1970s Flint Fashion: Purple Satin St. Mary's Jacket

1970s Fashion: Purple Satin Jacket

Flint Photos: St. Marys Church in the Late Seventies

Flint Photos: Travels to Vehicle City

Over the past three years I've traveled to Flint numerous times and taken a lot of photos while I was writing about the city. Here's a small sample, in no particular order. Some of these have appeared on Flint Expatriates in the past, some are new.

Flint Photos: St. Mary's in the Late Seventies

An event at St. Mary's Church on Franklin Avenue in the late seventies. (Photo courtesy of the St. Mary Facebook page.)

Whaley Park Revisited

A drive up Franklin Avenue to Whaley Park can be a sobering experience these days. The St. Mary's football team used to jog up Franklin in full pads for football practice. The Wildcats also played their home games at the park. This was where Coach Sam Isaac held sway. It's good to know the goal posts are still standing, even if one of the crossbars is made out of yellow twine.

Sisters of St. Mary's

Sister Agnes, Sister Ann Catherine, Sister Ellen and their vicious guard dog

St. Mary's alumni please be on your best behavior for this post. Yesterday I had a chance to visit the sisters who ran St. Mary's School for many years. They are now living at their family home in Mt. Morris and doing well. They're still teaching at a small school on their property. Sister Ann Catherine recently retired after 68 years of teaching.

Old School Hoops

Since we're talking about old schools like Central High, how about some old-school basketball? After a post on the Catholic sports leagues, Flint Expatriate Kelly O'Connor came up with these shots of a game between St. Mary's Swartz Creek and Holy Redeemer in the St. Mary's Flint gym. (St. Mary's Mt. Morris was also in the league, proving that Flint area Catholics really like Mary.) Check out the socks and the Chuck Taylor's. You can see the banners for all the Catholic schools hanging on the walls. Also note the lack of real estate once you left the court. Dive for a loose ball and you got introduced to a metal folding chair. Number 55 in blue is Larry Ragnone. (Click on the photos to enlarge and get full nostalgic effect.)

St. Mary's Swartz Creek cheerleaders Kelly O'Connor (left), Ginny Thompson (top), and Maureen O'Brien (doing all the work). Note the ref lounging at the scorer's table in the background.

The transition after a basket. One of the St. Mary's cheerleaders appears to be putting some kind of hex on the ref. As you can see, there was approximately six inches of out-of-bounds space under this hoop, so the refs were fairly lenient if you stepped on the line taking the ball out. If you drove to the basket, you made sure to stop yourself before you slammed into the front of the stage. (By the way, in gym class kickball games at St. Mary's, it was home run if you kicked the ball onto the stage from the other end of the gym.) Notice the banners on the wall. Was the Holy Family nickname really the Hustlers? Seems mildly inappropriate, but this was the seventies.

Mark Burdgick, in blue, with an unidentified player at mid court. Years later, Mark used the lessons he learned on the court to graduate at the top of our class in high school and throw an amazing party our senior year when his parents were out of town.

Kelly O'Connor (left) in cartwheel mode, Maureen O'Brien (back), Virginia Thompson and Debbie Voller. The St. Mary's coach is on his knees in the background giving instructions. It wouldn't matter; nobody ever beat Holy Redeemer.