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Broncos, Panthers Rally for Vulcans Hero

September 21, 2012

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Both North Branch football coach Patrick Forster and Birch Run coach Chris Gilliam remember facing Travis Mills when he suited up for the opposing Vassar Vulcans as a talented running back just short of a decade ago. 

And that made them more than glad to help out the U.S. Army Staff Sergeant as he recovers from serious injuries sustained during his third tour of duty in Afghanistan.

The Broncos and Panthers and their respective communities have been raising money to assist Mills, a 2005 Vassar High School graduate who according to the web site TravisMills.org, is only the fourth quadruple amputee from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to survive those injuries.

Mills' parents Dennis and Cheri will be presented with a donation during a brief ceremony at halftime of tonight's Panthers/Broncos football game at North Branch High School. 

Mills currently is out of state, but according to a recent Tuscola County Advertiser report will be moving back to Vassar on Oct. 3, and will attend the school's Homecoming game two days. His incredible story and recovery have made national news, links to which can be found on his update web site along with donation directions and information.

For additional media coverage heading into tonight's event, click WJRT-12 and Lapeer Area Review.

PHOTO courtesy of TravisMills.org.

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.