From Okemos High’s O-ZONE to Michigan State’s IZZONE: The Red Cedar Journeys of “The Chieftain Fourteen” by Kerry J. Byrnes (Okemos ’63) Proud Chieftains fly their colors high, Victory for MSU Maroon and white unfold, Through endless years of days gone by On the banks of the Red Cedar This wondrous tale is told: There’s a school that’s known to all Beside a stream where people dreamed And planned their life anew, Its specialty is winning There stands a school both proud and strong, Praise Okemos so true. And those Spartans play good ball. Lyrics and Melody by H. Owen Reed for ”Victory for MSU” ~ 1959 Okemos High School ~ 1958 Michigan’s Red Cedar River (between Okemos and East Lansing) From Okemos High’s O-ZONE to Michigan State’s IZZONE: The Red Cedar Journeys of “The Chieftain Fourteen” Table of Contents Dedication Acknowledgements Foreword Chapter 0 - Introduction Chapter 1 - John Shick (Year of Graduation from Okemos High: 1961) Chapter 2 - Brian Breslin (‘65-‘66 at OHS & ‘67-‘69 at East Lansing HS) Chapter 3 - Robert “Joe” Shackleton (1971) Chapter 4 - Greg Lott (1974) Chapter 5 - Bob Fossum (1980) Chapter 6 - Greg Vanek (1981) Chapter 7 - Sue Tucker (1983) Chapter 8 - Kris Weshinskey (’86-’88 at OHS & ’88-’90 at Loudoun Valley HS) Chapter 9 - Kristen Rasmussen (1996) Chapter 10 - Mike Kebler (2007) Chapter 11 - Anthony Ianni (2007) Chapter 12 - Tracy Nogle (2009) Chapter 13 - Dan Chapman (2010) Chapter 14 - Conner George (2015) 14-1 - Chieftain Years (2011-2015) & Spartan Years (2015-2018) 14-2 - Spartan Years (2018-2019) - Redshirt Junior Season 14-3 - Spartan Years (2019-2020) - Redshirt Senior Season Chapter 15 - Red Cedar Rebounds Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use. Dedication I dedicate this book first to my father, Francis C. Byrnes, who in the late 1950s and early 1960s, took my brother Kevin and me to Michigan State Spartans basketball games at Jenison Fieldhouse where Jumpin’ Johnny Green’s amazed with his rebounding and scoring skills—and wowed the fans whenever he dunked the ball. The next dedication is to Gus Ganakas who was my first/only basketball coach during the winter of 1957-68, while I was in 8th grade at St. Thomas Aquinas, in East Lansing, Michigan. Saturday practices under Gus’ tutelage introduced me to the game in a little more depth than had my father who hung a basketball hoop with no net in our garage, the hoop nailed to a board affixed to the cement blocks on the backside of the chimney of our living room’s fireplace. One could only get a long shot off from certain spots as the track for the garage door partially blocked any long shot to the right side of the hoop, plus we needed to be careful not to put too much arch on our shots lest the ball knock out the light bulbs on the garage’s relatively low ceiling. It was such rudimentary skills acquired in our garage under those conditions that I brought to Gus’ practices. The end result was that come game time I mostly rode the bench, getting minutes of playing time only when I could do little to no harm if Coach subbed me into the game when my more skilled teammates already had victory well in hand. “The Byrnes Boys”@ Spartans First Big Ten Game against Maryland L to R: Kevin Byrnes (my brother), Shannon Byrnes (my son), Gus Ganakas, Kerry Byrnes and Braden Byrnes (my grandson) While “The Byrnes Boys” are big Spartans Basketball fans with a modicum of b-ball talent, that talent improved greatly over the past three generations. While I never made the Okemos High team, my son Shannon was a member of the South Lakes Seahawks (Reston, Virginia) team that made it to a Virginia regional final game, while grandson Braden (now 11 years old) has played on local, travel, and AAU teams, primarily as a point guard or on the wing as a scorer, passer, and team leader. He also was a member NOVA94, an AAU-U9 team that won the AAU national championship for that age group in 2018. Recently, the kid won an Elks Lodge Hoop Shoot contest, making 23 out of 25 free throw attempts—and was selected to the travel league’s all-star team. For all the time Shannon has invested in coaching South Lakes High teams at all levels from Freshmen to Junior Varsity to Varsity and, on top of that, coaching and mentoring his son, and for all the hard work that Braden has put into developing and improving his game, this Chieftains-cum-Spartans Basketball chronicle is also dedicated to them. Acknowledgements This book would not have been possible without the help of many fans of Okemos High School basketball and Michigan State University basketball, including the collaboration of each of The Chieftain Fourteen: John Shick, Brian Breslin, Joe Shackleton, Greg Lott, Bob Fossum, Greg Vanek, Sue Tucker, Kris Weshinskey, Kristen Rasmussen, Mike Kebler, Anthony Ianni, Tracy Nogle, Dan Chapman, and Conner George. Internet searches using Google and other search engines (e.g. Spokeo) helped me in tracking down and obtaining contact information ( email address and/or phone number) for most of the fourteen Chieftains-cum-Spartans who, once contacted, kindly shared information by mail, email, phone, and/or in person. For several players who were a bit more difficult to track down, a special thanks to their mothers – Cathy George, Michelle Chapman, and Sally Nogle – who were most kind in helping me to get in touch with their son or daughter. Thanks also to Sherrie Paty Barber (Okemos High Class of ‘66) whose fantastic Internet search skills tracked down contact information when I was not able to locate a player or coach. A shout out to the seven Okemos High coaches of The Chieftain Fourteen who kindly shared for this book’s Foreword their memories of and reflections on the Chieftains they once coached. These coaches are: Ron Mott, Bob Porritt, Doug Richey, Tom Schaberg, Stan Stolz, Dan Stolz, and Jeff Wonch. A special thank you to Scott Richey who kindly helped me get in touch with his father, Doug Richey, the most senior of these coaches; and to Scott Stolz who similarly helped me in contacting his father (Dan Stolz) and his grandfather (Stan Stolz). A hearty thank you also to the current and former Michigan State head coaches and former assistant coaches who shared memories of the former Chieftains they coached as Spartans. The head coaches are: Tom Izzo, Suzy Merchant, and Karen Langeland. Former assistant coaches are: John Holms, Pat Miller, and Lance Olson. Thanks also to several former assistant coaches – Dave Harshman, Edgar Wilson, and Fred Paulsen – for their help in figuring out that it was John Holms who was Bob Fossum’s Spartans JV coach during the 1980-81 season. A special thanks to Rod Ellis (Okemos’65 and President, Okemos Alumni Association) who tracked down and scanned hundreds of pages from over 50 Okemos High School Tomahawk yearbooks, including scans of individual players as wells as of the boys and girls basketball teams. This process was facilitated by Okemos High School Librarian Sandy Fields who retrieved yearbooks from library archives and allowed Rod to borrow the books to get them scanned either at his home or at the Capital Area District Library. Thanks also to Sky Tribell (Okemos ’69) who helped me to contact one of the earliest Chieftain players, Brian Breslin (Okemos High Freshman Team 1965-66). Also, when the Okemos High School Library was missing a Tomahawk for a specific year, Sky put out APBs to track down those fugitive Tomahawk yearbooks. For the years when Brian Breslin was at East Lansing High School, Eileen Zimmerman, the ELHS Library Media Manager, shared scans of pages from the yearbooks for Brian’s two years at ELHS. A thank you shout out to Laura Winkel (Okemos ’68), Heather Burch (Okemos ’88), Shelly Davis (Okemos ’88), and Kellie Eberly Page (Okemos ’88) for their assistance in helping me to obtain scans from the 1988 Tomahawk. A special thanks to Ed Busch, Archivist at MSU Archives, for his assistance in tracking down and emailing scans of basketball-related pages from MSU Wolverine yearbooks and high quality photos of MSU teams, players, and/or action shots. Early in my research, Bill Beekman (then MSU Vice President and now MSU Athletic Director), Jane Miller (Office of the MSU President), and Jamie Baldwin (MSU Athletics) were helpful in steering me in the right direction to track down information. A subscription to Newspapers.com enabled searching back issues of the Lansing State Journal and other newspapers, which made it possible to reconstruct high school game- by-game results and the contributions of The Chieftain Fourteen to those games—and ditto for university-level games! Al little piece of software called “Snipping Tool” enabled capturing JPG images from newspaper articles; web sites (e.g., YouTube); social media posts from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter; and televised Spartans games recorded on my DVR. Also extremely valuable—the Michigan State Basketball Media Guides published each season by MSU Athletics Communications Department. Each season these contain a profile on each Spartan player plus lots of historical information on prior year Spartans teams. Fox Sports College Properties staff (Sarah Hinsberg, Stephanie Pajot, and Morgan Stinson) assisted in providing copies of Spartans Game Day Programs that featured Conner George.