If Keith Young tried to play basketball for most other high schools, he may have never discovered his true calling as an athlete.
Young attended Flint Northern back in the 1970’s, a time when the Vikings had one of the best basketball programs in the state. It wasn’t easy to make that squad, especially for a kid like Young who played little organized basketball.
When he was among the final cuts, he vowed to return his junior year and give it another shot. To that end, he went out for track and field to get in better shape, the plan being to run sprints for coach Norb Badar’s equally powerful program.
That plan would also change, as Badar gradually moved up Young to longer distances.
Young immediately took to distance running, taking first individually in the state Class A team race in his first season of cross country as a junior in 1973, then repeated in 1974 with the best time in both races when he led the Vikings to the team title. The only Flint-area boys to win two state cross country races were Flint Southwestern’s Thomas Florida (1961, 1962) and Powers Catholic’s Kurt Russell (1979, 1980).
“Basketball went out the back window and I stuck with what I really loved and was successful at,” said Young, who will be inducted into the Greater Flint Area Sports Hall of Fame Dec. 4 at Genesys Conference and Banquet Center.
Before even completing his acceptance speech, Young expresses gratitude for the people who helped him become a state champion in high school and a collegiate runner at the University of Tennessee, from which he received a degree in education.
He credited his teammates for setting an example for a new runner who had no idea what cross country was all about.
“I was following them,” he said. “They’d say, ‘We’ll go out and run eight miles today,’ and I said, ‘OK.’ When we got into the workouts, I was just watching them and fed off of them. I tell them to this day, ‘If it wasn’t for your work ethic, your attitude and your determination to win, I know for a fact I would not have been as successful as I was. A lot of what I accomplished was because of them.”
Of course, much of Young’s gratitude is directed toward Badar, himself a member of the Greater Flint Area Sports Hall of Fame.
“There’s no way possible it would’ve happened if it wasn’t for Norb Badar,” said Young, a two-time state 880-yard champ in track. “I just can’t tell you enough about him. He was the catalyst. He was just brilliant. I had no idea what I was doing, but for some reason, working with those teammates and with his coaching, I was blessed enough to win it my first year.”
Young went on to run at Tennessee, where he achieved All-America status in the 1,500 meters and was on a world-record middle distance relay team in 1977. He did it despite suffering through injuries, aches and pains during most of his stay in Knoxville.
He never took up road racing after college, too beat up to enjoy the Flint area’s numerous racing opportunities. From 1973-1980, he estimates he ran 25,000 miles.
“My legs just don’t respond to running, but I make sure I get out and exercise,” said Young, 53. “I walk twice every day, brisk walking, not just strolling. It’s amazing how doing a brisk walk still strains my hamstring and calves, but I’m still exercising. I’m still out there, walking, not running. I miss it so much that sometimes when I’m walking, I’m pretending I’m competing. I really do miss it.”
Young became a social worker at Whaley Children’s Center upon graduation from Tennessee. He now works as a departmental analyst for Michigan’s Department of Human Service in Lansing, commuting to his job from Flint.
“It’s very fulfilling,” Young said. “Some folks get up every morning and dread getting up. I don’t have that feeling. I’m not working directly with (children), but I’m working with the staff working with them directly to help make their job a lot easier, because I was there before.”
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