I wish I had a nickel for how many times over the years when I have been asked why has our Muskegon area been so successful in football?
Although a nickel doesn’t travel as far as it did when I was a youngster (I could use that nickel to buy a single dip ice cream cone at Holmes Drug in North Muskegon) - you get the picture.
Football has always been king here on the state’s west side, and now we are in another highly anticipated season, my top answer would be: It’s the coaching.
To steal some thunder from David Letterman’s Top 10, let me give you my top 10 high school coaches from A to Z. (We have both an A and a Z.) And what do they all have in common? They are all inductees into the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame.
It has been 16 years since I last called a football game on the airways in 2009.
However, only a small smattering of coaches remain active as head coaches today, and none coaching at the same school when I bolted for the Sunshine State in early 2010.
Only Shane Fairfield (Holton), Matt Koziak (Muskegon), and Pat Collins (Montague) remain as head coaches with all moving on to different schools. It would not surprise me in the least that down the road this trio will join in the MASHOF the 10 chosen for this story.
In no specific order, here are those Hall of Fame coaches!
Tony Annese
What Anese has done in coaching football is insane. Although Tony is currently the head guru at Division 2, nobody can convince me that Annese isn’t the best coach in this state, including the two schools that play in the Big 10. Three state titles at Muskegon and three NATIONAL D2 championships! How much better does it get? His won-loss record for his career is ridiculous! It appears that the loyal Annese will stay at Ferris until he retires. And who is taking bets on how soon it will be when the head honchos at FSU add the label Tony Annese Field to Top Taggert Stadium. Outside the stadium there also could very well be a statue of Annese.
Dusty Fairfield
Fairfield’s record speaks for itself. To take a rural small-town community football team and win four state titles is an accomplishment that is off the charts. Dusty was the quarterback at Reeths Puffer when I first began broadcasting here in Muskegon. Loyal to his Ravenna Bulldogs, Fairfield could have had his pick of coaching at several high-profile schools over the years, but chose to remain close to his family and his most unique digs at home. If not for a puzzling delay of game penalty in Fairfield’s first trip to the state finals in 1988, it very well could have been five state championships for this amazing coach.
Okie Johnson
A charter member of the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame, this icon had an amazing career as the head coach for decades at Muskegon Heights. So amazing that Johnson coached teams in two different sports that have been inducted into the MAHOF: The Tigers basketball state champs of 1956 and 57 and the Heights football dynasty from 1945-47. Okie was a busy man in his 37 years at the Heights as he was also their baseball coach. It is possible that Johnson may have won more games in the three sports than any other coach in Michigan history.
Leo Redmond
What an honor it was for the ‘ole announcer’ to spend a few hours with this legendary coach before he left us in 1991. Although Redmond is best remembered as the football coach who produced six mythical state titles for the Muskegon Big Reds, just as his longtime rival Okie Johnson, Redmond was also the head mentor for state championship teams in basketball (1927 and 1937). Winner of 84 percent of his games during his 22 years, those annual classic battles with his friend and rival Okie Johnson often saw crowds of more than 10,000 fans on hand at Hackley Stadium.
Jack Schugars
Leo Durocher was wrong: “Nice guys do not always finish last.” I have never heard any of his coaching colleagues ever say a bad word about Jack. He was loved and respected by all his peers, and certainly by all his players. I have been so blessed to have received great cooperation from all the coaches, but Jack took it to even another level. Although Schugars won an area-best 262 victories that included three state championships and 18 WMC titles, I’ll never forget how ebullient Schugars was when I interviewed him prior to his first playoff team in 1985. Jack still has that enthusiasm as this tireless wonder, creeping up to 80 years of age, still works as an assistant coach for his longtime buddy Tony Annese at Ferris State.
Dave Taylor
I know I am partial to a guy who has been a lifelong friend, but Taylor could flat out coach! Taylor had no superiors when it came to coaching defense, and his coaching scheme in 1986 against Sterling Heights Stevenson was a masterpiece. Muskegon athletic director Larry Harp did a great selling job when he convinced Taylor to take over the reins as Muskegon High in 1983 after three disastrous years of Big Red football. Taylor was dead serious when he told me he enjoyed coaching practices rather than the games. How fortunate I am to have had this Hall of Fame coach as a lifelong pal since our school days at North Muskegon. It was a sad day for the ole announcer when I lost my longtime buddy late last year.
Mike Holmes
It makes me feel old that while broadcasting high school football for Traverse City back in 1968, that this coaching legend was playing for Kalamazoo Hackett. Despite his undeniable success on the field, Holmes was another one of our coaching greats who had very little ego. I vividly remember my last interview with Mike shortly before his Crusader team was about to win another state championship. His eyes became very moist as he recognized that this would be the final time he could coach his seniors in football. Crusader teams, under the guidance of Holmes, won an amazing six state championships and it was a story when MCC DIDN’T make it into the playoffs during the Holmes era as they qualified 18 times. The Crusaders won 212 games during his 25 years at MCC, an average of nearly nine wins per season!
Roger Chiaverini
Nobody, but nobody, loved the sport of football more than Chev. Long after he retired as a head coach one could find Chev at a football game. This coaching legend fits the perfect description of your prototypical football coach. “Chev’ was gruff on the outside, but a teddy bear on the inside. The man just loved coaching football. This icon was from the old school whom I would not even think about interviewing moments before a game. I would always interview ‘Chev’ for my pre-game show days in advance as he was in another world come game day. We certainly had our moments during the heat of a typically pressure packed season, but became very close friends in later life. It is no coincidence that Chiaverini tutored three other Hall of Fame coaches (Pete Kutches, Tony Annese and Mike Holmes) as well as recent inductee Mike Ribecky).
Robert Zuppke
Surely most football fans throughout this great nation will remember Zuppke for his iconic coaching career at the University of Illinois where he won seven Big 10 titles and four mythical national championships with his best player, arguably, the most famous football player in history, Red Grange. It was Zuppke who began the great football tradition at Muskegon High in 1906 where his football teams were 29-4-2. Zuppke left Muskegon to coach at Oak Park, Ill. where his third-string guard might have become even more famous than Grange, Ernest Hemingway. Zuppke is the only coach who your author never interviewed, but I do remember him when he visited North Muskegon on many occasions to visit with one of his former players, Fred (Doc) Jacks. Although it is quickly disappearing like a pay telephone booth, Zuppke was the inventor of the football huddle, in addition to a few other football staples in use today.
Pete Kutches
Pete had a brilliant football mind coupled with absolutely no ego. Pete was a man of few words, as he was never one who relished talking on the radio, but one who always was there for me. Just as Okie Johnson coached two teams in our Hall of Fame, it was Pete Kutches who was the first to win state championships at two different schools – Muskegon Catholic (1980 and 1982) and Reeths Puffer (1992). Kutches, inducted into the Upper Peninsula Hall of Fame after a brilliant prep career as a player at Escanaba St. Joseph and a two-way starter at Wyoming, paid his dues as a longtime assistant at Muskegon and MCC before he was lured into serving as a head coach. Kutches in his 15 years as a head coach compiled a remarkable .833 winning percentage.
Although a nickel doesn’t travel as far as it did when I was a youngster (I could use that nickel to buy a single dip ice cream cone at Holmes Drug in North Muskegon) - you get the picture.
Football has always been king here on the state’s west side, and now we are in another highly anticipated season, my top answer would be: It’s the coaching.
To steal some thunder from David Letterman’s Top 10, let me give you my top 10 high school coaches from A to Z. (We have both an A and a Z.) And what do they all have in common? They are all inductees into the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame.
It has been 16 years since I last called a football game on the airways in 2009.
However, only a small smattering of coaches remain active as head coaches today, and none coaching at the same school when I bolted for the Sunshine State in early 2010.
Only Shane Fairfield (Holton), Matt Koziak (Muskegon), and Pat Collins (Montague) remain as head coaches with all moving on to different schools. It would not surprise me in the least that down the road this trio will join in the MASHOF the 10 chosen for this story.
In no specific order, here are those Hall of Fame coaches!
Tony Annese
What Anese has done in coaching football is insane. Although Tony is currently the head guru at Division 2, nobody can convince me that Annese isn’t the best coach in this state, including the two schools that play in the Big 10. Three state titles at Muskegon and three NATIONAL D2 championships! How much better does it get? His won-loss record for his career is ridiculous! It appears that the loyal Annese will stay at Ferris until he retires. And who is taking bets on how soon it will be when the head honchos at FSU add the label Tony Annese Field to Top Taggert Stadium. Outside the stadium there also could very well be a statue of Annese.
Dusty Fairfield
Fairfield’s record speaks for itself. To take a rural small-town community football team and win four state titles is an accomplishment that is off the charts. Dusty was the quarterback at Reeths Puffer when I first began broadcasting here in Muskegon. Loyal to his Ravenna Bulldogs, Fairfield could have had his pick of coaching at several high-profile schools over the years, but chose to remain close to his family and his most unique digs at home. If not for a puzzling delay of game penalty in Fairfield’s first trip to the state finals in 1988, it very well could have been five state championships for this amazing coach.
Okie Johnson
A charter member of the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame, this icon had an amazing career as the head coach for decades at Muskegon Heights. So amazing that Johnson coached teams in two different sports that have been inducted into the MAHOF: The Tigers basketball state champs of 1956 and 57 and the Heights football dynasty from 1945-47. Okie was a busy man in his 37 years at the Heights as he was also their baseball coach. It is possible that Johnson may have won more games in the three sports than any other coach in Michigan history.
Leo Redmond
What an honor it was for the ‘ole announcer’ to spend a few hours with this legendary coach before he left us in 1991. Although Redmond is best remembered as the football coach who produced six mythical state titles for the Muskegon Big Reds, just as his longtime rival Okie Johnson, Redmond was also the head mentor for state championship teams in basketball (1927 and 1937). Winner of 84 percent of his games during his 22 years, those annual classic battles with his friend and rival Okie Johnson often saw crowds of more than 10,000 fans on hand at Hackley Stadium.
Jack Schugars
Leo Durocher was wrong: “Nice guys do not always finish last.” I have never heard any of his coaching colleagues ever say a bad word about Jack. He was loved and respected by all his peers, and certainly by all his players. I have been so blessed to have received great cooperation from all the coaches, but Jack took it to even another level. Although Schugars won an area-best 262 victories that included three state championships and 18 WMC titles, I’ll never forget how ebullient Schugars was when I interviewed him prior to his first playoff team in 1985. Jack still has that enthusiasm as this tireless wonder, creeping up to 80 years of age, still works as an assistant coach for his longtime buddy Tony Annese at Ferris State.
Dave Taylor
I know I am partial to a guy who has been a lifelong friend, but Taylor could flat out coach! Taylor had no superiors when it came to coaching defense, and his coaching scheme in 1986 against Sterling Heights Stevenson was a masterpiece. Muskegon athletic director Larry Harp did a great selling job when he convinced Taylor to take over the reins as Muskegon High in 1983 after three disastrous years of Big Red football. Taylor was dead serious when he told me he enjoyed coaching practices rather than the games. How fortunate I am to have had this Hall of Fame coach as a lifelong pal since our school days at North Muskegon. It was a sad day for the ole announcer when I lost my longtime buddy late last year.
Mike Holmes
It makes me feel old that while broadcasting high school football for Traverse City back in 1968, that this coaching legend was playing for Kalamazoo Hackett. Despite his undeniable success on the field, Holmes was another one of our coaching greats who had very little ego. I vividly remember my last interview with Mike shortly before his Crusader team was about to win another state championship. His eyes became very moist as he recognized that this would be the final time he could coach his seniors in football. Crusader teams, under the guidance of Holmes, won an amazing six state championships and it was a story when MCC DIDN’T make it into the playoffs during the Holmes era as they qualified 18 times. The Crusaders won 212 games during his 25 years at MCC, an average of nearly nine wins per season!
Roger Chiaverini
Nobody, but nobody, loved the sport of football more than Chev. Long after he retired as a head coach one could find Chev at a football game. This coaching legend fits the perfect description of your prototypical football coach. “Chev’ was gruff on the outside, but a teddy bear on the inside. The man just loved coaching football. This icon was from the old school whom I would not even think about interviewing moments before a game. I would always interview ‘Chev’ for my pre-game show days in advance as he was in another world come game day. We certainly had our moments during the heat of a typically pressure packed season, but became very close friends in later life. It is no coincidence that Chiaverini tutored three other Hall of Fame coaches (Pete Kutches, Tony Annese and Mike Holmes) as well as recent inductee Mike Ribecky).
Robert Zuppke
Surely most football fans throughout this great nation will remember Zuppke for his iconic coaching career at the University of Illinois where he won seven Big 10 titles and four mythical national championships with his best player, arguably, the most famous football player in history, Red Grange. It was Zuppke who began the great football tradition at Muskegon High in 1906 where his football teams were 29-4-2. Zuppke left Muskegon to coach at Oak Park, Ill. where his third-string guard might have become even more famous than Grange, Ernest Hemingway. Zuppke is the only coach who your author never interviewed, but I do remember him when he visited North Muskegon on many occasions to visit with one of his former players, Fred (Doc) Jacks. Although it is quickly disappearing like a pay telephone booth, Zuppke was the inventor of the football huddle, in addition to a few other football staples in use today.
Pete Kutches
Pete had a brilliant football mind coupled with absolutely no ego. Pete was a man of few words, as he was never one who relished talking on the radio, but one who always was there for me. Just as Okie Johnson coached two teams in our Hall of Fame, it was Pete Kutches who was the first to win state championships at two different schools – Muskegon Catholic (1980 and 1982) and Reeths Puffer (1992). Kutches, inducted into the Upper Peninsula Hall of Fame after a brilliant prep career as a player at Escanaba St. Joseph and a two-way starter at Wyoming, paid his dues as a longtime assistant at Muskegon and MCC before he was lured into serving as a head coach. Kutches in his 15 years as a head coach compiled a remarkable .833 winning percentage.
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