MCSHOF Inductee

When Ludington High started its five-year state championship run in gymnastics, it had been competing in the sport for only two years. The first state title came in 1975 and Martha Garrett was the lone all-stater on the team. She was second in floor exercise, third on the uneven parallel bars, fourth in vaulting and tumbling and third in the all-around competiton as the team went 19-0 in duals. In ...Read More...

Howard Jensen coached Ludington High's boys tennis teams for 29 years during which the Orioles won 17 conference and 14 state regional championships. His teams won 292 dual matches and lost 77, a .791 percentage. During one 12-year span, his teams were 174-5 in duals and won 12 conference and 11 state regional titles. Eight of his teams finished in the top 10 at the state finals. His players went ...Read More...

A 1963 graduate of Mason County Eastern, Rich Leonard was one of that school's finest all-around athletes. He was the leading scorer and rebounder during one of Eastern's most successful runs in basketball. He was also an outstanding athlete in track and field, baseball, and football. Growing up on a farm in Fountain, Leonard grew into a 6-foot, 3-inch, 220-pound slugger who is arguably the finest ...Read More...

Jay Stielstra participated in track and field, football and basketball in all four years of his high school career. In track and field, he long-jumped 22 feet, 9 5/8 inches, setting a school and Mason County record that still stands. It is the oldest county record still standing. In 1950, Stielstra was the Class B state champion in the 180-yard hurdles with a time of 20.9 seconds. In 1951, he fini ...Read More...

The team that launched the Golden Age of Basketball in Mason County, the 1953 Ludington Orioles won 21 games and lost two and is still the only LHS squad to advance to the state finals. Coached by Joe Kowatch, who was then in his first year at Ludington, the team won the North Central championship as well as Class B district and regional titles. The team won its first four games of the season befo ...Read More...

Bob Organ earned all-state honors in 1989 and 1990 in football and was a member of the Detroit News Blue-Chip team signifying the best 11 players in Michigan. He was also listed as one of the top 100 prep players in the nation by Street & Smith magazine. His junior year he caught 13 passes for 215 yards and five touchdowns and Ludington, which was 9-1, was champion of the Seaway Conference. Th ...Read More...

As a high school basketball player, Chris Raven scored 1,066 points. When he graduated in 1975, that was second only to Mike Hankwitz at Mason County Central. As a junior, the 6-foot, 3-inch Raven averaged 18.3 points per game. A two-time All-West Michigan Conference selection in basketball, he was also a first-team Class C all-stater as a senior, scoring 559 points when he averaged a school-recor ...Read More...

An outstanding guard, Glenda (Gruno) Krebs scored 1,044 points with a single-game high of 37 in her high school basketball career, the first girl at Mason County Central to go over a thousand. Said her former teammate and current Mason County Hall of Fame board member Christy Christmas, "Called 'Girl-Guard Gruno' because most thought she played like a guy - she could dribble the ball 'like a guy' ...Read More...

Russell Houk led Ludington High to Big Seven basketball championships in 1938, 1939 and 1940 and was the Orioles leading scorer his senior season. He was the president of his class, graduating with honors. One of the area's premier athletes in the 1940's and 1950's, he attended Central Michigan University where he played center at 6-feet, 4 inches and 170 pounds, in 1941 and 1942 before enlisting ...Read More...

Long before Dr. Howard Hoffman became a prominent physician in Ludington, Hoffman was a standout athlete at Ludington and then at the University of Michigan. He played three seasons for Ludington High School's football team and was the captain for two of those. He also ran track for Ludington. At Michigan, though, is where Hoffman had an incredible run. He was on the university's track team with h ...Read More...