Bill Frieder grew up
in Saginaw, and earned fame as
basketball coach of the University of
Michigan and Arizona State University,
but Flint is where the 70-year-old’s
heart remains.
Frieder began his coaching career
at Flint Northern High School. He’ll be
inducted into the Greater Flint Area
Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2012.
“Flint has really meant a lot to me,”
Frieder said. “I was just a little old
white guy that went in the urban ghetto
neighborhoods and gained some
respect with all kinds of kids, no matter
what their color, size or ages were, just
because of my hard work ethic.”
“I was who I was and I think I gained
a lot of trust in people and that’s why
we were successful (at Flint Northern
High School),” he added.
Before joining Michigan’s coaching
staff as an assistant to Johnny Orr
for seven years, Frieder proved
himself by leading Flint Northern High
School in back-to-back Class A state
championships in 1971 and 1972. Led
by future NBA Draft picks Wayman
Britt and Terry Furlow, the Vikings went
undefeated with a 25-0 record in 1972.
“I was a basketball junkie and when
I went to Flint Northern to begin as
a junior varsity coach, I spent every
day on basketball,” Frieder recalled.
“I think that I really built a situation
where kids really enjoyed coming to
my workouts and my practices and
they trusted me and I think that led
to the great success that we had at
Northern.”
Britt likes to describe Frieder as a
“player’s coach” who brought new
ideas to the game. His approach
to doing his job was far from typical
because he knew how to mesh
talent and constantly stayed open to incorporating new ideas into his
repertoire.
“He created the kind of situation
where the team could go beyond the
normal practice kind of thing,” said
Britt, the captain of Northern’s 1972
basketball team. “We would have
different contests. He kept it kind of
fun and he always seemed to be very
inventive.”
