[msb-alumni] Second Most-Famous Alumnus

From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2016 23:35:05 -0400

BlankOk, as promised, here is my nomination...

I didn't realize until I was looking at the appendix to the History of MSB book
that he had been a student at the school...

Blank

Hal Schram

Pages
/ HalSchram

Hal "The Swami" Schram rose from modest beginnings to become one of the most
famous and well-liked sports journalists in Michigan history. He was born
to working-class parents in St. Johns on Oct. 24, 1918.

Legally blind from birth, Schram was enrolled at the Michigan School for the
Blind in Lansing where he ran track and played on the basketball and football
teams. Upon graduating in 1937, he enrolled at Michigan State University to
pursue his dream of becoming a journalist. He covered freshman and junior
varsity
sporting games because his sight required that he be closer to the action than
was possible at varsity events.

He became the first in his family to earn a college degree in 1941. Shortly
afterwards, he got the opportunity that would change his life. After a
revolutionary
eye operation at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, he could see
well enough to drive and turn his dream into reality. He began working the
high school sports beat at the Detroit Free Press in 1945 and never left it.
Sports editor Lyle Smith is credited with the idea of turning his prep writer
into a seer and sat him down with artist Dick Mayer, who drew the crystal ball,
flowing robes and head turban that became his trademarks in print during
the annual state basketball tournament.

During more than 40 years at the Free Press, Schram made hundreds of lifelong
friends with members of the coaching community. Although he retired in the
early 1980s, he was always in the sports department when the state football and
basketball tournaments were in play.

He died in 1987 after a long battle with cancer. The top Michigan senior
basketball player of the year annually receives the Hal Schram Mr. Basketball
Award. Schram is also a member of the Michigan High School Coaches Hall of
Fame,
the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame and the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame.

"A person cannot survive as a true Spartan fan unless he is a bit of a
masochist
and a very large optimist."

Steve
Lansing, MI

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[msb-alumni] Second Most-Famous Alumnus

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