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Flivver Finds Home at Home of the Flivvers
April 25, 2018
By Dennis Grall
Special for Second Half
KINGSFORD – A wide variety of animals exist as high school mascots in Michigan, ranging from Bison to Gators, to Eagles and Hawks and to Tigers and Panthers.
You can also watch a variety of fighters prowl the sidelines, from Patriots to Warriors, Titans to Swordsmen, to Nimrods and Roughriders, Crusaders and Fighting Irish, and Knights and Trojans and Gladiators.
There are also unusual mascots like Dux and Chix, Wykons and Hematites, Pharaohs and Technicians, Navigators and Gryphons, Achievers and Dreadnaughts, Saddlelites and Railsplitters, Battling Bathers and Flying Gs, Griffons and Shorians.
But Kingsford is among the few schools with a genuine vehicle for a mascot, which maybe could be used to transport any of these others to the playing field.
The Flivvers are the mascot of the Upper Peninsula school on the northern border of Wisconsin, just blocks from the neighboring Mountaineers of Iron Mountain. Two downstate schools – Boyne City and Perry – have Ramblers as their mascot in honor of the old Nash car.
"This was one of the best days I've had at Kingsford," Flivvers' athletic director Al Unger said of having a restored 1923 Ford Model T brought into the middle school building by the main entrance in September 2017.
The idea began to chug along two years ago when a handful of people were chatting about a school mascot. Unger said the group thought "how cool it would be to have a real-deal mascot" for the school.
The Berlinski/Hosking family happened to have an old Model T and were willing to donate it to the school. Unger's uncle, Clyde Unger of nearby Spread Eagle, Wis., was asked to use his restoration and rebuilding skills to renovate the car. He spent about 1,200 hours tearing it down and putting everything back together.
"The car really came back together," said Al Unger.
The Flivvers have been Kingsford's nickname since the early 1930s, coming from the old Ford Motor Co. plant in the area. The plant, which opened in 1925 and once employed 7,000 people, built cars and later used leftover wood to make Kingsford charcoal barbecue briquettes.
Al Unger said an Iron Mountain Daily News sportswriter during that time began using Fords as the school nickname, and it soon adjusted to Flivvers, or Flivs – a nickname for the old Model T vehicles.
Developing school spirit was one of the goals the group talked about when it discussed finding an old vehicle, Unger said.
The car's renovation included a new paint job, breaking from the standard Henry Ford refrain of all black to a spiffy blue to match the maize and royal blue school colors. "There have been a lot of positive reviews," said the Kingsford athletic director.
The car was unveiled to the students and some community members at the adjoining football field/track, perhaps the first time all of the students in the three buildings were released for a specific event, Unger said.
It was then shown to the public when the Flivvers hosted the Escanaba Eskymos for the regular-season finale football game in October. "It was awesome," Unger said of the night that included coverage from the Upper Peninsula's three television stations.
The vehicle now is displayed in a three-sided glass enclosure with a gate. Unger said plans are in the works to place the vehicle in the community’s July 4 parade "and we will consider rolling it out for special occasions.
"You can't help but walk by and stare at it and feel a sense of pride," he said.
Unger said 95 percent of the project was donated. "We spent a few dollars on the enclosure," adding everyone "has been ecstatic" about the unique mascot.
Denny Grall retired in 2012 after 39 years at the Escanaba Daily Press and four at the Green Bay Press-Gazette, plus 15 months for WLST radio in Escanaba; he served as the Daily Press sports editor from 1970-80 and again from 1984-2012. Grall was inducted into the Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame in 2002 and serves as its executive secretary. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for the Upper Peninsula.
PHOTOS: (Top) The Flivver, on display at the Kingsford middle school building. (Middle) Kingsford’s restored Model T, a 1923 “Flivver.” (Photos courtesy of the Kingsford athletic department.)
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Inglis Finds Next Home at MHSAA
December 4, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The theme chosen by Portage Northern’s student section for its hockey Regional Final in 1989 was “Kings of the Ice,” and as such they wore Burger King crowns as a sign of the royalty their classmates soon would earn.
Just before team captain Cody Inglis accepted the championship trophy, he skated to his friends and was anointed as well as one placed a crown upon his head.
Golden cardboard and all, Inglis received his team’s prize and circled the ice.
Inglis returned home that night eager to discuss the highlights with his dad Bill, a former professional player and one-time coach of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres. But there was only one thing Bill had to say – and it’s a principle that’s continued to guide Cody throughout his career in high school athletics.
“I was really looking for his input and congratulations, and he looked at me and said very succinctly, ‘There’s a right way and a wrong way to do things. And you chose the wrong way,’” Inglis remembered this week. “At the time, I couldn’t see it with the perspective of a 17-year-old kid. But now I look back on it as the most valuable life lesson I’ve ever gotten.
“I knew he was proud of me. But the lesson he was trying to impart on me was doing things the right way is much more important than winning.”
Inglis has been doing things the right way for two decades while serving first at Suttons Bay and then Traverse City Central High School. He’ll bring a winning list of achievements and wealth of knowledge when he joins the Michigan High School Athletic Association staff as an assistant director in January.
Inglis, 42, has served as athletic director and assistant principal at Traverse City Central since February 2008, taking over after 11 years as athletic director at Suttons Bay. He also has served as secretary for both the Big North and Northwest Conferences and for 13 years as the northern Lower Peninsula representative of 125 athletic directors for the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.
Inglis will serve as the MHSAA’s director of ice hockey, girls and boys cross country, girls and boys golf, and girls and boys bowling. In addition, he will assist in the direction of girls and boys skiing and girls and boys track and field, and be in charge of the junior high and middle school committee. Inglis also will assist with the administration of the MHSAA’s Coaches Advancement Program and provide his expertise as an instructor.
“We had more than 100 candidates, including a half dozen of the finest ADs in America – not just Michigan. They couldn’t be any better,” MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts said. “Cody’s selection was based in part on his being just a slightly better fit to the job description we had in mind.
“He’s had to do some tough things as an administrator. But he’s got a personality that causes people to rally around him.”
On the move
Inglis’ dad, Bill, spent 50 years in pro hockey, most of his final 20 as general manager of the Kalamazoo K-Wings, and Cody grew up in lockerrooms around future pros like Ron Hextall, Dirk Graham and Marty Turco. When the Toledo Goaldiggers won the IHL’s Turner Cup when Cody was in sixth grade, he got to carry the cup through downtown. The family moved 17 times, and prior to the stop in Kalamazoo, Cody had never lived anywhere longer than 2½ years.
Inglis graduated from Portage Northern High School in 1989 and went on to Hope College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education and his teaching certification. He also was the captain of Hope’s 1992 men’s cross country team and captain of the men’s track & field team in both 1992 and 1993, and earned academic All-America honors for cross country.
Given his ties to pro hockey, Inglis might have had an opportunity to follow his dad. But it wasn’t for him. After graduating from Hope, Inglis enrolled at Western Michigan University to study sports management. He went to class for one day and withdrew – his heart just wasn’t into it.
Instead, Inglis hooked up with his Portage Northern cross country coach Bill Fries and found what he did want to do – coach, and in doing so, teach athletics.
The rest is northern Lower Peninsula history.
Inglis hooked on at Suttons Bay as a 23-year physical education teacher and head cross country and track & field coach, and two years later took over the athletic department.
“I was thrown into the fire right away, but I had a desire to be in sports somehow and coaching was a passion of mine,” Inglis said. “It was kinda sink or swim. I realized the craziness and hecticness of it, but it was something I embraced. I was lucky to have the opportunity to do it at Suttons Bay, to grow there and have people who were willing to let me make some mistakes, learn from my mistakes and become a better administrator.”
Inglis has supervised a group of more than 100 coaches while at Traverse City Central, plus a group of more than 20 teachers and staff as part of his assistant principal duties.
He’s managed more than 100 MHSAA Tournaments, including Ski Finals, Football Semifinals and Hockey Quarterfinals, and a variety of lower tournament levels for hockey, wrestling, track and field, cross country, basketball and golf.
His programs have achieved plentiful success under his leadership. Traverse City Central won the Big North Conference all-sport award every year from 2008-12 and earned six MHSAA Finals team championships during his tenure. The varsity programs have produced 34 academic all-state awards over the past three school years – including 14 in 2012-13 – and 62 percent of the student body was involved in athletics last school year.
While at Suttons Bay, Inglis led an athletic program that won the Northwest Conference sportsmanship trophy nine times and earned two MHSAA Finals championships. He also redeveloped athletic boosters programs, oversaw construction projects and was instrumental in the rewriting of athletic policies at both schools.
He was recognized in the spring with the MHSAA’s Allen W. Bush Award, which recognizes those who serve in high school athletics but do not always receive attention for their contributions.
Mentor to follow
Inglis was instrumental in the creation and later served as an assistant coach for the Traverse City Bay Reps ice hockey team, a co-operative headed by Traverse City St. Francis High School that’s now been in existence 15 seasons. He also was named Division 4 Girls Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2002 by the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association after leading his team to a runner-up finish at the MHSAA Finals.
Inglis coached a string of girls cross country teams that made the top 10 at MHSAA Finals five straight seasons, plus 25 all-state athletes in cross country and track and field including three individual MHSAA champions.
He has been a member of seven MHSAA sport committees, including for ice hockey. He’s been a frequent presenter at the MIAAA’s annual conferences, covering topics including fundraising, budgeting, organizing successful tournaments, balancing multiple roles and responsibilities, leadership and technology. He’s also taught MIAAA Leadership Training Courses.
Of little surprise, Inglis has been greatly impacted by growing up following his dad. While mother Jeris was the rock of the family, Bill was Cody’s idol and made a significant impact on the manager Inglis has become.
“My dad was so good at the way he treated people. I just saw how he treated them, whether it was the Zamboni drive or an assistant or secretary, he treated them with so much respect,” Inglis said. “That’s the part I’ve really taken from him, how he treated people and the relationships he made. How you treat people in athletics is so key; they’ll treat you the same way back, I’ve found most of the time.”
Inglis received minor degrees at Hope in business administration and communications, and has completed a number of courses toward a master’s in athletic administration from Ohio University.
He is married to Carrie (Ham) Inglis, an MHSAA Finals cross country individual champion for Big Rapids in 1987. They have three sons.
PHOTO: (Top) Traverse City Central athletic director Cody Inglis converses with a member of his staff Tuesday. (Middle) Inglis shares a laugh with an official before Tuesday's girls basketball games. (Photos courtesy of Rick Sack.)