The Write Referee

Baseball's Hidden Dangers

2009-03-31T09:58:00.006-04:00

I'm always fearful when I'm on the ball field because of aluminum bats. The kids today are stronger, faster and highly skilled due to sport specialization. I've been hit less than a handful of times and missed by the narrowest of margins hundreds of times more than I can count.

Yet that fear has become secondary for me of late. Baseball's bats and ball are upon us and I can't really concentrate wholeheartedly on it. I was diagnosed as having cancerous skin on my face two weeks ago and have been taking some aggressive treatment.

It's scary. Right now I feel as if I look like The Elephant Man. I have some grotesque marks below my eyes from where sun damage has accumulated and the treatment makes it look as bad as it feels. Obviously I waited until after basketball season was over and started treatment before the warmer spring and summer months are upon us, but working games now, I'm looking, feeling and probably appearing equally uncomfortable.

The lesson I would impart onto every single person reading this is be prepared and be vigilant. Yes, I used sun screen, but I wasn't always using SPF 30 like I should, and I didn't always re-apply every two hours like I should have been. SPF 4 and SPF 8 don't cut it, and it needs to be applied every two hours. That means when watching, working or playing a doubleheader, after Game One is over, sun screen needs to be re-applied in full before Game Two.

When I was young, playing in the sun or at the lake was carefree. It was cocoa butter, baby oil and cold beers on the dock. I didn't think about long-term damage to fair-skin. The truth is the sun is dangerous. Salts disposed in sweat, natural skin oils and dust can all accelerate the skin burning process and there is a limited amount of times you can burn your skin before the damage becomes permanent. Thankfully, I'm expected to make a full recovery, but don't make my mistakes. Use sunscreens when you're at the ball field. Use SPF 30 at a minimum, and apply it every two hours.

Play ball!

Clarkston's Breslin Debut Sours In 2nd Half

2009-03-27T13:01:00.011-04:00

EAST LANSING, MI -- In what might be the only time the color combination of blue n' gold ever looked good in Michigan State's Breslin Center, the Clarkston Wolves walked onto the floor to start Friday's Class A semifinal in the home whites but walked off the floor feeling blue.

Kalamazoo Central's Maroon Giants proved to be too tall and too quick for Clarkston's 'Big Three' to survive another round in a 58-44 victory. When it wasn't near-giant Doug Anderson throwing down a handful of monstrous dunks and controlling the boards, it was anything-but-giant Juwan Hemphill running circles around the limited pressure the Wolves could muster.

The game was tied at 27 at the half. The Wolves surged to take a 31-27 lead but Central came right back. Terry Buchanen's triple just in front of the 5:00 minute mark of the 3rd put the Maroons into the lead for good. Buchanen tripled again a minute later and the Wolves never contended again.

As bad as the news was for Clarkston, it could have been worse. Brandon Pokley's 23 points, including a perfect four-of-four from behind the triple line, kept the Clarkston five alive but the dream died in a fourth quarter gone arwy. Down just 44-41 to start the final stanza, the Giants ran away for the victory, sucking any and all drama out of the final quarter. Jared Lawrence's bucket while being fouled with just 32.8 seconds remaining was the only Clarkston field goal of the final eight minutes. Lawrence added the free throw to complete Clarkston's only fourth-quarter points.

In the second game, despite no Oakland County teams playing, there was a distinct county presence. The game featured Detroit Pershing's Doughboys and the Romulus High Eagles; the three-man officiating crew featured Southfield resident Wallace Whitfield and Hazel Park High School Principal Don Vogt, who was designated as the game's Referee.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due in August, 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

Detroit Country Day's National Prominance Due To State Dominance

2009-03-23T21:41:00.004-04:00

I was interviewed for a story about 10 prep teams that would have defeated an NCAA tournament team. The writer, Stephen Spiewak from Jersey City, interviewed me, Tom Markowski and a handful of other national writers a while back for the story that was recently published at MaxPreps.com. I told Spiewak the 1990 Detroit Southwestern team, with Voshon Leonard, Howard Eisley and Jalen Rose, would have been a beast of an 'out'. In fact, I think those Prospectors could have won a play-in game.

Then I made the mistake of mentioning that the Prospectors would have been super-human had Chris Webber, long-rumored to follow best friend Jalen Rose to Detroit Southwestern, not been enrolled at Country Day. So, in a great story about Detroit Southwestern, there's a picture of Chris Webber and a cutline of what might have been if Webber had not been a Yellowjacket but rather, part of a quartet of Division-I players at one school, coached by the all-time winningest coach in Horizon League history, Perry Watson.

My bad.

Detroit Country Day won the 2009 Class B girls' state championship Saturday. That's the 10th title triumph for head coach Frank Orlando, himself an all-state basketball player nearly 50 years ago at Detroit's now-closed St. Thomas High. Orlando has also won a state title in baseball. But is Orlando mentioned in the same circles of Kathy McGee, Lofton Greene, Diane Laffey or Bernie Holowicki?

No. Why? Because he's from Country Day. In the minds of many, it doesn't count the same. He isn't guiding the hand he's dealt, they say. He recruits, they complain. He hand picks his talent, they say, sniding. He has an unlimited budget, he should win every year, they mumble under their breath. Yet they never complain about the private school that finishes in fifth-place. It's only the champion they are quick to discredit.

They never said these things about River Rouge. All River Rouge did was win 12 Class B titles in 19 seasons as a public school with the best prep basketball coach the state has ever seen.

The Detroit Free Press ran a nice story about the 'Jackets today, but the mention of Orlando's feat was minimal. I'm OK with that because the focus was placed upon Country Day's student-athletes. There's a coach who knows about Orlando's snub. In fact, he plays his home games in the same gym that Orlando calls home. Kurt Keener has been the boys' coach at Country Day since the Tigers started 35-5. Nobody had boo to say about the Yellowjackets until a 14-year-old phenom walked through the doors with his mother. Suddenly Chris Webber changed the perception of Country Day from a rich-kid playground into every other school's worst enemy. 10 girls' titles and seven boys' titles later, Country Day is the opposite of the family business in The Godfather. You get ex-communicated if you do side with Country Day.

There's a great article in today's Detroit News about Country Day senior Faziah Steen. Upon graduation, she's going to play at Dartmouth next year. A girl who tore her right and left ACL in three years, who watched her teammates celebrate last year and was so embittered about missing it that she willed herself to come back her senior year for this opportunity. She's going to Dartmouth -- how outstanding is that?

Country Day has a number of self-imposed obstacles. It's about $25,000 a year to attend the school. How many families do you know of that have 25K sitting around for high school per year, per kid? You have to be able to pass the entrance exam and you're required to play at least one sport and participate in extracurricular activity if you don't play a second sport. If you can't afford the tuition, you have to apply for need-based aid, a decision that Country Day has no influence in. That shrinks the pool of perspective students drastically. Country Day doesn't get $80-90 million dollars to cover the operating budget, which is approximately the amount Novi's public schools require to keep the doors open, the lights on and the floors swept, among other things.

Oakland County is lucky to have a wealth of private schools and Country Day has an outstanding legacy of student-athlete achievement. What's wrong with having a very successful school among your state's quiver of arrows? Their string of titles in boys' and girls' basketball isn't any less impressive than River Rouge's incredible 19-year run just because they're a well-to-do private school. Their athletes work just as hard, put in just as much effort and dream of the same dreams any other team from any other school does.

Why should they be punished when their dream comes true?

T.C. Cameron delivered Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries to Arcadia Publishing a mere 7,000 words over limit...oops. The title, after edit, will be available in August, 2009.

(Photo courtesy The Oakland Press/Bryan Mitchell)

Remember Pontiac Central's Chiefs

2009-03-12T23:33:00.009-04:00

Pontiac Central played their final boys' basketball game last night. Birmingham Seaholm sent the Chiefs into the history books with a 67-47 defeat in a Division 1 district game.

With apologies to Denzel Washington, today, I find it apropos to make a statement about this quiet passing.

Remember the Chiefs.

There was no ceremony, no remembrance and none of the passion and pride for the city of Pontiac the Chiefs used to evoke. In that way, Central's last game was very Brooklyn Dodger-esque. The Dodgers played their final game at a decaying Ebbets Field on September 24, 1957 and sadness and bitterness converged for the Ghosts of Flatbush at the intersection of Bedford, Sullivan and McKeever Place. A scant 6,702 showed for the final game versus Pittsburgh. Brooklyn blanked the Bucs, 2-0.

There's a sense of sadness in Pontiac today because the Chiefs left the prep basketball landscape rather meekly, similar to Royal Oak Dondero's final football season. Central and rival Pontiac Northern will merge after this year. Teachers are being fired en masse. It's going to be a difficult transition, mashed into a five-month timetable. Pontiac's consolidation is considerably different than Royal Oak's Kimball & Dondero from three years ago. Some, including Coach Chuck Jones, thought the 'new' Royal Oak High School should be re-named with the 'old' name of Acorns and given a color combination of the blue n' white of Dondero and the blue n' gold of Kimball, merged into the 'new' blue, gold & white of Royal Oak High.

That's not an option in Pontiac. The Chiefs are Pontiac like the Tigers' olde English 'D' is Detroit. Only in the last 10-15 years did Central finally omit the 'Pontiac' from their uniforms and go with the word 'Central'. I'm researching Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries and the contribution from Pontiac Central High to metro Detroit's basketball heritage is comparable to what Catholic Central or Brother Rice added to the Catholic League.

~The Elusive Championship~

Of course, you might be inclined to tell me that Catholic Central and Brother Rice, the last two private schools to win a Class A boys' basketball title in Michigan, have indeed won championships. And Central's city rival, Pontiac Northern, won back-to-back Class A titles in 2001-02. Central never did.

True, it never happened when it mattered most for Pontiac Central. The Chiefs never won any of the five Class A title games they played in. But the NCAA tells us the 'Fab Five' never happened at Michigan, too. Does anyone really believe those Michigan Wolverines didn't leave a lasting impact on college basketball just because the NCAA says so? From 1959-79, Pontiac Central went to 11 MHSAA semifinals -- in 20 years! Zero wins in those title games might make them the Buffalo Bills or Minnesota Vikings of prep cagers in the eyes of some. It's fair. But Art VanRyzin and Ralph Grubb, Pontiac's coaches during this amazing era, never gave up, never quit trying. Further, the Chiefs didn't just compete but were a perennial power in the Saginaw Valley Conference. There was not a single prep league in the entire state of Michigan better than 'The Valley' during that time period.

Perhaps it was fitting that Seaholm and Central were paired for Central's last hurrah. Seaholm was formerly the original Birmingham High Maples and Central was originally Pontiac High's Chiefs. Birmingham and Pontiac were longtime prep football, basketball and baseball rivals for many years until the early 1960s.

The Chiefs shouldn't be forgotten as soon as the horn went silent to end their final game. Remember the battles that Pontiac High and later, Pontiac Central played that made your heart throb. Remember the Friday nights they made so memorable in so many different seasons. Remember the simetaneous hope and heartache they represented in Pontiac for so many years. Remember the Russell brothers. Remember Bill Glover, who was the heart and soul of Central for so many years.

Remember the Chiefs.

(Picture courtesy The Oakland Press/Feb. 1971/Rolf Winter)

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Rivalries, due August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

Part II: Remembering A State Championship Worthy Of 'Hoosiers'

2009-03-09T15:22:00.005-04:00

The Ferndale Eagles remembered prep seer Hal 'Swami' Schram's prediction about 1963's Class A semifinal that ran in the Detroit Free Press on Thursday, March 21: "There is no school for (Detroit) Northwestern on Friday...There will be no basketball on Saturday for Ferndale."

Bob Falardeau and the Eagles would have the final word after Falardeau's jumper with almost 30 seconds remaining downed the Detroit Public School League's regular season champion by a 52-51 count. Schram's prediction -- made without malice -- became the rally point for Ferndale in East Lansing as the Eagles advanced to face Adrian High's Maples in the state title tilt.

As Ferndale stepped onto the hardwood pines of Michigan State's Jension Field House for Saturday's Class A Final, nobody knew three grueling, gut-check wins -- all played consecutively and all one-point victories -- would allow Ferndale to win the title game handily, 76-58, in front of 12,473 fans and a statewide television audience. Bruce Rodwan, left of teammate Don Brooks (25) in the picture above, netted 25 points and pulled down 20 rebounds to earn himself a spot on the tournament's first team.

The Eagles stepped off Jenison's floor as state champions and winners of 22-straight games thanks to Kimball's upset of Detroit Pershing and some gritty magic that made 1963's title a lot tougher to earn than first glance might indicate but a lot sweeter to remember for the struggle it took.

Only Pontiac Northern (2001, 2002) and Birmingham Brother Rice (1974) have earned a Class A crown for Oakland County since Ferndale's two titles in the 1960s. Novi's Detroit Catholic Central, which earned titles in 1961 and 1976 (the last non-public school title in Class A), won those titles while still parked at their famed 6565 Outer Drive address in Detroit.

In the afterglow, Ferndale High hosted a champions' banquet at the school. The entire community was invited and some of South Oakland County's prep rivals regaled in the first Oakland County championship in the state's marquee division. Charles Jackson, principal at Kimball High, presented the 1963 Eastern Michigan League trophy to Coach Roy Burkhart's Eagles during the banquet's ceremony. Burkhart's first title had been delivered in his 17th season as mentor of the cage fortunes on Ferndale's Pinecrest Avenue.

Friday: Ferndale wears the bulls-eye before recapturing the Magic of '63 during March of '66.

(Photo courtesy 1963 Ferndale High Talon/Ferndale Historical Museum)

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

Part I: Remembering A State Championship Worthy Of 'Hoosiers'

2009-03-09T11:23:00.004-04:00

Frank Clouser bought his first insurance policy from Bobby Plump, who's more famously remembered for making the game-winning shot for Milan High in the 1954 Indiana High School Athletic Association title game against mighty Muncie Central.

Clouser, who was born and raised in pint-sized Colfax, Indiana, was the longtime baseball coach, assistant boys' basketball coach, head girls' basketball coach and down box linesman during the football seasons at now-closed Royal Oak Kimball High. The longtime gym teacher also had a two-year stint as diamond coach at Troy Athens, winning two OAA titles. I recall Clouser telling me this story because history has a funny way of condensing a lot of important little facts into one single event.

Bobby Plump and Milan High was the inspiration for the 1986 movie 'Hoosiers' and Plump was characterized in the movie as town sharp-shooter Jimmy Chitwood. This is the story of the 1963 Ferndale High School Eagles, who won the Class A basketball title. At first glance of the MHSAA online records page, you might think Ferndale was a runaway train, marching to the title with a 22-0 record plus the Eastern Michigan League (EML) title to go with district and regional championships.

The '63 Eagles had more in common with the fictitious Hickory Huskers in 'Hoosiers' more than Milan High did. Further, to grasp how special Ferndale's '63 campaign was -- and how unique even an undefeated championship can be -- you have to first understand 1962, the year the Detroit Public School League ended its' self-imposed 31-year absence from the state tournament. The Detroit Pershing Doughboys made a long run in the Class A bracket, defeating Ferndale in the opener and Royal Oak Dondero in the district final. After crushing Warren Fitzgerald, Pershing beat Royal Oak Kimball in the regional final and Detroit King in the quarters before losing in the state semifinal at Michigan State University's Jension Field House.

Fast forward to Ferndale's magical 1963 tourney run, made possible when Coach Dave Gunther's Royal Oak Kimball team earned a stunning 39-32 win over Coach Will Robinson's Pershing team in the district opener. Pershing had upset regular season PSL champion Detroit Northwestern in that league's title game and was a defending state semifinalist but lost to a five-year-old school that played in exactly one quarterfinal in the 49 seasons the school was open. Kimball, however marginal the school's overall basketball success was, earned a 9-3 record versus the PSL in tourney games.

With the Doughboys eliminated, Grosse Pointe High's undefeated Blue Devils were considered metro Detroit's best team when Coach Roy Burkhart and Ferndale met the 'Pointers' in the '63 quarters. Ferndale was already battle-tested, having bested the always-gritty Highland Park Polar Bears in the regional final the previous Friday. Bruce Rodwan (pictured above) scored a basket with 37 seconds remaining to give Ferndale a 43-42 win.

Coach Chuck Hollosy and Grosse Pointe didn't know it but they had been tabbed as victims of destiny. Guard Jeff Hicks made two late free throws to give Ferndale another thrilling one-point win, 56-55, and pushed the Eagles into a date at Jenison Field House with Detroit's Northwestern High Colts.

Wednesday: The thrilling conclusion to Ferndale's 1963 Class A championship. On Friday the magic returns to Pinecrest Avenue in 1966.

(Photo courtesy 1963 Ferndale High Talon/Ferndale Historical Museum)

We're Evolved Humans, Not Big Birds

2009-03-08T16:13:00.005-04:00

OK, short post here to get back on the straight and narrow. I'm on deadline to deliver the book and I'll be offering vignettes this week of an Oakland County championship featured in my basketball rivalries book, due in August 2009.

But first, we humans are not birds and as such, we do not have wings, making the term 'wingspan' a complete oxymoron. I cannot stand the collegiate recruiting writers who insist on using this term. "So-and-so prized recruit has an 84-inch wingspan..."

Caw-caw! Cue Bette Midler as well.

CONGRATS: Michigan State University is definitely back on the map after today's 62-51 win over visiting Purdue University to close out the Big Ten's regular season as the conference champions for the first time since 2001. With 12 wins over teams ranked in the RPI Top 50, Coach Tom Izzo is a strong candidate for conference coach of the year, and likely several Spartans might be in line for conference players awards, too.

But perhaps most impressive about MSU's sustained success is the great majority of it has been manufactured by players and coaches from Michigan.

Izzo's story from Iron Mountain is already well-documented. Each of his assistants have roots in Michigan's already strong reputation as prep and collegiate basketball hotbed. Dwayne Stephens, a former Spartan and Ferndale High All-Class A selection from the 1980s. Mike Garland, who coached Belleville High for a long stretch before embarking on a first collegiate coaching stint with the Spartans, is back for a second term of service. Garland began his coaching career at Detroit's Cody High. Finally, Inkster native Mark Montgomery, himself a former Spartan standout, was an outstanding performer at Southgate Aquinas, where he also coached after his prep career but before the school closed in 2000.

Of course, the overwhelming majority of memorable Spartan players have been from Detroit, Flint and Saginaw over the past 30 years, and especially so in Tom Izzo's last 11 years, an outstanding run that dates back to Michigan State's win in the first round of the 1998 NCAA tournament over Earl Boykins, Derrick Dial and Eastern Michigan University in Hartford, Connecticut.

The Spartans are still one first-class product manufactured in Michigan.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

Detroit Championship In Name Only

2009-03-01T16:00:00.003-05:00

The marquee matchup in Sunday's Catholic League championship was a cross-county pairing that 50 years ago could have been the stunt double for the city's public school East & West divisions.

De LaSalle outlasted Catholic Central by a 51-44 count to earn their first Catholic League crown since the 2001-02 season. Both schools used to be Catholic mainstays in the Detroit proper, but like so many other things, while the city has hollowed out, the suburbs have flourished and today's Catholic League is best represented in the 'burbs.

Five decades ago, it would have been unfathomable to image a De LaSalle - Catholic Central having an Oakland - Macomb edge to it, but as unimaginable as that might have been, that the Catholic League finals would be played without a full house is equally shocking.

Of course, it has nothing to do with the game being better or worse, or the economy. High school sports simply don't command the same crowds they used to. That's an across the board statement that applies at public and private schools, big and small, in affluent and working class communities alike.

De LaSalle's win means the Pilots will play the role of underdog in the upcoming Operation Friendship championship game this upcoming Saturday at Cass Tech High. De LaSalle will play the top-ranked Pershing Doughboys, while runner-up C.C. will face Southeastern's Jungaleers.

SCORE CONTROVERSY? Many members of the working press had recorded the final score as 51-44 when the final buzzer sounded in the A-B Division championship. The final was announced as 52-44 and never changed during the trophy presentations. Catholic Central's book, the Catholic League's official book and De LaSalle scorekeeper Mike Szatkowski concurred on the official tally of 51 points for De LaSalle.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, released August 2008 from Arcadia Publishing. Cameron's 2nd title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries features the compelling stories from 60 years of Oakland County games and will be available in August of this year.

Richard Survives Loyola

2009-03-01T14:25:00.005-05:00

Their tenacity was admirable, but Detroit Loyola's passion came up two points and a few seconds short in Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard's 58-56 win in the C-D Division championship game at Calihan Hall.

In a thrilling finish that saw Loyola with a chance to tie at the game's buzzer, the game's final shot that rattled away ensured a fourth-consecutive Catholic League championship for Richard and Coach Pete Schoch.

In the second game, De LaSalle, who took away any chance Orchard Lake St. Mary's had of winning a fourth-straight title with last week's 51-48 win over OLSM at Birmingham Marian, faces Novi's Catholic Central High. Both Greg Esler's Pilots and Bill Dyer's Shamrocks are longshots to win a state title, but CC's re-emergence as a basketball power and De LaSalle's annual status as a contender make this title game as compelling a championship as the CHSL has hosted in a few years.

TWO MORE SMILES FOR OAKLAND COUNTY: Longtime basketball official Gus Hughes from Beverly Hills won the 1st price in the Catholic League's 50/50 raffle. Hughes won $590. Royal Oak resident Byron Photiades, who worked the 2007 MHSAA baseball final between Lake Orion and Farmington, won the raffle's 2nd prize. Photiades, a Royal Oak Kimball grad, won $305.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, released in August 2008 from Arcadia Publishing.

The O-C Shows Strong In Black & White

2009-03-01T12:38:00.005-05:00

The Catholic League's annual boys' basketball championships are being played at University of Detroit-Mercy's Calihan Hall today.

Oakland County resident Mike Birkett, who grew up in Royal Oak and attended Madison Heights Bishop Foley, was the Referee for Sunday's first championship game. That game, for the C-D bracket title, features Ann Arbor's Gabriel Richard High and Detroit Loyola High, a school that's been open for a little more than 10 years.

The second tilt pits Novi's Catholic Central versus Warren's DeLaSalle High in a throwback game to the days of the Catholic League's heady Detroit days.

All of the three officials have at least one strong tie to Oakland County. Mike Lombard is a graduate of now-closed Royal Oak Dondero High, Wallace Whitfield is a current Oakland County resident and Don Vogt is the principal of Hazel Park High School.

There was a day when Catholic Central and De LaSalle would have represented an eastside-westside matchup as well as any of the Detroit public schools. The Shamrocks were formerly parked out on Outer Drive on the site of Renaissance High. De LaSalle's Pilots earned their name for the school's close proximity to Detroit's City Airport. De LaSalle vacated their old campus off of Conner in the early 1980s.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August of 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

Regionalize Detroit's Government Now

2009-02-25T08:57:00.006-05:00

After spending the past three days in New York City, I returned home last night to referee a girls' basketball game -- Alexis Goree's jumper at the buzzer enabled Ferndale to nip Birmingham Seaholm 50-48 -- and I was never so happy to get yelled at for 90 minutes in my life.

Don't get me wrong, I love NYC, but home is home. However, if there's one thing that I would bring home from New York and institute immediately in the three-county area, it would be a metropolitan government. If there's a city in the 'Lower 48' as our friends in Canada have nicknamed the United States that's a more rudderless ship than Detroit, please point it out to me. I wake up this morning and read about Detroit's corrupt city council killing a Cobo Hall expansion deal contingent on regional management and simply shake my head at the stupidity the vote represents.

But never mind the race-baiting reasons offered by people like Barbara Rose-Collins for killing the Cobo deal. Her tenure of representation in Washington, D.C. and Detroit is punctuated by missed votes, irresponsible decisions and untimely, ill-advised comments like the ones she made yesterday. In short, she's a loose cannon who represents her own motives over the greater good.

Detroit needs the suburbs and the suburbs need Detroit. Both desperately need a significantly healthier Detroit than the one that's currently limping along the riverside, and a Cobo Hall deal done sooner than later is a step in the right direction.

But there's more to it. The 'burbs need a viable Detroit to survive. Please stop fooling yourselves, Detroit apologists, by telling me of a handful of condos and hotels and restaurants recently opened, and for every eatery that opens, there's two that close and another three that remain shuttered. Detroit is sagging badly. Just ask the Book-Cadillac or Fort Shelby staff, who openly wonder how long their hotels will be open without guests. Try to find a cup of coffee at 8am on a Sunday morning in downtown Detroit; I'll take your phone call after the first 1/2 hour.

Losing the Cobo deal to racially-charged vote-getting is beyond short-sighted. Governor Jennifer Granholm, Oakland County head L. Brooks Patterson and Wayne County leader Bob Ficano have all publicly warned there's little political will to re-fund this project should Detroit reject this deal, one that took a staggering five years -- nearly as long as America was engaged in World War II -- to craft, finalize and agree upon.

In the big scheme of things, this is a relatively small project. Detroit's response? Play the race card. Polarize the region further. Bamboozle the five-year deal in the same amount of time it takes to order a five-dollar foot-long sandwich from Subway. And a crowd of residents was there to cheer the decision.

Wow.

If the citizens of New York City want something, they do it. They decide to do, make the needed sacrifice and get it done. The 2nd Avenue subway line took years to build, but they did it. It came down to a simple mantra: We need it so we're going to build it. All five boroughs are represented and the greater good of the entire city is represented. What's the difference between five boroughs and three counties?

Detroit needs to learn acceptance of the significant resources of the suburbs. You can't live in a cocoon forever. The same greed and benevolence that has killed the good life for so many skilled union auto workers in metro Detroit is in play again with the edict from Detroit's City Council that Detroit residents get all the jobs and contracts for Cobo's repair and expansion. Two stadiums, three casinos and the Cadillac and Shelby hotel projects were accomplished from level-headed leaders who utilized the entire region's resources for the good of region. Yet who benefits most from those projects? The City of Detroit. Demanding exclusivity from residency workforce restrictions does nothing to build back the city, much less erase the racist reputation of the region.

The time has come to represent the greater good of the entire region rather than the vote-hunters from America's most-crippled big city. Metropolitan government would benefit Detroit and the suburbs that surround it more than any state takeover or city council do-good'r ever will.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

Why No Suburban Tournaments?

2009-02-21T19:48:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Detroit Pershing took down fellow eastside rival Detroit Southeastern to win their first Public School League (PSL) championship in boys' basketball since the 1996 Doughboys. The Catholic High School League (CHSL) will play their girls' championship this weekend and their boys' title tilts next weekend.

Make no mistake, these are great traditions and any suburbanite who's never attended at least one of these tournament championships is missing out on a great day of basketball. It's a great thrill for the players, coaches and fans of the schools participating. It's a healthy exercise in fellowship within your community of schools. Finally, championship tournaments create buzz about school sports, and when is that not a good thing?

So why don't the bigger suburban leagues have a championship tournament? The PSL and Catholic League aren't exactly using dollar bills for scrap paper these days. In fact, these two leagues are hit harder than any of the suburban public schools by the recent economic hardship. ThePSL has had nearly 100 tournaments since 1904 and the Catholic League is less than a generation behind their PSL soul mate.

The suburbs? Zero and counting. In New York City, many of the public schools don't even bother to participate in the New York state tournament because the NYC title means so much more. Thankfully, nearly all our schools participate in the annual MHSAA tournament. We could have the best of both worlds -- why don't we?

Here's the facts. Suburban schools, specifically the Oakland Activities Association (OAA) and Macomb Area Conference (MAC), have a number of schools that could host games as neutral sites. Parking, seating, lockers and security in some of these modern schools is not an issue like it is in the parochial and Detroit public schools.

Let me take it a step further: How much fun would it be to include the OAA and MAC champions in an Operation Friendship Final Four? Are you kidding? A potential quarterfinal, semifinal or finals preview? Clarkston v. Pershing? How fast can you spell 'sold out' on the eve of the MHSAA tournament? Would it not be a great opportunity to share the respective communities with one another through school sports? There's great life lessons to be learned here through b-ball.

Unfortunately, it looks like the OAA could be a candidate to dissolve before an idea like a conference tournament, much less a super-conference Final Four, even takes hold. Maybe a tournament could help hold theOAA together. The MAC isn't going anywhere soon.

I hope someone grabs the ball and get things rolling.

Officiating Uniforms Weren't Always Just A Click Away

2009-02-18T22:23:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I worked with veteran Detroit-area prep official Mike Hesson for a boys' basketball game between visiting Avondale High and the Rochester Adams' Highlanders.

Hesson's a walking, talking memoir of officiating's local history within a 30-year time period that dates back to the heady days of his sports officiating class at East Detroit High in the mid-to-late 1970s. Among the fond memories we reminisced from Hesson's treasure-trove of recollections was the creation of the officiating uniform.

Yes, there was a day when even the niftiest officiating uniforms were piece-mailed together from stops at uniform stores, restaurants with yellow napkins and sporting good stores that carried BB's, golf balls or fishing tackle.

"You purchased the striped shirts from local sporting goods stores," Hesson began. "But there was no choice in material so you chose long sleeves or short sleeves and were happy to have that choice. Striped jackets weren't available, so on inclement days, officials wore clear vinyl or plastic jackets. On cold days you added sweatshirts and long johns."

"Knickers weren't available -- and you couldn't use baseball pants because there were no pockets on those pants -- so officials would buy 'Cook's Whites' from a restaurant supply store and cut the pants down into knickers," Hesson recalled. "And all officials knew the Detroit-area restaurants with yellow napkins. You would have dinner there and forget a yellow napkin in your pocket. The napkin would be filled with BB's, sinkers or possibly a golf ball, and that's how you made your penalty flag."

Even more inconceivable is the way all the other accessories were created, like the bean bag, timing devices, all-black shoes and the game's Back Judge (BJ). Yes, the BJ was a accessory, a luxury even, if you will.

"Without a doubt, the schools were shamed into the fifth guy. I think it was '82 or '83 when the MHSAA (Michigan High School Athletic Association) started using the Back Judge for playoff games. Most crews were bring five guys and splitting four checks by that point anyway," Hesson explained. Ironically, the back judge position is where most varsity crew rookies get their start, yet the few flags the BJ throws per game usually all have the potential to be the most-scrutinized calls of the night.

"I can't remember if a bean bag was required when I got started, but it was a process of taking material from an old shirt, filling it with popcorn and sewing it up," Hesson said. "There were no all-in-one socks, either. First it was a black stirrup sock with a white sock over the top. Then we changed to a baseball stirrup with three stripes until we changed to the socks we have today."

"And there were no timing devices!" Hesson told me. "Oh my god, you would wear a coaches' stopwatch with a wristband that railroad people used to wear the watch on your wrist." Hesson also explained black shoes were a rarity and choice was limited to Spot-Bilt or Ridell. Most officials would buy a pair of all-black shoes and have a new sole applied, because you couldn't use football cleats -- they weren't available in all-black back then.

Today, it's all point 'n click on the Internet with drop shipping included. In less than five minutes an official can have his or her entire uniform ordered and fulfilled. The two biggest national officiating apparel giants are located less than seven miles from each other in the same town, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Cliff Keen Athletic and Honig's Whistle Stop.

Back in the day it was about a Cup o' Joe, a diner's special and a stop at the marina or bait-and-tackle shop, all to make a few calls and few bucks along the way.

(Photo courtesy Stan Lopata family collection)

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries (already out) and Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

A Final Salute To Our Family's FlyBoy

2009-02-17T09:45:00.007-05:00

The first house I ever bought was the typical, sweat-equity special: Low on charm but high on potential. The first day I owned the house, I tore out old cabinets and found rations booklets dating back to World War II. I never understood those rations booklets until I met my wife and her grandparents.

World War II was all about sacrifice. Professional sports slowed while collegiate and prep sports in some instances stopped, as they did in 1943 when the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) shelved the boys' basketball tournament. The Chicago Cubs missed the first era of lights by 45 years when the Wrigley family donated their lighting material purchase to the war effort. Bomb shelters and draft boards were the order of the day and life went on with heavy hearts and responsibilities alike. Detroit shed her Motor City moniker and instead became the Arsenal of Democracy.

I never really knew my wife's grandfather, Bill R. Whitesell, besides the handful of times we shared a few words. That's Whitesell in the picture to the right, receiving a rank and pay grade increase in an official United States Air Force photo taken at Tachikawa Air Base. Whitesell passed on this morning in Monroe, Michigan at 86 years of age. Naturally Debbie's side of the family knew him best as Grampa. I've witnessed this grief already. My parents, grandparents and siblings have either passed on or moved on from any further contact.

Bill Whitesell was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1922. By the time Adolph Hitler's German Nazi military machine was beginning to dominate and desecrate Europe in 1940, Whitesell -- like so many other strapping American boys -- was enlisting. There's a reason this era of young Americans is called America's Greatest Generation and this is one of those defining characteristics; Uncle Sam didn't have to ask twice. Whitesell joined the Army Air Corps but earned wings in the Navy Air Corps, too -- a dual designation that is rarely witnessed in modern times.

Through WW II, the Korean War and Vietnam, too, if it had two wings, an engine and a prop, Whitesell could lift it into the sky and push it in and out of clouds. He motored the famously amphibious PYR-5's in the Pacific Theater; hauled the mail in C-130's; flew both the light B-25's and heavy B-52's from Willow Run and whistled through the wind in P-38's and C-47 Gooneybirds, too. Whitesell was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Force Commendation Medal.

He ascended to his final rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1965 while flying AC-119's -- better known as 'Flying Boxcars' -- over the darkened skies of Vietnam at nearly 50 years of age. His call sign was "Shadow Zero-Niner", a fact recalled more than a few times as his family remembered his life and times this morning. His wife, Jacqueline, recalled the many men he saved, including 125 he discovered in a cave on a single flight. Whitesell also lived with a heavy heart for the kills he made during his combat duties. Glory is brilliant. Grief is messy. The fighting men and women of America live with this burden long after the bands stop playing and the parades end.

Yet the most amazing feat might have been obscured save for an innocuous comment made in passing. Whitesell moved his family an astounding 48 times and managed to keep his marriage in tact for 66 years, right up until his morning passing.

Maybe that accomplishment, in light of today's throw-away society mentality, deserves the most credit. Sitting around the table listening to the war stories was a stoic reminder of the sacrifices so many of us have never been asked to partake in. We enjoy the daily fruits of a country Whitesell's generation risked their lives for several times over. It almost makes you vengeful of corporate America's numerous irresponsibilities we will be forced to bear the brunt of in the coming years. That we continue to destroy the good life that was handed to us without a second thought is sickening.

Bill Whitesell will get a military burial and a 21-gun salute, but it won't be on CNN. He didn't earn his 15 minutes of fame as 'Joe The Plumber'. He was the unassuming war veteran. He was a husband, a father and grandfather many times over. He was an air cadet, a pilot. He was "Shadow-Zero-Niner".

Bill Whitesell embodied what being an American used to be all about. Sacrifice for the greater good, even if that greater good meant the ultimate sacrifice. It's a lesson we can all sacrifice a few minutes for.

(Official USAF photo courtesy Whitesell family collection)

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

This & That...

2009-02-15T11:03:00.008-05:00

The Detroit News had a write-up in this morning's boys' basketball notebook that recanted Pershing's loss to Detroit Southeastern on January 27th as 78-77. Previously The News reported the score as 77-76 and the Freep reported a 78-75 tally, both coming the day after the game. That makes three losses in the same game for the Doughboys. Ouch.

DOUGHBOYS V. C-TOWN? Would a Clarkston - Detroit Pershing game in the MHSAA tournament be worth the price of admission? Clarkston is having a great season and is clearly the best OAA team this season. Pershing is the region's top-ranked team and still a statewide No. 1 in some polls. Clarkston's Dan Fife can coach his kids to play any game at any tempo; Coach A.W. Canada from Detroit Pershing has proven himself equally adept. I think it would be a marquee game that would be remembered for years, much like Bruce Flowers and Berkley, undefeated after 25 games, taking on Highland Park and Terry Duerod in the 1975 Class A quarterfinal. The Polar Bears defeated Berkley 84-55.

MARIAN MAGIC: Birmingham Marian advanced to the Catholic League's championship game last night when the Mustangs went the length of the court in the final 5.9 seconds to score a lay-up at the buzzer and nip Warren Regina's Saddelites, 42-41. Marian Coach Mary-Lillie Cicerone stayed to watch the nightcap, a rugged 56-52 victory by Dearborn Divine Child over Livonia Ladywood.

These two games, played at Novi's Detroit Catholic Central High, illustrated quite nicely the girls' ability to offer an entertaining brand of basketball, different from the boys, but equally as compelling. It's too bad these games were seen by a few instead of the many that nearly filled the gym the night before for Birmingham Brother Rice and Catholic Central.

NUMERICALLY SPEAKING: Friday night's Rice-CC game revealed an instance that scoreboard watchers all know to be rare. During the game's second stanza, a foul call stopped the clock and all three rows of the scoreboard had the same number for a few seconds.

The top row showed the time remaining. 3:33. The second row detailed the score and quarter: 22-22 in the 2nd period, reading 22 - 2 - 22.

The bottom row showed fouls and timeouts remaining, and before the 6th foul was reported, the board revealed five fouls against each team and each team with all five timeouts available, or 5 - 5 - 5 - 5.

What are the odds of that happening again this season?

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

Karmanos: Clueless

2009-02-15T08:48:00.009-05:00

Most people in southeastern Michigan don't see metro Detroit the way coaches, players and officials of the metro's prep games do.

In a word, it's rough. Detroit's infrastructure, like street curbs, street lamps and water mains, are in serious distress or outright failure. When I traveled to Allen Park Cabrini this past week, I missed my turn off of Southfield Road into the neighborhood Cabrini is tucked within because the businesses that used to help illuminate smaller street signs are now darkened. In River Rouge, the 'Joe' jobs, like plumbing and electrical work, are gone and greasy spoon diners are shuttered. They don't plow neighborhood streets in Farmington Hills like they used to and Royal Oak's schools ask for parent volunteers to weed and feed the flower beds. You could seemingly insert any city name you want throughout this paragragh and still be factual.

This is why Compuware's Chief Executive Officer, Peter Karmanos, is being vilified in so many corners today. He hired Kwame Kilpatrick, Public Enemy No. 1 in the city of Detroit, and gave him a golden parachute from hell, a hell he helped forge.

It was Kilpatrick who promised much and delivered little in a term-and-a-half as mayor. The city parks and recreation centers? The parks are still an open sore and the city's recreation centers, especially the ones that were viable, are now shuttered in plywood and have been pillaged of the metals that made up the buildings' electrical and plumbing systems. The city's school board? A dysfunctional disaster that makes George Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina look heartfelt and thoughtful. The city's finances? Imagine a 400-car freight train running downhill with no brakes as it heads for a city with 800,000 people. City services are still pathetic and much of the progress the city was making in entertainment and overnight accommodations has been erased with the economic depression we're in.

But here's why Kilpatrick's hiring ought to make you mad as hell. In a time when we really need to make stand against corporate misbehavior, Karmanos instead emboldens it. You don't reward your son with ice cream for stealing candy from the candy store!

Worse, 250 people not convicted of perjury, not on the hook for a cool million as a part of a plea deal and not found guilty of ruining the lives of two honest cops got pink-slipped from Compuware this week while Kilpatrick was hired. There's enough good people losing jobs in this state alone to re-populate the cities of Warren, Saginaw or Flint to make them look like they did when they were teeming cities with enough tax base to fund a small country's entire government. But Kilpatrick, who hasn't told the truth in what seems like never, steps out of the joint after serving just 99 days for being as big a jackass as anyone in Detroit's 308-year history and takes a $100,000-a-year job as penance.

America is morally bankrupt and you don't have to look far to find the source. It comes from people like Peter Karmanos, who got sweet-talked by Kilpatrick to locate his headquarters in downtown Detroit. It comes from people like Karmanos, who shied from saying anything critical of Hizzoner a year ago when Detroit desperately needed someone to step up publicly and take a stand. Not brave enough when Kilpatrick seemed determined to drag Detroit to the depths of well-fed sewer rats, Karmanos waits to hire the most famous liar, cheater and crook in Detroit's political history with the allure of his bottom line being advanced handsomely less than week after his jail time ends.

Alienate the many to line the pockets of the few? I'm willing to bet that's not in the Compuware mission statement. Even Vito Corleone knew how and when to say 'No'.

Morally bankrupt? Who cares, right Pete? As long as you make that loot, it's all good. Who's next, Pete? Was Reggie Rogers just misunderstood? Did Bob Probert simply get caught up with the wrong people? Are you holding a tasty position for Monica Conyers, too? I can own a room, too, Pete. Why can't I get a 100K-a-year gig?

On second thought, never mind. If Karmanos will hire Kilpatrick, I don't to be hired. I'll continue to work my three jobs to make a little more than half of what I used to make. You can't buy pride, honor or integrity. You lose your credibility, not to mention your mind, when you hire Kilpatrick. It's a move so disingenuous to the good people of metro Detroit that Karmanos should be stripped of all his Detroit privileges. The only question that comes to light is just how deep was Karmanos buried in Kilpatrick's pockets when Hizzoner was mayor? In light of all the truth, especially the truth Kilpatrick used taxpayer money to attempt to bury, it makes you wonder if any of Kilpatrick's previous dirty deeds have Karmanos's fingerprints on them?

Live with that, Mr. Karmanos.

Holla' For History

2009-02-10T11:29:00.006-05:00

I was listening to WXYT's afternoon drive-time show called The Sports Inferno last week when I became amused with what I heard from New York native /reborn Detroiter Mike Valenti.

"Let's get down to brass taxes..." Valenti said as he began one of his legendary rants about whatever. Don't get me wrong --I enjoy Valenti, because he is like me and simply tells you how he sees it without any holdout -- but he's the classic example of a sports fan with a radio show, a point he'll readily admit. There's nothing wrong with it, either.

What amused me is the 'brass taxes' thing. It's brass tacks. This is an example of how time changes history in subtle ways. Brass tacks was a way of measuring cloth, linen or anything else by the yard on a counter. A person would come in and ask for so much of this or that, and the actual cost would be determined by placing the material on the counter against the ruler held in place with brass tacks, thus the phrase, "Let's get down to brass tacks."
Here's another one: Toe The Line. How many times have you heard it repeated as Tow The Line? Or the oft-heard phrase, "It's a dog-eat-dog world." I've heard that catch-phrase repeated many times as 'Doggy-dog' world.

Here's why I bring this up: History is important. It shows us the right and wrong in the world before us, thus the coined phrase, "Those who do not heed history are doomed to repeat it."
I'm writing a prep basketball history book and I'm waist-deep in the city of Detroit right now. Among the interesting facts I've learned from basketball research as it relates to metro Detroit? The 30-year absence by Detroit's public school teams from the Michigan High School Athletic Association's annual boys' basketball tournament from 1931-1961. The seed of racial mistrust in Detroit is one planted long before riots and failed urban renewal.

Here's another one: School sports might have saved the city before and after the 1967 riots. The divisive busing issue was so strongly contested that many coaches and players from that era were literally scared to travel outside of their neighborhoods, but school sports was a respected rite of passage, almost an institution in Detroit. Rival schools of various religious and ethnic backgrounds might not have gotten along on any day -- save for game day. It was on these days they respected one another, played hard and shook hands after the game. That very well might have kept the city from an all-encompassing implosion that would have made the '67 riots look like a small camp fire easily doused with canteen water.

If you think the Detroit PSL doesn't have friends, consider the Catholic League fought long and hard alongside the PSL schools in the 1970s to get millage and bond requests passed. What would Detroit's schools look like today had it not been for a lil' neighborly love 30 years ago?

And what of the other history not so easily interwoven into prep sports?

The decision to plow through neighborhoods with concrete freeways did little but speed up fears of intermixed, racially-charged neighborhoods. If you look at the pictures of football and basketball, schools and neighborhoods radically changed within a few years. Today our freeways in Detroit do little but expose the worst homes and buildings within eyeshot, because really, who wants to live next to a freeway and have to leave your garage at 55 miles an hour? When's the last time you heard a neighborhood benefited from have an eight-lane ribbon of concrete driven through its heart? And if you think a freeway is bad, what about displacing the many for a hulking auto complex -- remember Poletown?

Finally, I've learned that while Kwame Kilpatrick and Coleman Young weren't great leaders, neither were a lot of their white predecessors, like Charles Bowles, Louis C. Miriani and a laundry list of leaders remembered for their poor decisions as much as any positive accomplishments. The decision to allow auto companies to erect massive auto factories in the middle of neighborhoods without a lick of civil engineering 80-90 years ago has continually crippled a lot of potential re-birth. The refusal to replace trolleys with elevated or tunnel trains, eliminating the trolleys altogether and the final legitimate transit piece, the removal of the Inter-Urban lines. This straddled the city with empty buildings and no motivation to turn them into anything but gravel lots to park suburban cars upon.

There's a ton of unique story lines and historical references that continue to co-exist with us in our daily lives. In that way, Detroit is just as compelling as Chicago, Boston and New York City. We have a lot of things wrong about the Motor City but an open canvas to remake the city, the region and the landscape we call home for the better.

All that and more is possible if we heed history and stay away from brass taxes, whatever those are.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

The Hypocrisy Of Mainstream Media At Work

2009-02-04T21:39:00.006-05:00

What if Michael Phelps was black? What if Phelps was a two-time Olympic gold medalist for Team USA's men's basketball team and was caught taking a hit off a glass lettuce burner?

Are we ready to be honest? Before you answer, name the last time a black athlete was pardoned in public for owning a scandalous photo similar to the one that Phelps recently cop'd to?

I'm not taking up 'The Cause' -- whatever that is -- because there are a ton of instances that offer no rhyme or reason for why they occur within our media's obsession with the instantaneous crucifixion and subsequent resurrection of the subjects pushed in front of our collective conscience in the same knee-jerk fashion most of us would like to push our in-laws out in front of rush hour traffic. Bill Clinton was crucified for banging a not-so-very-hot intern; George Bush was ignored for purposed war crimes. Go figure. Why do Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmerio get a virtual pass for their suspected roles in baseball's performance-enhancing scandal when compared to the outright vicious response Barry Bonds has elicited from media and fans? Please don't tell me it's just because he owns baseball's most famous mark, because to do so would be an outright admission you're living with your head in the sand.

That said, I find it somewhat amusing that Phelps gets a pass on this photo in the manner I've witnessed. In the Detroit Free Press Monday, the the Off Beat column penned by Krista Jahnke was titled "So Michael Phelps Is Human After All". Nationally-syndicated radioman Jim Rome was quoted as saying with a DUI on his slate already, he's not human, he's building a body of work. Today's edition of The Detroit News featured columnist Bob Wojnowski pleading for calm and reason in relation to the mistake Phelps made.

It makes me remember Detroit Southwestern High grad Jalen Rose being arrested during his first year at Michigan (1992-93) for playing video games in a Detroit house that doubled as a drug den. I was on the desk at The Ann Arbor News on the Saturday night a story came hurdling down the wire almost a year after the actual arrest just minutes before the morning edition's 1:00 am deadline. As you can imagine, we held production and made room for the story on the front page above the fold. We told ourselves we were being responsible journalists. Today I look back and cringe.

Rose wasn't smoking, wasn't selling and wasn't buying. He was playing video games, but he played a brash, in-your-face style of basketball. Rose played the 'City Game', and White America wasn't ready for Rose's style of talk-you-down, break-you-down, drive you down on your ass and shout you down the court while wearing shorts with a foot more material than any player in America. After Mick McCabe, the Detroit Free Press prep writer, discovered and published news of the October 4, 1992 arrest on March 9, 1993, six months after it happened, Rose was crucified for weeks and painted as a ghetto gangbanger. Fans and pundits alike called for his suspension. Wire services crackled with updates.

Phelps was inhaling from a glass stanchion the size of an exhaust pipe from a certified used Mini Cooper. He admitted to it. America's response? The mainstream media and sponsors alike call him human.

For the record, I have no problem with Phelps. I think the public backlash is punishment enough, and any prosecuting attorney willing to prosecute this as a criminal offense needs to just open a Facebook page like the rest of us if he really needs the attention that bad.

If nothing else, I hope you enjoy reading the paper in the morning all the more with eyes wide open.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries. Cameron's 2nd title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, is due in August this year!

Pershing's Super Bowl Sunday ShoutOut

2009-02-02T08:10:00.006-05:00

Did you notice it?

Larry Foote, the former Michigan Wolverine, gave his prep alma mater some serious holla' when the Pittsburgh Steelers' defense introduced themselves in the first quarter of their 27-23 triumph over Arizona in Super Bowl XLIII. The overwhelming majority of players who introduce themselves -- 44 offensive and defensive starters in all -- make mention of the college or university they played football for.

Not Foote. When the heavy hitter's face emerged, his quote was simple: "Larry Foote....Detroit Pershing...Doughboy."

Of course, most of us in metropolitan Detroit know the Public School League (PSL) players from Detroit who populate the rosters in the NBA and NFL are fiercely loyal to their Detroit upbringing. Many of these players mention the PSL like it's a badge of honor on their athletic resume. It's one of the reasons I cringe when I hear suburbanites say things like, "They should just bulldoze Detroit and start over."

Try saying that to the community at Seven Mile and Ryan in Detroit. To anyone who thinks high schools in the city don't have a spirit or energy comparable with the schools in the 'burbs, I point to schools in the city like Pershing. In New York City, the word Pershing is commonly associated with Park and 42nd Street -- Grand Central Station and that intersection's name -- Pershing Square.

In Detroit, Pershing is synonymous with a football and basketball tradition swathed in royal blue and gold.

CHARLIE'S NOT SORRY: That's two championship rings for former Detroit Lion and standout Eastern Michigan University quarterback Charlie Batch. Of course, Batch is a local legend in the Pittsburgh area, where he grew up, but Batch was also one of the outstanding football players to ever toss the pigskin in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

MAC DADDY: Did anyone else take notice that three of Pittsburgh's four quarterbacks are Mid-American Conference products?Ben Roethlisberger played at Miami University andByron Leftwich was a member of Marshall's MAC championship teams. Batch makes the Mid-American hat trick possible.

There are, in fact, 22 players on the Steeler roster (active, injured/reserve or practice) from colleges in the Great Lakes, including two from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC).

Pershing Falls By Two Different Scores

2009-01-28T09:03:00.004-05:00

I'm not usually one to point out mistakes because a) they happen and b) they can happen to me as much as they can happen to anyone. However, with all accommodations to karma already being made, this is a big deal.

Detroit Pershing lost yesterday -- twice! The state's No. 1 high school basketball team going down is a big deal in any state and in the rugged PSL, where only the top two teams in each division make the playoffs, Southeastern's win over the Doughboys makes for huge headlines.

But what was the score? The Detroit Free Press and writer Mike Horan published a score that didn't match The Detroit News article written by Rod Beard. The Freep had the score 78-75; The News reported a 77-76 tally. Usually the two papers do a pretty admirable job in getting the mountain's worth of prep scores in all sports correct, but this isn't just a game. This is the No. 1 team in the state losing.

Now honestly, the score thing isn't that big of a deal. Yes, accuracy matters, but both papers and their respective staffs are going through a massive downsizing and staffers are being asked to do a lot more with a whole lot less, like every other industry. And neither paper got the outcome of the game wrong: Southeastern won; Pershing lost.

Here's what's really sad to me. Of the approximately five million people in metro Detroit that don't live within the city proper, I would bet less than 1% have ever seen a PSL basketball team, much less a PSL game. The concerns over violence and safety can be real in the PSL but the availability of staff and officials is a bigger problem. Regardless, some of the very best prep basketball in all of the state gets missed because the games are played at 4p.m. and too many suburbanites are clueless about the city's high schools, where they're located, what's safe and what's not.

To boot, the score is inconsistent, and while that means a copy editor at one or both of the papers is fretting, it also adds fuel to the fire that drives so many Detroiters. I'm oft-reminded of the opinion that only the suburbs get the wheat while the city gets the chaff. Of course it's not true but that idea gains ground when stuff like this happens.

I've refereed dozens of PSL football and basketball games without a problem. Further, I refereed the Southeastern - Pershing game last year at Pershing so I know it was a hell of a game yesterday. And I can tell you outside of Cass Tech and Renaissance, Southeastern's gym is as nice as they come to watch a game.

It's too bad so few get to see the best the PSL has to offer, and if anyone knows the correct score, can you help a brother out?

~T.C. Cameron is writing Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August of 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

What's Up With All The Discord?

2009-01-26T12:53:00.010-05:00

Can't we all get along?

It seems the basketball season has been marred in recent weeks by fights, disturbances and a four-person shooting in Flint, a city already besieged with problems. It makes Rodney King's oft-quoted question ring prophetic, doesn't it?

The Detroit News reported today Detroit Community High Athletic Director Kevin Dargin accepted the resignation of basketball coach Tony Woods after Woods admitted to an altercation with another coach. Ferndale and Seaholm had to can the majority of the fourth quarter on January 9th after a non-student fight in the stands spilled onto the floor of a game already decided. Seaholm was declared the winner of a game they already led 69-46 with 6:45 to play in the fourth quarter. On January 13th, Detroit Cass Tech banned all fans except parents for their rivalry game with Detroit King due to concerns of possible violence that arose in the junior varsity game played earlier in the day.

That's the good news; Now the bad and ugly.Detroit Henry Ford, still suffering through a turf war and already struggling to ease tensions between the displaced students of now-closed Redford and Mackenzie, had a student shot and killed within eyesight of the school this past fall. Henry Ford has a proud football history but suffered the indignity of having to move home football games from Friday afternoons to Saturday mornings this past fall.

Outstate, Godwin Heights and Lee High will have to return to play the final 10 seconds after a fight ruined the potential finish of a game Godwin Heights was leading 71-68 on January 15th. Anthony Turley, 26, of Comstock pled guilty on January 16th to starting the fight that resulted in pepper spray being administered in the gym. The breathing problems from the spray resulted in the game's suspension.

Finally, four fans were shot on January 20th in the parking lot at Flint Beecher High last week after Beecher defeated Flint Hamady 53-50. Police have determined four different handguns were used in the Beecher High shooting. Beecher's school district garnered national headlines when Kayla Rolland, a six-year-old first-grader, was fatally shot in her classroom by a classmate in the winter of 2000 at Buell Elementary School. Buell has since closed.

This is not what school sports are about, that much we all know. Is it the tough economic conditions? Is this the societal structure breaking down in front of our eyes? Or is it simply kids being kids, parents not being parents and leaders being the all-too-silent objectors? Certainly the economic conditions are a factor in some of this but seriously, how much can we blame on the poor job market and endless unemployment lines?

I don't have all the answers but I think it's fair to say a fight here and there is not news. The seemingly recurring story of fights, violence and shootings at Michigan's prep sporting events is getting tiresome to read and makes me wonder how much worse can it get in Michigan before it gets better.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries from Arcadia Publishing. Cameron's 2nd title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, is due August of 2009

WDFN's Death Sealed With Poor Signal, Sassy Disposition

2009-01-22T08:57:00.002-05:00

Metro Detroit's appetite for sports might have eyes bigger than its' stomach.

WDFN's abrupt, noon-time decapitation of all local programming on Tuesday, save for 90-second updates every 30 minutes and Pistons' play-by-play, reveals a lot about the local economy, the teams we zealously root for and a time-tested adage WDFN largely ignored in the station's 15 years of local programming.

Obviously the amount of advertising revenue and ratings' share, both procured and projected, didn't justify 1130AM's parent company, Clear Channel, keeping the majority of local sales and on-air talent on the company's payroll. The nationwide media malaise and local depression was too much to bear.

Another key component in the demise of WDFN was signal strength, already weak when 97.1 The Ticket went to a resounding dual AM/FM signal a year ago that combined 1270AM's WXYT with 97.1FM. Before that, it had been WXYT that looked like the fly-by-night competition for much of the time the two stations battled each other for sports supremacy. The station had gone through a handful of platform changes and renamed the station's handle two different times before finally settling on 'The Ticket'.

But the FM stereo upgrade at WXYT changed the tenor of the two-station sports fight. The Ticket gained an all-encompassing signal found nearly everywhere in the three-county metro area and beyond -- at all hours of the day -- while 'Da Fan was tough to find in Southfield after dark when the station powered down the signal. Once WXYT went to FM, the Tigers and Red Wings became crystal clear on FM in the car and WDFN lost a key arrow from the quiver when fighting WXYT for advertising dollars.

Finally, while it made for great radio at times, Detroit's downtown professional teams repeatedly snubbed WDFN when play-by-play contract rights were available for bid. Already leery of WDFN's truculent approach to on-air criticism of both in-game performance and administrative decision-making, the city's sports-minded Big Three tired of the station's oft-juvenile approach to culling fan reaction in promotion and programming and WDFN subsequently never made the breakthrough needed to secure radio rights. That allowed WXYT to remain a potential competitor for advertising dollars when the station was turning over multiple contracts for on-air talent and drawing abysmal ratings.

The Fan was brought to Detroit in 1994 as a mirror image of popular New York City sports radio station WFAN, and Detroit's Fan had the jump on any future competition had it been able to lock up any one of Detroit's three downtown teams. But instead of getting along before going along, WDFN implemented an adversarial approach to sports talk, pitting fans versus the teams without a major play-by-play contract to sustain it. That ultimately cost The Fan's staff of talent when Detroit's economy could no longer sustain two sports talkers.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries from Arcadia Publishing. Cameron's 2nd title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, is due August 2009.

The Need To Step It Up

2009-01-19T08:38:00.009-05:00

If you've lived, worked and played in Oakland County for the majority of your life as I have, you might think you know a few things about the city and county you call home.

I'm brave enough to admit today I knew nothing 14 months ago. Of course, I thought I did, but as I researched my football and subsequent basketball book more and more, I discovered my knowledge base was lacking. Over the past 14 months, I've learned so much about the city of Detroit, Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties and our metro region as a whole. My sports knowledge has blossomed and my working knowledge from a socioeconomic standpoint is greatly expanded, too.

Here's what stands out to me today: Oakland County has a long way to go to catch up to other cities and counties in basketball prowess. If you think that's mean-spirited, baseless or otherwise foolish to say, consider what Oakland County's basketball history would look like without Pontiac Northern or Detroit Country Day. When Pontiac Central closes in a few months, a significant chunk of the county's basketball cache will close with it.

Ferndale won a pair of championships under Roy Burkhart in the 1960s. Berkley had some good teams under Steve Rhoades, none better than the 25-0 edition with Bruce Flowers in the mid-1970s. Those Bears lost in the Class A quarterfinals to Pontiac Central, the farthest any Berkley team has ever advanced. The Chiefs went to four title games without bringing home winner's hardware. Southfield had some great teams, including the school's 1983 team that lost to Detroit Southwestern and Antoine Joubert's 44-point effort in the Class A semifinals. Their rival, Southfield-Lathrup, has also had a handful of great seasons in girls and boys' games alike, and save for the last two minutes of the Class A final about 15 years ago, the Chargers could have had a title in boys' basketball, too.

Obviously Pontiac Northern has earned a couple of titles as have the Eaglets of Orchard Lake St. Mary's. Country Day in girls and boys' basketball is a champion many times over along with Mary Lillie-Cicerone's Birmingham Marian teams. Her Mustangs have earned four titles in five finals appearances while neighboring Brother Rice had some good teams under Bill Norton in the 1970s.

There's a small handful of champions I'm omitting but you get the point. At face value that aforementioned list looks pretty good, right? But compared to Detroit, Flint or Saginaw, Oakland County schools, particularly the public schools, are seen within the MHSAA record books as often as the signs that tell you you're still 200+ miles from the Mackinac Bridge. Every so often you see an Oakland County school in the finals or semifinals. And before you get mad, understand that Macomb County's public schools are practically non-existent in this discussion.

What surprises me is one would think with the affluence in Oakland County, the ability to pay for and play AAU, quality coaching, gyms and weight rooms, Oakland County would have a better history. But money can't buy love, as I've heard more than once, and Oakland County school populations love football and baseball a lot more than they love roundball.

However, it's not all negative. Even as rumors swirl of the OAA's potential demise, one must look at the OAA and admit its' role in improving basketball in the O-C. The OAA gave Oakland County a look at Clarkston, Lake Orion and the two Pontiac schools on an annual basis. It forced the county's public schools as a whole to play a different brand of basketball.

Coaches familiar with the 'city game' have been populating Oakland County schools for the past 10-15 years. Not surprisingly, the tenor, tempo and energy of the game changed, too. Finally, when the OAA hired Mike Smith away from the PSL to assign games, the league gained officials who called a tougher, more physical game. It forced soft fouls and soft play out of the OAA. It also opened doors for an entire pool of officials who previously had not intermingled the two leagues to one another.

Obviously I'm starting to touch on some issues that get away from basketball and delve into culture and habit, so we'll stop here. It will be a fun last six weeks of the regular season. Can Clarkston continue an amazing season? Will Pontiac Central offer a final memory for her faithful fans? Pontiac Northern's final season as the Huskies is at hand, too. Will private schools like Country Day and Marian be holding hardware to end their season? Can any other Oakland County team step up and steal glory from a perennial contender?

Here's to a final six weeks of fastbreak, break-neck basketball!

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries from Arcadia Publishing. Cameron's 2nd title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, is due August 2009.

Decisions Abound In Pontiac Merger; Fight Not Ferndale's Black Eye

2009-01-11T16:42:00.011-05:00

Pontiac Central High is closing in what's become the worst-kept secret since Major League Baseball's strike of 1994. Schools come and go all the time, but Central is more than a come-and-go school.

Pontiac Central is Pontiac's heritage, history and heartbeat. The school's nickname of Chiefs honors the city's namesake, Chief Pontiac. The school's colors of black and orange are as time-honored in prep circles, in some respects, as Michigan's maize n' blue. Finally, consider Central's premiere basketball history. Certainly city rival Pontiac Northern would stake a claim in any supremacy argument but the Huskies aside, what Oakland County school not named Country Day can make such a boastful claim?

Pontiac's public school leadership has a scant eight months to avoid the mistakes Royal Oak made, mistakes it had three years to overcome. When Royal Oak announced in 2004 that Kimball and Dondero, described by The Detroit News as 'historic rivals', would merge as one high school in 2006, a war of cultures ensued. The Dondero contingent, heartbroken their school would shutter in favor of hated Kimball, embarked to destroy the cultures at both schools, ensuring Kimball's legacy died, too. The 'new' Royal Oak High, with new nickname, school colors and traditions, hasn't overcome the legacy of its' former Kimball name.

The Royal Oak rivalry had been dead for years because Kimball dominated the final 15 scholastic seasons, but instead of making the combined school colors blue, gold and white or hanging banners from each former school in the new school, Royal Oak choose to bury their prep sports history of the past 100 years.

Central and Northern in basketball was very much like Kimball and Dondero for 35 years in football. Do you think the kids in Pontiac will have more than a few verbal and physical battles over their former school's legacy? Let's hope the 'new' Pontiac High School represents the contributions from each former school instead of shuttering their considerable past, as was done in Royal Oak.

FIGHT NOT RIGHT: Birmingham Seaholm's 69-46 win at Ferndale last week was marred by an ugly fight that prematurely ended the contest. Game officials declared the contest complete with 6:45 remaining in the fourth quarter after fans not representing the participating schools commenced a fistfight in the bleachers and risers that spilled onto the court, says Ferndale Athletic Director Shaun Butler.

"This was the result of non-students from either school -- it was not a problem between students of Ferndale or Seaholm," said Butler, who declined further comment except to say only Ferndale students with current, valid student identification cards will be admitted into Ferndale home games for the remainder of the season. There's a long history of good relations between both schools for over 50 years since Ferndale opened in 1958 to replace outdated Lincoln High. Birmingham High was remaned Seaholm in the early 1960s. The two cities paired their public schools against one another in all sports for over 80 years.

Butler and Seaholm athletic director Aaron Frank have plenty of experience hosting marquee events that will draw larger-than-usual crowds for prep sports. Ferndale has annually hosted one of the most prominent MHSAA boys' basketball quarterfinals in the history of the Class A or Division 1 bracket, and Seaholm has hosted one of the biggest quarterfinals in baseball, as well as some of the biggest prep football games in metro Detroit's history.

It's safe to say neither of these men are candidates to fall asleep at the wheel in their duties of stewarding their school's athletic department. The perpetrators of this fight have only hurt themselves and prep fans around them who don't have family-related interest in Ferndale's basketball team, and that benefits no one.

RIVALRY REPORT: Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries might not have changed much in the present except improving memories of prep football's past, but I can say I've noticed a slight change my book may have cultured.

Most metro newspapers big and small now make a concerted effort to highlight the rivalry games between inter-city schools, league foes and tournament tilts, even in the roundup, agate-like listings. While I would never be so bold to claim anything more, I'm proud that my book, in an innocuous way, brought a bit more cache and attention to prep rivalries in metro Detroit.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries from Arcadia Publishing. Cameron's 2nd title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, is due August 2009.

Another Country Full Of Opportunity Awaits Kyle

2009-01-11T13:11:00.006-05:00

New York's outdated LaGuardia Airport is no one's favorite destination in the snow-laced dead of winter but today it's a stepping stone of sorts to the possibility of a better life for my step-son.

I'm attending a copy writing class Monday evening in midtown Manhattan. I'm taking my step-son to visit Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut during the day. The writing class is for me; the better life is for Kyle. I'm not saying I've given up on Michigan, nor am I saying I don't believe the best schools in Michigan to be good enough for Kyle. I'm saying there's another world out there for him to discover if he so chooses.

I truly believe one of metro Detroit's greatest downfalls is the lack of knowledge or understanding within its' surplusof residents of how the rest of the country operates, how it lives and how it defines itself. Too many companies believe Detroit and the surrounding suburbs simply are too far behind the times in so many key categories to catch up in this lifetime and therefore, don't consider the region a viable candidate for business location or re-location. Sadly, I think we all know job gain/loss statistics back up my beliefs.

I haven't given up on Michigan -- in part because like everyone else, I can't sell my property -- but I'm worried, almost panicked, about what Michigan will look like in another ten years. If the next decade is anything like the last decade, we're in real trouble, as if we're not already. I don't have confidence in Governor Jennifer Granholm's presence, moxie or ability to lure whole industries to the state to replace the many mountain's worth of jobs that have crumbled into dust over the years. The southeastern Michigan region is mired in racial gridlock, something that disgraced politician Kwame Kilpatrick did nothing but exasperate while losing his position as Detroit's mayor. And while I found president-elect Barack Obama's election-night triumph to be an energizing moment for the country and a departure from politics per usual, anyone who thinks Obama will be the magic elixir for Detroit's ill, much less the country, is a punch-card's hanging-chad dreamer.

As if one needs additional evidence of Detroit's lack of cache within its' signature industry, check out Nolan Finley's piece in this morning's Detroit News lamenting the lack of energy, spirit and pride for the annual auto show that kicks off tonight.

This is less about Yale and more about a better chance, a better place, a better life. Yale's simply one of the Ivy League schools. There's Harvard in Boston, New Jersey's Princeton and New York City's Columbia University, too. We'll look at her buildings, touch her doors and walk her hallways. Hopefully, the visit will inspire a desire within Kyle to be an achiever first and a dreamer second. The days of hoping for a Motor City renaissance have long since floated downstream of the Detroit River.

It's time to remake Detroit completely -- that much is fact -- the real question is can this region's car-first mentality be overhauled before it's too late? I'm not waiting to find out on my child's behalf. Today is about the future, so it's on to LaGuardia, to the Metro-North train, to New Haven, Connecticut and back.

All Aboard!

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries from Arcadia Publishing. Cameron's 2nd title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, is due August 2009.

OAA Looks Ready To Dissolve Into Two Smaller Leagues

2009-01-09T18:26:00.011-05:00

Tonight Berkley High School, a school long known for boys' basketball above all else, rolled into the parking lot at Rochester High School off of Livernois for a north-south Oakland County tilt. The young coaching staff at Berkley have molded the Bears into a scrappy, hard-nosed bunch while Rochester is well-versed in the heavy-handed competition the OAA offers.

The wrench in the game? The Bears were an hour late, and when you're playing a freshman, jayvee and varsity game back-to-back-to-back, it makes for a long night. As far as the game went, it was worth waiting for, as Rochester fought off the Bears to the very end, surviving a half-court heave to tie at the buzzer to win 63-60.

Oakland County's sprawling traffic, available bus service to the Berkley teams and a pancake batter snowfall made punctuality all but impossible. This isn't an isolated incident within the OAA and it's not because the member schools don't have reliable transportation, qualified leadership or dedicated employees. It's because the league has outgrown it's usefulness. As one OAA athletic director put it this week, "Conceptually it's a fabulous league; Speaking practically, it's a nightmare."

Word has long been out that the OAA might be ready to follow the MEGA and dissolve. Ironically, the OAA and MEGA were also within a couple of years of each other's inception, too, back in the early 1990s. Now comes reliable information the I-75 corridor schools of the OAA might be poised to branch off together and soon. With Pontiac's impending consolidation of Central and Northern into one high school all but a forgone conclusion by the final half of this school year, the OAA athletic directors are meeting more regularly to address the changing landscape of the league.

It appears imminent that Clarkston and Lake Orion could merge with Troy and Troy Athens, Rochester, Rochester Adams and Stoney Creek to form a smaller, more manageable league. That would leave the southern Oakland County schools like Royal Oak, Birmingham, Berkley, Hazel Park and Ferndale to reconvene the defunct Southeastern Michigan Association.

The question unanswered? Where does that leave Pontiac and Avondale? Some have openly wondered why Grand Blanc joined the Kensington Lakes, and those questions would intensify if a north Oakland County league as aforementioned were to emerge. However, to even consider poaching Grand Blanc while leaving Avondale and Pontiac aside would evoke quick memories of the MEGA Conference disaster when a handful of schools successfully sued the original lineup of MEGA schools to gain inclusion into the league. Could Avondale be part of a northern-based county league? Will Pontiac be considered for a southern-based county conference?

And where do the 'Bloomfields' park themselves? West Bloomfield is on a bit of an island while Lahser and Andover have also been rumored for consolidation.

Times change, schools close, leagues come and go. As the death of the super-sized conference begins to play out, how Oakland County's schools re-invent themselves for athletics in today's recession-based economy will become the face of a new age in prep sports.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, released in August 2008 from Arcadia Publishing. Cameron's second title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, is due in August 2009.

Did EMU's Recent Hire Fuel Future Failure?

2009-01-07T09:19:00.006-05:00

Derrick Gragg oversees one of the most successful athletic departments in the Mid-American Conference but what defines Eastern Michigan University, to the frustration of the school's athletic director, is the failures in two sports instead of the success of the many others.

Specifically, football and men's basketball have earned the very definition of futility for the past 10 years in Ypsilanti, with football struggling ever since the ill-fated Huron decision was quietly broached in the fall of 1990. Add an administrative train wreck prior to Gragg taking the reins of athletics and Dr. Susan W. Martin assuming the president's position and you can understand why Eastern's recent football hire was so important.

But did Eastern hire the right person for their long-term future? I'm not saying the man who got the job, Ron English, isn't the right man for right now, nor am I saying he wasn't the most qualified candidate. If anything, Ron English is probably over-qualified, a charismatic man who's on-field success and passion for football supersedes the most fervent coach you could imagine.

But was Michigan State running backs coach Dan Enos the better candidate for the long-term viability of EMU football? Is it possible the right man was passed over because he didn't exude of the aforementioned qualities English possesses while remaining the most viable candidate for long-term success?

Yes, I'll concede that sounds a bit naive, so let me explain.

EMU has been a springboard for too many coaches and athletic administrators for too long. Eastern needs its own company man, a Bo Schembechler, Eddie Robinson, Duffy Daugherty or Herb Deromedi-type man to accompany a Don Canham-type athletic director. Moreover, Eastern needs a man content with building a successful, long-term program that will succeed him for a couple generations. I could see Ron English, the dynamic, hard-nosed, smart coach winning more than a handful of games next year, and eight or nine games in Year Two only to be poached away from Ypsilanti for a jackpot of dollars and a conference affiliation that starts with the letters B-C-S.

Where will that leave EMU? The same place it was was when Ron Cooper, another dynamic, hard-nosed, willful leader left after two years for the green pastures of Louisville after a 4-7 season was followed by a 5-6 campaign in 1994. Cooper had been head assistant coach at Notre Dame under Lou Holtz before being hired by another golden domer when Gene Smith tabbed Cooper to replace Jim Harkema in 1993, his final year as EMU's athletic director. After Cooper left EMU was 6-5 under Rick Rasnick in 1995 but that was a bit of a faux record. EMU didn't earn a winning mark in the MAC that season and hasn't notched a noticeable ledger in the MAC since 1989 when the then-Hurons lost to Ball State on the last day of the season in a winner-take-all scenario for the league's title berth to the California Bowl.

The school hasn't had a winning record since. If you think EMU doesn't matter in the big scheme of college football, consider that 20 young men with ties to metro Detroit populate the EMU roster, 11 of whom either lived or prepped in Oakland County.

Dan Enos interviewed for the job at Eastern. He's a Dearborn product, a former Edsel Ford Thunderbird who also led MSU to their last Big Ten title, when the Spartans earned a share of the championship in 1990 under the former Spartan quarterback. Like English, he's got Big Ten coaching experience and has children he's not willing to uproot. It was rumored that Enos was already building a staff that included George Perles' son, Pat, and former MSU standout receiver Courtney Hawkins.

I'm absolutely certain EMU hired the best candidate it was afforded in its search. I simply wonder if EMU missed hiring the best candidate as it relates to EMU's long-term success.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, available from Arcadia Publishing.

UDM's Basketball Blueprint Found At Cleveland State

2009-01-04T12:02:00.005-05:00

DETROIT -- No one familiar with the University of Detroit-Mercy's lackluster basketball fortunes this season would attribute the Titans' struggles to anything other to the usual growing pains of rebuilding a once-proud program from the ground up. Titan coach Ray McCallum faced an opponent Saturday afternoon in Calihan Hall led by a coach well-versed in turning the task of rebuilding into an art.

Gary Waters and the Cleveland State Vikings ventured into the Motor City and earned a 53-44 decision over UDM, one of Waters' 607 wins as either an assistant, associate or head coach in the venerable coach's path through college basketball that dates back to Ferris State University in 1974. Waters left Ferris in 1989 and joined Ben Braun at Eastern Michigan. In his second season with the Hurons, Waters was followed Ferris State to Ypsilanti by former Troy High standout Marcus Kennedy, who transformed a Mid-American Conference contender into an undisputed league champion in 1990-91.

Three years alter Waters helped recruit Royal Oak Dondero center Theron Wilson to EMU. Wilson, who had previously been at Detroit King, lived with John Bancroft's family at the corner of Catalpa and Maplegrove in Royal Oak and turned the Oaks into Oakland County's best team. With Ben Bancroft, who later played at Albion, and Jason Beverlin, who went on to pitch for the Detroit Tigers, Dondero found itself in the state's Associated Press Top Ten poll. Later Wilson would lead EMU to a 1996 MAC title. Eastern became the first school in 55 years to top Duke in the first round of the NCAA tournament when the Eagles defeated the Blue Devils 75-60 in the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. John Bancroft, now retired, is best remembered for the many years he coached track & field in the Troy school district. Ironically, Troy High basketball coach Gary Fralick is a former Oak.

But I digress. Before Braun left EMU for California in '96, Waters accepted the head post for five seasons at league rival Kent State, followed by another five-year stint at Rutgers. For the past two seasons, Waters has led the Vikings, who defeated Syracuse in the Carrier Dome earlier this season on a 60-foot three-point heave released before the game's final buzzer to break a tie score. Last season Waters flipped a team that had earned a 10-21 mark the year prior into a 21-win squad that earned an NIT appearance. Now McCallum is being asked to do the same thing at UDM.

"Ray's already got some things in place," Waters said after the contest. "I think he'll be good next year, frankly. There's three things you have to do when you take a job. You have to change the culture, which means making sure kids know they have to work. You have to bring in some talent, which he's started to do, and third, sometimes you have to get rid of some people, clean house a little bit."

Waters has witnessed 405 losses to accompany his 607 wins mark in his various roles as a bench leader in college basketball. Waters worked his 1,000th game in Cleveland State's fourth game of the season, a 72-62 win over Saint Leo on November 24 in Miami, Florida.

REPLAY'S SAVING GRACE: Saturday's contest saw CSU with a 34-20 halftime lead, but only after a UDM basket at the buzzer, initially flushed down as good by official Tim Fogarty, was waved off. UDM guard Thomas Kennedy drove the left side of the lane and floated a soft running lay-in attempt that fell short of the basket. Titan forward Michael Harrington clutched the errant attempt and tossed in a bunny.

The interesting aspect wasn't that the shot counted in the face of a apparent red light prior to the shot leaving Harrington's hands, but rather the reasoned, even calm response from the Cleveland State bench. In the era prior to replay, the reaction would have predictably been one of near-unanimous rancor to the decision, but because the CSU coaches knew the officials would use the replay resources available to them thanks to SportsTime Ohio, the coaches actually walked off the floor without knowing the shot would be waived off.

FOUL BY NUMBERS: As an official, writer and overall fan of the game of basketball, I've never subscribed to the theory that team fouls must be even or near-even to represent a fairly-called game from the crew of officials assigned to working the game.

Saturday UDM was on the short end in the first half of the fouls, first by a 7-4 count and later by a 9-6 tally. The UDM faithful behind the team bench belabored the point against the silence of the arena, filled with a few hundred fans for the contest. What floors me is how the foul count has become the harbinger of fair officiating standards. To me, this illustrates the level of paranoia that accompanies basketball. Nine-and-six is just one scant call away from eight-and-seven, as close as the count can be to being considered even.

In the second stanza it was the Titans that benefited from a 10-6 foul count in the first 15 minutes of the half. Not surprisingly, it was the UDM following that offered little critique of the officiating while the CSU contingent assumed the role of the vocal victims. For the game, Cleveland State was whistled for 21 fouls to UDM's 18.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August of 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

Holiday Respite For The Write Referee

2008-12-28T09:16:00.002-05:00

The Write Referee is taking some time off. Be merry and be safe as you and those close to you welcome in the new year. See you again on January 3, 2009.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August of 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

Chippewas Make Motown Their Expressway To Success

2008-12-26T18:33:00.017-05:00

Editor's Note: Content updated at 5:00pm on December 28 to correct references to Butch Jones, mistakenly identified as Butch Davis.

DETROIT -- The catcalls, snickers and jokes remain, but if accepting a bid to the Motor City Bowl means Central Michigan University is playing football every year after Christmas, CMU coach Butch Jones welcomes all barbs.

Jones guided the Chippewas on Friday night in a hard-fought 24-21 loss to Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in front of 41,399 at Ford Field. The Owl win was the 12th edition of the annual game, which has more than earned its' keep in 12 years of successful pairings. The Rose Bowl it's not, but the Motor City Bowl (MCB) is no Cherry Bowl, the ill-fated game that managed just two turns in the mid 1980s in the Pontiac Silverdome. In 1984 Michigan State helped bring around 70,000 into the 'Dome for the inagural game but the Spartans dropped a 10-6 decision. The next year the game was broke before kickoff and Cherry Bowl unceremoniously fell from the vine of college football bowl games.

MCB immediately struck an alliance between two neighboring conferences, the Mid-American Conference and the Big Ten. Aside from revenue giant sports football and basketball, the two conferences are competitive in many sports, the rare upset on the gridiron or hardwood notwithstanding. But Motor City Bowl has helped the MAC -- a bowl-starved conference -- attain a footing among major college football's elite, and perhaps no school or coach has been a better beneficiary than CMU and Jones.

Jones has succeeded former CMU coach Brian Kelly's success without missing a beat, in part because the Chippewas have made the Motor City Bowl a three-year tradition that means more than simply playing a football game on Boxing Day. In short, it allows the Chippewas to be a major player within recruiting circles that encompass metro Detroit's talent-rich, three-county footprint. "Without a doubt, the access created by playing a bowl game in our backyard, so to speak, is priceless," Jones said. "Our staff made a commitment to recruiting Michigan, and our success is predicated on how well we recruit Michigan. Playing in the Motor City Bowl has made such a huge difference in our program's success in recent years."

To wit, the Chippewas boast 16 players from the tri-county area, including seven from Oakland County. Three players hail from Lake Orion, a runner-up in this year's MHSAA Division 1 football finals. There's four players from Detroit's proper and three from Warren's De LaSalle High, making CMU's roster one stocked from all corners of Michigan and fortified with a large bounty from metro Detroit. Playing in the Motor City Bowl three straight years has contributed to Central's success on signing day.

Like Florida Atlantic, a school with hardly an ounce of name recognition in major college football just a handful of years ago, the Chippewas are a rare story that few schools could even hope to emulate today. In the early 1970s, Central Michigan and fellow in-state rival Eastern Michigan University were powerhouse NAIA schools who made the leap from small-time Christian athletics to Division-I status. While Eastern struggled in the late 70s and early 80s, Central Michigan flourished and thrived under a former Oakland County coach, Herb Deromedi. When Roy Kramer left CMU in the late 1970s, the former Royal Oak High grad and Kimball High coach began a 20-year reign in Mt.Pleasant that landed him in the college football hall-of-fame.

However, a not-so-rare story followed Deromedi's departure. The Chippewas struggled to regain that winning form. After Kelly quickly made CMU successful again, he was poached just as quickly by Cincinnati. Enter Jones, with an already strong acumen for recruiting and chalkboard strategy. Add CMU's trifecta of bowl appearances in Detroit and the Chippewas have re-chartered their path for annual success.

"We're very proud to represent our conference and our state in Detroit," Jones said."If being successful means coming to the Motor City Bowl three straight years, I'll take that success every day of the week as opposed to staying home for the holidays."

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August of 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

Gervin's Greatness Just Part Of EMU's Hardwood Heritage

2008-12-21T15:27:00.005-05:00

When does an NBA Hall-Of-Famer designated as one of the 50 greatest players in professional basketball history not qualify was a lock as his college's greatest player?

When your name is George Gervin and your alma mater is Eastern Michigan University, that's when. Gervin was honored at EMU yesterday with an honorary degree at halftime of Eastern's game with St. Bonaventure. Before you get upset with my question, be careful not to misconstrue the premise behind the question. I'm not saying Gervin isn't EMU's greatest player. Gervin's basketball resume is the most accomplished of any player to ever wear EMU's verdant green and white. I'm saying there's a handful of other players who could arguably lay claim to the honor based on their total body of work at EMU.

It also means Eastern Michigan has been able to land some of the most overlooked talent in a region already nationally-recognized as a hoops hotbed. Eastern's basketball record book could easily make one scratch their head and wonder aloud, 'How did these players end up at EMU?' Reality reveals different players end up at a school like EMU for different reasons. Sometimes it's grades, a player's size or abilityjudged to be a bit below a bigger school's standards, which is the case the majority of the time. Other times, however, it's a dynamic coach who can recruit, like a Jim Dutcher or Ben Braun, or a player and a teammate, like the Thomas twins from Lansing and Detroit Northern's Lorenzo Neely. Sometimes it's simply a player's desire to stay close to home.

Gervin grew homesick for his native Detroit at Long Beach State University and transferred back to EMU to play for Jim Dutcher along with fellow King grad Gary Tyson. While Gervin's story is unique, there's literally no end to the stories that brought so much talent to EMU.

Carl and Charles Thomas, who grew up in Lansing in the shadow of Michigan State University, joined Neely at Eastern after Ben Braun's relentless recruitment. Derrick Dial was the unfortunate recipient of the NCAA's ill-fated Prop 48 statues in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Dial, who graduated from the scholar-acclaimed Detroit Cass Tech, became Eastern's No. 3 all-time scorer in school history with 1,891 points, earned a top 10 spot in blocked shots and become school's all-time career, season and single-game leader in made three-point field goals with 214.

There was Brian Tolbert, brother of Michigan recruit and University of Detroit star Tony Tolbert. Michigan State kept Tolbert in the fold for a possible scholarship until Southgate Aquinas product Jon Garavaglia won the state's Mr. Basketball award. The Spartans awarded the scholarship Tolbert coveted and Tolbert enrolled at EMU, where he scored 1,726 points, including 36 versus top-ranked Connecticut in the 2nd round game of the 1996 NCAA Tournament, the most points scored by any player in that season's tourney. Tolbert is 2nd all-time in made three-point attempts with 204 treys. Mr. Basketball winner Garavaglia? He's conspicuously absent from the MSU record book in nearly all categories for game, season or career.

And then there was Boykins, the 5'5 magician who Sports Illustrated named the county's best player under 6'0 in the periodical's 1997-98 college basketball preview issue. The recruitment of Boykins had an entire school's fan base scratching their collective heads. It had come down to the national signing day in 1994 at Boykins' high school in Cleveland, where Braun and Kent State's Dave Grube awaited the diminutive guard's answer to a scholarship offer from each school. Legend has it that Grube looked at Braun and said, "Well, either one of us will be brilliant or one of us will be fired." One year later, Grube was cannedfrom his contract at KSU and after Bruan's team had reached the MAC championship and accepted a bid to the NIT.

Boykins missed catching Kennedy McIntosh for the school's scoring record by a scant eight points, earning 2,211 points to McIntosh's 2,219 career total. Boykins would have started every game in his four-year career had it not been for EMU coach Milton Barnes, who took over EMU's reins after Braun accepted an offer from the University of California-Berkeley. Barnes, in a desperate attempt to prove himself a willful leader, benched the guard for the first five minutes of a non-league game his junior year. Barnes' tenure is a bad memory at EMU while Boykins is oft-remembered for his outstanding play-making and scoring ability.

So while EMU has struggled to regain it's former hardwood prowess over the past 10 years, much like the University of Detroit-Mercy, the school has a history and alumni list that brings with it as much cache as any mid-major school in the country.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August 2009 fro Arcadia Publishing. Cameron's first book, Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, features pictures from the archives of The Oakland Press.

Former Glory, Hopeful Future Highlight Current UDM Titans

2008-12-19T21:42:00.002-05:00

Is there a Division-I school in America that has been a better beneficiary of the city it domiciles within more than the University of Detroit-Mercy?

The question begs to be asked when one looks at the sheer volume of talent that has formed a procession-like march from Detroit's rugged public schools and former city Catholic schools into the hallowed halls named for Titan coach Bob Calihan. From Detroit Austin's Dave DeBusschere to Detroit Pershing's Spencer Haywood, Highland Park's Terry Duerod and Detroit St. Martin DePorres grad Tony Tolbert, some of the area's finest jewels of the hardwood have made historic Calihan Hall home. The list of Titan Hall-Of-Famers reads like a Who's Who list of the city's long sporting history.

Earlier this week Haywood returned to be honored as UDM played host to Aquinas College of Grand Rapids at Calihan. While the current Titans labored to defeat the tiny NAIA school, the nod to a glorious past and hope of a similar future was impossible to ignore.

Titan basketball is enriched by the fact that the University of Detroit is truly a product of Detroit's potent prep basketball legacy. There's UCLA, nestled in talent-rich and tony Los Angeles, and DePaul University in Chicago, another hoops hotbed. New York's St. John's University comes to mind when considering the aforementioned question, too, because the five boroughs command a similar presence as Detroit's basketball history. But unlike UDM, those programs are nationally-known brands with large, savvy recruiting networks.

All of those reasons make the men's basketball accomplishments of UDM all the more remarkable because the Titan legacy is largely made in the Motor City. Even today, as the UDM recruiting base has expanded regionally, nationally, and in some cases, internationally, to counter the shrinking Detroit public school population and absolute void of a Catholic League school within the city proper, UDM still retains its' distinctive city-proper signature with a handful of players from the PSL.

"This is what Keri (Gaither) and I are trying to rebuild, the identity that U of D can be a first choice for a PSL player," Haywood explained from press row on Wednesday night as the honorary Titan coach. "This is a special place and there's a unique history that matches the city itself."

UDM Athletic Director Keri Gaither faces a unique challenge. Continue advancing her school's athletic department from a financial and competition standpoint and do so in a city as depressed as any in America due to the economic conditions not seen in over two generations. And to be sure, UDM is a Detroit institution, because of the rich history that lives in the memories of so many followers. As one UDM staffer put it Wednesday night, "Calihan Hall is home to me. Even if I wasn't working, this is where I'd want to be."

Calihan, one of the area's living, breathing museums of basketball history, is undergoing a gradual renovation. There's the remodeled Titan Club and a refurbished foyer that relishes the Titan tradition with several etched glass panes, video boards and framed pictures abound. The press room upstairs is decorated nicely with pictures that recall the school's historic architectural infrastructure in it's glory. The floor gleams with the school's new Titan logo and the Titans' newly-renovated lockerroom is like a hall-of-fame at any other school. It's arguable there's not a building in the state, including MSU's Jenison Field House, with a more impressive pedigree of amateur basketball than Calihan Hall.

Likewise, the courtside Titan legacy is undergoing a renovation. When Gaither hired men's coach Ray McCallum to replace city icon Perry Watson, she hired a coach that was already well-versed with several aspects of the pressure that defines major college basketball. McCallum served as an assistant at Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana and was charged with resurrecting his alma mater's good name when hired to be head man at Ball State from 1993-2000. The Cardinals waged battles with Gary Trent and Ohio U., Devin Davis and Miami and Earl Boykins, Brian Tolbert, Derrick Dial and Theron Wilson from Eastern Michigan.

The last admission, EMU, is a key reminder of the progress McCallum must make within the network of PSL and Catholic League coaches in metro Detroit. While Boykins was a Cleveland, Ohio native, Tolbert -- like his brother, Tony -- was a DePorres grad, Dial was a Cass Tech product and Wilson was a transplant from Detroit King who transformed Royal Oak Dondero into a top 10 team in Class A for three seasons. Those players all could have played at UDM 15 years ago, but chose EMU lead by Ben Braun and Gary Waters. Waters now coaches Cleveland State, a Horizon League opponent who visits Calihan on January 3rd.

Tomorrow afternoon Eastern Michigan will welcome back Detroit King prodigy and former Huron George "Iceman" Gervin when the Eagles host the Bonnies of St. Bonaventure. Like UDM, Eastern has a history in several sports that most schools not located in the shadow of a Big Ten power would envy seven days a week. But in 70 games with EMU, the Titans enjoy a 55-15 advantage over their Ypsilanti rivals. Add winning marks versus Central and Western, and 32 wins combined over Michigan, Michigan State and Notre Dame, it's easy to see why UDM's hardwood history becomes a central rallying point for supporters of the program.

The amount of talent available to UDM has thinned, and fighting the state's three MAC schools, Oakland University and two Big Ten powers for the same fruit from the same trees won't be easy, but procuring the top rung of metro Detroit's talent is clearly McCallum's charge.

UDM is relying on McCallum and Autumn Rademacher, a former Titan hired to resurrect women's basketball, to re-make the Titans into what they're known for: A basketball power in a talent-rich region.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, which will be offered in August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing. Cameron's first title, Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, is available at retailers nationwide.

Detroit Making Waves Nationally Online

2008-12-17T09:56:00.002-05:00

Yesterday's historic announcement by the joint-management team of The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press has garnered the attention of nationally-known editorial boards, chat rooms and Internet-news gathering sites.

First is the bold masthead regarding Detroit's historic decision found at Editor&Publisher.com, one of the nation's most trusted media-on-media coverage sites. Also pushing these links was MediaBistro.com, who slotted Detroit's news just below Oprah Winfrey's decision to guide her production company, Harpo Productions, away from ABC to HBO for a broader spectrum of programming opportunities.

There's even a piece that features the well-reasoned opinions of former Freep Editor/publisher Heath Meriwether, who now lives in New York and works as a writing coach.

James Rainey of The Los Angeles Times chimes in with a healthy bit of disdain for why the papers in Detroit would cut off their most loyal readers at the expense of those who read it for free online.

Also of interest is the many respected media market analysts who openly question if the cuts are deep enough, something many of us with firsthand knowledge of Detroit's horrific business climate have speculated about in local forums for some time.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, available from Arcadia Publishing at major and not-so-major retailers nationwide.

Go The Distance...

2008-12-16T15:02:00.004-05:00

Detroit's on it's way to being a two-paper town without a paper to be found.

Detroit's daily newspapers undertook the bold move Tuesday. To hear them tell it, it's the brave act. However, they didn't do it to lead the way, but rather to crawl out from under the piano of financial and structural overhead that so many other publishers and managing editors would like to do. Detroit's dailies will only be delivered in-home three days a week and the online edition will no longer be free.

That's just a start. If the paper's joint-management team had its' way, the presses and the delivery would all go away. It's a sad truth in Detroit, a town that labor built, because the large overhead is now largely obsolete. There's paper to buy from monstrous mills, and that production cost is no longer a thrill. There's manpower for staffing and benefits to be paid. There's editorial boards and advertising dollars to be made.

There's delivery to mailboxes and the coffee house's deep pockets. The problem is, by the time the paper is here, the next day's news is near. And the cash flow inward no longer matches the cash going out.

Get the point? Detroit's joint-operations management is starting the ebb away from paper and towards exclusive online production. The Detroit Free Press reported an 85% jump in online hits this year as compared to last, if reporter M.L. Elrick's numbers are true as reported by a local Detroit television station two days ago.

I haven't purchased the paper is several years, because the Internet is always on and I don't have to leave the house, much less open the door. I say go the distance, with apologies to Kevin Costner, and finish the job. Go online for good and make it a cash cow.

The Oakland Press got the jump on Detroit's dailies in the prep sports genre with the alpha launch of MIPrepZone and the large family of blogs found at BlogCentral last year. The large network of neighborhood apers, opinions and blogs gives the Oakland Press a longer, more substantial reach beyond what our competition could compete with in an immediate sense.

The buggy whip was popular in it's day, too, but the car changed everything and the automobile grew. We're on a new cusp of society-altering change. Papers have long been running two editions too many. It's one or the other, and online is winning, so why delay the inevitable as the paper keeps thinning.

I say rock out the Internet; put that paper down. Metro Detroit's leading the way to a paperless crown.

Detroit Leads Change In America's Daily Paper Medium

2008-12-16T11:38:00.001-05:00

Detroit's two major daily newspapers became the first major newspapers in America to curb daily delivery to three days a week.

The paper will be delivered for home-based subscription on Thursday, Friday and Sundays only starting sometime early in the new year as the combined management of The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press aim to curb overall payroll by 9% before the end of the first quarter of '09.

The papers, managed under the umbrella of a joint operating agreement (JOA) since 1989 that pared each paper's holiday and weekend responsibilities in half, opened an 11 a.m. news conference with a paper-produced video that highlighted the paper's first 200 years as an innovative pioneer in the media industry. Self-plaudits included the first women's section, first paper-owned radio station, first Sunday paper and first paper-owned plane.

However, the overriding message was the admission that the digital age has made traditional paper production a dinosaur. With costs spiraling upward for manpower, availability of paper, and energy costs for materials, production and delivery, the newspapers are highly-motivated to pioneer the answers to what plagues the newspaper industry nationwide.

The JOA management also announced the online editions, free for the past several years, will be available for $12 a month. The $144-per-year subscription cost is aimed at saving both papers in terms of content, platform and brand.

Book Signing, New Gym On Tap This Weekend

2008-12-12T09:56:00.004-05:00

Come see me tomorrow afternoon in Novi's Twelve Oaks Mall at the Borders Express bookstore from 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

I'll be signing copies of my book, Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, and talking football,and a little basketball, too, as you finish your Christmas shopping. It's a great opportunity to get a great gift before the 25th is here!

Later in the evening, I'll be officiating at Royal Oak Shrine's inaugural boys' basketball game at their brand new basketball facility. The Knights will be facing their neighbors to the east, Royal Oak High, a school that used to host some of the bigger Shrine games in both football and basketball when it was better known as Royal Oak Kimball High.

Perhaps no school has needed a new gym more than Shrine, with it's cramped corners that didn't allow for three-point shots and a slew of other inconveniences. However, there's a ton of Catholic League history in that old, cramped barn and the old lady was witness to literally hundreds of old-fashioned Michigan barn-burners over the years. As we welcome the new, we bid adieu to the old, too.

Finally, the rumors continue to fly about The Detroit News & Detroit Free Press editorial staffs suffering greatly due to the economy, the lethargic newspaper climate and the need to shelve the old media platform for today's new, electronically-generated mediums. Yesterday chat rooms and e-mail threads buzzed with news that as many as 300 staffers could be axed from newsrooms and editorial staffs at Detroit's dailies. That and the possibility of the dailies only printing a hard copy on Friday, Saturday and Sundays.

The truth is Detroit's no longer a two-paper town, and it hasn't been for some time. It wasn't a three-paper town nearly 60 years ago when the The Detroit Times folded. If that sounds harsh, book a flight to Hartford, Connecticut and take the Amtrak into New York's Penn Station. You'll be amazed at how many papers are available on the platform of the commuter trains and how thick they are. It literally takes all two hours to get the daily paper digested on your way into the city, and it's like this in Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, etc. In Detroit you can race through our papers in 15-20 scant minutes.

That's not to say the writing is poor or the content isn't worthy. It simply means Detroit's newsworthy footprint doesn't match the available advertising resources for revenue to justify a two-paper system.

One aspect I'm optimistic about is a boost in available assignments for freelancers like myself if the online platform goes forward in full. The current hard copy production model is expensive and severely limits cash flow. An online edition, especially an exclusively online platform, would free up a lot of needed liquidity. The catch is the advertising revenue and how to effectively trigger an effective advertising model.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, and his syndicated blog is found exclusively at www.MIPrepZone.com!

Progress Means Sacrifice For Daily Tribune Address

2008-12-11T07:31:00.014-05:00

Holding on to the past is a great and noble ideal, as long as it doesn't impede progress. I walked by the editorial offices of The Daily Tribune last evening in Royal Oak, or should I say, what's left of the Tribune.

It's gone, like so many other markers of this region's past. The offices are now littered with trash from desks and filing cabinets moved to different locales, counties and zip codes. I'm not upset, just a bit melancholy at the unceremonious departure of another Royal Oak institution. Oh, the paper's still being published. The editorial department is now under the umbrella of The Macomb Daily. It's simply another stark reminder of how much things have changed in south Oakland County. While Macomb County is an emerging community filled with new subdivisions, teeming high schools with massive numbers filling their sports teams, south Oakland schools are trudging along as shells of their former selves while half-filled or empty condominium units shadow the region's footprint. While Macomb is opening new schools, older schools are being shuttered and razed in Royal Oak.

But this is progress, right? Would you believe that my mother's childhood friend while growing up on Maplegrove in Royal Oak circa 1950 was a little girl who's own mother had been handed off the sinking RMS Titanic at two months of age? In the middle of the dark night, awaiting imminent death in the icy North Atlantic Ocean, her parents knew enough not to hold on to the past, because the past was sinking to the bottom of the ocean, destined to pull approximately 2,200 other passengers with it. Life goes on and they were lucky enough to ensure life for their daughter.

This past week was the annual anniversary of Pearl Harbor's bombing from the Japanese. I'll bet most of America looked entirely different on December 7th, 1911 than the same date in 1941 for all the reasons other than the obvious. Likewise, I'm betting the 1971 was nothing like '41, and 2001 was nothing like '71, either. In '71 the World Trade Towers in the lower battery of New York City were still only seen in completion on the drawing boards of a architect in Troy, Michigan; In 2001, they were lying on the ground with the slurry walls containing New York's Harbor in ruin as well.

The trade towers alone ought to illustrate my point. They've become an icon for American spirit and resolve -- and rightfully so -- and yet they were with us for less than 30 years.

Things change. Life goes on, and I don't miss the old wall-mounted, avacado-colored, rotary-dial phones any more than the next guy.

The Daily Tribune is simply a victim of an era long since passed. There was a time when the Tribune boasted a daily circulation of 80,000 homes but today the Sunday subscription numbers barely pass 10K. Detroit News columnist Joe Falls used to speak glowingly of the Tribune as one of our area's best-produced newspapers, and Falls knew a little about progress. He came to the News when the now-defunct Detroit Times passed into memory some 50 years ago.

Newspapers are changing and the new template they're using today to publish editorial content and procure advertising is the same vehicle you're using to read this column today. The physical buildings that gave us the comfort of knowing our local paper was there for us is now largely part of a newspaper business that's passed on.

The Tribune used to be South Oakland County's daily bible -- now we're writing part of her own obituary -- the Royal Oak address part, anyway.

~ T.C. Cameron is author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, and officiates three sports at the prep and collegiate level.

Laughlin's Lesson Not To Be Ignored

2008-12-08T14:00:00.005-05:00

I used to wonder why officials competing for the many prep and small college assignments are so ultra-competitive within officiating circles. As I got older, I realized it's because too many officials are overly-concerned with their own legacy -- the stamp they'll leave on officiating.
As I enter my older & wiser phase of officiating, I realize it's enough to simply be a good, honest official to leave a strong mark.

That was Rollo Laughlin, too. Trapped in the hustle of every day, it's easy to forget the simple lessons, but Laughlin embodied these wise tales. Be thankful for what you have and do everything you can to make each day meaningful.

Laughlin passed away last week at the spry age of 90 years old in Royal Oak's Beaumont Hospital. He golfed, drove and did what we all hope to do until the very end. Laughlin lived in Royal Oak since the 1950s, in the same house he bought with his wife and raised his three children in. Born in 1919, Laughlin grew up in Horton, Michigan, just outside Jackson. He was a forward on his school's varsity basketball team. As a senior, Laughlin helped Horton advance all the way to the 1937 Class D championship game. Horton lost a 21-18 decision to Marshall Shearer's Stevensville High team but the experience remained a lifelong memory.
Today Stevensville has become the Class B Lakeshore High Lancers, and Horton High has become Horton-Hanover High, a Class C school and 424-student home to the Comets.

After graduation Laughlin attended what is now Western Michigan University, where he presumably learned the skill of officiating. Tracking for a career in teaching changed with World War II for Laughlin, who enlisted in America's war effort. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor engulfed America for good on December 7, 1941 and Laughlin's enlistment lasted through '45. Stationed in Iceland as a logistical transport specialist, Laughlin plied his officiating trade in the many military basketball games played on base during his time in service.

Upon his return stateside, Laughlin discovered the Detroit Public Schools were literally hiring on the spot. Degree in hand, Laughlin was tabbed on the spot to teach physical education in an elementary school. To earn a few bucks and stay fit himself, Laughlin resumed his officiating career. From the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, Laughlin registered with the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) and worked football, basketball and baseball. He joined Michigan's oldest officiating association, the Southeastern Michigan Officiating Association (SMOA), and like most officials, he worked his fair share of big games among a majority of ho-hum assignments.

His son, Keith, told me his claim to fame was also his biggest mistake. Working a football game at Berkley High when a Statue of Liberty play was executed to perfection, Laughlin's piercing tweet prematurely ended the play. A handful of yards downfield stood a Berkley runner stopped dead in his tracks due to the inadvertent whistle. It was a mistake that every official dreads and yet, every official worth his or her salt has experienced it in their own misfortune. To have never made a mistake like this is to never have officiated.

A reporter from The Daily Tribune, which used to be South Oakland County's unofficial bible, called Laughlin at his home to inquire about the controversial call. Back then officials weren't nameless robots and papers listed your address when you made the paper as an identifying mark, so finding someone wasn't a difficult task. Instead of lamenting this or that, Laughlin told the reporter on the other end, "I blew the call, there's nothing more to it than that. I just flat blew it."

After he hung up his whistle, he shelved his lesson plans a few years later after nearly 40 years on the job teaching. He watched Detroit morph into a nearly-all African American city from a melting pot of all nationalities in the immediate post-war boom times. Laughlin was a husband, teacher, referee and father, in that order. His acumen for officiating is nearly forgotten, as many of the officials he worked with, and the coaches he worked for, have either moved on, passed on or possibly both.

So today, I think of the lessons of Rollo Laughlin. First work hard, then work smart but be happy to have the opportunity to be making a difference -- big or small -- every day, in every possible way.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries. His second title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, is due out in August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

Part II: Can Eagles Be Hurons and Hurons Be Eagles at EMU?

2008-12-05T08:24:00.010-05:00

Editor's Note: This is the second of a two-part post relating to Eastern Michigan University's former Huron nickname, the aftermath and possible solution to a decision that's haunted the Ypsilanti campus since the day it was announced.

In the handful of years that followed the 1991 decision to shed the Huron identity at Eastern Michigan University, a noticeable lull enveloped the Ypsilanti campus as it related to energy and spirit surrounding the varsity sports program. To understand this, one must first understand the summer of 1984 for the the things it represented at EMU not relating to George Orwell or the 'Bless You Boys' Tigers.

The Mid-American Conference membership was concerned the NCAA would strip the conference of its' Division-I status because a football attendance audit for the '84 season loomed. That meant that at least half of the conference schools had to make a minimum number in average attendance per game of the league would slip into I-AA status. Back then the MAC comprised nine schools, and only four schools were locks to make that minimum number: CMU, Toledo, Bowling Green State and Miami. Four schools were locks to miss the mark: Ball State, Kent State, Ohio and EMU. The bubble school was Western Michigan, and this greatly concerned the MAC athletic directors and presidents. If WMU failed, the entire conference would tumble, too. A secret vote was scheduled; Eastern would be sacrificed.

EMU football had been in shambles since coach Mike Stock took over in 1978, mirroring the school. Buildings were boarded up on Cross Street, leading discussion of shuttering EMU altogether. Stock inherited an 8-3 team from Ed Chlebek and floundered by going 3-7 in '78 and 2-8-1 in'79, but that was tame compared to the next three seasons. After beating BGSU 18-16 on September 13, 1980, Eastern lost 27 games consecutively. It took a 9-7 triumph over Kent State at Rynearson to snap a nationally-known streak on November 6, 1982. EMU students stormed the field and snapped the goalposts in half after the game in celebration. Only six I-A or I-AA programs have suffered more (I-A: Northwestern 34, Virginia & Kansas State 28; I-AA: Prairie View 80, Columbia University 44, St. Francis, PA 30).

The Hurons had been a powerhouse in football, basketball and baseball in the late 1960s and early 1970s, allowing the NAIA school to go Division-I. Today making the leap from NAIA to major college Division-I status would be laughable but Eastern, and two years later Central, were that good. To fast forward ten years later and see EMU teetering on expulsion and extinction broke more than a few hearts.

The solution's deciding vote was cast by CMU and it took a court injunction to save Eastern. Coach Jim Harkema rallied his players and their parents to the largest EMU lecture hall, Pray-Harold, in the summer of '84 and laid it out: Either stay, fight and survive -- unanimously -- or EMU would grant every player a release and shutter the program. The Hurons decided to fight and the CMU game, scheduled for October 6th at EMU, was circled in blood.

In '83 Harkema was hired from Grand Valley State and after beating Marshall 7-3, his Hurons lost 14-straight games...until CMU in '84. The Chippewas came calling and the revival of a school was at stake. In front of a sold-out Rynearson Stadium, Central motored to a 16-0 lead, but Harkema and his Hurons would go down fighting. In the second half, EMU was beyond determined, much like the Eastern-Central game a week ago. On the game's final play, Eastern booted a long field goal to tie the Chippewas 16-16.

The message had been delivered: The Hurons would not die quietly. Eastern made the attendance mark and from '85-'89 EMU went 33-20-2, including a staggering 23-8-2 from '87-'89. The '87 team went 10-2 as MAC champions and won the California Bowl over the heavily-favored Spartans of San Jose State. EMU quarterback Ron Adams sent every Chippewa player a postcard from California to back up his guarantee that EMU would win the league after CMU had defeated EMU 16-6. Adams, the Taylor product and toughest EMU quarterback ever, made good on that bet with an exclamation point second to none.

So when the Huron identity was unceremoniously ditched in '90-91, that unique pride, spirit and determination that EMU students and student-athletes alike had come to rally behind died, too. The football team hasn't posted a winning record in the MAC since 1989 but more importantly, EMU struggles to gain a strong foothold with their older alumni. They earn a large gift sporadically, but the annual fundraising efforts resemble a trickle instead of an open tap, and often the bigger gifts are from the same, repeat donors. The school hasn't made enough inroads with the larger alumni base and money talks with more authority than any coach or school president ever will.

So what's the solution? Bring the Huron back alongside the Eagle and mirror Auburn University as an institution with two recognized nicknames. If Auburn can be both Eagles and Tigers, why can't Eastern Michigan be Hurons and Eagles?

First and foremost, EMU can accomplish this without being Indians, because the word Huron encapsulates so much of southeastern Michigan's footprint without being an exclusive reference to a Native American tribesman. This is the easiest solution to make peace with the 70,000+ alumni that believes Eastern alienated their loyal constituency for no good reason other than PC-surrender. I completely agree with those who argue that some Native American symbols foster and encourage negative stereotyping. EMU could be the first school to embrace a history in a new, positive light by rectifying images of years past without running from it's history altogether.

Second, could EMU embrace the old with the new? Maybe a return of the school's discontinued Circle-E with a feather draping of each side downward, encapsulating the phrase: "Our Huron Spirit Soars With Eagles". The school took a sacred symbol of the Native American and turned it into a cartoon caricature. Could a more dignified approach be the right approach in retrospect?

Certainly true is the fact that so many EMU alums have heard the phrase, "Until they bring back the Huron, I'm not giving any money." Facing headstrong into the teeth of an potential economic storm not seen in a generation, EMU might be smart to consider a option that could win over some hearts and pocketbooks simultaneously.

It's ironic to see one institution's Huron decision nearly 20 years ago (EMU) be in such stark contrast to a sister institution's Chippewa decision (CMU) despite the fact the two schools have so much in common as former NAIA schools, fabulous teacher colleges and a long history as strong contributors in the MAC. The bad blood that has followed for so many years is a product of difficult decisions and rivalry that becomes problematic when both schools are after the sweet fruit hanging from the same tree.

On the other hand, it makes for great theater and certainly makes Eastern's visit to Mt. Pleasant next year a must-see game in the MAC for 2009.

~ T.C. Cameron authored Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries in 2008 and is writing a follow-up to that title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due in August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

Part I: EMU's Huron Dismissal Still An Enigmatic Moment

2008-12-03T14:28:00.004-05:00

Editor's Note: This is the first of a two-part post relating to Eastern Michigan University's former Huron nickname, the aftermath and possible solution to a decision that's haunted the Ypsilanti campus since the day it was announced.

This past weekend this site got a healthy bit of traffic from online chatboards in the aftermath of Eastern Michigan's improbable, NCAA-record-setting 56-52 upset of defending Mid-American Conference (MAC) champion Central Michigan. For the Eagles, the win over the Chippewas was their fourth in five tries over their state rivals to the north, a fact that sits in the craw of CMU backers with obvious discomfort.

No EMU supporter will ever call a football season a failure when Eastern defeats Central, but many of the school's faithful continue to watch from afar because of a watershed decision that continues to defy common sense 18 years after it took place. I'm speaking of the school's decision to eliminate the Huron nickname. I read with amusement this past weekend the way current Eastern students who really know nothing of their school's decision to part ways with the Huron name defend the decision, as well as CMU's glee in rubbing Eastern's nose in it.

Central-Eastern has been an ugly game for both schools in all sports going back to 1984. That was when CMU administrators cast the deciding ballot in a secret vote designed to ensure the MAC's status as a Division-I conference by eliminating EMU from the league. Eastern fought that decision with a court injunction in the same summer the Detroit Tigers started 35-5 en route to their last world championship. Trust me, that's another story on it's own.

The demise of the Huron started quietly during the 1990 football season and quickly became the worst-kept secret on campus, when the 'Marching Hurons' were told to stop playing the old war chant and Huron Fight Song. Ironically, the first game this was noticed was the '90 Central Michigan homecoming game that attracted over 24,000 fans to then-tiny Rynearson Stadium. Eastern was in the midst of an eight-game losing streak during a 2-9 campaign but fought head coach Herb Deromedi's Chippewas with everything they had in a 16-12 loss. EMU was driving towards the CMU endzone when time ran out and I've not witnessed a harder-hitting game at EMU since.

In January 1991, at the height of campus angst over the conversion of Desert Shield to Desert Storm, when there was a campus protest literally every night, the Board of Regents and then-President William Shelton dropped the name Hurons. Shelton was the same man who helped convinced the administration at Kent State University to try to identify itself as 'Kent' in an attempt to distance itself from the history of the 1970 killings of Kent State students by the Ohio National Guard during an on-campus Vietnam War protest.

Does anyone with more than two marbles in their head believe Kent State isn't the same Kent State because it only says 'Kent' on the shirt? That's like renaming Detroit's 12th street as Rosa Parks Boulevard so that no one the wiser will remember the 1967 riots started on 12th Street at Clairemont.

Anyway, that year EMU's men's basketball team, coached by Ben Braun and led by Detroit Northern's Lorenzo Neeley, the Thomas twins from Lansing and Troy High's Marcus Kennedy, thundered to the Mid-American Conference title. The Hurons took the regular season crown and swept the MAC tournament title in Detroit's Cobo Arena. A week later Eastern upset SEC-champion Mississippi State and the Atlantic-1o's Penn State Nittany Lions in overtime to advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament at the Courier Dome in Syracuse, New York.

It was in the tournament that the nation's press corps fell in love with the 'no-names'. Because of the previous January decision, the press wrote stories about this team from this funny-named Ypsilanti, and just how do you pronounce 'Ypsilanti', and what's with this 'Ypsi' reference? And, they don't even have a nickname, either! That and 12th man Joe Frasor's ability to land himself in just about every celebratory picture published made Eastern a fresh story, which is the equivalent of sports journalism gold. More importantly, what should have been the proudest moment for Eastern's loyal backers was another opportunity to be irritated and chaffed by the fodder created by the Huron decision. The Hurons lost to top-ranked North Carolina after a gritty upset attempt died in the last eight minutes of the regional semifinal game in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Four months later EMU quietly replaced Hurons with Eagles. Yes, EMU unceremoniously ditched their symbolism with an Indian tribe in favor of a cartoon caricature of one of the Indian's most sacred symbols, the eagle.

The irony in that still makes me shake my head.

For the next few years an overload of bumper stickers, shirts and banners proclaiming "Forever Hurons" and "Once A Huron, Always A Huron" drew the loudest cheers of the night at EMU football and basketball games. Then-EMU Athletic Director Gene Smith, now the current AD at Ohio State University, tried in vain to smooth the ill will with little success. Smith left EMU for Iowa State in 1993, surely thankful to have the Huron headache behind him.

What amazes me is how hard EMU tries to spin this decision today. I was a student on campus during the 1990-91 school year. It was an ugly reaction to the decision, and it only worsened with every attempt EMU made to justify it. First EMU shamed the Huron tribe by trying to impart that the actual Hurons had pressured EMU towards this decision -- it wasn't true. The Hurons, who migrated to Oklahoma, actually sent a letter of support from the tribe's chief on official letterhead. EMU then paraded a purported Indian chief out to say that Indian head logos and nicknames embrace stereotypes that degrade Indians. Fair enough at face value, except the man saying this had a less-than-savory criminal history. Oops. Later, Bill Shelton tried to say no Hurons ever lived in the Huron Valley -- again, a mistruth. Anyone who's read Saint Among The Hurons or knows native American history know the Hurons were in the Great Lakes region and were sadly slaughtered in battle.

Today, the university prints a cautionary tale at every opportunity it gets about the name Hurons being picked in a contest by a student who worked at the former Huron Hotel. The story recants in great detail how the student was 'undoubtedly' influenced by his place of employment, and the runner-up in that contest was 'Pioneers'.

Coming Next: The solution that is most plausible and why EMU could benefit the most from the potential solution.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due out in August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing

48 Hours Not Enough

2008-12-02T18:04:00.006-05:00

Is there such thing as prep sports overload?

I ask because in the summertime, when the days are carefree, the breezes are warm and the passion on the fields and floors are at a sleepy lull, we prep sports junkies pine for the scholastic season...mostly because there's so little to write about.

But to quote the irrepressible one, ESPN's Lee Corso, not so fast my friend. On Saturday we kissed the prep football season to bed for another year with the MHSAA finals at Ford Field, and Monday night we said hello to another basketball season with the opening games for the girls' campaign.

Wow. A whole 48 hours of down time. I could barely book an overnight with a round-trip flight to New York City for a quickie trip to 72nd and Amsterdam for a Grey's Papaya special in that time. In case you're wondering, that's two New York-style hot dogs and a large fruit drink for $3.50. Where's Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte when I need them? At least we got to skip the Lions on Sunday. Ah, small favors.

It used to be football season ended and there was at least a little down time, even if that was one short week. This year, like it was last year, the knickers are barely out of the dryer and into the storage bin from football season as the basketball shirts, pants and whistles are being yanked out for another season.

And who do we have to thank for this? That handful of mothers from Grand Rapids, who over 10 years ago declared that they were going to change the world for the better by forcing the Michigan High School Athletic Association to move girls basketball to the winter with the boys. By doing this, volleyball would be playing the fall and Michigan would join the other 49 states in that time-honored game, Follow The Leader.

In the meantime, I'm tired...of being tired.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due out in August of 2009 from Arcadia Publishing

Michigan's Weekend O' Prep Football Still A Great Value

2008-11-30T09:59:00.002-05:00

For all the nay-saying and negative news pouring out of Michigan these days, there's still a lot to brag about in our state. We still have the charter game of the marquee weekend in pro football's regular season with the Thanksgiving Day matinee. Yes, the Detroit Lions haven't been compelling theater in nearly three consecutive presidential terms, but I'll address that later.

Following the annual Turkey Day game, the Michigan High School Athletic Association holds it's yearly football finals at Ford Field, another Michigan tradition since the mid-to-late 1970s at the Pontiac Silverdome. There was a tremendous crowd for yesterday's Lake Orion - Rockford matchup, the gold stamp contest among eight different championship games over Friday and Saturday. I would guesstimate the assembled masses at near 20,000 for the Division I final, and I'm surprised it wasn't significantly more.

I'm surprised because we've all heard so much about our dying economy's terrifying effects of the last nearly two years. There's thousands of houses in foreclosure, jobs literally evaporating, credit virtually impossible to secure, the list is endless. Yet the Lions, at 0-11 and practically begging for people to buy tickets, get a sellout on Thanksgiving at over $40 a ticket and parking around the stadium going for $50 a car. The MHSAA? Despite the great turnout, they still had seats to spare in the endzones of the lower bowl in Ford Field. For the cost of a $10 ticket, a fan gets four games and parking locked in at $6 per car at a handful of lots, making the day-long experience of four games at Ford Field less than dinner for two at a coney island.

I'm very surprised that more fans don't take advantage of the incredible value that is the MHSAA football finals. Yes, this is a Lions town and Detroit fans have supported their team in even the most head-turning times (for example, this year, right?), so that much I understand. It's this loyalty that makes Detroit one of the nation's great sports towns.

I've sometimes been critical of the MHSAA, like many coaches, administrators, fans and fellow officials have been on many different issues. That's life. Sometimes my writing and refereeing is seen as dead-on and other times it's viewed with a less complimentary eye. After two years of attending the football finals in two different capacities, I'm floored at how effective a small army of dedicated athletic administrators, aka the MHSAA, are at transforming a mammoth, 65,000-seat facility that earned a SuperBowl and a Final Four into an incredible experience for 16 competing schools and all the marching bands, cheer squads, pom-pon teams and dance corps that accompany the championship teams. The MHSAA is to be applauded for that.

Last year I volunteered as a down box linesman for two of the eight games, and this year I covered the Lake Orion - Rockford matchup for The Oakland Press. You can read my championship game sidebar story that ran in today's edition here, and the Lake Orion - Dearborn Fordson retrospective that ran last week is linked here. I've often wondered aloud why the MHSAA doesn't share it's championship experience with a greater pool of officials, and the MHSAA has begun to address this very issue in a more proactive manner. Yet after this weekend, I can say with absolute conviction that Michigan's football finals is an incredible experience in a mesmerizing venue and it's something anyone associated with prep football should support in earnest. That might mean pushing hard to earn a finals assignment as a contest official, or volunteer as an administrator or coach, or simply purchase a few tickets and bring the family.

It's really an incredible undertaking and one that is done for the kids, which makes it all the more remarkable in today's economic climate. There are game site options available to the MHSAA that would be much more cost-friendly than Ford Field. The MHSAA gets no discount to play their championship at the Lions' facility because to Ford Field, it's just another date that could be booked with a different event, and you don't stay in business giving your product away all the time. There's no media discount either -- the cost to hook up to Ford Field's BlueZone internet service on a per day, per reporter basis was $30, the same as a Lions game. Yet the finals continue to be held at the state's premiere facility because our Michigan schools, stocked by Michigan families, expect no less of an experience than the generation before them, and the MHSAA is committed to delivering on that promise.

Our state's communities get a SuperBowl-quality experience in a SuperBowl venue -- and how many prep football fans around the country can say that?

~ T.C. Cameron is writing Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due in August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

How Do You Kill Something That Doesn't Exist?

2008-11-24T15:26:00.008-05:00

I'm officially on a mission to kill a word, a word that isn't really a word but one that, nonetheless, manages to be misused, overused and has become an icon of the cheesy television announcer guy.

Trickeration. It's not even a damn word!

Don't believe me? Check it out yourself at Dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/trickeration

Nobody's a worse offender than ESPN's Reese Davis, with the constant 'trickeration' references that dot the blizzard of college football highlights on any given Saturday. How has this non-word become a word so synonymous with any number of football gadget plays is beyond me.

What really gnaws at me isn't that the word is used so much as much as who transformed the pseudo-word into an accepted part of college football vernacular. Real journalists from real journalism schools! No, not the meatheads and ex-jocks that have managed to infiltrate the press box, but rather the writers, reporters and media professionals made this non-entry in any working dictionary into a word that's not yet a real word.

Clearly, the writer in me is getting the best of me, whatever that 'best' is...

No 'Trickeration' Needed For Lake Orion: I was as shocked as anyone at the ease and precision the Lake Orion Dragons executed with in dismantling undefeated Dearborn Fordson. The Tractors had run on everyone and anyone -- at will -- until the semifinal matchup at Troy Athens.

The Dragons looked they were breathing fire -- not cold air -- in the ferocity with which they attacked Fordson, who looked frustrated and thoroughly confused from the jump in Orion's 38-0 runaway win. Even the first play, a Fordson pass, was a runaway train going the other way in the form of an intercepted pass returned for a score, not that I saw it. I was walking up to the stadium, filled with about 7,500 fans -- a beautiful sight -- and it was already 7-0 before 30 seconds elapsed from the game clock.

By the way, let me echo Tom Markowski, who joined myself and Oakland Press guru Keith Dunlap in the cozy confines of the press box at Athens, in saying athletic director Bob Dowd and Athens did a fabulous job hosting their third-straight semifinals. Parking is plentiful, ingress and egress to and from the school campus is accomodating and the facility is first-rate. I think Athens should be an easy choice to join Ferndale's Division I (formerly Class A) boys' quarterfinal in Oakland County as an annual site for an annual playoff game.

As for the upcoming championships, Lake Orion and Warren De LaSalle have a chance to deliver the two marquee championships to the metropolitan area, the east side of the state, in a year when it looked like the west side of the state would run away any and all hardware available to the statewide contingency of schools offering football. That and it'll be interesting to see if Detroit Country Day has learned anything from their runners-up defeat last year towards winning a championship.

Book's For Sale At Ford Field: Copies of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries will be available at the Michigan High School Athletic Association's football finals at Ford Field on Friday and Saturday.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit Officials For Kids, the charitable arm of the MHSAA's corp of registered officials.

Come watch some great football -- $10 gets you four games and two locals schools each day -- and buy the book as a gift for you or someone else and most importantly, help some kids who deserve it more than anything else!

The book will be parked by the Lighthouse Sportswear station in the main atrium and will be advertised on the LED scoreboards during the games!

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, a follow-up of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, and blogs for The Oakland Press at www.MIPrepZone.com

Oakland County Leads East Side Comeback

2008-11-22T21:46:00.007-05:00

If you had asked most prep football fans after Week Three of the 2008 MHSAA football season where the strength of the state lied in terms of regional supremacy, more would have voted for the lower west side of the state than voted for Barack Obama two weeks ago.

Thanks to Oakland County's strong showing and a handful of schools in and around metro Detroit, any mandate from the voters 10 weeks ago carries about as much clout as a restaurant bill signed on behalf of the City of Detroit by county inmate Kwame Kilpatrick.

Three of the four schools from the Division I semifinals were metro Detroit schools, including Lake Orion, who was breathing fire instead of cold breath in a start-to-finish domination of the Dearborn Fordson Tractors at Troy Athens tonight. Livonia Stevenson has made back-to-back trips to the semifinals, a strong testament to the quality of play in the Kensington Lakes league.

Detroit Country Day, Bloomfield Hills Lahser, Southfield High, Warren DeLaSalle and Inkster's Vikings all made it to the semifinal showdowns today, with DCD, Inkster and DeLaSalle advancing to next week's chapionships at Ford Field. The possibility of having four Oakland County schools playing for championships didn't come to fruition but it's still an impressive feat that the possibility even existed. The Yellowjackets are returning for a back-to-back finals appearance and there's a chance that two Oakland County teams and four metropolitan schools could earn titles next weekend.

Obviously Lake Orion's rematch with Rockford will be the most highly-discussed game in some time because a start and finish bookend games between two East-West superpowers is also about as likely as the Lions beating Tennessee on Turkey Day. The two schools opened the season at Eastern Michigan University's Rynearson Stadium and the Rams emerged as 17-7 victors.

Now we as a community and region must support our own cause. Two mega days of prep football at Ford Field. It's time to bolster our own economy and and show the flag of the east side of the state. Our youth from four local schools located in three different counties will be ready, willing and able on the field -- will we return the favor in the stands?

Metro Detroit's Thanksgiving Football Tradtion Worth Keeping

2008-11-19T07:41:00.002-05:00

As the Detroit Lions continue to stumble towards the finish line of one of the more miserable seasons in their 75-year history, journalists of local and national flavor alike have bantered the possibility of Detroit losing their signature Thanksgiving Day game.

It's never good when the home team loses, loses a lot and loses in a manner that's of an embarrassing nature, week after week, and this subject matter that threatens the viability of the Turkey Day game is a by-product of that losing culture. However, losing this game would be a great injustice for many reasons, but it's a subject rooted in America's ugly side of entitlement more than any other reason. The donut-eaters who fill press boxes at national sporting events feel compelled to tell you that they deserve an amazing, competitive game to cover, write about, televise or report upon every year. Yes, there's truth that the National Football League ought to be concerned at the long stretch of uncompetitive games, seasons and Thanksgiving Day contests the Lions' have played in the last 10 years. At the same time, this game, it's roots and traditions go back to a time when the NFL was struggling to earn a national fan base of any kind, and it leaned on the passionate Detroit football fans in 1934 to begin a rite of passage in America that's survived nearly five generations.

What's also of interest is what was sacrificed in the southeastern Michigan region from the Thumb to the state line in Toledo for this national-televised Thanksgiving Day game. Specifically, many high school and collegiate traditions that were shuttered in the 1950s and 60s, resurrected only when the Lions opened play in the Pontiac Metropolitan Stadium, better known as the Silverdome.

Many marquee, signature games within the prep landscape in Michigan were played on Thanksgiving Day. In metro Detroit, Royal Oak High's Acorns and Birmingham High's Maples played 45 times on Turkey Day, starting in 1915 or 1916, the first year of play unconfirmed. It was Royal Oak High's Eva Moore, a counselor at the now-closed school on Washington Avenue, who drummed up the idea for a trophy, a ceramic brown jug. Birmingham end John Sheppard painted the jug red, white and blue to symbolize the school colors of both schools. The Acorns to the south end of Woodward Avenue took 24 wins to Birmingham's 14, while seven games ended in a tie. Royal Oak forfeited the 1925 game but it's '35 squad earned recognition as the state's football champion.

In Saginaw, Arthur Hill High and Saginaw High commenced their spirited rivalry on the famed Thursday day of feast. Former Detroit Tiger broadcaster Paul Carey watched many a game from the sidelines as his father, a long-respected game official, worked the contest as the game's Referee. These games were the staple of the high school season for many years in the Midland-Bay City-Saginaw region. Yes, there's a tradition in 'The Valley' that speaks to basketball prowess but before the hardwood game came to prominence as we know it today, football was king in Saginaw.

The Goodfellows Game at Briggs Stadium pitted the Detroit's Catholic League champion versus the Detroit public school league champion, then known as the Metropolitan League. Often the winner earned distinction in state media polls as the state's title winner. That game ceased in 1967, but it's legacy lives on in the memories of so many former players and coaches.

Today, the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) stages the championship games of it's annual football tournament on Thanksgiving weekend at Ford Field. From 1983-2002, prep title games were played in one of the only facilities to host a Super Bowl after the Silverdome successfully hosted Super Bowl XVI, still one of the highest-rated Super Bowl in television history. After Detroit successfully hosted Super Bowl XL, the same will be said of every championship game played at Ford Field since 2006.

How many state associations can say that? For what was sacrificed to make the pro game possible here, should our football community have to lose the charter Thanksgiving Day game just because the Lions are lacking in the left side of the win-loss ledger?

These traditions, along with Detroit's Thanksgiving Day parade and NFL football game, were built upon the backbone of Detroit's prep football history and the region's sporting passion. It was WWJ-950 AM that took the initiative of broadcasting the first professional Thanksgiving Day game to a national radio audience, a 19-16 victory that the Chicago Bears took from the Lions at the now-demolished University of Detroit stadium. The Bears, under legendary coach George Halas, were gross favorites that day but were entangled in a dogfight by the Lions, who had recently relocated from Ohio, where they were known as the Spartans. It was that game effort that endeared the Lions to their new neighbors. NFL football on Turkey Day was then just a dream that became reality in Detroit.

Thanksgiving Day in Detroit and the traditions that surround this one game go back further than any of us have been alive, and that should be taken in account by the many journalists, executives, and decision-makers that offer, make or enforce opinion as it relates to the Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit.

From Irreverant To Irrelevant On A Rainy Saturday

2008-11-15T10:32:00.003-05:00

It's a lousy day to be outside, so I'm rocking it from the home office today. There's a ton of good college football on the television after a mother load of great prep football playoff games last night in metro Detroit.

First, Detroit Southeastern and their Jungaleers seemto have fought the good fight, save for a handful of turnovers in the third quarter, versus regional champion Dearborn Fordson in a 29-18 Tractor win. Lake Orion kicks a 49-yard field goal on the last play after Rick Bye's Stevenson Titans came back from 28 points down last night?Croswell-Lexington also kicked a game-winning field goal versus Clintondale and the Spartans of Livonia Stevenson notched two touchdowns late in the fourth quarter to defeat Plymouth Canton 38-31.

A fabulous Friday of football, except for the idiots who populated M-Live.com's East Michigan Ffootball forum (what's new, right?) with a ton of fake scores for the Lake Orion -Stevenson outcome. Shame on the talentless clowns who did this. I was alerted to it this morning, checked it out myself and have to say, it instantly vindicated every parent, booster club, coach and athletic director who forbids posting on this forum. You cannot trust what you read on M-Live, but we already knew that, right J49?

Do you have a Top Ten I-Pod list? I was thinking about this last night because as an official, you hear all the 'in' music at the local gyms and fields of the high schools, which is one of the reasons I like officiating -- you never lose that hip edge. So, I went through the 140 songs I have listed on my I-Pod and came up with my Top 10 classic rock / hard rock songs. Here goes...

10. Frankenstein by Edgar Winter 9. Rebel Rebel by David Bowie 8. Misty Mountain Hop by Led Zeppelin 7. Power by Rainbow (love the hard riffs from guitarist Ritchie Blackmore!) 6. Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo by Rick Derringer 5. Thunderstruck by AC/DC (quite possibly the greatest sports anthem ever) 4. Rock and Roll by Led Zeppelin 3. Life During Wartime ("Heard about Houston, heard about Dee-troit, heard about Pittsburgh, PA...") from the Talking Heads 2. Bang Your Head by Quiet Riot 1. Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin.

Can you tell I'm a Led Zeppelin fanatic? I seriously could have replaced any of those three Zep tunes for 10 other Zep tunes and still been in good graces with the world's greatest rock band of all time. There's a monstrous coffee-table book called Whole Lotta Led and it's a must-see, must-read for any serious rock fan or Zeppelin fanatic.

Speaking of music and fanatics, two weeks ago I wrote about the emerging death of the old platform of publishing that we all grew up with in the pre-Internet age. I specifically lamented that Rolling Stone is abandoning it's near-poster sized publication format for a smaller, more eco/cost-friendly format. Then Rolling Stone came out and pronounced Aretha Franklin the greatest rock singer of the rock era.

OK, I take all of that back! Just keep going, going, and be gone, in the words of legendary Yankee shill-man Mel Allen. If Aretha Franklin is the greatest rock singer of all-time, I'm fully qualified to be the Referee in this year's Super Bowl. Maybe it's because I live in metro Detroit and know of the many creditors Franklin has stiffed, of the house she was rumored to have had burned down in toney Bloomfield Hills or the fact that she now looks like former Chicago Bear tackle William "The Refrigerator" Perry, but how can Rolling Stone be taken seriously when it ignores so many other great singers and songwriters and instead selects everyone's favorite Energy Pig this side of Al Gore?

Rolling Stone, you really ain't gettin' any government bailout money now. Being a liberal rag is one thing, but naming Aretha the greatest rock singer? While you're at it, why not put Madonna in the Rock n' Roll Hall-Of-Fame, or put the Rock n' Roll Hall-Of-Fame in Cleveland, or call Cleveland the birthplace of rock music. Christ, what's next? Al Gore really did invent the Internet?

Can't R-E-S-P-E-C-T any of that garbage. Detroit Rock City, baby!

OK, I'm done now. Rock the day!

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing

Contract Locked For Basketball Book!!

2008-11-14T20:44:00.005-05:00

I'm proud to announce the final contracts have been signed and Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries from Arcadia Publishing has been formally green-lighted!

Of course, there's some significant changes that have taken place in the few months between the football and basketball book. One, I have the necessary time to find images with a bit more careful eye, nearly four more months than I did in the football book. That also means I'll be able to I.D subjects that time didn't permit with the football book. Written in a scant 45 days that also included securing one-shot photo rights, photo scans and book layout, 'Football Rivalries' was put together on a truncated time table to say the least.

Another significant change is I'm represented by a real literary agent instead of me, myself and I. Being a member ofASJA brought me in contact with Terry Whalin of The Whalin Literary Agency. That justified any and all dues paid, as did moderating the ASJA blogging seminar in NYC last April. That experience gave me a healthy dose of confidence -- being able to pull together a well-received session on a national stage changed a lot of things for me. If you have even the smallest bug to write, attending a writer's conference can be an energizing experience and I have two book contracts to attest to that fact.

Finally, I've come to the realization that despite my very best efforts, tired eyes can easily be defeated, so I've farmed out some help. That lets me focus on some of the bigger fish in the large scope of putting a book together, no matter the genre or publication format. Learn and live kind of thing, for sure.

So, with the formalities, legalese and small print out of the way, it's time to dive onto the floor, through the trophy cases and yearbook archives of metro Detroit's very best prep basketball from the hardwood pines, as John Fountain, the famous honey-toned voice of Eastern Michigan Hurons basketball, might say. From Pontiac to Mt. Clemens, Grosse Pointe to River Rouge, the PSL and all points in between, the ball's rolling once again!

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing

A Few Official Points To Consider

2008-11-06T09:57:00.006-05:00

This morning Detroit Free Press preps writer Mick McCabe grabbed the attention of every official in the metro Detroit area, and probably many statewide, too.

McCabe wrote about the standard to bear for a game official to be assigned the tournament finals, including the way an official receives a rating, a lack of accountability if an official makes a mistake and finally, why the best officials aren't always on the biggest games because the state has a five-year respite rule for officials between finals' assignments.

A great read and a good snapshot of the officiating culture in the MHSAA footprint, except for one missing point, a large point of contention if you ask me and many others, and it has to do with why officials who work the finals can't receive the same assignment for another five seasons.

The five-year respite rule is in place because the same officials from the same zones got the same championship assignments for years and years and years under former leadership. Why did that happen? One, there was no such rule to prohibit the practice. Second, every officiating association is asked to submit a list of 10 names for the annual, championship tournaments. Many years the favorite sons of the power brokers in these associations were penned in at the expense of other deserving officials, sometimes under an erase-and-replace scenario. I know -- it's happened to me and many others.

That's politics, to make it short and sweet. Give MHSAA Associate Director Mark Uyl and the MHSAA credit for trying to share the playoff experience by expanding the field of qualified officials. This motivates more officials to work harder to polish their craft and helps extinguish the belief that the playoffs are an exclusive club for a select few officials. McCabe points out a handful of mistakes in last week's games as evidence that this policy is misguided. That's a fair complaint. There's a few growing pains, but expanding the pool of qualified playoff officials won't come without a few bumps and bruises. No one wants to see a mistake impact a game, and no athletic director wants to have that mistake happen in their school's game, but how do you expand that pool and expect perfection? Something's got to give.

I used to wonder how I can work three sports collegiately, one at the Division-I level, and not get past the quarterfinal in every state tournament since I became eligible except one. Then I got a good look at the nomination process, and the truth is, being a good politician goes a lot further than being a good official. I'm not saying good officials don't get good assignments, but I am saying I'm not the first official to feel this way. On the other hand, it's always easy to feel slighted because every good official feels they're not moving up the ladder the way they should. I've made some mistakes in my officiating career, so I'm humble enough to be thankful for what I have been assigned and not lament what I haven't been assigned.

McCabe points out a fairly accurate number of flaws in the ratings system but there's a caveat to the coaches' ratings that was overlooked. A lot of officials pass on the right call, the tough call and sometimes, the call that is both of those things to keep a good rating in tact. That's not wrong, that's simply playing by the rules. That McCabe has never seen a flagged waved off all year could be a possible example of this. Most qualified officials know some coaches don't know the rules or don't recognize all the indicators of a good official, so they protect themselves from a bad rating from the coaches. That's simply insulating yourself from a bad mark from those who have the most influence.

Is that any different than any other workplace culture in America? No.

The MHSAA represents the schools, so ultimately, it's the schools that are comfortable with these decisions. The flaws in the ratings system that McCabe illustrated are correct. Trust me when I say the schools, the MHSAA, the coaches and officials across the state know the rating system is flawed when it comes to giving an accurate picture of an official's true acumen. But there's little resource to offer anything else at the high school level. It's not a perfect world.

I think the MHSAA is doing the right thing, slowly but surely, in expanding the pool of qualified officials. It will take some time. The officials will make some mistakes. The MHSAA will make an assignment or two they regret. Mistakes will happen. There's some conflict-of-interest issues and some repetitive assignment issues to still be ironed out. It takes a long time to change long-held beliefs and cultures. Be patient.

The MHSAA and the schools they represent can't expect their best officials to be able to officiate forever. Officiating isn't a growth industry and the MHSAA is doing what they can to change that, so you can't expect progress without a few mistakes.

Prep sports is ultimately about doing your best, working hard to improve yourself and your team and being a good representative of your community. The MHSAA's officiating platform has to be allowed to expand under the same guidelines.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing

No Foul On Further Review Column

2008-11-05T08:33:00.004-05:00

If you watched Michigan State University's improbable 25-24 win over the University of Wisconsin last Saturday as I did, you might have come to the same head-scratching conclusion as I did: How did that happen?

What grabs my attention today is the stark difference in focus one state's group of fans and journalists are taking in comparison to the other state's like group. MSU fans and journalists are concerned with the program's confident turnaround, the school's disciplined leader and the resolute attitude from players. Wisconsin is talking about penalties, officiating and lack or leadership. Did this one-point game reveal more than what we saw on Saturday? Completely dominated for the great majority of the game, Michigan State made just enough plays when it counted the most to evade a certain defeat. It was the kind of game fans have grown accustomed to watching Michigan -- not Michigan State -- win over the past 40 years. Maybe this is truly a year of change in this state and this country, after all. Michigan State was out-rushed by the Badgers in a staggering 281-25 differential. The Badgers led for almost 50 minutes, most of that time in convincing fashion. The Spartans led for less than seven whole seconds, yet the Spartans won, because they led at the most crucial time, when there was no time left, even if it was by the slimmest of margins.

As I exited Spartan Stadium among a jubilant throng of green and white, I was consumed by the differences in opinion being, shall we say, spewed into the atmosphere, by the fans of each team. The Wisconsin faithful weren't forgiving a holding call that scrubbed a 3rd-and-1 conversion and subsequent 1st-and-goal late in the game that would have salted the victory away for Wisconsin. Instead, a false start tacked on five more yards and turned a 1st-and-goal into a 3rd-and-16 that Wisconsin didn't convert. After the Badgers punted the football, the Spartans drove down the field for a game-winning field goal on the next-to-last play of the game.
For the game, the Spartans were penalized twice for 30 yards while the Badgers absorbed 12 penalties for 121 yards.

Yesterday, in my attempt to silence the political drone early in the day, I started looking online for the Madison / Wisconsin papers to address the game's stark differences in that category via the US Sports Pages site . Among the many I found at BadgerBeat.com, I came across an article titled After Further Review by Mike Lucas from The Capital Times in Madison. Lucas took a different tact in addressing the issues of officiating. He wrote a fair, balanced op-ed about the different forces at play during Saturday's discourse in frustration for Wisconsin's football fortunes.

It's not the only article of this particular game's officiating emanating from Wisconsin, just merely the one article that takes a fair look at the game's officiating with any balance or credible source quotes. Tom Mulhern wrote about Badger coach Bret Bielema's task of eliminating penalties. Mulhern also writes about Bielema's Monday press conference in regards to Saturday's penalties and Bielema's lack of contrition. Columnist Andy Baggot wrote an irresponsible piece that suggested officials are instituting a revenge policy for Bielema's first two years as coach. I want to give the piece the benefit of the doubt and say it was a blog, but it looks like America's longest run-on sentence. Finally, columnist Tom Oates wrote of Bielema's role in garnering a 15-yard unsportsmanlike foul against his team.

There's no shortage for opinion in the Cheese state about this game. Let me also say I have a lot more respect for coaches, players and officials than I do for some of these writers. It's much easier to avoid critical mistakes when you watch games from afar inside cozy press boxes. Based on what I can cull from their writing, some of these men don't have a particularly strong acumen for what gets invested into these games from a professional, physical and emotional standpoint. If that seems harsh, I make no apologies for calling it like I see it. I've done their job, and I know they've never done mine.

Lucas sourced some of his information from Officiating.com, a site I used to write for. I didn't appreciate the less-than-timely pay or the belief that quality writing shouldn't be compensated with more than a few peanuts but I can say the site's template allows for the dispersal of instant opinion from the informed writer or referee. There's a thorough dissection of the holding call that drew the ire of the Badger fans that Lucas references in his article.

What's of interest to me is that Lucas used a healthy amount of relevant, historical background, specifically the 1991 Wisconsin-Iowa game that featured another controversial holding call involving then Iowa Hawkeye Bret Bielema, sprinkled in some common-sense application about earning your place at the table and veered away from the usual angry vitriol that fuels most columns about officiating. It was the kind of balanced opinion-writing that we're missing more and more in today's 'How can we create Shock & Awe' journalism game.

The column speaks to me because of the reasoned opinion, statistical fact and credible sources Lucas credits. He let the story tell the story and gave the reader enough fact to make a decision on their own instead of trying to march into history as another op-ed beatdown of the faceless ref or coach turned punching bag.

Like I said, it truly looks and feels like a season of change.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing

Print Media's Amber Alert Won't Be Issued

2008-11-03T12:12:00.006-05:00

The American media model we all grew up with, grew accustomed with and embraced as our informational drinking fountains are drying up. News papers, magazines and other resources are crackling into oblivion like dry trees in a raging wildfire. The print world is being replaced with URL's, hyperlinks and CCS templates to accompany terms like Web 2.0 and blogosphere.

This isn't your father's media, that's for sure.

This morning I opened my daily news primer, courtesy of MediaBistro. If you haven't checked out M-B, it's well worth the fee, which is a few dollars more than a high school varsity football official will make in one game to get a year's worth of access to the national scope of what's news in the media industry. It's an electronic buffet of the best magazine, newspaper and electronic media news from all relevant corners of the country.

That brings me to the dichotomy that so many papers and magazines are facing: At what point to they admit theonline ventures they've engaged themselves in are indeed the future media model to follow and subsequently ditch the hard copy version they were chartered from?

The Christian Science Monitor made huge headlines last month when it announced it was discontinuing the staple magazine-format that had made her famous. I can still remember my dearly-departed journalism professor, the unforgettable Curt Stadtfeld (pictured above), from the fourth floor of Eastern Michigan University's Pray-Harold building, telling us he "missed reading the Christian Science Monitor like an old love; like a taste on the tip of my tongue..." How much do I remember Stadtfeld's lectures? I can still see his outdated shirts in my mind and his voice resonates within my head, his lessons lasting like the thunder of a college fight song's dramatic crescendo.

Rolling Stone is no longer publishing the large, almost poster-sized template that it was pioneered upon. Many national newspaper sites in the larger-than-life media markets like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles have instituted subscription requirements for online access.
One of the more interesting arguments I hear from the old guard at the many small and medium sized newspapers within metro Detroit is that neither the paper or online versions of their product have enough demand to justify eliminating one in favor of the other. My question is how much is one bleeding traffic from the other and vice-versa? I have to believe that the pool of readers and viewers of one is diluted by the other simultaneously.

What if The Oakland Press, Pontiac's flagship news source, ceased publication of the paper to produce a subscription-only online product? If you haven't checked out the new Michigan Prep Zone , you can get a quick look at what the future of a writer's mainstream media will look like. I can't speak for the O-P, or the Free Press or News for that matter, but you can't tell me that day isn't coming. If nothing else, the resources that go into a newspaper are a ten-fold increase over an online edition.

Paper to print upon and delivery of that product from a mill. A facility to produce the paper. Machinery to crank out papers by the thousands. Operational manpower to run the machinery, bundle, package and deliver the paper. Finally, a pool of hungry sharks to procure enough ad revenue to keep the publication afloat while a top-notch editorial staff goes out and pounds the pavement to cultivate a keep an attentive audience.

Conversely, with an exclusive online edition, you have to implement an expensive army of servers with an ocean's worth of mainframe storage and custom CCS creation. Add editors, writers, photographers and design professionals. No expensive machinery to buy, lease or fix. A mountain's worth of savings from a physical production standpoint.

You can see why the old newspaper model is going to fail. When I hear writers lamenting the small fees they are offered to write online, I wonder if they understand that until one or the other fails first, there simply isn't enough cash in the kitty left to pay a good writer what he or she is worth. Further, if a writer wants to get paid, where's the least amount of overhead to be found to pay writers from.

The world is online -- how soon will the writers who could benefit most from it embrace that fact is still open for debate. As for the media world Stadtfeld left behind? I 'Googled' his name and found a pair of letters Stadtfeld penned to Harper's Magazine in the late 1960s as a response to an issue that riled him up beyond mere opinion, because Curtis K. Stadtfeld was never without words. When I clicked on the links to read them in whole, I was told in a matter of words:

"Of course you can read them -- you just have to subscribe for as low as $16.97 a year."

It's time to subscribe to the new media world.

~T.C. Cameron is writing his second book, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

Referees Weren't Always Faceless, Nameless Robots

2008-10-31T08:28:00.005-04:00

Before we got ourselves in a big hurry to be professional referees, we used to be human beings with real jobs and real personalities. Don't construe that thought to mean referees haven't evolved for the better with a higher degree of professionalism. As a matter of record, quite to the contrary, we have. I'm saying that there was a day when it was accepted, even expected, to show your human side as you officiated a ball game.

If you have children who graduated from one of the high schools in Dearborn, you probably know of Arella Studios and owner Angelo Arella. Located near the intersection of Military and Michigan behind the train tracks, Arella's operation has been a Dearborn institution for over 70 years. But like so many of his peers, Arella remains a proud graduate of his high school, Dearborn's Fordson High, and he spun some yarn Tuesday of an official who was working for the downtown newspaper as he refereed a big ballgame and in the process, helped push a young teenager into a life as a photographer.

Working as a cub photographer for his school's yearbook, the Fleur De Lis, Arella was shooting a game between the Tractors and Grosse Pointe High from the endzone at Fordson. The Pointers held a 6-0 lead in the fourth quarter when Fordson began marching down the field late in the annual Border Cities League (BCL) game between the two rival schools. One of the game's officials was none other than George Maskin, who at that time worked on the sports staff as an editor for the now-defunct Detroit Times.

The drive culminated when the Fordson tailback thundered into the endzone to tie the game. As the extra point was being converted, Maskin shot a quick question toward the young journalist: "Hey kid, did you get that touchdown?" Arella replied, Yeah, I got the touchdown." So Maskin tells Arella to give him the plate and he'll run the picture in the paper tomorrow -- and pay him $15 to boot!

"I can't give you this plate. My father bought it for me and he'll never let me back in the house if I don't come home with it," Arella explained. "OK, kid, then come downtown tonight. You can produce the photo yourself, write the cutline and I'll make sure you get paid." Arella thought that was a fair deal until he arrived at the plant to find the paper's union members weren't so generous with him. "There was no way I was going to let one of them produce it because they would end up telling Maskin the plate was bad and there was no picture -- I knew that much was certain," Arella remembers. Anyway, Maskin asked Arella for all his information and ran the picture. Arella got a nice photo credit and got paid, too.

The next week, Arella was at home when the phone rang with a deep-throated, nameless voice on the other end.

"Hey kid, Inkster High is playing a big game tomorrow afternoon. We don't have anyone to shoot it. We could use two or three photos..." The caller hung up just as quickly. Arella immediately knew who it was and went down to shoot the game. In an amazing coincidence, his work was published in the Times, and he got paid again.

There's a lesson to be learned in all this. I wrote about connections earlier in the week with Paul Kinder, the former Dearborn HS basketball captain, (pictured above wearing the black jersey No. 14) being remembered as a highly-regarded sports official. That's Kinder and his Pioneers hosting city rival Edsel Ford in the 1955-56 season. It's a small world and we all have a contribution to make in our own, individual way. Sometimes, though, that gets stifled in our mission to be the good soldier.

Using today's standards in officiating, Maskin's advance might be seen as unscrupulous or unprofessional. In the 1950s, it was merely a guy just getting his day job done. But what did it do? It brought some good press to some students from Fordson and Grosse Pointe. It gave a young kid a sense of accomplishment. Today you can walk into Arella Studios and find a man who enjoys his work and remembers his time as a photo journalist with an easy smile.

Is that so bad?

Of course, with power comes responsibility. Some abuse it. Some use it to strong-arm others. Maskin? He was an editor who threw a kid a bone. More than 50 years later, it's another great story of how prep sports can positively affect someone.

Photo courtesy of The Lil' Cafe, on Michigan Avenue in downtown Dearborn, Michigan. The Lil' Cafe is home to the Dearborn High School Hall Of Fame.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, released in August '08 from Arcadia Publishing. A follow-up title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, is due in August 2009.

It's Not Just Dearborn; It's Deer-bern!

2008-10-29T12:13:00.008-04:00

Today I did a little good will hunting at The Lil' Cafe on Michigan Avenue in downtown Dearborn at Pat Stagg's unofficial City of Dearborn High School Hall Of Fame.

The basketball book is in full research mode and although Dearborn won't have nearly the stake in the basketball book as it did in the football book, I still thought it prudent to look for a few compelling pictures, maybe a background or inset picture for the cover, perhaps. Plus it's really cool to root around in Stagg's restaurant and talk prep sports with all the fans over a plate of strawberry pancakes at three o'clock in the afternoon!

Are my sleep patterns messed up or what?

Anyway, the day's events brought me back to a quote from my friend Orlin Jones in Detroit, he of Pershing High track and field fame from the 1950s. To quote Jones, ever the historical collector: "There's always a connection in high school sports."

I've refereed basketball since 1988 when I was working for coach Roy Inglas on the recreational courts at basketball hotbed Vincennes University in Vincennes, Indiana. I returned to Michigan when I enrolled at Eastern Michigan University in the fall of 1990. Besides discovering the difference between junior college cross country and powerhouse, Division-I cross country, as well as the difference between a Huron and an Eagle, I learned about veteran MHSAA officials, the ones who wore the striped shirts that former EMU track coach Lloyd Olds invented nearly 80 years ago on the same Ypsilanti campus.

Guys like Paul Kinder, for example. Kinder was already long remembered for his acumen as an official rather than his days as a basketball captain on the Dearborn High team of 1955. Therefore, you can imagine the astonishment when I saw the picture of Kinder, a young, focused floor general in his testosterone days as a Dearborn Pioneer on the walls of the Lil Cafe today.

There was another photo of a hotly-contested game between Kinder's Pioneers and the Edsel Ford Thunderbirds that evoked The Orlin Jones Rule, if you will, that was discovered today. In the picture was a referee identified as Casey Lopata. Now, there aren't many Lopata households in metro Detroit, but there is a K.C. Lopata on the current University of Michigan football team, the same K.C. Lopata from the Farmington - Farmington Hills area. Many a Ford Motor Company employee moved from Dearborn in the late 50s and early 60s to the sticks of Farmington, Birmingham and Royal Oak.

Maybe it's all a huge coincidence, but my eye-opening experience with the football book tells me the chance that Lopata is related to the referee working this game I found in picture today is much greater than the chance he isn't.

There's always a connection, right?

Photo courtesy of the The Lil' Cafe, Dearborn, Michigan

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, available from retail and online merchants now. Cameron's second title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, is due in August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

Trvia Answers & Farmington's Unfathomable Comeback

2008-10-27T09:37:00.009-04:00

With apologies to those I've kept in the dark (that's you, M.L.), here's the skinny on the trivia question I offered for five free books at my signing this past Thursday at the Bloomfield Hills Barnes & Noble.

Question No. 1: What metro Detroit high school did Al Fracassa coach at before assuming the football fortunes at Birmingham Brother Rice?

Fracassa was also the coach for the Knights of Royal Oak's Shrine High School in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Surprised? With Jim Manilla at Royal Oak High in the late 50s, and his stable of assistants that included 'Pin' Ryan, 'Ivy' Loftin, Paul Temerian and Frank Joranko, Royal Oak was a football hotspot during the high school sock-hop era.

In '62, Fracassa's Knights were 6-1-1. They tallied wins over notables like Detroit Holy Redeemer (15-0), Redford St, Mary's (19-0) and a 27-6 win over newly-opened Birmingham Groves. Shrine tied Detroit Servite in a 20-point stalemate for both teams. The only loss for Shrine was a 25-6 setback to Grosse Pointe St. Ambrose, which leads us to the conclusion of Question No. 2.

Question No. 2: What metro Detroit high school did George Perles lead before his days with the Pittsburgh Steelers and later, the Michigan State Spartans?

Perles was head coach at Grosse Pointe's St. Ambrose High. In '62, Perles and his Cavaliers went a perfect 9-0 in marching to the Catholic League championship and Goodfellows Game title. In that Goodfellows Game, St. Ambrose blanked the 8-0 Cardinals of Detroit Cooley, 19-0, on the floor of Tiger Stadium. It was the second-straight domination at 'The Corner' that day, because hours earlier, the Detroit Lions manhandled the previously-undefeated Green Bay Packers 26-14 in the now-famous Thanksgiving Day Massacre. The Lions sacked Hall-Of-Fame quarterback Bart Starr 11 times before the Cavaliers sacked Cooley's state championship dreams.

The state's Associated Press poll rewarded St. Ambrose, which closed in the spring of 1972, with the No. 3 ranking in the final Class B poll of '62. Also of note in Class B that year was West Bloomfield (7-0-1), which earned the 6th position, followed by Dearborn Divine Child (8th / 8-0) and Clawson High's Trojans, 10th with a record of 7-1.

Despite the loss, Detroit Cooley was awarded the No. 4 slot in the Class A poll in '62. Frank Joranko's Ferndale Eagles were sixth with the identical 8-1 record Ferndale High achieved this season. Hamtramck's Cosmos were 9th with a 7-1 slate and Seaholm was 10th at 8-1. Ann Arbor's Pioneer was the state champion in Class A for 1962.

The Fabulous Falcons! Perhaps the best story to emerge from the 2008 high school football season statewide might be the Farmington High Falcons. On September 12, Farmington was humiliated in a 63-0 loss to Rochester Adams High School, the Falcons' 15th-consecutive loss dating back to a 7-0 loss to Royal Oak's Ravens, coached by Terry Powers, on Oct 13, 2006.

I can't state for certain if it's ever happened before, because I don't have the time to go through the records of nearly 800 high schools, some closed many years ago, dating back to 1975, but I would imagine the list of schools who have lost 15 consecutive games in any stretch of seasons and found enough wins in any season to a) break the streak and b) make the playoffs is a short one.

In fact, if I were a betting man, and I'm not, I would say it's probably never happened before.

To pen a story that details 15 straight losses, capped by a 63-0 loss, followed by six-straight wins, including the school's first win over Farmington Hills Harrison in 31 seasons and a win over rival North Farmington to earn a state playoff berth, would probably get most Hollywood script writers laughed into the circular file.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction but no matter what happens to the Falcons in the playoffs, Farmington's revival is one of the great stories of Michigan's 2008-09 scholastic year.

The Paul Bunyan Game: A State's Rite Of Passage

2008-10-25T09:17:00.003-04:00

Michigan and Michigan State -- the state's great football game -- is upon us once again. Today Michigan's Wolverines host Michigan State's Spartans play on the weekend of the traditional high school rivalry week, the ninth week of the season. Is there a better week of football in the state of Michigan this side of Thanksgiving and pumpkin pie?

If nothing else, there's always room for another great story as it relates to the annual football game between the maize n' blue and green n' white. That lesson wasn't lost on those who attended the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association's (DSBA) annual media day for the 101st edition of the annual rivalry game Tuesday at Ginopolis Restaurant in Farmington Hills. The afternoon was filled with a lot of good-natured ribbing, some candid observations and some great stories and laughs.

Frank Beckmann, Jim Brandstatter and Rich Strenger took up the Michigan cause while Spartan stalwart George Perles headlined the state of affairs for the green n' white. MSU's Sherm Lewis was a late scratch due to an unforeseen circumstance. The luncheon was a lot like a back-n-forth volley to prove state supremacy even before the ball gets kicked off Saturday in historic Michigan Stadium. And one other thing's for certain: There's both no memory and a lot of history that goes into this game when it takes center stage each year. Michigan State hasn't won since 2001; something the Michigan contingent didn't allow to be overlooked. At the same time, the Michigan State faithful are quick to point out that every year is a new year and another chance at redemption, in a very Brooklyn Dodger-kind of way.

Here are some of the highlights:

"I remember in 1983, my first year as head coach, we're playing Michigan up at our place and it's in the pregame when the coaches usually make small talk at midfield," Perles recalled of his first game with Michigan's legendary Bo Schembechler. "Instead, I told Bo, 'I'm nervous (about this game)". He looked me straight in the eye and said, 'You ought to be!'

Michigan won that '83 game 42-0. That was the infamous "We beat the pants off of them" game. When Perles was hired to assume the Spartan sideline, he immediately made the statement after his first year of recruiting that, "We beat the pants off the guys in Ann Arbor!" Of course, those recruits didn't get on the field much in Michigan's 42-0 win, but Perles also remembered something Bo said that endeared the gruff Michigan coach to him.

"When I got hired, he came right into his coaches' locker room and said, 'Boys, the picnic's over!", referencing the fact that Schembechler knew Perles would turn the MSU program into one that Michigan would have to contend with after several dormant years in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Of course, the Paul Bunyan Game -- the axe-wielding figure of the game's trophy -- is more than bragging rights. It's a season's redemption or re-birth. Sometimes it signals the end of the hopeful campaign for the loser. Usually both schools have played Notre Dame and each school awaits their season-ending rivalry game, with Michigan and Ohio State paired up annually and Michigan State's Land Grant Trophy game with Penn State as their season's natural bookend.

"People always bring up Ohio State, but I worried about Ohio State only after we played Michigan State," said former Wolverine tackle and current radio commentator Jim Brandstatter. "It's a game about mutual respect, especially for the guys from the state of Michigan. You have to remember, I played at East Lansing High School. My brother (Art) was a Spartan. My mother was left to wear maize n' blue - as only a mother could - among all those Spartan fans. I was playing classmates out there. To me, there was no bigger game on our schedule."

Perles, who champions his Motor City Bowl game on a near-daily basis, and Beckmann, the play-by-play voice of the Wolverines for 28 seasons, were the center of some verbal poke-n-jab when the discussion of Michigan's bowl prospects arose.

"Would Michigan go to the Motor City Bowl?" Beckmann asked rhetorically. "Absolutely -- as long as they don't have to play Toledo!" Beckmann said with a good-natured laugh. "Seriously, any coach in America would take those extra practices. Michigan's played four good quarters of football this year, but none of those quarters have come in the same game. You better believe Michigan would go. George, did you bring an application with you?"

Beckmann has become a bit of an YouTube sensation, with the emphasis depending on which color shirt you don during this game for his call of the final two plays of 2001's game. Spartan tailback T.J. Duckett caught a two-yard pass for the winning score after the clock was stopped with 0:01 left. The game even has a Wikipedia page titled Clockgate that details the Michigan frustration with the game's result, a 26-24 win for MSU.

Beckmann even goaded Perles to admit his famous pressbox quote from Spartan Stadium in the moments after that '01 game. "After Duckett caught that ball, George Perles walked out into the hallway and said, "Well, I guess Spartan Bob (then MSU's timekeeper) earned a game ball today -- isn't it true, George"

Perles, with a sly grin, replied, "Yes, it's true, although he doesn't get to keep the clock anymore these days," among a room full of laughter.

Finally, Beckmann made no apologies for his unabashed viewpoint of 2001's final two plays.
"We are advocates for our school," Beckmann said with an unwavering tone. "We are the broadcasters for the 12 games Michigan plays, just like George Blaha and Jim Miller (the MSU radio tandem) are for Michigan State."

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries. Cameron's blog, The Write Referee, is syndicated by 27 papers throughout Michigan by The Oakland Press. His second book, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, is due in September of 2009.

Come See Me Tonite: The Barnes & Noble in Bloomfield Hills @ 6 p.m.!

2008-10-23T06:55:00.008-04:00

I'm at the Barnes & Noble on Telegraph Road in Bloomfield Hills, starting at 6 p.m., to sign copies of my book, Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries.

I'll give a FREE BOOK to the first five people who can tell me the correct answer to either of the following questions:

1. What Detroit-area high school did Brother Rice coach Al Fracassa coach at before he took over the Warrior sideline?

2. What now-closed Detroit-area high school team did George Perles command before he went to the Pittsburgh Steelers and later, Michigan State?

It's almost gift-giving season and nothing says, 'I have the holiday spirit!' like a football book about rivalries, the long-standing role prep football has played in our metropolitan communities, the games that have withstood the test of time and the great theater that is prep football.

Long live high school football!

DSBA: In other news, the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association (DSBA) took a flyer on my Friday post and ran with it for their site as a review of the media luncheon they hosted for the Michigan - Michigan State game on Tuesday afternoon. It all went down at Ginopolis Restaurant in Farmington Hills at Twelve Mile and Middlebelt Road.

You can read the entire post of the Paul Bunyan Game throwdown here, or wait to read the post Friday here!

Thanks For Taking The Time To Write!

2008-10-20T13:36:00.007-04:00

I've received more than a few phone calls and e-mails regarding my book, Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries. Many of these communications have come from former coaches or players, or those close to the principle characters in the last 50 years of prep football. I have a long road to hoe to push my platform where I think it can go, but it's been such a fun ride, because you're only a first-time author once before the glow fades and the real work begins.

Of late I got a note from a Kathy Ryan, who married Mike Ryan, the eldest son of Prentice "Pin" Ryan, football coach at Royal Oak Kimball High School from 1957-64. Ryan parlayed eight years at Kimball, where he went 48-16-5, into an assistant coach's position at the University of Iowa under Jerry Burns. Burns is more famously remembered for coaching the Minnesota Vikings. Ryan was also a member of the University of Michigan's "lightweight" 150-pound football team in the 1950s as a collegiate player.

"We have been following your blog and are thrilled to see that the history of South Oakland football has not been forgotten. Football played an important role in the Ryan household," Kathy explained. "Besides Dad's coaching experiences, Mike played wingback and defensive cornerback at Kimball under Paul Temerian, and was named a Knotable Knight his senior year. He went on to play a year as defensive cornerback at Ferris State, and after switching to CMU, was an assistant to Roy Kramer.

"To carry on with the football mindset, our son David, a recent graduate of Western Michigan University, was a sportswriter for the Western Herald and is currently a writer/scout for New Era Scouting," Kathy wrote. "Dad continues to maintain close relationships with Ivy Loftin (Dondero), Herb Deromedi (Kimball / CMU), Chuck Skinner (Hazel Park / Seaholm), Jerry Burns and with some of his Michigan co-players. He still bleeds Maize n' Blue, too!"

I sent a complimentary copy of the book to Paul Carey as a thank you for the really cool introduction he wrote, and he responded with a really cool note in return. Of note was how sharp his memory is at the spry age of 80 in recalling the familiar names from his involvement in Detroit's prep football scene.

"When reading my introduction it came to me that the first player I gave the Thom McAn Award to was Joe Dayton of Detroit Denby... I wish I'd included a whole bunch on coaches who helped me in compiling my all-state nominations, too" Carey wrote.

You did, Paul, but space didn't allow me to list them all, so I'll do it here. The following individuals are hereby recognized by Paul Carey for all their help and dedication of high school football during his years at WJR:

Charlie Jestice, Tom Mach, Ron Thompson, John Goddard, Tom Moshimer, Nate Hampton, Jack Bridges, Andy Rio, Wes Wishart, Chuck Gordon, Bob LaPointe, Al Fracassa, Bob Dozier, Frank Sumbera, Jim McDougall, old friend Jack Castignola, Joe Hoskins, Russ Hepner, John Maronto, Jack Reardon, Bob Yauck, Rick Bly and Dick Comar.

Many others have taken the time to write of their memories of their school. From Grosse Pointe South to Allen Park, from South Lyon to Lake Orion and so many other schools in between.

In short, it's been a very cool fall, and the weather's been nice, too!

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, from Arcadia Publishing. The follow-up to the football book, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, will be out in September of 2009.

Week Nine, Rivalries Renewed & The Paul Bunyan Game!

2008-10-20T11:36:00.006-04:00

In a perfect world, this is what Week Nine of every high school football season would look like every fall.

Even in metro Detroit, with all the unemployment, foreclosure and economic uncertainty (which seems to be the only thing certain of late), this week of high school and college football is sweet. On Friday, a school's gridiron success is measured by either qualifying for the playoffs, beating your traditional rival, or quite possibly both. Saturday, Michigan State's Spartans meet Michigan's Wolverines in historic Michigan Stadium in the annual Paul Bunyan Trophy game.

Michigan-Michigan State should always be played in Week Nine of the prep season to highlight the traditional rivalry week, and on the eighth day, God created football, right? Plus anything would beat this past weekend, where four of the state's five BCS-eligible schools lost, and the only reason there was a win at all was because Western Michigan and Central Michigan played each other.

Tom Markowski's morning column in The Detroit News illuminated the logjam possible with the Michigan High School Athletic Association's football tournament, which has a 256-school ceiling. Markowski has counted 184 schools who've already earned the needed six wins to play a 10th game. 80 schools need one more win to join the previous 184. Four games feature a match-up of 5-3 teams, so 186 schools will have earned a tournament invite outside of the other schools not playing a pseudo playoff game.

I don't think Andy Frushour's declaration that there will be a day when there will be more teams with six wins than available playoff spots (256) is here yet, but stranger things have happened and I do think that day is coming, when a 6-3 team doesn't earn a playoff spot. Mathematically speaking, it's possible but not probable this season.

Before I go further, I can't think of a team or school to keep in your prayers or well wishes more than Detroit Henry Ford High. You can't tell me the Trojans were thinking about football in their 36-0 loss last week to Detroit Southeastern. If you ever need to call upon courage for yourself, think of the kid who pulls himself out of bed to play football a day after a four-person shooting in front of his school. There's a great history, pride and tradition at Henry Ford and the Trojans have done football better than most in the entire state. Here's to hoping the Trojan family can find some peace within the events that have enveloped the school.

In metro Detroit, it's an old-fashioned rivalry game week. Here's five of the more historic games that will go down Friday night.

Vikings - Eagles: Hazel Park (4-4) owns wins over teams with a combined six wins so for all purposes, this is probably the playoff game to end the season for the Vikings if they can upset their longtime counterparts from neighboring Ferndale (7-1). The two schools have played 78 times with Ferndale holding a 39-33-6 advantage, and in games since 1950, the Eagles hold a slight 29-28 count advantage. Perhaps no two schools in Oakland County share more common history than Hazel Park and Ferndale.

Chieftains - Bulldogs: It's been a great season for the 'Dawgs as Romeo (6-2) is playing their first season in the rugged MAC Red, while Utica hasn't seen the left side of the win-loss ledger this season. Nothing would make the season more memorable for the Chieftains than upsetting Romeo in the Brown Jug Game this Friday. The two Macomb county rivals meet for the 58th time this Friday, with Romeo holding 30 wins to Utica's 22. Four games have ended in a tie and one game's result is unconfirmed.

Dragons - Wolves: Clarkston (6-2) and Lake Orion (7-1) are once again marching towards each other for a Week Nine throwdown that has become a game circled in red by players, coaches and fans alike for the last several years. The two schools, who didn't play for two decades from 1957 to 1976, have a 38-game spread of 20-18 between each other, with Clarkston holding the slim edge. Both the green 'n white (LO) and maize 'n blue (CHS) are playoff-bound. Rumor has it that for the first time, there might be a physical trophy awarded to the winner of the annual tilt. The Battle For The Paddle, maybe?

Bulldogs - Lions: One of the few rivalries that cross county lines in metro Detroit. Oakland County's South Lyon and Livingston County's Brighton High have played nearly every fall since before World War II. This year the game features a South Lyon team that has split eight games while Brighton has struggled to a 2-6 record. Nevertheless, neither team will lack motivation for each other come Friday.

Abes - Panthers: Polar opposites in 2008 meet for the 59th time since 1950, as Warren Lincoln (7-1) battle their longtime adversary from Center Line (1-7). The Abes are going to the playoffs but Macomb County's other Brown Jug Game has been split down the middle since '50, 29 wins apiece. Center Line used to be known as Busch High a long time ago, and the game's trophy still carries that moniker. The game is a east side classic and the potential for an upset is always looming in October's dusk and chill.

Here's the best of the rest, with a few notes to boot.

Troy - Troy Athens: 41st game in the series, Troy (5-3) holds a 23-17 lead over Athens (2-6) and needs a win to qualify for the tournament, which the Colts won in '94... Southfield - Southfield Lathrup: The Blue Jays would be undefeated save for a gritty two-point setback with Rochester Adams while Lathrup upset Clarkston 46-45... Milford - Lakeland: Lakeland (6-2) just missed the KLAA title last week versus Howell and Milford (5-3) needs a win to qualify... Livonia Churchill - Livonia Stevenson: Two playoff contenders a year before, the Chargers (3-5) would like to take the shine off Stevenson's (6-2) fifth-consecutive playoff berth... Farmington - North Farmington: A role reversal for sure as the Farmington (5-3) needs a win versus the neighboring Raiders (2-6) to qualify for the MHSAA tournament for the fifth time in school history. A Falcon would be their sixth-straight win... Birmingham Seaholm - Birmingham Groves: Not the season either school envisioned, the Falcons (3-5) and Maples, aka the old Birmingham High (1-7), have split the last eight contests since 2000... Redford Union - Redford Thurston: Union (3-5) and Thurston (6-2) going in opposite directions... Taylor Kennedy - Taylor Truman: Neither Truman (2-6) or Kennedy (1-7) had a year to remember... Bloomfield Hills Lahser - Bloomfield Hills Andover: The Lahser Knights (7-1) are playoff bound while Andover (1-7) hopes for a chance to ruin a possible home game for their rival... Rochester - Rochester Adams: It doesn't seem so long ago that the two teams played their annual game each sporting 8-0 records (1993), but the Highlanders (7-1) have kept the Adams tradition rolling while the Falcons (1-7) haven't had the success they hoped for in '08... Pontiac Central - Pontiac Northern: The old Pontiac High Chiefs are winless while Northern is 3-5. The games does hold a special significance -- it means there's just 97 days until Pontiac's two basketball super-rivals meet on the hardwood pines on January 29th at Northern High! The rematch is March 3rd at Central.

It feels weird there's no longer an Oak Stump Game to end the year. For the past few years it feels a little empty on this weekend. Where have you gone, Prentice 'Pin' Ryan and Iverson Littleton Loftin? To quote our former big brother on North Washington Avenue, we'll always 'Remember November'.

Finally, good luck to all the schools this weekend no matter if your game is big or small, especially the players, coaches, cheerleaders and marching bands. Thanks for another memorable season!

~T.C. Cameron is the soon-to-be author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, a follow-up to Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, released this past August.

Green Light For Basketball Book, Fordson, Ford Field and Football!

2008-10-18T10:38:00.003-04:00

It's official -- I've been tendered a contract from Arcadia Publishing to write a follow-up to the football book from this fall. The title, not suprisingly, will be called Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries.

There are a couple significant changes since Martin Luther King Day of this year, when offer and acceptance of the football book contract came and went in the blink of an eye. First, I'm now represented by an agent, Terry Whalin of The Whalin Literary Agency. Terry handles a couple of different, unrelated projects for me, served as an excellent contributor for the blogging panel I moderated in NYC this past April ( check out Terry's blog at The Writing Life) and therefore is a natural fit to represent me for this title, too.

The other change is two-fold. I was a never-published author nine months ago. Since then I've been published, the football book has been successful (a couple hiccups aside), my blog is syndicated and I'm better prepared for what to expect, having done it once before on a truncated time table. I wrote the football book in 45 days. Yes, that's 45 days to write 18,000-20,000 words, come up with 200 original images and lay it out, too. This time I'll have 135 days to finish the title and won't have to worry about a divorce attorney knocking on my front door.

I'm also thrilled to be working with Arcadia again. America is chock full of interesting history and metro Detroit is home to so much of the rich fabric that blankets our country's past. Thankfully Arcadia is a publisher dedicated to telling that story.

Fordson-Southgate Anderson: Mick McCabe wrote a nice piece in this morning's Freep about the Fordson-Anderson game last night that gave the Tractors the Mega Red Championship with a 36-21 win. Plenty of the Tractor tradition and a nice quote of Charlie Jestice, too.

Upcoming Events: I'll be at the Barnes & Noble in Bloomfield Hills on Telegraph Road at 6pm on Thursday, October 23rd. On Saturday, December 13th, I'll be at the Border's Express inside Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi from 2-4pm. Come check it out!

Talking Turkey & Helping The Kids: My football book, Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, will be on sale at Ford Field during the MHSAA's championship rounds of the 2008 football tournament. Three dollars (that's $3 to you and me) of every book sold will benefit Officials For Kids, the charitable arm of the MHSAA's corp of registered officials.

You can find the book at the MHSAA's vendor, Lighthouse Sportswear, who travel down from Grand Ledge. Thanks to John Johnson, Communications Director of the MHSAA and Tim Pendell, Senior Director of Community Affiars for the Detroit Lions.

Show your holiday spirit (the book makes a great gift, Mom!) and do something for those who need you the most. I harken to the phrase of rally used to promote the defunct Goodfellows Game played between the Catholic League and Detroit Public School League champions on Thanksgiving Day at Tiger Stadium.

No Child Forgotten. Watch some great football, buy a book and help the cause.

Not A Hater: I earned some healthy feedback from Thursday's post and most of it came from those who think I dislike Royal Oak HS. Far from it. I simply offered the opinion that time, money and a lot of sweat-equity was poured into an unknown brand for reasons I'm not certain best served the Royal Oak school district. Kimball was a known brand. You never had to ask a Kimball team to hit, never had to ask them to work and therefore had a level of expectation that many schools strive for.

If you think that's far-fetched, consider sending your daughter to Birmingham Marian. If she wants to play basketball, you're dealing with a known brand. The same goes for Brother Rice football and Al Fracassa, Troy Athens soccer and Tim Storch and Clarkston basketball and Dan Fife.

Today, when the rubber meets the road, there's just two years of history to draw on instead of 50 years of tradition that was well-publicized on the Kimball walls, vanquished to memory in 2006 at the hands of sandblasters and bulldozers.

Unfortunately for the Royal Oak faithful, the Ravens dropped another not-so-close contest last night to Birmingham Groves, 49-12. The game was the 146th time that a Royal Oak public school (RO Acrons, Kimball, Dondero, RO Ravens) faced a Birmingham public school (Birmingham Maples, Seaholm, Groves). It was just an opinion offered about Royal Oak's recent football struggles. From all accounts the Ravens have played hard, but unfortunately, simply playing hard doesn't win football games.

~ T. C. Cameron is a three-sport referee and writer who is scheduled to produce Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries for publication in 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

Ravens Finding Kimball Legacy Tough To Fly Past

2008-10-16T09:42:00.008-04:00

Eight months ago, I wrote within this blog's space about change. I watched change take place as a college student when Eastern Michigan University unceremoniously ditched their Huron identity in 1990-1991. Change is messy and sometimes, not for the best.

So when Royal Oak dismantled it's prep sports legacy brick-by-brick starting in 2005 by combining Kimball and Dondero High, I wondered what the aftermath might leave in the immediate years to come. It was a costly, controversial decision that embittered both school cultures. The Detroit News described the two schools as historic rivals when the paper wrote a recap of the first merged year as Royal Oak High.

I think I may have an answer.

Royal Oak High School is 0-7 in the current football season. The Ravens have been close in one game, but the others? Monumental blowouts, and with two games remaining, Royal Oak's gridders have just two more chances to avoid the first winless season in the history of the city's high school at 1500 Lexington. Royal Oak has new uniforms, new colors, new coaches and new field turf but there's something missing. There's no tradition, because the past two seasons were teams made up mostly of the remaining Kimball players coached by the former Kimball coach, Terry Powers. Powers told me during the first year of the combined school (2006), 21 of the 22 starters were Kimball players. That team went 8-3 and won the district playoff opener.

Many newspapers still referred to the Ravens in those first couple years as Kimball. There was a lot of Kimball tradition and just because it was pulled off the walls, it doesn't die in the memories and minds of prep sports fans. Just like Renaissance was still Catholic Central for many years, and the De LaSalle Pilots were still from their old campus off Connor.

I know football is just a game among many different sports at the area high schools, but it's important to have a good football team in Royal Oak, just like it's part of the culture at Pershing, Fordson, King, John Glenn, Harrison and Allen Park. I watched Kimball suffer it's first losing season after 27-straight seasons without a losing ledger starting in 1984 as a high school freshman and it set an ugly tenor for our four years. Three years later, the district plucked Powers from Detroit Catholic Central to mold the Kimball program as the Shamrocks were built. There was a palpable spirit at Kimball and having a good football team was an important part of the building's culture for the 49 years it was open.

The other day I was in Royal Oak to get my haircut at, ironically enough, the Kimball Barbershop. One my way I drove past Royal Oak's football field where the signature blue n' gold K has been missing for three years. As I passed the baseball field, there was a gold, block-letter "K" hand-painted onto the dugout facing Normandy. On the other side of the building, the school's signature rock was slathered in gold with blue letters reading "KHS ROCKS".

I've talked to several familiar with the culture in the former Kimball building. There's a bit of a rebellion going on. Last winter the old Kimball gear started to show up. First it was a shirt or two, then a varsity jacket, and then a few more noticeable references. It's lead to dissension. This is possibly the bitter aftermath of tearing the district schools' good names to their foundations and combining two distinct cultures.

Good memories die hard. Change doesn't guarantee continued success.

Polar Bears Are Back! Less than a week after declaring the season over at Highland Park, head coach Cedric Dortch said yesterday in Detroit Free Press that the season will go forward for the final two games. This week the Polar Bears will face the rising Phoenix of Ypsilanti High, followed with a season-ending battle with top-ranked Dearborn Fordson.

The Parkers will have to win both games to qualify for the playoffs, as does Ypsilanti, so for all intents, this is the season for Highland Park. Even if they win Friday versus Ypsilanti, the monumental task of toppling the Tractors in Week Nine awaits. Fordson is preparing this week for the game of the year in metro Detroit, as Southgate Anderson and Fordson will meet tomorrow night for the final MEGA Red championship.

Speaking universally, this is a good move by Coach Dortch. That would have been an inglorious way to end a season and with his school and many others looking for a new place to park their athletic fortunes when the MEGA disbands this upcoming spring, people need to know Highland Park won't throw in the towel.

Two years ago Highland Park signed a contract to go play the Howell Highlanders in Howell. It was something I took notice of immediately when the prep football schedules were released. It took a lot of guts to agree to put his kids on a bus and go to a place that hasn't always been associated with, shall we say, tolerance. Howell is working hard to break that image and Highland Park is working hard to rebuild the honor and pride that used to be signature staples of the school's athletic department. Playing the rest of the season is another step in that direction.

Harrison A Victim Of An SI-Like Jinx? Two weeks ago Farmington Hills Harrison lost a 20-19 heartbreaker to Farmington High, the first time in 31 years the Falcons escaped the clutches of the Hawks. The last time that happened? 1977, when Farmington defeated the defending state finalists by an identical 20-19 count.

What's on the front cover of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries? A picture from that 1977 Harrison-Farmington game, with the same score and result of the game played this year.

What are the odds of that?

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, and is working on a follow-up title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries!

A Weekend Of Non-Stop Football

2008-10-13T12:41:00.004-04:00

I read this morning that Avondale High School football coach Steven Deutsch was quoted in today's Detroit Free Press as saying no one plays defense in high school football anymore. The Yellow Jackets defeated tough-luck Hazel Park this past Friday with a 34-yard touchdown on the game's final play by a 53-52 count. That 100+ point tally was one of a handful of near triple-digit games this past weekend in metro Detroit.

I'm not certain that's true as much as high school football has evolved with the collegiate game in leaps and bounds on the offensive side of the ball. Power-I formations? Yeah, right. Off-tackle? Maybe once in a while. More and more, though, it's traps, sweeps, veer and several variations that feature and specialize in the single-wing offense. Nowadays, when you see four-to-five receiver sets, I half prepare for a run or short screen to a halfback as an official working the wing or in the back judge's position.

The bottom line is prep defenses can no longer gear to stop the run or pass exclusively, and with the proliferation of passing camps, quarterback schools, weight, speed and skill training, how can a defense keep up with the expansion of the typical offensive playbook, multiplied by the power of three, in high school football today?

Fight The Good Fight? An ugly donnybrook nearly came to fruition this past Saturday before the kickoff of a small college football game when the home team and visiting team were both waiting to take the field, poised from opposite endzones. By rule, when both teams refuse to go onto the field before their opponent, the home team is required to go first. So the hosts thundered onto the turf, went 100 yards into the opposite endzone and engaged in a testosterone-powered shout-down with their opponents that was quickly addressed by all seven officials.

No fists were thrown and one 15-yard unsportsmanlike foul was assessed to start the game, plus a delay-of-game before the game's first kickoff legally took place. Thankfully both teams marched to early touchdowns. That was important because once the game was tied 7-7, both teams settled down into a rhythm. However, that start was the precursor to 20 more penalties before the clock read 0:00.

That's the reality of officiating a hotly-contested game with first place on the line.

Forfeit Ends Polar Bear Season: Highland Park High was a no-show on Friday night at Dearborn Edsel Ford last week. This meant no walk-up ticket sales, concession money, program or spirit gear sales, either. Hopefully it wasn't homecoming for the Thunderbirds, which would be the end of a lot of memories for the Edsel Ford student body as well.

It could be called admirable that Highland Park head coach Cedric Dortch had the stones to make a tough decision to deliver a message, but in these economic times, that money is vital for some of these schools and the memories of a high school football season's game cannot be replaced, either. The coach's decision was reported within this morning's edition of The Detroit News.
I never like forfeits in high school football. One, finding a replacement game in nearly impossible for the offended school. Two, the money that one home football game generates cannot be found elsewhere.

Ironically, all three forfeited games remaing on the Highland Park schedule to end the season will either grant or greatly improve playoff chances for the three offended schools.
Edsel Ford qualified for the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time in school history with the awarded victory on Friday, their sixth of the season. The Thunderbirds entered the game 5-1. Ypsilanti, Highland Park's Week Eight opponent, now sit at 5-3 with the forfeit win, and will have a chance to qualify for the playoffs if the purple 'n gold can defeat Dexter's Dreadnaughts (1-6 so far) in Week Nine.

Dearborn Fordson, ranked somewhere in the top five of nearly every state divisional classification poll after the Tractors' 24-14 win over rival Dearborn High, will end the season undefeated if they can beat the undefeated Southgate Anderson Titans this Friday in a huge match-up to decide the Mega Red championship. Because Highland Park was the Tractor opponent for Week Nine, Fordson is nearly guaranteed at least one home game in the playoffs no matter the result this Friday.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, and is working on a follow-up title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries!

HS Football Remains Strong Among Major Media Stalwarts

2008-10-09T13:44:00.004-04:00

The defense of Lord Stanley's Chalice begins tonight on the banks of the Detroit River for America's signature hockey franchise, the Detroit Red Wings. With little more than 100 days behind them after an exalting run to the Cup championship, the Wings will host their longtime rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, to Joe Louis Arena.

What does this have to do with high school football? Give me another paragraph or two.

The season's energy began in earnest two days ago when the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association (DSBA) hosted a media luncheon Tuesday in the Hockeytown Cafe featuring Red Wing brass Ken Holland, Steve Yzerman and Jim Nill. During the organizational housekeeping duties and preliminary introductions, DSBA President Rick Kincaide made mention of my book, Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, and went on to tell the thrilling details of Farmington's 20-19 triumph over Farmington Hills Harrison last week.

In front of a major media market, in a hockey-crazed city, before introducing household names like Holland and Yzerman, Kincaide was talking high school football, and with good reason. He broadcast the Harrison-Farmington game featured six lead changes, a healthy amount of PAT drama from both coaches and a thrilling conclusion that saw Farmington recover the football for a climatic kneel-down to capture their first win over Harrison in 31 years. Quite a story, in any market, for any sport.

Kincaide, who has a neat book of his own called The Gods of Olympia Stadium: Legends of the Detroit Red Wings, showed me through his plug for my book and his re-telling of last Friday's Falcon win that Detroiters have secure spot in their heart for prep sports.
After the program, Bill Evo of Evo Enterprises stopped me to tell me of his relative, Chuck Skinner. Readers of this blog will quickly recall I ran a story a few weeks back of a fun phone discussion I had with Skinner. The story was rich with memories of Skinner's days with the Hazel Park Vikings and later Birmingham's Seaholm Maples.

Before I finished talking with Evo, the voice of the Red Wings, Ken Kal, stopped me and retold a great story of his broadcasting a game between Adrian's Maples and the River Rats from Ann Arbor Huron that was played at Hollway Field on the Ann Arbor Pioneer campus. "I remember the excitement and fun of the game kind of overtaking me," Kal said with a chuckle. "I was calling a kickoff, and the runner took the ball on the 10. I said 'He's at the 20, now the 30, the 40..45...50! 55, 60, 65...He's down to the 30 and downed at the 25-yard line!"

A graduate of Dearborn St. Alphonsus, Kal grew up a native Detroiter with a keen awareness of the major HS rivalries in the metro area. Kal's brother is longtime Brother Rice baseball coach Ron Kalczynski, who still serves as an assistant to current Rice coach Bob Riker. Before Kal was the radio voice of the Wings, he was the voice of the Michigan Wolverines and a favorite of the sports writers of The Ann Arbor News in the downtown Ann Arbor eateries and brew houses after we had put the paper to bed on a Saturday night. Today's he's best remembered for calling four Red Wing championships in the past 11 years.

Kal has a media resume most of us would kill for, and no one would blame him for burying a memory of a call that is not the truest representation of his best work in radio. Yet what did Kal remember Tuesday, on the eve of another thrilling season of Red Wing hockey?

45, 50! 55-60! 65.....

Long live high school football!

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, and is working on a follow-up title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries!

I'm In Dearborn on October 8 -- Come See Me!

2008-10-07T07:42:00.002-04:00

I'll be presenting an interactive Image of Sports presentation tomorrow night at the Dearborn Public Library Main Branch (Michigan Avenue), starting at 7pm. After the program, I'll be signing copies of my book, Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries. The program's beneficiary is the library itself.

Not doing anything on a ho-hum Wednesday evening? Come join me! I'll have pictures and images of all four Dearborn high schools. Has there been a better season of recent memory in Dearborn? I think not. With Fordson at 6-0 , Edsel Ford and Dearborn and Divine Child at 4-2, all four schools have positioned themselves to make the Michigan High School Athletic Association playoffs. These are never-seen-before pictures and images representing the rich history of the Pioneers, Falcons, Tractors and Thunderbirds!

Come check out the new table skirt with all the varsity letters on it! Have one to donate? Come on up! The Dearborn Public Library is on Michigan Avenue due east from the Southfield Freeway across from Ford Motor Company and nestled in with the Dearborn Police Department and the city's Amtrak station.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, available for purcahse and signing this Wednesday, October 8th at the Dearborn Public Library. Show starts at 7pm!

McCollum's Perspective, Save The Date & Crazy Like A Fox

2008-10-06T07:57:00.003-04:00

I had the opportunity to serve Fox Sports yesterday as the Time-Out Coordinator (TOC) for the Chicago Bears' 34-7 victory over the Lions yesterday at Detroit's Ford Field. Even the staunchest Lion backers will admit it was an ugly defeat for the home team, and nothing was uglier than the booing that took place as the Lions left the field for halftime trailing 17-0.

Andy McCollum was one of those Lions that endured the wrath of the fans as he and his teammates walked off the field and began the long walk up the tunnel at Ford Field. McCollum's a center with the Lions and he easily could have walked up to his team's dressing room without making eye contact with anyone -- no one would've blamed him -- but he didn't.

For about 300 elementary kids lining the tunnel in full pads and uniform, this was their moment. The Lions hosted four youth football teams and their cheerleaders who were waiting to play 5-10 minutes of football on the same field that hosted Super Bowl XL. While a tempest of ugly fandemonium was taking place from the stands, McCollum went out of his way to make the moment special for the kids.

Wearing his No. 67 jersey, McCollum high-fived every kid that stuck his hand out, whether it was a cheerleader or player or coach. He cheered them on with "Have fun out there!" and other words of encouragement. The kids responded with a "Let's Go Lions!" chant, unaware of the ugly response 35,000 Lion fans had just serenaded the home team with.

McCollum didn't have to do any of his good-natured gesture with these kids. He's a professional athlete with professional responsibilities. Maybe he simply needed to feed his own soul after the verbal abuse the Lion fans were dishing out as the team walked to the tunnel. Maybe McCollum simply is a kid at heart when it comes to football. Possibly McCollum remembered his own experiences playing youth football and wanted to pay it forward, so to speak.

Whatever it was, it was thrilling to see. It made professional football human for these kids instead of monstrous men hulking upwards inside a massive, larger-than-life stadium. It was one of the classiest gestures I've ever witnessed a professional athlete offer and it was genuine, unplanned and not designed by or for a staff of public relations professionals.
In the worst moment of a bad season so far, Andy McCollum showed his heart yesterday and made some 300 kids Lion fans for life.

Save The Date: I'll be hosting an interactive viewing of the Images of Football from the four high schools in the City of Dearborn on Wednesday, October 8th at the Dearborn Public Library on Michigan Avenue. The program starts at 7pm and will feature pictures and images from Dearborn's Pioneers, Edsel Ford's Thunderbirds, Fordson's Tractors and Divine Child's Falcons.
After the program I'll have a book signing and sale in the atrium of the library, with the benefactor being the Dearborn Public Library. Come Join me!

Bear Down: The orange gloves of the TOC came up missing yesterday in pre-game production, leaving me with no visable eye candy for the game's referee to see me with from 60-80 yards away. Thankfully, the Bears saved the day. The team's equipment manager handed us a long-sleeve orange shirt and a set of orange-faced gloves. The Lions donated a white NFL t-shirt and the problem was solved. Thanks, guys!

You're On: I was the man yesterday for three brief moments yesterday. With the weight of the world on my shoulders, and all of the western world, not to mention mankind, watching with unfettered attention, I cue the game's Referee for three game-altering replays... OK, it wasn't that big of a deal. We had three replays and I had the responsibility to cue the game's Referee for live television's presentation of the announcement. Thankfully, my man Rich York helped make it flow smoothly yesterday and our broadcast was like Krylon: No runs, no drips, no errors.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, and is working on a follow-up title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries!

Death Threats Wrong But Debbie Schlussel's Not Innocent For Her Fordson Comment

2008-10-03T07:54:00.004-04:00

Yesterday a 40-year-old Dearborn, Michigan man who e-mailed two separate death threats within one minute of each other against ultra-conservative columnist and over-exposed blogger Debbie Schlussel was sentenced to eight months in prison.

That's good, right? Right! Here's hoping that the rest of the community, in Dearborn and anywhere else in the 50 great states and the District of Columbia knows that freedom of speech is protected in this great country, even when free speech is exercised by those who abuse it.

I'll admit Schlussel speaks the truth about many issues when it comes to the extremists and radicals from the East that have declared war by any means necessary in the West and anyone who assimilates life in the West. She's also as rambunctious and over-the-top as any warlord has ever been portrayed, and when she portrayed Dearborn's Fordson High School as 'Hezbollah High', she specifically drew my ire. I thought she was being grossly unfair and I e-mailed the Michigan native and University of Michigan graduate. I didn't get so much as a 'No Thanks'.

Schlussel points to the school's principal, a person she paints as radicalist-friendly. Schlussel goes on to identify all of Fordson with this label because she's 'discovered' that some of the Arab community at Dearborn Fordson have ties to terrorist organizations, although not all methods of discovery have been disclosed. When the school's wrestling coach was fired last year for cause due to a religious disagreement, Schlussel hung the hateful moniker around the school's neck.

Now it's my turn.

Is Fordson's community squeaky clean, upstanding and beyond reproach? I don't know. Is Fordson a pit of lawless, angry war lords hiding behind religion to further a directive of destruction against America? I don't know that, either.

What I do know is that Fordson is a place where school spirit soars. It's a place that seems to field a lot of good teams, year after year, in many different sports. The Tractors have been good for over 80 years, spanning the school's early all-white, European-based population to the days from 1950-1980 when it was a mix of Poles, Italians, English and Arab to today's near-exclusive population of Arab and Muslim students. In researching Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, I discovered that Fordson has as faithful and passionate a following as any school. This group is not bound by age, religion, gender or economic status. They're bound by their common heritage as Fordson Tractors.

I do know that a lot of good teachers, coaches and administrators care a great deal about Fordson High. They care about their students, about their school's reputation and their ability to mold a lot of different kids into graduates potential of success beyond the football field, algebra or the school yearbook, the Fleur De Lis.

Doesn't sound like a place that perpetrates hate if you ask me.

So what am I, or anyone for that matter, to think of terrorist ties? Am I to believe that because Fordson has been labeled as 'Hezbollah High' that this type of link is only to be assumed at Fordson? Does anyone really believe that just one school, one restaurant or one office in the metropolitan area can be linked to terrorism? I suppose because 9/11 terrorists flew out of Boston's Logan Airport that terrorism can be sufficiently linked to the entire Boston airport? Of course not.

And what if a teacher is found to be embezzling funds, like what happened in the mid-1990s where I went to school? Does that mean we should have renamed the school as Enron High? What of sexual assault? Does that mean we rename a school as Pedophile Preparatory? I'm not saying all the students and faculty at Fordson, or any other high school for that matter, is of upstanding conviction. What I am saying is labeling an entire high school like Fordson as 'Hezbollah High' is completely irresponsible for a journalist of any ilk.

And despite Schlussel's impressive credentials, education and credits, when a blogger takes a hateful position like Schlussel has, bloggers everywhere are discredited as a whole rather than in part. I've written some things that have been unpopular, but I've never hung that label on any entity.

Why? I'm simply not that irresponsible.

Schlussel is brilliant, intelligent writer and reporter who, sadly, sprinkles a healthy amount of hate and labels it as passion into her work as it relates to Fordson High School, and a Dearborn native, albeit wrong to threaten her life to be certain, let Schlussel know that calling Fordson 'Hezbollah High' won't get her invited to the Tractors' homecoming.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, and is working on a follow-up title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries!

Why Dearborn High's Pioneers Matter To The KLAA

2008-09-29T23:15:00.005-04:00

During the last two weeks it's become common knowledge to prep sports fans in metro Detroit that the MEGA Conference, a Wayne County-based power conference, will disband, and many an Oakland County HS athletic director is watching -- and taking notes, too.

It's no secret that athletic budgets, compatibility and competitive balance concerns are on the hot seat in the monster-like, 20+ school athletic conferences that make up the bulk of prep sports leagues in the three-county area. What garnered a lot of attention was the news that Dearborn High was a candidate to join the Kensington Lakes Activities Association (KLAA).

Here's some aspects to consider about why Dearborn, and not Garden City, became a serious candidate for the KLAA.

Parker's A No-Go: It doesn't appear the recently-completed but yet-to-be opened Howell Parker High School will open anytime soon. In fact, it appears the Howell School District cannot open the building at all due to serious budget constraints and a possible miscalculation of population growth in the community. The fact that the district is negotiating a movie contract deal to use the school as a movie set tells you all there is to know about the possibility Parker opens anytime soon.

Garden City Enrollment: The monstrous schools in the KLAA and Garden City are a mismatch. Albeit a fine community with much to offer any league, Garden City would struggle to match up with the expanding populations in Hartland, Brighton, Lakeland, Milford and South Lyon. Dearborn is a still-teeming community with equal distribution among the three big schools, making Dearborn a better choice for a long-term membership.

Fordson - Dearborn Relations: In researching Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, I found a handful of instances when Dearborn High and Fordson didn't play a football game for many years at a time due to conflict between building/district administrators or coaches. In fact, Edsel Ford and Fordson shared the same track & field facility recently when Fordson was having renovations done to their iconic campus. A Dearborn city official told me off the record, "If anyone thinks that Fordson would have been offered to use Dearborn's track, they're delusional. The schools simply don't like one another." Dearborn Superintendent Brian Whiston had to unconditionally guarantee Fordson that the Dearborn game would be available to them before Dearborn could be allowed to seek a different league affiliation.

Royal Oak Made It Work: The two schools, Dearborn & Fordson, might not be a good fit to one another as league members. Now-closed Kimball and Dondero were in the Southeastern Michigan Association (SMA) and Metro Suburban Activities Association (MSAA) for many years and enjoyed almost 35 years of outstanding football rivalry without being in the same league, something that seems to befit Dearborn and Fordson. That was the genesis of the Oakland Activites Association (OAA), combining two leagues with competing schools from the same city in the same league, but it crushed the many local rivalries and enhancing just a chosen few. I mention Dondero because the Oaks used to a fierce Fordson rival when the Tractors and Oaks were in the old Border Cities League (BCL).

Therefore, just because geography makes more sense for Garden City to be in the KLAA, it might make the KLAA even better to have Dearborn in that league. Dearborn would make the KLAA a three-county conference and make for an outstanding cross-county game in many sports.

Former Detroit Tiger broadcaster Paul Carey told me he thought very highly of Ivy Loftin's Dondero football teams because they played Monroe, Dearborn Fordson, Wyandotte, Highland Park, Grosse Pointe HS -- a powerhouse before the North-South days -- and finally, after the rigors of the BCL, the season-ending game with crosstown Kimball. Conversely, place Dearborn in the KLAA today. They would have league games against the three Livonia schools (all playoff teams in '07), Wayne Memorial, the upstart Rockets from John Glenn and crossovers with schools like Howell, Milford, Lakeland or Novi. To top it off, the Pioneers could end the season with Dearborn Fordson.

That's a football schedule.

Edsel Ford Factor: What does concern me is the chance that Dearborn and Edsel Ford would stop playing one another -- that's not good, but in a three-school town, these kind of concerns come up quite a bit. I'm not certain there's a solution, either. On the other hand, because two of the three schools are moving to a manageable conference, this allows Edsel Ford and Fordson to play DC's Falcons a bit more in all sports.

It was great the past two seasons seeing the big crowd for the Fordson-DC football game although I'm sure the Falcons would have liked a different result. It would be my opinion that a matchup of Milford and Dearborn, or Dearborn and Catholic Central, would be of interest to prep fans, because it's the type of matchup that isn't seen much these days, thanks to the monster power conferences that have seemed to have outlived their usefulness.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, available at www.Amazon.com and other fine retailers.

As MEGA falls, Downriver League and Northwest Suburban League Rises

2008-09-26T09:44:00.003-04:00

The Northwest Suburban League looks like a strong candidate to come back to fruition in 2009-2010. Whether or not the schools in negotiation keep the retro moniker remains to be seen, but there's a historic union being forged and a couple rivalries to be saved by these discussions.

I've learned that Dearborn high schools Fordson and Edsel Ford would join Dearborn Heights' Annapolis, Crestwood and Robichaud along with Garden City, Redford Union and Redford Thurston in a league for the 2009-10 year. That Dearborn Heights and Dearborn could become neighbors in the same small, cozy league is quite a concept given the history of each city squabbling with the other. It's not the same as being in the MEGA, which by comparison was like 30 schools parking their respective cars in a massive shopping mall parking lot.

The high school football success this season for the neighboring public schools of Dearborn and Dearborn Heights is something not seen since the early 1990s when Tyrone Wheatley ran with All-State success for state champion Dearborn Heights Robichaud (1990) and Dearborn Fordson was building towards the 1993 Class AA championship under Jeff Stergalas, a product of the Riverview football tree of Don Lessner. Five of the six schools are enjoying some of their best football success in recent memory this year, with Edsel Ford (3-1) enjoying a significant revival and Dearborn High (3-1) and Fordson's Tractors (4-0) on a collision course for one another next week. In Dearborn Heights, Annapolis is having one of its best seasons in 25 seasons at 4-0 and Robichaud is holding their own at a very respectable 3-1. The possibility that all three Dearborn schools could qualify of the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) tournament along with two of the three Dearborn Heights teams is legitimate.

Now the two neighboring districts could be housed in the same, quaint league, an idea that was eased into serious discussion when the MEGA began to crumble last year and the Downriver League was formed. The original Northwest Suburban League folded in 1992-93 when the MEGA was formed under auspicious conditions. Those blessings quickly deteriorated into a quagmire of legal wrangling and overbearing travel requirements.

The obvious question is where does this leave Dearborn High School? In the past 18 months it was made clear to all three Dearborn schools from Dearborn Superintendent Brian Whiston that no one school could leave the other two schools behind with complete autonomy. With permission of Superintendent Whiston, Dearborn High School would be allowed to pursue membership in the Kensington Lakes Activities Association (KLAA) and form a division with Livonia's Stevenson, Franklin and Churchill, Wayne Memorial and Westland John Glenn. The KLAA is in need of one more school because Howell's Parker High School never opened due to financial constraints and enrollment issues.

There's a significant caveat to this possible new league alignment: Dearborn and Fordson would continue to play an annual football rivalry game, something that was promised by Whiston as a condition to Dearborn possibly joining the KLAA. In another twist, Ypsilanti High School joining the Southeastern Conference (SEC) would open the necessary date for Monroe High School to renew their long-standing rivalry with Fordson in 2010. The two rivals won't play next season because Monroe, which already agreed to accept membership for 2009-10 in the SEC, has no date to offer Fordson with the current alignment in the SEC.

That's good news for area football fans. One casualty of the MEGA's demise is the loss of Allen Park-Fordson game, one of the more compelling contests from the past handful of seasons. That the long history of the Monroe-Fordson game and the heated Pioneer-Tractor game could be salvaged keeps a lot of tradition going forward.

This news leaves the remaining schools from the ill-advised MEGA power conference to scramble to forge a union by the end of this year in this final, lame-duck season. The most likely scenario? A revival of the old Southeastern Athletic Conference (SAC) with Belleville, Highland Park, Romulus, Inkster, River Rouge, Ecorse and Willow Run.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, available now from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Borders Books

Failure Is Allowing Failure To Derail Your Dreams

2008-09-23T14:56:00.004-04:00

Remember Hunter S. Thompson? I'm willing to bet that if you don't remember the man, you might remember the way the man ended his well-chronicled life. He killed himself by firing a single bullet into his brain nearly four years ago.

It was Shakespeare's prophecy that all men kill what they love. Hunter the writer was a talented, charismatic, thought-provoking artist. Thompson the man was a shrouded, dark figure by some accounts, capable of going places on the mental health map that are reserved for the troubled and borderline perverse. He was portrayed by several other artists, notably in film by actor Bill Murray and in satirical cartoon as 'Uncle Duke' in the popular Doonesbury created by Garry Trudeau. Thompson was reported to have told an interviewer that if he ever met Trudeau, he'd light the cartoon's creator on fire.

That's dark.

So what does Hunter S. Thompson have to do with me and more specifically, dreams and aspirations as they relate to the things you love? I love to write, much like Thompson did, although that might be the end of our similarities. I wrote a book and it was quite a ride, a lot of fun to be sure. The finished product is something I'm extremely proud of but the road to that reality was filled with some dark moments filled with doubt, angst and some thoughts that rattled even my sturdiest rails.

Today I awoke with a heart filled with resolve and renewal, and it felt like waking up as a high school athlete and finding out your picture is on the front of the paper. What recharged the spirit? I realized the last nine months taught me some valuable lessons, ones that I'd heard a million times over but never learned them in the context that I lived them in the first person over the past nine months.

Live and learn. Mistakes happen. It's not always about what happened but how you respond to what happened that defines you. If you don't love you, nobody will. They all seem so cliche and yet, there's so much truth in their statements. You hear these lessons imparted upon you as an athlete in high school and college but in the real-time pace of adulthood, they're easily forgotten. Young athletes, heed this advice: Ask, ask and ask some more. Don't rush to grow up but rather, take all the time you can to learn the lessons of those who have gone before you.

Live and learn? I submitted proposal after proposal to countless editors, agents and would-be publishers. Like most writers, I could wallpaper my basement in the rejection letters I'd collected, but like anything else, I never lost my confidence and verve. I got that elusive 'Yes'. The caller was point-blank in asking "Can you do this in 45 days?" I didn't know what I was getting into but I said yes anyway. This is what you want to do and someone's giving you a chance to do it. Go for it, right? Had I never tried, I would have never made a mistake. And I wouldn't have learned to avoid those pratfalls when I write Book No. 2.

Mistakes happen. If you know me at all, you know I check everything as a matter of religion. If the resurrection had a box score, you can bet I'd have a PDF copy of it on my desktop. When I got into college officiating nearly 10 years ago, I used to pour through box scores of games I worked that could be found on the Internet to try to gain even the slightest bit of additional information to make me a better referee or umpire. So when I found a pair of editing errors in my book that slipped past me, the publisher and everyone else, you can know I was devastated as a writer and journalist. Seriously devastated, so much so there were a few mornings it was tough to get out of bed.

Guess what? It happens. I see it happen in columns that are edited by the best and brightest on a daily basis. I know in my heart I know my material but I'm not going to play the blame game. How you respond to an unfortunate instance is what matters most. Finding out why it got missed is the most important part. Being a good teammate matters, too.

Does criticism hurt? Yep. Can I do anything about it? Nope, and I refuse to let others say a mistake defines me or my dreams. In the past five years I've lost my parents, lost my nephew to circumstances beyond my control and watched as a family self-destructed from inside out.
Yet in the same five years, I've become happily-married with an incredible woman, I've been blessed with great children, went back to journalism after not being paid to write anything in over 10 years, started a blog, got it syndicated by a major newspaper and wrote a book.

In short, I have a lot more to be thankful for than I could ever lament about.

I woke up today mindful of what I can do, where I live, who I have in my circle and the opportunities I have in front of me. I was gifted with the ability to do some great things. I can overcome obstacles of all shapes, kinds and sizes. Today I awoke with a revitalized spirit to do it.

All I have to do is keep trying.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, available now from Arcadia Publishing.

Writers, Referees Have Words In Common

2008-09-18T00:06:00.010-04:00

The referees of the National Football League (NFL) will never be confused with literary wordsmiths, but the two entities, seemingly polar opposites, have one surprising commonality.

Word specificity.

Certainly, the aforementioned statement requires some consideration that extends more than a few city blocks away from the basic teachings of Journalism 101. However, the necessity of exacting word language is one not reserved exclusively for authors, editors and writers. It’s something referees and umpires utilize on a daily basis -- on an immediate stage -- in front of a demanding public. While some of this is staged and rehearsed several times over, like the classic drone of “Holding on the offense” (hardly prize-winning copy in anyone’s opinion), the more obscure the call and the more the play or foul impacts or changes the outcome of the game, the more intricate the required wording.

In a professional football game earlier two seasons past, a foul by the offense was committed while the clock was counting down the final seconds of the last quarter. With but eight scant seconds remaining, the home team completed a long pass to warrant a possible game-winning field goal try, but the play was flagged for illegal motion by a wideout. The crowd buzzed with anticipation as the officials huddled around the Referee, wearing the white hat. Finally, he gave the preliminary signal, a formation penalty against the offense that was booed lustily. The Referee finally stepped forward to an open patch of grass facing the press box, turned on his microphone and announced to 60,000 fans in the stadium and millions watching on television:

“Illegal motion by the offense – the receiver failed to set before the snap. The penalty is enforced from the previous spot by yardage and 2nd down is repeated. By rule, any penalty assessed against the offense in the last minute of the game with a running clock requires a 10-second runoff. The regulation four quarters of the game is now declared complete. Overtime procedures will now commence.”

That might seem like a convoluted way to say overtime, but tell that to 60,000 passionate fans paying $60 per seat, a pair of million-dollar coaches with a livelihood depending on winning and losing football games and millions watching on television. Does anyone think fans will be satisfied with, “The penalty, illegal formation against the offense. By rule, the quarter is over. Overtime.”

Not on your life.

Words like enforce, assess, declare and commence are all very active, precise words. They’re not only required, they embolden the game arbiters, forced by trade to make game-altering decisions. The articulate, exacting words also lend credence to the decisions they make without schmaltzy salesmanship.

Speaking as a collegiate and high school official, I’ve learned to be very careful in the words I choose when a delicate situation presents itself. To wit, instead of telling a coach I ejected No, 19 for fighting, I might instead tell the coach, “No. 19 has disqualified himself from tonight’s contest for fighting, and by rule, cannot sit on the bench for the remainder of the contest.” Notice the difference? I ejected the athlete in the first sentence. In the second example, the player disqualified himself. The player’s actions disqualified him, not the referee. A subtle difference that can go a long way in the immediate perception a coach forms of my ability to handle a situation.

Sports writers are long known for their usage of active verbs and colorful depictions, as well as the occasional absent-minded question, but their flair for words is slowing crossing from the press box to the sidelines. Therefore, the days when vernacular on the field matched the verbiage in the locker room, or 'jock talk', are over. Today’s major college and professional arenas are entertainment venues. People pay over-the-top fees to sit court side during National Basketball Association (NBA) games to listen to the dialog as referees defuse tempers and soothe the occasional feathered ego of multi-million dollar athletes.

Mike Pereira, the NFL’s officiating czar, tries to place his officials in situations that cultivate and play to each official's professional acumen. "I don’t teach the word script. The thing is you have to be natural. If I’m script-specific, I’m nervous and follow what everyone else says, "Pereira explained in a 2007 interview with for an article that was scuttled by Referee Magazine. "(As an official), you have to put yourself in comfortable position, because there’s a number of different people you'll have to communicate with, including coaches, players, administrators, even other officials, that an official has to communicate within many different situations."

Pereira also said something in the aforementioned interview that remains relevant today: "There are two different angles when the play takes place. The way it’s seen on the field, and the way the play is seen from on the sideline. "

Most football fans are well-versed in last weekend's call by Referee Ed Hochuli in the waning minutes of Denver's game with San Diego, won by the Broncos after a Denver fumble was incorrectly called an incompletion by Hochuli. It was the considerable communication skills of Hochuli, specifically his being forthright in the moment on the field and ultimately, his honesty about the grief he felt about his missed call that has quelled the situation as an unfortunate miss of a crucial call.

Even in failure, the specific word can paint a picture that leads toward redemption.

An official's elocution, however, has a thin line of demarcation. Say too much and risk muddling an already hotly-contested issue. Say too little and you might be seen as aloof or worse. It’s something longtime football referee Dick Honig mastered from a dual officiating career. Now retired from the field or court in the Mid-American Conference or Big Ten, Honig operates Honig’s Whistle Stop, a national, retail distribution business outfitting officials. Honig says being a wordsmith isn’t just in what you say, but how little you have to say to say it.

"Short and sweet leaves little room for repeat," Honig said in the summer of 2006 from his Ann Arbor headquarters. "It's important you make sure to answer the question - in full - without trying to say more than you have to. Often it's what is said that has nothing to do with the call or non-call that gets guys in trouble."

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, and is working on a follow-up title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries!

Skinner's Stories

2008-09-15T16:32:00.016-04:00

Today I had the opportunity to talk with former Hazel Park and Birmingham Seaholm football coach Chuck Skinner. I was on the trail of setting up a Birmingham signing event when I caught up with Coach Skinner. It turns out he actually purchased Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries two days ago from a Barnes & Noble after a former player called to let him know he's now famous because of my book.

I'm kidding.

But seriously, Chuck Skinner, the toughest screw to ever march the sideline of Maple Field at Seaholm. The coach who went to college at Eastern Michigan University, who played football for Hurons with former Royal Oak High assistant coach and longtime Royal Oak Kimball head coach Paul Temerian. The man who is responsible for former Central Michigan University football coach Herb Deromedi being enshrined in the Collegiate Football Hall Of Fame in South Bend, Indiana.

Huh?

OK, it's a stretch, and I fear that Skinner told me the story better than I'm going to tell you, but here goes. It was 1976 and Seaholm is working on it's fourth coach in eight seasons (or so it seemed) when a handful of applicants applied for the position at Seaholm. It went to Skinner, and therefore Deromedi stayed at Central Michigan University as assistant coach under Roy Kramer for the 1977 season instead of returning home to South Oakland County. Skinner turned Seaholm into the biggest league rival of Ferndale, Kimball and Hazel Park overnight. Deromedi? He was left in the dust when Kramer went to Vanderbilt University, and went on to become a Top 10 coach in the history of Division - I football for winning percentage, all because Skinner got the job at Seaholm 30 years ago.

Coach Skinner had plenty of good stories to recant, like his 1974 Vikings, the top-ranked team in the state according to the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) paper playoff. The '74 season was a test run for a football tournament that became official in 1975.

"I had the No. 1 ranking in '74 in the Free Press and AP until Week No. 8 of that season, when for no good reason, Birmingham Brother Rice went ahead of us. We crushed Center Line 42-0 on Friday. Rice played Madison Heights Bishop Foley the next night (Saturday). Foley had Fracassa's son at quarterback and my son playing in the backfield, so what happens? His own kid throws five picks and Rice won 35-0 to steal the state championship from us," Skinner remembers with a laugh.

Football was really important back then with huge crowds and larger-than-life memories of the games, but it wasn't a live-or-die situation, either. Today what would be the outrage if an undefeated, top-ranked team didn't win the state title, much less didn't make the playoffs? In '74 The Vikings shutout seven of their nine opponents by a 214-25 margin while Rice tallied a 270-48 point differential. Among the victims of that Hazel Park campaign was a 6-0 whitewash of Lake Orion (6-3, Oakland-A North champions), a 20-0 triumph over Royal Oak Dondero (6-3, Metro Suburban Athletic Association champion) and an 8-0 shutout of Southeastern Michigan Association rival Royal Oak Kimball (7-2 in '74, 2nd SMA).

A different era to be sure. So were the rivalries, as Skinner remembers heartily.

"Pin Ryan was the coach at Kimball in the 1960s, and he hated to lose -- you couldn't even joke about it with him," Skinner recalls. "So competitive he was, but one week, Kimball gave up 40 points (most likely Kimball's 38-27 loss to Birmingham Seaholm on September 20, 1963), which never happened to them back then. Now back then, we would swap film with our opponent from the last week, and we (Hazel Park) were getting ready to play at Kimball. I called Ryan at his house and asked, 'Is this the Kimball defensive coordinator?' He was still so mad he could barely speak.

"Well, a few years later, we're playing Dondero and we botch three punts, and the Oaks pick up all three and take them in for touchdowns -- we got walloped. The next day, sure enough, the phone rings, I pick it up and I hear, 'Is this the Hazel Park special teams coach?'

"He got me back good."

Today Skinner spends summers up north on or around the golf course and remains in Oakland County during the cold season. The stories of motivating his Maples and Vikings, the championship tilts involving Dondero, Kimball, Ferndale, Hazel Park and Seaholm remain his fondest memories.

"You know, when I was at Hazel Park, we would play Dondero in the second game of the season every year, and if they won the game, his players would carry (head coach Ivy Loftin) off the field on their shoulders singing 'Happy Birthday'," Skinner said. "So 10 years later, I'm playing Dondero in the second-to-last game of the season before we would play Groves and they would get Kimball, and if he beat me there, they would carry him off the field singing 'Happy Birthday' and I couldn't figure it out.

"That was (Dondero assistant coach) Fred Fuhr, who told all those Dondero players to win the game for Ivy Loftin because it was his birthday, against two different schools six weeks apart on the schedule for over 10 years and not one Royal Oak kid ever figured it out!"

Like so many other coaches, life has slowed for Skinner, but the fire remains.

Content updated at 9:28am on September 16, 2008

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, available at Barnes & Noble, Border's Books and The Varsity Shop in Birmingham, Michigan

(Photo courtesy Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries/Gary Caskey)

For Better Or Worse, Officiating Is All About The Ratings

2008-09-10T20:03:00.002-04:00

One of the required caveats to attaining quality assignments is securing high ratings. These ratings come, in large part, from those coaching in the games referees work. This is the most oft-overlooked factor in just how skewed the entire officiating process unfolds. When the referee makes or is perceived to make a mistake in a big game, the questions always wind towards the inevitable: “How did this guy get on this game?” The answer is always the same. The coaches rated him among the best of the bunch, in a local, statewide, regional or national scope.

Phil Luckett. Remember that name? He's remembered as the referee who incorrectly handed the Detroit Lions the football on Thanksgiving Day to begin overtime in 1998. Most fans recall that Jerome Bettis of the Steelers correctly guess the coin’s flip but Luckett failed to acknowledge Bettis’s call. The Lions, of course, took the football and drove down the field far enough to allow kicker Jason Hanson to kick the game-winning field goal to earn the Lions a 19-16 win on national television.

Guess what? Luckett wasn’t totally wrong. In fact, a Pittsburgh sportswriter actually apologized to Luckett in a column after finding that Luckett, by rule, acknowledged the first, barely audible call by Bettis, which immediately was trumped by his louder, more audible second call. Few media members, either watching the game live at the Pontiac Silverdome in suburban Detroit or watching on television, knew the rule. Luckett did, but his nature, including a less-than-authoritative presence, was his own worst enemy.

In the days following the game, Luckett’s name was inseparable from the “how did this guy get on this game” comment. Obviously he had been rated high enough from the NFL coaches and observers to earn the 'referee' designation, assemble a crew and earn a premiere national television assignment. There’s only 16 referees working on NFL Sunday's each year. It's laughable to believe Luckett could fool all these people that often and sneak into the position of NFL referee by accident. In fact, it's not possible. Of course, the media was frenzied with the story and later, Luckett went back to his former Back Judge position. In a game the following season, Luckett was run over by a wide open receiver ready to catch a touchdown pass….and Luckett was soon out of the NFL. But Luckett isn’t the only goat to be remembered. Who recommended him for the referee position? Most important, what criteria was used to make that determination?

Ratings. The silent, unaccountable ratings.

Coaches control a great responsibility in rating officials, but a primary problem is most coaches know little about officiating. Most sports rely heavily on ratings from coaches because, like officials, coaches are always at the contest. Most NCAA sports at the Division-I level also have an observer and a rating from a fellow crew chief, but the rating from the coach is the constant at all levels of professional, collegiate and high school competition.

It's a flawed system no matter how anyone looks at it. Coaches don't know officiating anymore than officials know coaching. I've coached. I'm not good at it and I have complete respect for coaches that make it look seamless. For me to be able to rate a coach and feel like my opinion is unqualified is impossible and unfair to the coaches. Yet the truth remains: The assignment process and the rating process starts with coaches, like it has for the past 100 years.

In researching the origins of the assignment process, I found the assignments were doled out 100 years ago in much the same manner they are today in terms of rationale and merit. There was a rating system in place and it came primarily from coaches. There was a geographical consideration in place, and finally, there was an opinion of merit. The coach or assignor thought the official was competent to handle the assignment.

I spent a recent afternoon with my good friend “Touchdown Jesus”, also known as the library at The University of Notre Dame -- yes, all you television fans, that building wasn‘t erected for football. It‘s actually a real school building and in that building, there‘s books and archives and all sorts of historical reference. Remember it was Lou Holtz, the former Notre Dame coach, who said just two weeks ago on ESPN that he's written more books than he's read in his lifetime.

It's here, tucked inside the considerable archives of the Notre Dame history, where the dealings of a rookie coach by the name of Knute Rockne comes to life. Back them telegrams were today's text messages and letters were e-mail and Internet rolled into one. Contracts were sent back and forth and game assignments were extended to officials deemed deserving just like today. Coaches and departments heads of rival schools discussed which officials were deserving, or not, as the case may be for various reasons. Naturally, within this archive, the letters detailed the officials who routinely received the bigger game assignments, just like today’s assigning programs that detail which officials go where.

In letters between Rockne and Michigan’s Fielding Yost, game dates were set and officials were assigned. The two men openly discussed the abilities of many official and suggested to each other the merits and referrals of available officials. I bristled at the notion put forth in today's Detroit News article by a handful of Notre Dame historians that Michigan and Notre Dame's 35-year hiatus in their football rivalry from 1943-1978 came to pass because of Yost's anti-Catholic belief. That notion would be quickly dispelled if anyone saw the archives I saw.

Yost and Rockne were not at all unlike the coaches and assignors of today who find a comfort zone with certain officials and those officials are then easier to assign to certain schools, conferences and post-season assignments than others. Likewise, younger officials or those unproven are climbing a steeper hill than most, having to overcome getting in the door and then having to deal with a coach that requires you to prove yourself all over again.

That's not to say some things haven't changed. Former umpire Rocky Roe went to the big leagues in no time flat back in the 1970s by today’s standards because someone thought Rocky Roe could umpire, and that somebody had the power to say as much. Today you had better be into a pro school by your 24th or 25th birthday. That buys a prospective umpire four or five years to push their way through the minors and get into the big leagues, where, if they're you’re lucky, they’ll stick. Even if you’re in ‘The Show’ by age 30, chances are you’ll be out by age 50 or so. The days of the grey-haired veteran are evaporating.

The young, mobile, trained official is the new omega in today’s 2.0 officiating world. As for the alpha of how we get those officials, rate those officials and find those officials? It hasn't changed much, since the days of the buggy whip and Western Union.

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, and is working on a follow-up title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries!

ESPN's Mark May Doesn't Talk Truth About Officials

2008-09-07T10:22:00.010-04:00

ESPN college football analyst Mark May vilified the game officials who worked Brigham Young's thrilling 28-27 triumph over the University of Washington yesterday on ESPN's College Game Day, a rant that was replayed repeatedly on ESPN's conglomerate of networks yesterday and today.

First, the facts. Brigham Young and Washington played a classic, back-and-forth battle that ended in a BYU victory when the Cougars blocked a 35-yard point-after try (PAT) with just two seconds to play that would have tied the game. The PAT was penalized 15 yards when Husky quarterback Jake Locker flung the football airborne over his shoulder in celebration after scoring a three-yard touchdown that gave his team a chance to tie the game.

Now, with apologies to Paul Harvey, here's the rest of the story. May called the decision to penalize the Husky signalcaller 'horrendous' and 'inexcusable' because it was administered at the very end of the game, taking the game out of the hands of the players. May took a second shot at an official in a different game, clowning an official for colliding with a player by calling the guilty back judge overweight and out of shape. Yes, the official was in error, but was the personal attack needed? Could it have been the official simply made one mistake in one game of a career that could possibly span a generation's worth of games?

Put another way, I don't believe this to be sports journalism at it's highest evolution, something ESPN has started to show less and less of in recent years.

Mark May engaged in, at best, lazy reporting as it relates to opinion-based sports journalism and at worst, became another shill voice for the millions who don't know the first thing about the game as they sit on their couch with a bag of Cheetos and mug of beer. May seemed more interested in pushing the easy perception than the actual reality, like the handful of loathsome sports talk radio jockeys, opportunists with a microphone siding up with the many who live in the fog of alcohol-stained, foul-mouthed slurs directed toward officials on any given Saturday in any given stadium.

I don't mind that May doesn't agree with the call, nor would I dare take away his right to opine as much. To defend May, he's a former college football player and established college football journalist who usually elocutes flawlessly with equal parts wit and wisdom. It's the venom that he spewed forth onto the officials and the omission of all the facts in making his opinion known that I take exception with. It's okay to have any opinion as long as you're fair to the principals in the story when presenting your opinion.

May wasn't fair, instead taking advantage of two situations to make himself look like a hero to the millions of fans, many of whom have never officiated a down of football, much less the PAC-10, in their lives. Did he explain that the NCAA is requiring officials to flag all extraordinary celebrations, including throwing the football, as celebration fouls? Did he ask an officiating coordinator for opinion? (you can't tell me ESPN doesn't have access to those types of contacts on deadline) Did he report that all Division I officials have viewed the DVD put forth by the NCAA and the College Football Officials (CFO) association that specifically targets this type of celebration?

May didn't tell the whole story of the missed PAT, either. After blocking the kick, BYU was penalized with an identical 15-yard celebration penalty when the Cougar sideline spilled into the middle of the field in celebration. Why did May omit this? Because the subsequent play didn't result in any change to the score. If the penalty against BYU had resulted in a safety to give Washington a one-point win, would that penalty have been lampooned as 'horrendous', too?

There's no clock time applied to PAT situations, meaning the officials applied the same correct foul to the Cougars at exactly the same juncture of the game as they had applied to the Huskies with perfect consistency, something May ignored in proving his perspective to be lacking when it comes to considering all aspects of this officiating story.

Don't believe me? Do you think I'm just taking up for the officials because I'm a fellow official? Consider the two head coaches quoted in the game story, ironically found at ESPN.com on both Saturday and Sunday.

Said Washington head coach Tyrone Willingham: "It's one that they almost have to call. It really should be a no-call, but it's one they have to call when they see it."

If anyone knows about unfair in college football, it's Tyrone Willingham. This is a man who just suffered a crushing defeat, a man best remembered for being removed from his dream job at Notre Dame in a manner that truly was callous and horrendous. Did Willingham play the victim card? Did Willingham play the blame game? No, Willingham took the high road and exercised a leader's perspective.

How this man wasn't good enough to lead Notre Dame's football program remains a question as baffling as where Jimmy Hoffa rests.

BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall also responded in kind. Asked in a different locker room without the benefit of hearing Willingham's answer, Mendelhall said: "I didn't see it, but I do know this, that throughout the entire game, there were all kinds of plays on both sides -- that was the most visible play -- but celebration is a penalty. Whether it was or not, I didn't see it, but if it was it should have been called. Even if it was our team, it should have been called. The rules are the rules."

Even Locker exercised some perspective in the moment of post game afterthought captured by reporters. "I just was excited. I like to play the game with emotion and it got the best of me."

Doesn't sound like coaches and student-athletes playing the blame game but rather, coaches and student athletes who know the rules, understand the responsibility that goes into officiating a game and are unwilling to engage in conduct that sullies themselves or their university. Sadly, that doesn't move copy, drive website hits or sell network advertising.

May also didn't tell viewers that coaches -- not officials -- write the rules, which would explain why the coaches understood and defended the call in the face of reporters eager to elicit a damning quote towards officials. Yes, ESPN quoted the NCAA rule that vindicated the officials, but didn't read the edict in the book that states: "When officiating a game, certain rules are to be ignored by the officials in certain situations as they relate to time, score and outcome. Officials are to specifically ignore unsportsmanlike penalties when the outcome of the game is in doubt."

That was omitted because it doesn't exist, in any rulebook, in any sport, at any level.

The rules are the rules, like Willingham, Locker and Mendenhall all admitted. When it's 35-0 in the fourth quarter, you can pass on calls like an unsportsmanlike penalty, but when the game's outcome remains in the balance and the score matters, so do the rules and their proper administration.

A knowledgeable football fan doesn't need May to tell them as much.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, available at major and not-so-major retailers now!

1st and 10 From The 20 On The Book Trail

2008-09-06T08:03:00.005-04:00

Writing a book about high school football was an eye-opening experience on many fronts. It's created a small buzz within the prep football community, and everyone seems to have an opinion. I've tentatively decided to file that under the "all news is good news' category.

Yesterday I was yakking on the phone with Marc Secontine, owner of The Varsity Shop in downtown Birmingham, Michigan. Secontine's father, Vince, was the coach of the Birmingham High School Maples in the 1950s. For those that don't know, Birmingham High became Birmingham Seaholm. Secontine's also related to Birmingham Brother Rice football coach Al Fracassa.

Here's where the story gets good. Fracassa and I bumped into each other while I was walking out and he was waling into Eastern Michigan University's Rynearson Stadium. Naturally I shared the book with Coach Fracassa. His wife saw the copy I handed to Al and bought a copy for Secontine and had Al sign it for Marc. Little did she know that Secontine had purchased 20 copies from Arcadia Publishing directly to sell in his store.

The Varsity Shop has produced a table banner that will be making it's debut soon at a number of signings. It's this kind of enthusiasm for the book that warms my heart and tells me that, no matter the opinion of my book or my ability as a writer (or official for the matter), high school football is an important part of the community spirit in metro Detroit.

Library Event Nets Coach & Stories: This past Wednesday in Royal Oak I was fortunate to host a signing at Royal Oak's Public Library. Among the attendees were former Royal Oak Kimball HS/Royal Oak HS coach Terry Powers. Among his comments from Wednesday:

"We had good kids to pull from in Royal Oak, and I never had to ask my kids at Kimball to hit. That's one of the things about our teams that makes me proud. Win or lose you knew you had played Kimball."

Powers also talked about being hired at Kimball as it relates to the old Kimball-Dondero rivalry and what it was like to follow a legend.

"When I was hired the program was down, but it was made clear to me, 'That's the game you win, that Dondero game', and there was no two ways about it. I remember hearing the story about (Coach) Paul Temerian saying he was going to retire at the end of the 1982 season, but Dondero beat Kimball 35-0 (in the Silverdome). After the game he told Chuck Jones that he would coach another year -- that's a rivalry, making you stay another year so you don't go out like that against a rival."

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, available at retailers everywhere.

Oakland County's Best Nickname?

2008-09-02T20:00:00.005-04:00

Almost all of us involved with prep sports in the O-C have considered it -- who owns Oakland County's best high school nickname?

It's not simply pick & choose and put it to bed -- that's the east way out. Who's has the most history and tradition? Which nickname is the most original? What's played out? Which name strikes the fear in opponents?

There's so many considerations and so little time...here's a few to consider. Don't agree? Shoot me a note and tell me so!

Most Original: The now-closed Royal Oak Dondero and it's predecessor, Royal Oak High, takes the cake in my book. Until 1956, there was one high school in Royal Oak and they were known as the Acorns. When the district split into two high schools, the Acorns of RO High grew into mighty Oaks of Dondero High School. The Oaks...that's a keeper.

Most Tradition: Does it get any better than the Maples of Birmingham Seaholm? There's simply something about that title that evokes thoughts of crisp, fall evenings, a stadium loudspeaker crackling against the autumn leaves and popcorn and pizza steaming from the concession stand. Plus the Maples have about 100 years of football history.

Most Fitting Name To The School It Adorns: Clarkston High's Wolves. Of course, Athletic Director and Boys' basketball Coach Dan Fife is a letterman and graduate of the University of Michigan, so the easy thought is to say Fife played follow the leaders (the leaders and best?). the truth is Clarkston is at the northern reaches of the county and the school simply wears the title well. It wouldn't surprise anyone to find wolves in Clarkston, and many a team has been clawed by Wolves clad in Clarkston's blue n' gold.

Most Played Out: Knights -- way too many Knights! Bloomfield Hills Lahser, Royal Oak Shrine, Royal Oak Kimball, Oak Park, plus all the ancillary titles, like Lancers, Barons and everyone else from Medieval Times. As Jim Carrey is quoted in The Cable Guy, "The blue knight sucks; The red knights rules!"

Most Disingenuous: Redskins. Unlike Eastern Michigan University, who acquiesced to the PC-Police of the 1990s when the school's Huron identity was questioned, Redskins is derogatory simply for the name Red-Skins. Both Milford and Oak Park High eliminated Redskins in favor of Milford's Mavericks and Oak Park's Knights -- good move.

Best Import: Here's an easy one, the Shamrocks of Detroit/Redford/Novi Catholic Central. The Shams! The Rocks! Both live and die for CC High.

Most Obvious Choice: South Lyon would be cryin' if they weren't the Lions. It's always a good time out at The Jungle on Pontiac Trail.

Author's Favorite: That would go to the Colts of Troy High School. As their student body is oft quoted, "We Are...T-C!"

Here's 10 nicknames from the tri-county area that are my personal favorites: Dearborn Fordson Tractors, Dearborn Edsel Ford Thunderbirds, Detroit Pershing Doughboys, Royal Oak Dondero Oaks, Detroit Denby Tars, Grosse Pointe South Blue Devils, Detroit Catholic Central Shamrocks, Allen Park Cabrini Monarchs, Utica High Chieftains, Warren Lincoln Abes & a bonus selection: The Mount Clemens Battlin' Bathers!

~ T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, available from Arcadia Publishing at major retailers.

HS Sports Can Lead To Awards For The Right Reasons

2008-08-30T13:06:00.007-04:00

Among a few thousand fans at Eastern Michigan University's Rynearson Stadium, the Lions of South Lyon High School outran the Vikings of Walled Lake Central High by a 20-9 count in the first of four games that began at 11 a.m. yesterday as part of the Big Day Prep Showdown IV presented by Comcast Television.

But if you're truly counting winners, eight players stood out from the rest.

The big winners were the two recipients of a $500 scholarship presented in each of the four games by the Detroit Metro Sports Commission (DMSC). Eight players representing the eight participating schools earned a scholarship award. Representing Oakland County was Walled Lake Central's Cory Davis and South Lyon's Joesph Powell, and later in the day, Lake Orion's Aaron Gill was announced as the Dragons' scholarship recipient like Davis and Powell had been during halftime of their game.

DMSC Chairman Robert Porcher, a former Detroit Lion who ruled the defensive line for several seasons wearing the Honolulu Blue and Silver, said "The vision for the event is to celebrate not only football, but to acknowledge the tremendous academic and civic accomplishments of students from the participating schools who excel in their own pursuits."

It's likely most of the athletes playing or cheering on Rynearson's floor in yesterday's four games at EMU will never cheer or play football past high school. Of the lucky few to participate in college, maybe one player will ever have more than a pipe dream of playing in the National Football League (NFL) like Porcher did. So the DMSC, with the statistical knowledge of these chances at pro stardom, gave the schools participating in yesterday's games complete autonomy to pick the winner, and encouraged the schools to use a formula of civic responsibility, school pride and academic achievement and need to determine a winner.

In short, it was about who represents Lake Orion, South Lyon and Walled Lake Central the best that mattered most, not who had the most tackles, who ran the fastest 40-yard dash or who could throw the tightest spiral. Who wore the school colors with the most pride and dignity? Who helped improve their community? Who could combine the words 'student' with 'athlete' with the most proficiency?

In Oakland County, some of our area school's athletic departments can look like a beachfront, with each wave of kids looking like a never-ending crash of water, one after another, one class of kids after another, year after year. The names, records and sports start can easily start to meld together in a blur.

It's really all about providing opportunity to the entire student body, and taking time to recognize the outstanding contributions of the student-athletes that strive to embody the true ideals within the term 'student-athlete' is, in my humble opinion, one of the very best parts of school sports.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries, now available at all major retailers