Sunday, March 8, 2009

Flint Photos: St. Mary's Basketball

A few photos from the Catholic school basketball league. I remember thinking these uniforms and warmups were very cool. This looks like some kind of post-season tournament in the late seventies. It is not the gym at St. Mary's, where all the 5th- and 6th-grade games were played. Coach Don Beauchamp is in the back on the left. Players, from left to right, Matt Porritt, Jason Lince, Bill Suttles, Duane Gilles, and Greg Fay.

Players from left to right, Jason Lince, Greg Fay, Gordie Young, David Bosak. Coach Don Beauchamp is in back on the right.

Players from left to right, Gordie Young and Joe Serna listen to Coach Beauchamp and Assistant Coach Rick Golombeski. Who's number 24?



5 comments:

  1. Okay, Gordy. I can't not comment on this one because I've been having dreams about the St. Mary's gym for months. I coached my son's 5th/6th grade basketball team this year out here in West Michigan at a place called "The Courthouse." It's a new facility just off the highway with four full-sized courts, two clocks each, stands away from the benches, plenty of room at the end lines, well-lit, never too warm. In other words, everything St. Mary's was not.

    But even when I think about that and our mismatched, skin-tight, oddly satin-finished (and shiny) maroon and gold uniforms (Holy Redeemer), and the smelly old locker room, I wouldn't trade it. It was a great place to play basketball.

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  2. John, I've been searching for some actual game photos of St. Mary's, but I've had no luck. I'm not sure where these photos were taken. Maybe a Christmas tournament in Grand Blanc?

    Thanks for bringing back the memories of the tight confines of the gym. When you took the ball out on the side, you were practically sitting on the lap of someone. And the edge of the stage under one basket seemed like was about a foot from the court.

    There was also that balcony with chicken wire at the other end so it seemed like people were hanging over the basket.

    At least your sons won't suffer from claustrophobia.

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  3. I was a cheerleader and was terrified that some night I was going to take a nose dive off the stage, where we cheered, onto the floor and get trampled by you guys! I may have some old photos, but they would have been of St. Mary's Swartz Creek and whoever we would have been playing against that night.

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  4. Dr. Doom,

    Hey, don't worry about it being St. Mary's Swartz Creek. I love old Flint pictures of any kind. Sometimes I seem to emphasize the places I went to school, but that's only because those are the photos I have. So if you have any digital images, send them my way.

    And I loved the tiny little set of bleachers that were up on the stage, along with the cheerleaders...just to make things a bit more crowded.

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  5. I remember those basketball and football games. the practices were really hard.

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.