Flint, MI:  Basketball City
Thursday, February 24, 2005

By Jared Field

greatlakeshoops.com
 

The state of Michigan is known for its automobile industry, its Great Lakes and basketball. Sadly, I've lived in Michigan my whole life, inland, and with crappy cars; but, I still have hoops. Ever since I was a young boy I have been obsessed with the game of basketball. I loved the Pistons, the Wolverines, the Spartans and the Flint Carman-Ainsworth Cavaliers. I remember being overcome with emotion as a nine-year-old in 1989 when the University of Michigan won the national championship with Glen Rice, Rumeal Robinson, Gary Grant, Loy Vaught and Demetrius Calip. What a great team!! But, as a youngster, I really didn't even know the history of basketball in my own city. For all I knew basketball may as well have been invented at the Cobo Center in Detroit, or Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor. As fate would have it, I was born in Flint, Michigan, Basketball City...and I didn't even know it.
 

The Backdrop:

The City of Flint, located an hour north of Detroit within the interstate 75 corridor, was a boom town of sorts. During the heyday of General Motors, roughly 1950 through 1985, the city was full of life—its population actually surpassed 250,000 at one point. I recall hearing my Grandfather tell me that when he came to Flint from Missouri, to work in the factory, there were actually cable cars operating in downtown Flint. The city's schools were burgeoning and the city had the reputation of being a powerhouse in Michigan high school athletics. This was true for most every sport at the time, but one stood above the rest—basketball.
 

The Way of Life:

I can only imagine that winning high school basketball championships with the frequency that the Flint schools were developed a passion for the game in the City. During this era, Flint Northern, Flint Northwestern and Flint Central won numerous state titles and set records in the process. Oneof Flint's finest, Mark Harris scored 44-plus points in the state championship game. Over the course of six years in the 1980s, Flint Central and Flint Northwestern had a combined record of 159 wins against six losses—at one point, Northwestern had won 60 in a row. Basketball had captivated the city; Flint was now a basketball hotbed. (This, however, was not officially recognized in print until 2000 when the Sporting News dubbed Flint one of the 12 basketball hotbeds in America. One of the lead stories was a biography of sorts of then high-school national player of the year, Kelvin Torbert, from Flint Northwestern.) All told, since 1970, the city of Flint took home 13 state championships in basketball including a stretch of five years, from 1981-1985, in which the city did not lose a state title game in class A. The depth of basketball talent this city has produced is astounding when you consider the fact that it is only the fourth biggest city in the state of Michigan.
 

The Fall of General Motors and the Rise of the Flintstones:

During the mid-to-late eighties, life in Flint began to change. Factories were shutting down, workers were being laid off and tenants were receiving eviction notices. (For a broader understanding of the socio-economics at work in Flint during this time, watch Michael Moore's documentary, "Roger and Me.") The city began to deteriorate at a breakneck pace and people who had the means began to leave the city in droves. What was left after the capital was gone, after the "white flight," was a mere shell of the city's former self. Flint was now a relic of its industrial past.

The high schools in Flint no longer could provide students with the educational experience that they once had because of the declining enrollment in the city's schools. Life was hard and toughness was a necessity. In spite of this, the city never lost its passion for the game of basketball. It became a welcome respite from the day-to-day travails of living in Flint. Teams were still performing well, winning regional titles and occasionally a state title—in 1995 Flint Northern won the state championship with Mateen Cleaves running the point. Basketball was still big, though it had lost of bit of its old luster. The pride of this basketball city would not be fully restored until a year later when the first of the “Flintstones” would arrive in East Lansing on the campus of Michigan State University.

When Mateen Cleaves, Antonio Smith and Morris Peterson first stepped on the floor at Michigan State, they did so with very little pomp and circumstance. Cleaves was a highly-touted quarterback prospect who could also play the point guard position, Smith was a decent-sized muscular post player without any offensive polish, and Morris Peterson was a little-known commodity who was actually overlooked by many recruiters coming out of Flint Northwestern. But, when Charlie Bell, Flint's most prolific scorer and defender, arrived in East Lansing, the Flintstones were official. This team played with the toughness that Flint has always been known for; they never backed down from a challenge. In March of 2000, Mateen Cleaves led this group of Flintstones—sans Smith, who they lost to graduation—to the national championship game in Indianapolis where they defeated the University of Florida, 89-76.

The city of Flint was back in the headlines, and for all the right reasons.

The Rundown:

Division 1 college basketball players from Flint over the past decade, off the top of my head:

Mateen Cleaves
Charlie Bell
Antonio Smith
Jaquan Hart
Matt Trannon
Morris Peterson
Desmond Farmer
Kelvin Torbert
Brandon Bell
Corey Santee
Lamar Rice
Janon Cole
Tim Bograkos
Marquise Gray
Gary Lee
Nick Stapleton
Rory Jones
Blannon Campbell
Calvin Sims
Aaron Lawler
William Hatcher
Chris Mclavish
Quentin Carouthers
Olu Famutimi
Kris Kryzminski
K.C Cavette
Carlos Gill
Johnny Selvie
Mario Duncan
Eric Poole
Willie Wallace

NBA Players from Basketball City:

Charlie Bell
Demetrius Calip
Mateen Cleaves
Terry Furlow
Jeff Grayer
Butch Feyer
Corey Hightower
Darryl Johnson
Roy Marble
Morris Peterson
Glen Rice
Eddie Robinson
Keith Smith
Barry Stevens
Latrell Spreewell*
Trent Tucker

*Spree played junior high ball in Flint

As you can see, I have no immunity to the passion for hoops that permeates this city. I am a basketball junkie in Basketball City. Like a chocolate addict in Hershey, Pennsylvania, my fate was sealed early on. Most people find it rather peculiar that I love my city, because of all the things it isn't. Much to the contrary, I love this city for all the things that it is. I can tell you this much, if I had to win a basketball game or a fight, I would want this city on my side.

Flinttown: Come visit us.  In the immortal words of the Dayton Family, "we only 'bout an hour from the D."  My city is no place for the hip-impaired.