MHSAA Associate Director Rashid Dies at 66
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 4, 2021
Thomas M. Rashid, who served as associate director for two executives during 18 years with the Michigan High School Athletic Association, died Friday, Dec. 3, after a courageous battle with cancer. He was 66.
Rashid became lead assistant to retired Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts in 2003, and continued serving in that position after Roberts’ retirement and the selection of Mark Uyl as the next MHSAA leader in 2018.
Rashid was best-known by the athletic directors who have served the MHSAA’s 750 high schools, as Rashid often was their first call with questions regarding the MHSAA Handbook or eligibility issues. Rashid also led the annual UPDATE meetings tour, during which he would provide training and answers on the latest rules changes at stops all over the state. He coordinated and presented orientations each fall for newly-hired athletic directors and also presented annual sessions to administrative assistants.
He served as the MHSAA’s administrator of boys lacrosse for its entirety as an MHSAA-sponsored sport, beginning in 2005, and also oversaw the MHSAA’s Charles E. Forsythe, Allen W. Bush and Vern L. Norris awards programs.
“We are heartbroken with the loss of our dear friend and colleague, Tom,” Uyl said. “He had so many incredible gifts, the greatest being his ability to talk and communicate with people even when having to share difficult or bad news. He was so good with people, and his care and concern for others is one of Tom’s greatest legacies.
“So many of us are hurting because Tom was such a special man who made impacting people and school sports in our state his life’s work and passion. His example and legacy of helping others will live on within the MHSAA community for years.”
Prior to joining the MHSAA staff, Rashid served as director of physical education and athletics for the Archdiocese of Detroit, and as Director of the Catholic High School League, for 15 years. In those positions, he coordinated athletic schedules and tournaments for the league’s 37 schools. He also served on the MHSAA’s legislative body – the Representative Council – from 1988 until his hire at the MHSAA, including as the Council’s Secretary-Treasurer.
Rashid graduated from St. Alphonsus High School in Dearborn in 1973. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in history from Eastern Michigan University, and his master’s degree in urban education from the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
He became athletic director at St. Alphonsus in 1977, serving in that position for seven years before working in the same capacity at Riverview Gabriel Richard for slightly more than three years until joining the Catholic League staff as assistant director in December 1987. He assumed the Catholic League’s top post the following August.
Rashid sat on the Board of Directors for the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association from 1988-2000 and served as its president in 1998.
He received national recognition in 1999 when he was presented with the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association’s State Award of Merit. In 2001, Rashid was honored with the MHSAA’s Allen W. Bush Award, which recognizes noteworthy behind-the-scenes support to interscholastic athletics. In 2003, Rashid received Athletic Director of the Year awards from the MIAAA and National High School Athletic Coaches Association, and he also received an NFHS Citation that year.
He was named to the Detroit Catholic High School League Hall of Fame in 2002 and Michigan High School Lacrosse Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2017. He also received the MIAAA's Special Recognition Award in 2017 for his continued service to the school sports community.
Robichaud 3-Sport Legend Wheatley Selected to National High School Hall of Fame
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
March 11, 2024
The playing career of 1991 Dearborn Heights Robichaud graduate Tyrone Wheatley remains one of the most storied in Michigan high school sports history. His prestige gained during that early stage of his athletic stardom has been recognized nationally as well, as Wheatley was one of 12 honorees announced today as this year’s inductees into the National High School Hall of Fame by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
Wheatley – who grew up in Inkster and is currently the head football coach at Wayne State University – will be inducted as one of 11 honorees selected for the 41st Hall of Fame class at a ceremony during the NFHS summer meeting July 1 in Boston. The rest of the class is made up of three more athletes, four coaches, two former state association administrators and a game official. Wheatley was nominated by the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
Wheatley will become the Hall of Fame’s 10th inductee from Michigan, joining the MHSAA’s first full-time Executive Director Charles E. Forsythe (inducted 1983), River Rouge boys basketball coach Lofton Greene (1986), Warren Regina athletic director, softball and basketball coach Diane Laffey (2000), Fennville basketball and baseball standout Richie Jordan (2001), Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett boys and girls tennis coach Bob Wood (2005), Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook hockey standout Jim Johnson (2007), Owosso football, basketball and baseball all-stater Brad Van Pelt (2011); Vermontville Maple Valley baseball national record holder Ken Beardslee (2016) and retired MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts (2022).
To the greater public, Wheatley surely is best known as a star running back for University of Michigan who went on to play 10 seasons in the NFL for the New York Giants and Oakland Raiders. However, he is arguably most glorified in Michigan high school athletics for his accomplishments on the track, where as a junior in 1990 he became the first (of still only two) athletes to win four individual events at an MHSAA Lower Peninsula Finals – placing first in the 100 and 200-meter dashes, 110-meter hurdles and long jump. He led Robichaud to the Class B team title that day, scoring 40 of its 49 points. Wheatley completed his high school career in 1991 with three more Class B individual track & field championships and nine total over his final three seasons; he was injured in the 100 during that senior-year meet and could not run his final race to attempt another four-title day.
Wheatley’s meet records of 13.7 seconds in the 100 at the 1991 LP Class B Final and 23-10¾ in long jump in 1989 still stood when the four-Class track & field format was retired after the 1999 season. He also remains the only athlete to win the 100 three times at the prestigious Mehock Relays in Mansfield, Ohio, also finishing first in the 110 hurdles and 200 and runner-up in the long jump at that meet in 1991.
Wheatley was similarly accomplished on the high school football field, leading his team to a state championship in 1990 and earning a Parade All-America honor. Over three varsity seasons total he ran for a combined 4,257 yards and 67 touchdowns, including 2,010 yards and 33 scores on 208 carries as a senior in 1990 – the latter despite playing quarterback half of that season (and throwing five touchdown passes). He played quarterback, running back, defensive back, punter, kicker and returned kicks, and he scored 252 points over 13 games as a senior and 484 over 38 career games.
Wheatley also was a standout on the basketball court for Robichaud, averaging 14 points and 16 rebounds per game as a senior in earning all-state recognition in that sport as well.
“My city where I come from, Inkster, means the world to me. I grew up in an incredible era of sports in Michigan (with successful University of Michigan and Detroit pro teams) … but if you ask me who my idols were, they were the guys I grew up with playing on the playground,” Wheatley said. “After you come from a basketball game where you see Jarvis Walker drop 30, or Earl Jones running the last 200 of a race backwards … you hear people talk about them, you hear their reverence about them, and I just wanted to be put in the conversation of the best to come out of Inkster, forget the state. I can tell you this for sure: I’m not the best athlete to come out of Inkster, just the person who got the recognition. And my foundation was built watching, taking notes, preparing, working out and just trying to be one of the guys.
“(Robichaud was) the step. Because without Robichaud … Michigan, the NFL, me coming back to coach, it doesn’t happen,” Wheatley said. “Without the Robert Yaucks (his football coach at Robichaud), the Coach (Leit) Jones (his Robichaud track coach), the Coach (Mercer) Brysons, the (coach) Wade Cooks, the (coach Jeff) Flounorys, the Millie Hursins (his academic advisor) of the world, this doesn’t happen. Without my high school teammates, none of this happens. So it’s not just a step. What’s the saying – the first impression is the lasting and best impression? Robichaud was it.”
Wheatley returned to Robichaud as its varsity football coach in 2007 and led that team to a 9-2 record and the MHSAA Playoffs for the first time since 1994 – after Robichaud had finished 0-9 the previous season. He has served as an assistant football coach at four college programs including U-M and Syracuse, and with the Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars and Denver Broncos.
He also served as Morgan State University's head coach from 2019-21 and just completed his first season as head coach at Wayne State, which finished 3-8 – an improvement of two wins from 2022 and the program’s best record since 2019.
Wheatley graduated from University of Michigan in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. He and wife Kimberly have five children: Tyrone Jr., Terius, Tyrique, Tiana and Tamari. Tyrone Jr., an offensive tackle, played this past season for the New England Patriots.
“Many of us who grew up in Michigan grew up as fans of Tyrone Wheatley because of what he accomplished at the college level – but his legendary story begins at Dearborn Heights Robichaud, where his outsized athletic ability was on full display in every sport he played,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “Michigan has produced several professional athletes in a variety of sports and nearly 50 Olympians in track & field alone, and what Tyrone Wheatley achieved as a high school athlete remains a standard few have approached. We are ecstatic that he will deservedly take his place among the all-time elite high school athletes nationally as well.”
The National High School Hall of Fame was started in 1982 by the NFHS. The 11 individuals were chosen after a two-level selection process involving a screening committee composed of active high school state association administrators, coaches and officials, and a final selection committee composed of coaches, former athletes, state association officials, media representatives and educational leaders. Nominations were made through NFHS member associations. Also chosen for this class were athletes Joe Mauer (Minnesota), Takeo Spikes (Georgia) and Dot Ford Burrow (Mississippi); sport coaches Paula Kirkland (South Carolina), Gary Rankin (Tennessee), Roy Snyder (Pennsylvania) and Ronald Vincent (North Carolina); former state association administrators Mike Colbrese (Washington) and Marie Ishida (California), and baseball/football game official David Core (Oklahoma).
For more on this year’s Hall of Fame class, visit the NFHS Website.
PHOTO Tyrone Wheatley crosses the finish line first during one of his nine MHSAA Finals track & field championship victories. (MHSAA file photo.)