Tradition makes choice of highlights hard

THE FLINT JOURNAL FILES / WILLIAM VASTA Golfer Tiger Woods faces local media after the first round of the Buick Open in 1997.

Try to pick the top 10 Flint-area sports stories of the past 125 years.

Go ahead, try.

Just paring the list to 10 was difficult enough. Trying to rank them in order of significance had staff writers and editors chewing on their pencils.

Actually, the survey covered sports stories only from the past 100 years; sports seldom were deemed newsworthy in the 19th century.

The balloting was tight. Flint’s domination of state high school basketball in the 1980s ranked No. 1, barely ahead of Jim Abbott’s remarkable baseball career, which narrowly edged the Buick Open.

From an original list of 32 nominees, here are the top 10 sports stories in The Journal’s 125-year history:

THE FLINT JOURNAL FILES Jim Abbott, born without a right hand, played for Flint Central and pitched in major league baseball for 11 years.

1. Prep basketball reigns: Flint high school basketball became nationally renowned in the 1980s, when city schools won five consecutive Class A state championships, the first three by Central. Overall, the area captured 15 state titles in the decade and began sending players to the National Basketball Association.

2. Jim Abbott: The Central High athlete, born without a right hand, wound up playing 11 years of major league baseball. Along the way he pitched for the University of Michigan, carried the U.S. flag at the Pan American Games and won the gold-medal game at the 1988 Olympics.

3. Buick Open: The PGA tournament came to town in 1958, left after 1969 and returned for good in 1977. Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Tiger Woods and dozens of other top golfers have played here. Weekend galleries at Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club in Grand Blanc number upward of 150,000.

4. Pro hockey: The Flint Generals skated into existence in 1969, playing in the then-new IMA Sports Arena. Wildly popular at first, minor league hockey fizzled in the late ’80s but has missed just one season since its start here.

THE FLINT JOURNAL FILES / LLOYD E. MOEBIUS Bobby Crim finished 234th in the first running of the road race named for him. Crim is a former state House speaker from Davison.

5. Ken Morrow: The Davison hockey player experienced a double dream in 1980, playing with the United States’ “Miracle on Ice” team in the Winter Olympics in February, then joining the New York Islanders in time to win the Stanley Cup three months later.

6. Bobby Crim race: The 10-mile road race to benefit Michigan Special Olympics was started in 1977 by Crim, a Davison Democrat who was then speaker of the state House. From an original field of some 700, the race now draws world-class runners, and the Crim Festival of Races has exceeded 15,000 entries.

7. Northern-Central football: The Thanksgiving Day classic was an area tradition until its demise in 1976 due to the new state playoff system. Attendance for the game at Atwood Stadium peaked in 1950 at 20,600.

8. CANUSA Games: The annual multisports competition with Hamilton, Ontario, started in 1958 and became a national model for the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. The cities competed in 15 sports last year.

9. Flintstones: A natural progression of Flint’s rich high school hoops tradition, four city players captured the national spotlight in 2000. Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson, Antonio Smith and Charlie Bell led Michigan State University to the NCAA championship.

Attendance for the traditional Thanksgiving Day Northern-Central football games peaked in 1950 with 20,600.

10. Flint Junior Golf Association: The FJGA began in 1939 and now puts nearly 2,200 boys and girls on area golf courses during the summer. It is the oldest and largest program of its kind in the nation.

Other stories that received votes:

• Northern’s McGee twins, Pam and Paula, excel in basketball.

• Frank Manley pioneers community schools system, opening gym doors after school, on weekends and all summer.

• Tiger Woods plays in the Buick Open in 1997, 1998 and 2000.

• Paul Krause of Bendle High elected to Pro Football Hall of Fame.

THE FLINT JOURNAL FILES Northwestern High School takes the state trophy in 1984.

• Herb Washington of Central High holds world track record.

• MaliVai Washington of Carman-Ainsworth reaches Wimbledon final.

• Two Mr. Basketballs, two Miss Basketballs: Glen Rice and Kelvin Torbert, both of Northwestern, and Lisa Negri of Powers Catholic and Deanna Nolan of Northern.

• Jock Leslie-Willie Pep world championship fight at Atwood in 1947.

• Glen Rice and Trent Tucker, both of Northwestern High, win NBA championship rings.

— Dan Nilsen