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Mick McCabe
Son of Swami
Detroit Free Press Hall of Fame Sports Write

November 17, 2021
For over half a century Mick McCabe has followed high school stars on and off of the field for the Detroit Free Press. There is literally no one who has gone wider and deeper in pursuit of the high school stories that make up the sports culture in Michigan. Truth is, the guy is a Michigan sports legend in his own right.

He is also the guy who decided to start drafting up the Detroit Free Press “Dream Teams”. This listing is incredibly appealing, as it lends itself to tremendous sports arguments, and the ultra satisfying feeling that someone has compiled all of the greats in one place. McCabe started with the Free Press on June 3, 1970 and had a hand in selecting the All State teams. Since 1980 he has handled all of them.

So with this background and the keys to the kingdom of the Free Press articles archives, he decided he could come up with the best of the best for the last half century, and that’s exactly what he did, compiling it all in to a book called Mick McCabe’s Golden Yearbook. He is certainly the right man for the job, and given the state of journalism today, is likely to be the only right man for the job forever.

To that end, he is one of only three sportswriter inducted in to both Michigan’s sports and journalism Halls of Fame; Hal (Swami) Schram, McCabe's mentor at the Free Press; Joe Falls, one of McCabe’s first bosses at the Free Press; and Harry Atkins of the Associated Press, one of McCabe’s biggest fans.

To say his propers are firmly in place would be understating the fact by magnitudes of order. But that doesn’t mean he’s omnipotent, especially when it comes to talking Flint sports, because there he has to run the ‘Fish Gauntlet’.  And that’s exactly what we do sometimes in the Aquarium, especially when we’re talking about things we think we know better than anyone else - and Flint sports history certainly qualifies.

The real story, though, as it relates to McCabe, isn’t what he gets slightly wrong (according to us of course), and there’s not much of that,  but how much he gets so spot on right. It’s an impressive book, with crazy impressive lists, with just a few of those glaring Flint omissions that we are obligated to call out.

To that end, we’ve prepared the Ultimate Flint Guide to Mick McCabe’s glorious Dream Team Golden Yearbook. McCabe focuses on Boys' Football and Basketball and we do, too.
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Mick McCabe, "Son of Swami"
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McCabe's book
Here are the Flint area football players who have been named to the Detroit Free Press Dream Teams:

  1. Fred Lakes                 RB              Flint Central             70
  2. Ron Polk                    E                 Flint Northern          70
  3. George Washington   G                Flint Central             72
  4. Gene Johnson            E                Flint Southwestern   74
  5. Rick Leach                 QB              Flint Southwestern   74
  6. Bill Broadway             RB              Flint Northern           74
  7. Booker Moore            RB              Flint Southwestern   75, 76
  8. Rodney Feaster         WR              Flint Southwestern   76
  9. Reggie Mitchell          RB              Flint Southwestern    77
  10. Willie Todd                 LB               Burton Kearsley        77
  11. Lloyd McClelland       K                 Ainsworth                 77
  12. Carl Banks                 DL               Flint Beecher            79
  13. Steve Smith               QB              Grand Blanc              79
  14. Duane Woods            DL               Flint Northern            80
  15. Matt Conquest          LB                Grand Blanc              81
  16. Eric Earnest               DB               Flint Northwestern     81
  17. Edward Greer            RB               Flint Central               82
  18. Terrence Greene        DB               Flint Central               84
  19. Andre Rison               DB               Flint Northwestern     84
  20. Curtis Feaster            LB                Flint Northern            85
  21. Mike Staisil                OL                Flint Central               85
  22. Todd Lyght                 E                  Flint Powers              86
  23. Fred Mclendon           DL                 Flint Southwestern     86
  24. Courtney Hawkins      DB                Flint Beecher            86,87
  25. Aaron Johnson           OL                 Davison                     87
  26. Dale Blassingame      DB                 Flint Northern            87
  27. Mike Oswald              OL                 Burton Kearsley         88
  28. Maurice Bulls             LB                 Flint Northern             88
  29. Ed Feaster                 OL                  Flint Northern            88
  30. Jason Addington       OL                  Burton Kearsley        89
  31. Aaron Brown             OL                  Flint Central              91
  32. Michael Fordham      OL                  Flint Central              92
  33. Andre Weathers        DB                  Flint Central              93
  34. Stan Brown               DL                   Flint Central             95
  35. Robaire Smith           E                     Flint Northern           95
  36. Kemp Rasmussen    DL                   Lapeer West             96
  37. Demetrius Solomon  OL                   Flint Northern           98
  38. Reggie Benton          RB                  Grand Blanc             99
  39. Mike Deloge              DL                  Carman Ainsworth    99
  40. Sean Poole               DL                   Flint Central              99
  41. Matt Trannon            E                     Flint Northern            01
  42. Jake Long                OL                   Lapeer East              02
  43. Otis Wiley                DB                    Carman Ainsworth   04
  44. Kirk Elsworth           RB                    Goodrich                  04
  45. Adam Antonides      OL                    Lapeer West             04
  46. Laval Lucas Perry    DB                    Fint Powers              06
  47. Ryan Wheat              OL                   Carman Ainsworth   06
  48. Aaron Ball                OL                    Davison                    06
  49. Mark Ingram Jr.        RB                   Flint Southwestern   07
  50. Tony Jones              E                       Grand Blanc             09
  51. Thomas Rawls        RB                     Flint Northern           10
  52. Danny O’Brien        DL                      Flint Powers             11
  53. Garrett Pouget        QB                     Flint Powers             12
  54. Darryl Johnson Jr.   OL                     Carman Ainsworth    13
  55. Dan Perry                OL                      Lapeer                      15
  56. Reid Thompson      OL                      Fenton                      16
  57. Deron Irving Bey     DL                      Flint Southwestern    16
  58. Logan Pasco          LB                       Davison                     19
  59. Harry Unger            DL                       Davison                     19

Schools Represented/ # of times:

Flint Northern         11
Flint Central         10
Flint Southwestern      8
Davison                     4
Carman Ainsworth    4
Flint Powers              4
Grand Blanc              4
Burton Kearsley        3
Flint Northwestern    2
Flint Beecher            2
Fenton                       1
Ainsworth                 1
Goodrich                  1
Lapeer East              1
Lapeer West             1
Lapeer                      1

  • Only Booker Moore and Courtney Hawkins made the team twice.
  • Flint Central closed in 2009


Boys Basketball.
Here’s the Detroit Free Press Dream Teamer’s of the last 50 years:

  1. Wayman Britt             G           Flint Northern              71-72
  2. Ricky Baskin              F            Flint Northern              75-76
  3. Tony Flanory              F            Flint Beecher               76-77
  4. Trent Tucker               F            Flint Northwestern      77-78
  5. Eric Turner                 G            Flint Central           79-80, 80-81
  6. Mark Harris                 G               Flint Central                81-82
  7. Darryl Johnson          G            Flint Central                 82-83
  8. Jeff Grayer                 F             Flint Northwestern       83-84
  9. Roy Marble                F             Flint Beecher               84-85
  10. Glen Rice                   F             Flint Northwestern      84-85
  11. Anthony Pendleton    G             Flint Northwestern     85-86
  12. Leon Derricks            C             Flint Northwestern      91-92
  13. Antonio Smith           C              Flint Northern             94-95
  14. Charlie Bell                G             Flint Southwestern    95-96,96-97
  15. Mateen Cleaves        G              Flint Northern             95-96
  16. Kelvin Torbert            G/F           Flint Northwestern 99-00,00-01
  17. Jaquan Hart              G/F           Flint Northern             00-01
  18. Matt Trannon            F/G            Flint Northern             01-02
  19. Olu Famutimi            G/F            Flint Northwestern      02-03
  20. Marquise Gray          F                Flint Beecher              03-04
  21. Tom Herzog              C                Flint Powers               05-06
  22. Monte Morris            G                Flint Beecher          11-12, 12-13
  23. Jalen Terry                G                Flint Beecher          19-19, 19-20
  24. Ty Rodgers               F                 Grand Blanc                21

Schools Represented/ # of times:

Flint Northwestern        7
Flint Northern            6
Flint Beecher            5
Flint Central             3
Flint Southwestern        1
Grand Blanc            1
Flint Powers            1

Notables:
  • Matt Trannon of Flint Northern, is the only player in the entire Detroit Dream Team world of the last half century to make it in both football and basketball.
  • Flint Central closed in 2009


Mick McCabe’s Top 5 Greatest High School Basketball Teams  of the last 50 years

  1. Flint Northwestern          85
  2. Lansing Everett               77
  3. Flint Central                     81
  4. Detroit Southwestern      90
  5. Flint Northern                  72
 
  • Three of the top five are from Flint.

It’s a helluva list and lots of representation from Flint and Genesee County on both the football and basketball squads. There are a few Flintcentric exceptions, though. Full disclosure: I personally watched almost every single Flint player on both the football and basketball Dream Teams play over the last 50 years, so I am highly biased by experience.

Here are my Flint Dream Team bones of contention:

  1. Rick Leach isn’t the QB on the All Time Dream Team. McCabe goes with Mill Coleman as his #1 and Drew Henson as his #2. Both highly worth and admirable selections. But neither came close to the legendary status that Leach achieved after school, and neither are the all around athletes Leach was while in high school (although Henson sure comes close). In the end Leach walked out of his high school graduation ceremony, and about 12 weeks later became a legend at one of the most storied football programs in American sports history, as the Quarterback and team leader. That says everything about his skills in high school. He’s my #1 QB of the last 50 years in Michigan.
  2. Booker Moore is absent from the all time Dream Team and even the  second team in Class A football. To be clear: No one is arguing with the top 3 running backs McCabe picks for his all time Dream Team : Jerome Bettis, Tyrone Wheatley, and Flint and Grand Blanc’s own Mark Ingram Jr. But then in the second string (he only goes two deep for all time Dream Teams in football) Booker doesn’t appear either. He was McCabe’s ONLY two year Dream Team Running Back in high school. If we’re looking at only high school performance, Booker is not only at least on the second team, for me he is on the first team, the All Time Dream Team. Many feel he was better than Mark Ingram Jr. was in high school, for not just one, but two years which McCabe’s own Dream Teams agrees with.
  3. In hoops there is one glaring omission and that is Eric Turner. Turner probably doesn’t make the All Time Dream Team with Flint’s Glen Rice who does, Shane Battier, Magic Johnson, and Campy Russell - but that’s only because McCabe doesn’t have two guards on his all time Dream Team.  If he did, Eric Turner would be one of them opposite Magic on my list. But not only isn’t Turner on the all time team, he doesn’t appear anywhere on the four deep! That makes no sense. No less an authority than former Michigan Quarterback John Wangler, also a tremendous high school basketball player,  (who McCabe has on his Class B All Time third team), told me this: I played with Eric Turner at Michigan recreation league  hoops when he was still in High School at Flint Central. I also played against Magic when he was in high school. Turner was better in high school than Magic- and Magic was incredible.  I personally didn’t see Magic play in high school so I’ll go with Wangler on this point. But I did see Turner play since he was in Junior High with me and should at least be on the all time second team. There isn’t a single guard on the Class A three deep after the Dream Team first team that was close to Turner in high school. Not one. Another big swing and a miss for me (and likely all Flintstones) is the absence of  Mark Harris. He also  definitely deserves to be on the four deep somewhere. Harris was maybe a tick or two behind Turner in court sense, ball handling and passing, but he was a better shooter, an explosive leaper, and the ultimate clutch shooter. In fact he is arguably the best shooter in Flint hoops history, and that includes Trent Tucker, Glen Rice, Charlie Bell, and Paul Krause. For some reason Turner and Harris never quite get their due outside of Flint. Undoubtedly the lack of  big D1 championship March Madness pedigrees and lack of having had NBA careers is part of that. But considering only high school performances, these are two of the greatest high school guards in Michigan history, and I’ll fight that battle with anyone who says otherwise.
  4. Kelvin Torbert was one of only a few repeat Dream Team basketball players. He is one of the only National Players of the Year ever recognized from Michigan. He doesn’t make the four deep? That feels like a pretty big omission.

Cases can be made for higher consideration for others too numerous to mention (Marty Embry, Terry Furlow, Andre Wiley, Barry Stevens, T. Greene, Roy Marble, Monte Morris, Marquise Gray, come to mind).

But other than those five people named out of two major sports and half a century, Mick McCabe pretty much gets Flint and Genesee County right (and the rest of the state, too), which is more than amazing. When you stop to consider the enormity of the challenge, it’s a borderline impossible job. But McCabe is up the task, and delivers the goods, which is magnificent.  But then again so was our conversation!

Having a living legend like Mick McCabe on the show for a swim in the Aquarium was more than special. That’s because when it comes to high school sports in Michigan Mick McCabe is a Dream Team of ONE.

His book is a gem, and there is lots more of both local and state wide coverage including other sports, girls sports, and a great feature story on Flint’s own Jimmy Abbott. Highly recommended!
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