There was no such thing as a day off for Frank Manley II.
It didn’t matter if he was shooting hoops in Flint Northern’s gym or chasing down fly balls on the Vikings’ baseball field, he was always going full throttle.
“He was always in the middle of things, performing every night,” said Bob Brumback, who played basketball and baseball with Manley at Northern. “You were always happy when he came to the plate or when he drove to the basket.” Besides being an All-State performer at Northern, Manley was a two-sport athlete in baseball and basketball at Eastern Michigan University, and he led several amateur teams to city, state and national titles in both sports.
Manley died on May 25, 2015, at the age of 78, and he will be remembered fondly on Dec. 2 when he is enshrined into the Greater Flint Area Sports Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony will be at the Genesys Athletic Club in Grand Blanc.
“Frank was an outstanding athlete,” said Bill Basilius, who played baseball with Manley at Northern. “He had the five skills: hit, hit with power, run, field and throw.”
Manley was a standout performer on both the ball diamond and the hardcourt for Northern from 1950-54.
The 6-foot, 175-pound guard led the Vikings’ hoops squad to three straight City Series and Saginaw Valley Conference titles from 1952-54. As a senior, he led Northern to a 17-4 overall record and runner-up honors in the Class A state tournament.
The Vikings advanced to the state semifinals by upsetting 1953 state runner-up Lansing Sexton, 54-49, in a quarterfinal game. Northern’s triumph ended the Big Reds’ 19-game winning streak.
The Vikings downed Jackson, 56-49, in the state semifinals before suffering a two-point overtime loss, 43-41, to Muskegon Heights in the championship game before a crowd of 11,835 at Jenison Field House in East Lansing. With the score tied 41-41, the Heights won the game on a pair of free throws with four seconds left by future All-Big Ten Conference performer for the University of Michigan, M.C. Burton.
Manley scored seven points for Northern. The Vikings’ captain was not only an All-SVC first-team pick, but he also landed a spot on the Detroit Free Press Class A All-State team.
“He was the leader of the (1953-54) team,” Brumback said. “He was the guy that if you needed something done, he was going to do it.”
Manley started in right field for Northern’s baseball team.
As a junior, he led the Vikings to an undefeated record and a SVC title.
The former Flushing resident was a two-year letterwinner in baseball (1956 and ’58), and a three-year letterwinner in basketball (1957-58 to 1959-60) at EMU.
During his two baseball seasons, he helped the Hurons fashion a 24-14 overall record and a 15-12 mark in the Mid-American Conference. He led the nation in home runs with eight in 1958.
Manley scored 565 career points for EMU’s hoops squad, including a team-high 267 (12.7 per game) in 1958-59. “He was a selective hitter, and he had one of the strongest arms I’ve ever seen,” said Gerald Moore, who played baseball with Manley at Northern. “He had good baseball knowledge.”
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