Logo

River Rouge Star Wilburn Remembered

By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director emeritus

October 19, 2016

One of the captains from the legendary boys basketball teams of the early 1960s at River Rouge passed away earlier this month.

Ken Wilburn, 72, a forward on the 1961 and 1962 teams that were part of a since-unequaled streak in Michigan high school basketball – five consecutive MHSAA championships – accomplished what was thought to be the first triple-double in Finals history in the 1962 Class B championship game against East Grand Rapids.

Wilburn scored 26 points – 13 in the third period – to go with 15 rebounds and 11 steals in a 69-39 win, a game Coach Lofton Greene said “was his best ever.”

Wilburn would go on to lead Central State University (Ohio) to a 30-0 record and the NAIA national championship in 1965, when he was named the title game’s Most Valuable Player. He earned All-America honors and finished his career as the school’s scoring leader.

During a 13-year journeyman professional career, Wilburn played in the NBA, the ABA and in the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League/Eastern Basketball Association.  He played on three championship teams in the EPBL/EBA and was a league MVP on two occasions.

PHOTOS: (Top) Ken Wilburn (25) poses with his teammates after the 1962 Class B championship game victory. (Middle) Wilburn works to gather a loose ball from an East Grand Rapids player.

Erik O. Furseth

In Memoriam: Erik O. Furseth (1930-2022)

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

March 1, 2022

For 50 years, Erik O. Furseth’s voice chimed throughout MHSAA and Michigan State University athletic events. That voice surely will continue to live in the memories of the many who cherished listening to him, as he died Monday evening at the age of 91.

Furseth began as the public-address voice of MHSAA Boys Basketball Finals in 1968 and continued well into his 80s as those games moved from Jenison Field House to other locations across the Lower Peninsula and eventually settled into Breslin Center. He also was the longtime MHSAA football championship game voice going back to their days at the Pontiac Silverdome and provided the narration for MHSAA Baseball Finals for a decade. He announced his last MHSAA event in 2018.

An MSU basketball player during the early 1950s, the Cleveland Heights, Ohio, native played in the Spartans’ first Big Ten game in 1951. A forestry student initially, Furseth switched to communications. He later became a legendary rock-n-roll radio DJ in Lansing, and for a decade hosted Saturday night dances at the Lansing Civic Center that drew 1,000 teenagers a night – and a surprise performance by a young Stevie Wonder.

Furseth’s voice continued to be known particularly by Spartan fans as the homecourt voice for MSU basketball from 1968-2002 and MSU football from 1971-98. For more, see this feature from the MHSAA Basketball Finals programs written in 2013.

Furseth moved from East Lansing to Traverse City about 25 years ago. Click for his obituary and funeral arrangements.