OT: Greatest sports figures from your hometown?

Submitted by Dilla Dude on

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?

 

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goblue81

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.

Joined: 10/02/2010

MGoPoints: 1654

George Patton

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.

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: 648

A_Train32

September 9th, 2012 at 9:57 PM ^

First post ever here, had to represent! Home of Greg Jennings, Jerome "J.C." Harrison, T.J. Duckett, Tico Duckett, Derek Jeter, Adam Hall, Sherod Harrell, Corey Pearson, Kelly Baraka, Joey Sorantos, Paul Sorantos, Lindsay Tarpley... just to name a few

Joined: 08/10/2012

MGoPoints: 181

A_Train32

September 9th, 2012 at 10:28 PM ^

Sweetest game I ever played in was us vs. Portage Northern Jennings senior year and we won 45-27, Greg had two TDs and Harrison had 300 yards and 3 TDs, Baraka also went off with 300 yards and 4 TDs. The Sorantos brothers were also playing for PN

Joined: 08/10/2012

MGoPoints: 181

samsoccer7

September 10th, 2012 at 12:11 AM ^

Kzoo (portage central hs) guy here. Pete Metzelaars went to pc. I ran the 100 lined up next to tj duckett my freshman year. Tico duckett was an advisor guy at our school too. Nice guy. Some guys I ran track with played at gvsu when they won titles, but not sure of their contributions there.

Joined: 07/08/2008

MGoPoints: 11853

PM

September 9th, 2012 at 10:06 PM ^

I went to the same grade school as Earvin. Heck, my older brother used to get schooled on the playground by him even though my brother was a year older than Earvin. I'm a Sexton alum though, not Everett so different HS... Same home town though (Lansing for the younger readers here)

Joined: 11/23/2008

MGoPoints: 1435

Louie C

September 9th, 2012 at 11:00 PM ^

Everett alum here. I was at the homecoming game against Sexton when they renamed the gym after him. He was there too, and we won by a last second shot. Everybody stormed the court including him, which I thought was cool.

Joined: 11/16/2009

MGoPoints: 1146

MSHOT92

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...

Joined: 02/07/2011

MGoPoints: 400

ChicagoB1GRed

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

 

Joined: 06/10/2010

MGoPoints: 1207

MQTBlue

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.

Joined: 11/27/2011

MGoPoints: 219

StephenRKass

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

Joined: 07/15/2008

MGoPoints: 22961

JeepinBen

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

Joined: 01/22/2010

MGoPoints: 32222

splieb17

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.

Joined: 01/28/2012

MGoPoints: 29

Phil Brickma

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.

Joined: 06/24/2012

MGoPoints: 2010

GBOD79

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. 

Joined: 07/14/2009

MGoPoints: 3719

JamesBondHerpesMeds

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)

Joined: 04/13/2009

MGoPoints: 39524

GBOD79

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!

Joined: 07/14/2009

MGoPoints: 3719