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Sitting in the warm glow of Granum Theatre watching the 1976-77 Lumberjack men's basketball team's induction into the Lumberjack Legends Hall of Fame, it occurred to me once again the enduring power of positive connection. Coach Bill Morse's 1976-77 Lumberjack team finished the season 24-5, and is widely considered to be the best men's team ever at ACC. They were a true team with many top scorers and a group that fit seamlessly together--"connected" as hoop observers call it, a rare and fleeting trait. Before an appreciative crowd, surviving members of the team stood on the Granum Theatre stage, celebrating a bond that connects them still, fifty years later.
"It was one of the most special times in my life," said co-captain and leading scorer Tim McKee.
"We did everything together," said point guard Rodney Jackson.
"Basketball has been phenomenal for all of us," said co-captain and defensive stalwart Mike Herczak. "It’s taken me places I never dreamed of. It taught me to always be upbeat when dealing with people."
Basketball in the spring of 1977 played differently than it does now. The 3-point line didn't come to the college game until 1986-87, so the premise before then on offense was to work the ball close to the basket for the best possible open shot and then hit the glass for rebounds if the shot didn't drop. The game was more physical with fewer long shots and fewer long rebounds--and much more congested in the lane. Without three-pointers to close deficits, good teams won on the defensive end of the court. Counterintuitively, the era also promoted fast-break offense in which a good defensive team could force a miss or a turnover, grab the rebound or corral the loose ball, and push the ball up the floor at maximum controlled pace looking for opportunities for passes to teammates converging from the sides with a path for layups, fouls, or both. This fast-break structure distilled hoop down to its core elements--team play on the defensive end, securing rebounds in a highly contested space, outletting the ball just beyond the edge of traffic, pushing the ball through both teams racing back down the middle of the floor, the ballhandler probing angles for passes ahead based on who was running and where they best received the ball, figuring out on the move amid all this fluidity of space and tempo what decisive action would be most likely to result in a good outcome for the team, assessing all this on the fly. Up and down, sharing the ball, playing defense, looking out for what's best for team over individual stats. A beautiful meritocracy reflected on the scoreboard for everyone to see. These were defining features of that 1976-77 Lumberjacks team.
As I watched them on stage along with emcee Max Lindsay, longtime dean of students and athletic director at ACC, now retired, reflecting on their friendship formed 50 years ago around Lumberjack basketball, I thought back on my brief encounter with the team and the positive lesson I learned from them that still sticks with me today.
Fifty years ago, as a 17-year-old from Alcona High School, I was invited by Coach Morse after basketball season was done for both the Tigers and the Lumberjacks, to come up and try out for the ACC team. We had a good season that year under coach Bob Petrovich and played a fast-paced style similar to ACC, just on a much smaller stage. The scrimmage was held in the old East Campus gym. It was my first time on ACC's campus. Though I had been recently admitted to University of Michigan and fully intended to go there, it still was a thrill playing against college players, especially those we read about all winter in the
Alpena News. Without preamble we went shirts and skins and the game was on, coach Morse off to the side, watching and not saying much. It took maybe two trips up and down the floor for me to realize that these guys were good, way better than the players I was used to going up against in the North Star league, and I would have to turn it up a couple notches just to hold my spot on the floor and not embarrass myself. They played hard, smart, and together, a really competitive straightforward group, and you could quickly see why they would be so hard to beat. They played as a team, not because they were ordered to by the coach, but seemingly just because they were wired that way. They loved hoop and played the game, as ex-Pistons coach Larry Brown used to say, "the right way." They gave me an advanced course in high level college basketball that afternoon in the East Campus gym and I loved it. Still remember it to this day.
Later on, after the scrimmage was over, one of the players took us around to the dorms on Wilson Street, where some plans for weekend festivities were being hatched. Our last stop was Van Lare Hall, where we stopped off at what's now the Besser Foundation Student Commons. It was here I saw something that still sticks with me: a friendly welcoming space full of students, instructors, and staff all mingling together putting out an authentic unpretentious engaging vibe, talking about school, about their plans for the weekend, about the future, about life. The double doors in back were open to the flat sandy ground between Van Lare Hall and the river with some students outside taking full advantage of the warm afternoon sun. I saw a fun and hopeful scene, resonant with promise. Out of the crowd a young man I'd scrimmaged against earlier approached, gave me an infectious grin and stuck out his hand in greeting:
"Hey man," he said. "Good run today. Welcome to ACC."
Fifteen years went by before I came back to Alpena to work at ACC and another 20 before I stepped into the presidency. But I've never forgotten that moment, which taught me among other things the uncomplicated connective power of reaching out. This straightforward down-to-earth approach I've tried to champion during my time at ACC. I think it best serves students, the school, the community, and ACC staff.
Now fifty years after that springtime afternoon in Van Lare Hall, I sit among the appreciative crowd in darkened Granum Theatre listening to each player reflect in his own way on the rewards that came, as co-captain Herczak noted, from attending ACC and learning to be upbeat in dealing with people. There's elemental power in these positive connections. Let's keep that fastbreak going at ACC.