Dennis Hopkins’ legacy was secure as one of the top coaches in Flint-area history, but he wasn’t ready to give it up completely after his final season as Linden’s head football coach.
Even if it meant coaching for the enemy.
After his final season at Linden in 2021, Hopkins worked as an offensive assistant coach at Brighton for three seasons before making a move that seemed unfathomable for a lifelong Eagle.
In 2025, he became an assistant coach at arch-rival Fenton.
“Some of the people in Linden didn’t appreciate it, but they understood,” Hopkins said. “Kids are kids. I enjoy doing it. I got a chance to do it, so I took advantage of it.”
Helping at Fenton for his 54th year of coaching was a better fit logistically for Hopkins, who didn’t enjoy the half-hour drive to Brighton when he was used to being only four miles from Linden High School. Fenton is 4.6 miles from his home.
Whether he’s coaching at Linden, Brighton, Fenton or even Dearborn Heights Crestwood where he got his start back in 1972, it’s always been about the student-athletes for Hopkins.
“I love the competition and I love being around the kids,” Hopkins said. “As long as I think I can help some kids, I’m going to do it as long as my health stays good. I enjoy that part of it.
“The wins and losses, they’re nice, but not that big. It’s when you run into somebody four or five years after they graduated and they’re married. As long as they’re a good husband and a good father, I feel good about that. Being invited to weddings and things like that, that’s always a really good time.”
Hopkins estimates he has coached at least a dozen grandsons of players he coached or taught as a physical education instructor after coming to Linden in 1973.
“Probably more,” he said. “That’s probably low. I’ve gone to numerous weddings and had kids come up and say, ‘My mom or dad had you as a teacher.’ Even over at Fenton, there’s a couple kids on the team who I had their mom and dad in school.”
Hopkins is the first Linden coach or athlete to be inducted into the Greater Flint Area Sports Hall of Fame after winning 971 games as the head coach of the football, boys basketball and baseball teams.
Prior to his induction, he was already a member of the Michigan high school baseball and football coaches’ Halls of Fame, as well as the Linden Athletic Hall of Fame.
He was Linden’s boys basketball coach for 32 years beginning in 1978-79, posting a 408-340 record and winning 10 district championships and one regional title. His 1997-98 team made Linden’s first state quarterfinal appearance since 1937.
Hopkins coached baseball from 1979 through 1998, going 401-254 and winning two Flint Metro League championships.
In football, Hopkins’ teams qualified for the state playoffs 19 times, including 16 years in a row, and went 9-0 in the regular season three times from 1998 to 2021. Linden had a 162-87 record during that time.
“When I became the varsity football coach, I gave up the baseball position,” Hopkins said. “It was too much. I promised my wife I would get out of one. I still coached basketball.
“If you’re not in the building doing more than one sport, I think you’re asking for trouble. I was fortunate I was in the building and all my assistants at the time were also in the building. That worked out really well.”
Hopkins wouldn’t have been able to coach all those years in multiple sports without a supportive wife and children.
“I was gone quite a bit, but when I was home, I was home,” he said. “When I had family time, we had family time.”
Hopkins graduated from Livonia Franklin in 1968 and received his bachelor’s (1972) and masters (1975) degrees in physical education from Eastern Michigan University.
He didn’t intend to get into coaching, but was inspired while working as a student teacher alongside legendary Farmington Hills Harrison coaches John Herrington and Bob Sutter.
“Watching how they handled kids and went about their business kind of dragged me into it,” he said. “John has been my mentor all these years. If I ever have a problem, I talk to him. I talked to him just the other day. I’ve mimicked him a little bit along my coaching career.”
