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?

 

Mich07IE

September 9th, 2012 at 7:42 PM ^

Paw Paw, MI

 

Jason Babin- NFL 1st Rounder, Current Philadelphia Eagle

Don Moorehead- Michigan QB, 69-70

Charlie Maxwell- Former Detroit Tigers Great, Michigan Sports Hall of Fame

Farnn

September 9th, 2012 at 7:43 PM ^

Born there or played their highschool career there?  Being from NYC I had no idea which athletes were from New York, so I looked it up and found that Michael Jordan was born in New York but moved when he was a little kid.  And then as I was reading further down the wikipedia list of famous people from NYC, I found that Vince Lombardi was born and raised in Brooklyn, so he's probably the biggest sports figure from my home town, no need to read beyond the "L"s.

M Fanfare

September 9th, 2012 at 7:44 PM ^

Cincinnati

Ken Griffey, Jr., Pete Rose, Roger Staubach.

For the U of M from Cincinnati category: Barry Larkin, Vada Murray, B.J. Askew, DeHart Hubbard, Sam Stoller.

There's probably a few others I'm missing.

bronxblue

September 9th, 2012 at 11:03 PM ^

Not a sports star, but so was Bruce Campbell!

My HS (Bishop Foley) was apparently good at pumping out female athletes, but not much on the guys side.  Only D1 player I remember was former MI TE Mark Campbell.  Had a couple of really good soccer players there when I was a student, including two or three who got D1 scholarships. 

GrindToEat

September 9th, 2012 at 7:56 PM ^

San Anselmo, CA: Vernon "Lefty" Gomez; hall of Famer from the Yankees. Joe DiMaggio also used to play poker in my neighbors pool house, and OJ Simpson was held to just 50 yards rushing in 30 attempts at the local high school back in his day

dothepose

September 9th, 2012 at 7:58 PM ^

Drew Miller is in my middle school yearbook but he moved I think in 7th or 8th grade.

Mark Messner was from here but he played HS football at Catholic Central, which I believe that Wyatt Shallman is actually from Hartland too. It's also rumored that Mike Modano lived in Hartland for a little bit while growing up.

MGlobules

September 9th, 2012 at 8:00 PM ^

Partial list:

Brent Alexander
Jerome Bettis
Kevin Brooks
Dave DeBusschere
Braylon Edwards
Larry Foote
Jalen Rose
Brian Sikorski
John Smoltz
Bob Welch
Chris Webber

WMUgoblue

September 9th, 2012 at 8:01 PM ^

Frank Zombo, and Pete Chryplewicz both from Sterling Heights Stevenson. I played with Frank for one year and he was our top WR and is now a 3-4 LB for the Packers.

MH20

September 9th, 2012 at 8:09 PM ^

However not the same high school, as I went to Mona Shores.

I suppose you could also say that Ryan Van Bergen is from Muskegon.  His hometown, Whitehall, is only about 15 miles north of Skeetown.