Archive: Sports

How many years was the Lansing varsity football team Tri-County League Champions since 1951?  What year did the team play seven shutouts?  What year was the team the IAC and Section 4 champs?  Who was the basketball coach between 1951 and 1958?  Where would you go to look up these statistics?  Old yearbooks, perhaps.  But now there is a handier resource in the Sports History Web page on the Lansing Central School District Web site.

"A number of months ago while researching information on teams  from the 1960s, I found myself looking through yearbooks in the high school library, only to note that many were missing from the 1940s through the 1980s," says Marty Christopher, Chairman of the Lansing Athletic Hall of Fame Selection Committee, and a Hall of Famer himself.  "I continued my search throughout offices at the school, finding a nearly complete set housed in the Lansing District Office. With the help of Patty Heaton, High School Librarian, and Sue French, District Treasurer, I was able to co-ordinate relocation of missing years to the District Office where we presently have nearly a complete set from 1932 through 2009."

Christopher recruited Ron Eastman to help with the project, and eventually it was compiled into a series of documents on the school Web site.  So far, the site features records set by Lansing teams from 1950 to 2010, and features Baseball, Boys Basketball, Football, Boys Soccer, Girls Soccer, Softball, and Girls Swimming.  Tina Mallinson has also been recruited to coordinate and input the data.

The site goes hand in hand with the Lansing Athletics Hall Of Fame Web page, also in the Athletics portion of the school Web site.  The Hall Of Fame honors outstanding individuals and teams from Lansing's past in an annual ceremony and in an actual hallway behind the high school gymnasium.  The Web page lists all recipients since the Hall Of Fame was founded in 1998.

Christopher says his goal is to collect as much data as possible using yearbooks as well as interviewing past coaches and players.  He is asking for alumni who may have kept scrapbooks to share that information as well.

"We have only scratched the surface, so if a favorite sport hasn't appeared yet, it will," Christopher says.  "If you have information that can help us complete missing years, or can provide substantial help in a particular sport not yet covered, please contact me. Your help will be appreciated."

(Answers to questions at top:  7, 1969, 1983, Stan Sobus)

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