#TBT: 'Fennville Flash' Scores 60
March 12, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
"Jordan shoots. He scores."
This week marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most incredible feats in MHSAA basketball history. On March 11, 1965, Fennville's Richie Jordan scored 60 points in a Class C Regional Final against Bridgman, a point total that remains an MHSAA Tournament record.
The 5-foot-7 "Fennville Flash" became Michigan's first inductee into the National Federation of State High School Association's Hall of Fame in 2001. Below is a video compilation or Jordan clips, with audio from that Regional Final, followed by a report from MHSAA historian Ron Pesch written in 2001.
By Ron Pesch
MHSAA historian
Not long ago, I came across an article written by Hal Schram, the legendary prep journalist for the Detroit Free Press. It was penned during the winter of 1977, and Schram had decided to look back at the history of Michigan high school basketball and pick his top 20 high school players from the past quarter century.
“The Swami” had followed the high school circuit since the 1940s. Schram began with a larger list, paring the roster from 44 to 20. The sportswriter went one step further and decided to single out one member of the squad for the ultimate honor – “the greatest of them all.”
As one would expect, final selections included many of the state's most memorable names: Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Dave DeBusschere, Chet Walker, Spencer Haywood, Ralph Simpson, Rudy Tomjanovich, Campy Russell. Their exploits are legendary, and even the most casual fan of basketball could agree they belong on the list.
However, looking back from the millennium, Schram's choice for state's greatest player is stunning.
“The Swami” himself admitted at the time that his No. 1 pick would surprise many. Hal's top pick never played professionally in either the NBA or ABA. That can be overlooked, as the criteria was simple – the state's greatest prep player. But when I state that Schram's selection played ball at a Class C school, that his teams never advanced to the final rounds of the tournament, and that he stood a mere 5-7½ and weighed only 160 pounds in his prime, most basketball fans shake their heads in disbelief.
But those are only physical attributes. Ask Richie Jordan himself.
Schram's pick as the state's greatest high school ballplayer, Jordan will tell you that it doesn't matter what race, religion or how tall you are. He'll state that anything is possible with imagination and hard work.
Many may dispute Swami's selection, but few will debate Jordan's talents as an all- around athlete. A four-sport star at Fennville High School, he earned 16 letters during his prep career. He is considered by many to be the finest student-athlete ever turned out by the state of Michigan.
The family lived in Bangor when Jordan started school. On the playground one day, Richie wandered over to a high jump pit, where the older kids were practicing their leaps during recess. Much to his delight, he was offered the chance to jump by one of the older kids. The bar was lowered, and Jordan took his shot.
“I easily jumped over the bar and the older kids made comments on how easy I jumped. They kept moving the bar up until it was as high as my head. A crowd started to gather and I cleared the bar. The older kids made me feel real special.”
Before he entered the third grade, the Jordan family moved to Fennville, a small town in west Michigan.
“Fennville was a wonderful place to grow up, and I have the best of memories,” recalled Jordan. “We had a group of kids who played together and loved each other from the 3rd grade on.”
Like so many kids, he imagined himself duplicating the feats of his idols. Many have similar dreams, but few worked as hard as Richie to achieve them.
By the time he reached high school, Jordan had evolved into a stellar all-around athlete. His drive to excel worked around the clock. Through the years he accumulated new sports heroes and studied their movements in his mind.
“I was at the 1962 finals game where (Saginaw High School's) Ernie Thompson scored 42 points against Benton Harbor. I went home and worked on my double clutch for days after that. I loved all those guys and respected their talent,” said Jordan, “but I wanted to be better than all of them.”
His hard work paid off with stellar athletic performances. An all-state halfback in football in his junior year, Jordan averaged a whopping 35.6 points in 16 basketball contests and was a unanimous first-team all-state selection at guard in the winter of 1963. In the spring he excelled on the baseball diamond and in track and field.
Jordan continued his rigid regime of weightlifting and working out. Word of his athletic exploits trickled out of Fennville.
In the fall of 1964 he rushed for 1,246 yards on 86 carries, and tallied 25 touchdowns, to cap an outstanding gridiron career. His total of 5,132 career rushing yards was tops in the state at that time, and the mark still ranks in the top 10.
Again, he reaped all-state accolades. But the basketball court was where the Jordan legend was defined.
His vertical jump was phenomenal, and he could dunk with both hands. Scouts reported that he was lightning fast and excellently coordinated. Early in 1965, the Kalamazoo Gazette sent a photographer to Fennville to snap photos of Jordan for a feature article on the Black Hawks' upcoming cage contest in Kalamazoo against Hackett High School. Fennville entered the game with a 3-1 mark, the only mar a 95-93 loss to Saugatuck in which Jordan scored 54 points.
The newspaper printed a shot of Richie dunking the basketball, and the image caught the imagination of many. An overflow crowd packed the 2,200-seat Irish Gymnasium to watch the matchup. Jordan and his teammates trounced the favored Irish 99-73, as Richie scorched the nets for 47 points. In April of his senior year he was named prep All-American by Coach & Athlete magazine, earning the distinction of “smallest” on the squad. “Weep not for him, however,” stated the article, announcing the honor, “as he can dunk the ball, and with his 44.4 season's scoring average, he has scholarship offers from 58 colleges and universities.”
Richie finished out his unbelievable prep career by batting .550 on the baseball field, and by leading his track team to a third-place finish at the state meet.
On May 20, 1965, the city of Fennville honored the prep hero and his teammates for their outstanding athletic careers and their contribution to the community. Jordan spent two years with the Michigan State basketball program, earning a letter in 1967, then walked away from basketball to concentrate on baseball with the Spartans. Following graduation, he landed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but a shoulder injury ended his pursuit of a major league career.
Today, the “Fennville Flash” is known as “Mr. Jordan” by his students at Cardinal Mooney High School in Sarasota, Fla. A strength and conditioning coach, daily he preaches the merits of weight training and the benefits of hard work to his students.
Married and the father of three, he has enjoyed coaching and watching his children participate and excel in athletics. He cherishes the memories of his youth and the friends he made along the way.
“All my teammates and I felt very special,” said Jordan, now 53, “but we also were very humbled by the admiration we were shown. We all felt an obligation to our community to conduct ourselves in a way that would reflect kindly on our small town. I'm still very proud that we all understand that.”
Breslin Bound: 2022-23 Boys Report Week 9
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
February 6, 2023
We are down to the final four weeks of this MHSAA boys basketball season – and while the entertaining part is detailed below in our regular Monday report, there’s some major data crunching underway behind the scenes as well.
Seeding the top two teams in every District requires thousands of data points – and a season-long process of collecting them all. More than 720 varsity teams are playing this winter, and we’re in the midst of a process of checking their schedules one by one – about a 24-hour task by itself to make sure all scheduled games are showing, league standings are set up correctly, etc.
Additionally, daily we’re sorting through disputed scores, changes to schedules because of weather or teams that have discontinued their seasons, and other adjustments. But we’re always striving for perfection – and when Districts are drawn and those top teams seeded Feb. 26, we hope to have every schedule up to date and every score filled in.
“Breslin Bound” is powered by MI Student Aid and based on results and schedules posted for each school at MHSAA.com.
Week in Review
The countdown of last week’s five most intriguing results:
1. North Farmington 68, Muskegon 55 These two have lived at or near the top of Division 1 MPR all season, making this win by the Raiders (12-1) at the 2K23 Showcase at Aquinas College arguably their best, especially considering it also was the first loss for the Big Reds (13-1).
2. Saline 57, Ann Arbor Huron 47 The Hornets (11-4) saw an eight-game winning streak end three days later, but in this one handed Huron (13-1) its lone defeat of the season.
3. Ann Arbor Huron 67, Benton Harbor 55 The River Rats, meanwhile, rebounded immediately with a 13-point win over Dexter and then a 67-55 victory over Benton Harbor (13-3) at Aquinas.
4. Warren Lincoln 52, Grand Rapids Northview 37 The Abes (12-3) just keep impressing, this time with a big win over a Northview team matching their 12-3 record, also during the 2K23 Showcase.
5. Iron Mountain 64, Powers North Central 58 This matched arguably the best in the Upper Peninsula in Divisions 3 and 4, respectively, with the Mountaineers moving to 13-1 and the Jets to 11-2.
Watch List
With an eye toward March, here are two teams in each division making sparks:
DIVISION 1
Detroit U-D Jesuit (14-2) The Cubs have won outright or shared the last two Detroit Catholic League Central championships, and they’re hoping to run that streak to three by winning Friday’s rematch with first-place Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice (14-1). A 68-53 defeat to the Warriors on Jan. 24 and a 67-64 loss to Orchard Lake St. Mary’s on Jan. 6 have left Jesuit a game back, but the Cubs do have a sweep of reigning Division 1 champion Warren De La Salle Collegiate plus early impressive nonleague wins over Clarkston and Ferndale.
Kalamazoo Central (13-2) After just missing the Division 1 Semifinals a year ago – losing to Northview by two in a Quarterfinal – the Maroon Giants are ahead of their 16-win pace from that finish with their only losses to Brother Rice and Battle Creek Lakeview (11-3), the latter by a point. They also defeated Lakeview in the teams’ first meeting, handed Mattawan its only loss and most recently defeated Detroit Renaissance at the 2K23 event.
DIVISION 2
Ferndale (7-6) Few if any have played a tougher schedule, especially considering Ferndale is Division 2 playing most of the Division 1 powers. The Eagles are No. 5 in Division 2 MPR despite a 1-5 start including losses to Brother Rice, Jesuit, St. Mary’s and Muskegon, and then a two-point loss to North Farmington last week. Meanwhile, Ferndale has defeated Grosse Pointe South (13-3), Flint Beecher (12-3), Clarkston (11-5) and River Rouge (10-5). The North Farmington rematch is Feb. 24, and a Feb. 11 matchup with Port Huron Northern should also boost MPR.
Grand Rapids Christian (10-4) The Eagles may be in fourth in the Ottawa-Kent Conference White, but they are No. 6 in Division 2 MPR. Three of the four losses were to league opponents, but Christian is coming off a 55-53 double-overtime win over Warren Michigan Collegiate (13-2) on Saturday at Aquinas. An early win over Grand Rapids Catholic Central and a Jan. 21 victory over De La Salle also stand out.
DIVISION 3
Flint Beecher (12-3) The Bucs are off to another big start after last season’s finish at the Division 3 Semifinals, losing only to Detroit Cass Tech (17-0), Benton Harbor and Ferndale as Beecher also has loaded up its nonleague schedule. Beecher also has four wins over teams with double-digit victories, with an 80-71 defeat of Flint Hamady (14-2) on Jan. 10 putting the Bucs in first in the Genesee Area Conference Red. The Hamady rematch is Feb. 18, before a major regular-season finish against Goodrich (13-1) and Grand Blanc (14-2).
Napoleon (14-0) The Pirates aren’t sneaking up on anyone after going 19-3 last season, but they are dominating nonetheless. All but one win have been by eight points or more, and Napoleon leads the Cascades Conference after finishing second last year with a pair of losses to Vandercook Lake. The Pirates not only defeated Vandercook in their first meeting, by 40, but next defeated Michigan Center by 17 after the Cardinals ended their season last winter. Napoleon also has a 63-45 win over Big 8 Conference co-leader Concord.
DIVISION 4
Baldwin (13-1) The Panthers are coming off an 18-5 finish and second place in the West Michigan D League, and they lead it this time by two games and with a win over Mesick after losing both meetings to the eventual league champ a year ago. Baldwin also has avenged a 2021-22 loss to Mason County Eastern and could avenge another hosting Traverse City Christian on Tuesday. The Panthers also have given Marion (11-4) half its losses.
Powers North Central (11-2) As noted above, the Jets are at least among the handful of elite small-school Upper Peninsula teams, No. 4 in statewide Division 4 MPR although second in D4 in the U.P. with Painesdale Jeffers in the top spot. Those two wouldn’t see each other until a Regional Final, where North Central’s 19-5 run ended last season. The Jets only defeats this time are to Division 2 Kingsford and Division 3 Iron Mountain, which stand a combined 25-3.
Can’t-Miss Contests
Be on the lookout for results of these games coming up:
Tuesday – Goodrich (13-1) at Corunna (12-2) – They’re tied atop the Flint Metro League Stars with Goodrich winning the first meeting 69-54 on Jan. 10.
Friday – Detroit U-D Jesuit (14-2) at Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice (14-1) – As noted above, the Detroit Catholic League Central title will be on the line, as Jesuit can force a shared championship.
Saturday – Hamtramck (10-5) vs. Kalamazoo Central (13-2) at Benton Harbor – The Cosmos have faced their share of statewide elite as well, and will be seeking what would be one of their most notable wins in this Wilson Chandler Shootout matchup.
Saturday – Flint Hamady (14-2) at Davison (10-5) – Old rivals meet again as Davison is coached by longtime Beecher leader Mike Williams.
Saturday – Saginaw Arthur Hill (7-9) at Saginaw (14-4) – They’ll still have 2023-24 left before one the best rivalries in state history ends with a school merger, but this year’s rematch comes after Saginaw won 57-55 on Jan. 14.
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PHOTOS (Top) A Saginaw player gets to the rim during Friday's 59-54 loss to Mount Pleasant. (Middle) A Montabella player goes to the basket during his team's 43-28 win last week over Carson City-Crystal. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)