritz Crisler invented the winged helmet while the head coach at Princeton.
September 9th, 2012 at 10:24 PM ^
Max Baer
Bob Boozer
Johnny Rodgers
Gale Sayers
Bob Gibson
Ahman Green
Eric Crouch
Andy Roddick
BONUS POINTS: Fred Astaire, Marlon Brando, Henry Fonda, Montgomery Clift, Gerald Ford, Buddy Miles, Nick Nolte, Malcolm X
September 9th, 2012 at 10:31 PM ^
Shani Davis graduated from Marquette Senior High School. He moved up to train with the United States Olympic Education Center when he was still in high school. Probably can't consider him to be "from" Marquette but he did at least attended our high school.
September 9th, 2012 at 10:33 PM ^
Trey Zeigler
September 9th, 2012 at 10:35 PM ^
Iman Shumpert, Evan Turner, Mike Shanahan, Ellis Coleman
And Hannah Storm, the ESPN anchor.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:21 PM ^
Enumclaw WA pop >10000. Weent to HS with Kasy Kahne and the White Mamba lives about 3 blocks from me. super cool guy.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:04 PM ^
Gary Moeller, is the most notable. also have had a couple buckeye b-ball players and a sparty.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:12 PM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 11:23 PM ^
I grew up in Chicago. Here are a few:
- Cazzie Russell (Michigan)
- Tim Jamison (Michigan)
- Isiah Thomas (Pistons)
- Dick Butkus
- Derrick Rose
- Johnny Weismuller (my high school)
- Bart Conner
- KIrby Puckett
- Dwyane Wade
- Donovan McNabb
- Simeon Rice
- Antoine Walker
- Knute Rockne
- George Halas
- Tim (Penny) Hardaway
- Doc Rivers
- Chris Chelios
- Mike Krzyzewski
September 10th, 2012 at 9:20 AM ^
so I'll claim my whole high school. Only few on the list I've heard of are Clay Matthews (sr. ) and Bruce Matthews (didn't graduate, but attended).
Also Tommy Wingels (dirty mullet from Miami, OH) of the San Jose Sharks and I used to play hockey together.
Had a lot more famous alumni when it comes to not sports, including Charlton Heston, Ann Margaret, Rainn Wilson, Donald Rumsfeld and Rahm Emanuel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_Trier_High_School_alumni#Sports
September 9th, 2012 at 11:28 PM ^
I live down the street from where Madona used to live and played high school football with Pipkins for a year, also with Joe Reynolds. Other than that the whole Vanderkay swimming family went to the same high school as me.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:35 PM ^
September 9th, 2012 at 11:40 PM ^
Grand Rapids.
Gerald Mother f***ing Ford, bitches.
Also, Dell and Connie Sweeris are in the Table Tennis Hall of Fame. True story.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. should get a shoutout, but he's a douche for ducking Pacquiao.
September 10th, 2012 at 8:32 AM ^
Dave Rosema. Buster Mathis?
September 14th, 2012 at 4:03 PM ^
Stanley Ketchum was from GR, long considered one of the greatest pound for pound fighters ever. Was killed in his bad by his wife I think.
GR could also claim Mark Knuble.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:40 PM ^
I guess the only person that would even be remotely famous or great is Brent Cummings who lead Belding to back to back state championship appearances in 96 and 97. We won the championship in 97 and he was the states all time leading rusher for a few years. He signed with UM and spent his career on the bench mostly. He switched to CB and saw a few minutes in games that we already decided.
September 10th, 2012 at 9:28 AM ^
Those were some good Belding teams from 94-98. In the few games I watched, I always thought Paul Cummings was better, but I'm not a football expert.
September 10th, 2012 at 10:24 AM ^
Paul was definitely not better than Brent. Paul was good, Brent was great. Paul ran more East West and had a tendency to dance too much. Brent was straight down hill even though he was fast and could juke.
September 9th, 2012 at 11:43 PM ^
Becky Hammon (voted as one of the top 15 WNBA players of all time; my brother's high school classmate)
Randy Lewis (2-time NCAA wrestling champ; Olympic gold medalist)
Adam Vinatieri (kicked two Super Bowl-winning field goals)
Cathy Bachmann (AKA Catherine Bach, AKA Daisy Duke, professional Roscoe P. Coletrane heartbreaker)
September 9th, 2012 at 11:49 PM ^
We just moved back to Belding, MI from Kyle, SD which is on the Pine Ridge Reservation and about 88 miles Southeast of Rapid City. We loved it there and wish we could have stayed! No family though and with a newborn it was important to move back.
South Dakota is a great state though!
September 10th, 2012 at 12:14 AM ^
And while SoDak is my home state, I'm full-on smitten with the Mitten.
September 10th, 2012 at 12:11 AM ^
Muhammed Ali. Met him, and he is as great a person as he was an athlete.