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BRIMLEY - The Brimley basketball teams of past and present have had their share of successes and disappointments. If successes were measured by conference championships and winning seasons, then it would be safe to assume that Brimley has been a very successful basketball team. If disappointments are measured by losing seasons, or by failing to win in the post season, then Brimley has had their share of disappointing seasons as well. Many would consider the 2005-2006 Bays team, a team that repeated as conference champions, but then proceeded to lose in the very first game of the districts, a disappointment. Regardless of how you gauge your Bays team, one thing is for certain - the 1962 Bays team were a disappointment. A disappointment, that is, until they reached the post season.
The year was 1962. Bays coach Jack Brighton had the tough task of filling the shoes of legendary Brimley coach Karl Parker. Brighton, a native of Jackson, Mich., and a Brimley school teacher, had just come off a dismal regular season, which his team finished in a tie for third place in the Little Seven conference with an 11-7 record. His team was scheduled to face off with a red hot Pickford Panthers team in the first round of the districts that had just finished their regular season as conference champions. According to Brighton's wife, Pat, who not only recorded stats for the team, but washed their uniforms by hand, and on one occasion even held a practice so her husband could go deer hunting, he was unusually ecstatic about his team's chances going into the playoffs.
"Jack had a flare for the dramatic," she recalled. "And he loved being an underdog. He thought since his team had a mediocre season, no one would expect much from them. 'When you have a great team and a great season people expect great things from you,' he said. He was right. No one expected this team to do anything. Except for Jack, of course."
Jack Brighton's squad would not let him down. Led by co-captains George Logan and Mike Perron, the Bays knocked off the heavily favored Pickford squad in the district opener by a score of 61 to 50. With a full head of steam and surging with momentum, the Bays steamrolled the Cedarville Trojans the very next game 57 to 33 to win the district championship. After emerging from the districts, the Bays were set to square off with Boyne Falls in the first game of the regionals. Once again, many thought the overachieving team did not stand a chance. Brighton, however, loved his chances, said his wife. He believed that his team, which had started off the season poorly, was peaking at just the right time. He was right. The Bays knocked off the Boyne Falls Loggers by a score of 58 to 52 and followed up that victory with a blowout over the Rock Little Giants, 56 to 38, to be crowned regional champions.
Even with their impressive victories, Brighton said many thought Brimley's chances of beating the Champion Indians in the quarterfinals match at the Holy Name Gym in Escanaba were slim to none. Champion, who had just been recently crowned Med-Peninsula Conference champions, entered the game with an unblemished 22-0 record and featured the Upper Peninsula's most potent offense at 72.7 points-per-game, led by 5'10" sharp-shooting junior Bill Koski at 24.2 points-per-game. Although the Bays team featured a balanced scoring attack, complemented by great rebounding and a smothering man-to-man defense, Brighton said that mostly everyone thought the Bays were no match for the unbeaten Indians squad. The Bays started their game against Champion a bit flat, but still found themselves up 17-16 at the end of the first half. By the end of the third quarter, the Bays maintained their narrow one point lead, besting the Indians by a score of 29-28. Champion was no match for the Brimley marksmen, however, as the Bays converted 16 of 23 free throws for the game, while they only converted on seven of 13. Cashing in from the charity stripe and by controlling the glass for a rebounding margin of 44-27, the Bays stunned spectators as they escaped with the 46-41 victory. The Bays' air-tight man-to-man defense held the Indians to nearly 32 below their season scoring average and also shut down their top scorer, Koski, holding him to just 11 points. According to Brighton, it was a classic "David versus Goliath" match that left fans breathless as they watched the events unfold.
"No one, and I mean no one, thought we stood much of a chance," she said of the atmosphere going into the quarterfinal match-up against Champion. "But those boys gave everything they had. Jack said that he had never worked with a group of players who gave more than those boys did. No one expected them to win that game and they did. It was magical, for the team and for the fans."
After knocking off Champion, Brighton said everyone began talking about this previously unknown squad from Brimley. Newspapers, radio stations and even television stations all wanted to tell their magnificent story - how a team, despite their dismal regular season record, could defy all odds and expectations and make such a magical run in the tournament, knocking off powerhouses such as Rock and Champion on their way. The Bays would not disappoint the media, or their fans for that matter, in their next game at Jenison Field House in East Lansing. The Bays continued their magical tournament run as they went on to knock off Suttons Bay by a score of 47 to 43, earning themselves a spot in the championship game.
Now set to square off with Flint St. Matthews in the state finals, Brighton said, "a media frenzy" ensued. The Bays were no longer considered overachievers, or underdogs, but their fans or by the media, but rather the "Cinderella" team of the 1962 boys basketball tournament, she recalled. And everyone, it seemed, wanted to see just how much magic this team had left in the tank.
"The same people that thought we didn't stand a chance before now thought we were destined to win," Brighton recalled. "Everyone was talking about the Bays. Stores closed, schools closed - the entire town shut down to go watch that game (state finals)."
The Bays faced off with a veteran-laden Flint St. Matthews squad at 3:00 p.m., March 24, at the Jenison Fieldhouse in East Lansing in front of 13,332 spectators. Coach Brighton was trying to do what Brimley coaching legend Karl Parker had done 11 years prior - win a state championship.
The Bays offense sputtered in the first half, and they found themselves trailing 17-8 at the end of one and down 34-21 at the half. The Bays came out swinging in the second half and showed the 13,332 people in attendance why they were considered the "Cinderella" team of the tournament. The Bays lit up the scoreboard for 21 points in the third stanza to pull within seven points. In the fourth quarter, however, the Bays ran out of the magic that carried them through district and regional tourneys and quarter and semifinal games. The larger Flint team seemingly put a clamp on the Brimley offense, preventing them from getting in close for easy buckets, and held them to just 10 fourth quarter points.
The crowd was stunned as the St. Matthews squad ended the Bays tournament run with a 60-52 loss. Led by Dan Trevorrow with 22 points and Max Peterson and Craig Metcalfe with 13 and 11 points, the Bays could not match St. Matthews's offensive firepower. Harold Sutton and George Logan led the Bays offense with 17 and 14 points, respectively. Mike Perron, slowed by the flu, chipped in nine points while Jim Moyer added seven.
While the Bays could not muster up enough magic in the state finals game to provide a fitting end to a storybook season, they were still welcomed home as heroes. On the bus ride home from East Lansing, Brighton's squad was met by a police escort motorcade, which led them on a parade through Sault Ste. Marie. When they arrived in Brimley, they arrived to an impressive fanfare, as the entire town of Brimley was awaiting their arrival. They were honored at banquets and their story was told in the newspapers.
While the 1962 Bays may have fallen short of winning the state championship, Brighton said her late husband Jack was not disappointed a bit. After all, his team gave him everything he could ask for. They gave him their best efforts. They gave him their sweat, their tears and they gave him a shiny new state finals runner-up trophy to sit in the school's display case. Although he did not know it then, his 1962 Bays team also gave him the distinction of being the last Brimley coach ever to take a team to the championship game. In fact, in the 44 years since Brimley lost to St. Matthews, no Brimley team has even made it past the quarterfinals.
"They were a magical team that had a magical season," Brighton's wife Pat said of the 1962 Bays team. "Jack didn't feel bad about losing because they gave him everything they had and performed to the best of their ability. He loved those boys like they were his own and they looked up to him as a father. Sitting on that bench with them at Jenison Field House was the highlight of my life. But for Jack it was just another ball game, at least that's what he said it was."
