SAGINAW, Mich. — Leaders of the Houghton-Jones Neighborhood Association are in search of more volunteers like Ricky Flowers.
“I had never served on a board, anything like that,” says Flowers, Saginaw High Class of ’76, a standout in all the sports and world-class in the track and field sprints.
He adds, “Coaching, helping the community, is why I’m here.”
He was inducted into the Saginaw County Sports Hall of Fame during 2010, two years after he returned to town to “run a gym,” as he had made his career after studies and track at Michigan State. He moved back home from Houston following the 2008 passing of his mother, Georgia Williams-Gibson, and set up his fitness training sessions at the Buena Vista Community Center on Outer Drive. He teaches nearby at the city schools’ Success Academy, within the former OIC site on Tuscola and Third.
The Houghton-Jones facility did not yet exist during Ricky’s 1960s childhood, but the neighborhood at the time was full of kids who gathered in the park and basketball courts that surrounded the old Mershon Pool, and this was part of his stomping grounds up to Fourteenth near the tracks, where he encountered older peers to compete with.
It was only natural that he would choose this location to give something back when he returned home 18 years ago, a move in honor of his mother’s memory. This past summer, he helped conduct the Boys to Men Empowerment Program at Houghton-Jones, in tandem with Gary Dawkins and Assigid Mersha.
“As kids, we were always running and doing things,” he notes. “That’s what we try to restore with the young people nowadays.”
Glendorah Lawrence was Houghton-Jones office manager when Flowers got started. She recalls, “He helped to get the kids outside and he conducted group drills.”
“The children loved it,” she adds, with a chuckle, “and a few hated it.”
Trojan tradition
At Saginaw High, Flowers was sandwiched between a pair of fellow Trojans, Reggie Jones (Class of ’73) and Terry McDaniel (1983). Ricky received a track scholarship to Michigan State and became a professional in phys-ed after a career curtailed by injuries.
The main Saginaw High claim to fame for Flowers was in 1975 with a record-setting 880-yard Class A state champion relay quartet that also included Dan Abraham, Reggie Carter and Henry McClung. Their clocking, converted to 1:27.1 for today’s 800 meters, remains best-ever in the Saginaw region a half-century later.
“For all those years,” he recalls, “our names would be in the newspaper every Saturday with the top track times and records.”
He evolved into longer sprint distances and was ranked as high as third in the world for 300 meters, but the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics cost him a shot at a medal. He protested at first but in the end, he supported President Carter’s decision “to keep us out of harm’s way.”
The disappointment would have ended incentive for many athletes, but Flowers continued competing and winning in senior events up to age 50, learning insight for injury prevention that he incorporates into his training tips.
He was a football standout who drew some pro scouts, but at 6-foot-2, 155 pounds, he felt too lean and lanky for the contact sport. For the sake of his exposed ribs, he focused on track instead.
He also was a part of Saginaw High’s 1976 Class A state runner up on the basketball floor.
“The tradition was so deep,” he says, “and it brought out the best in the athletes.”
He continues to bring out the best in young athletes, both at Houghton-Jones and as girls track coach at Heritage High, where five teammates have advanced to the state finals for two years in a row, shattering school records in the process. He already is recruiting for next spring.
Flowers may be contacted via RickyDFlowers@yahoo.com or (989) 714-9902. For the neighborhood group, info@houghtonjones.org or (989) 752-1660.
