Rudolph (Jackson) Armstron, Nilus Austin, Bob Capture, Shep BeGay, Paul Belanger, Roger Bloomfield, Earl Bright, Dr. Bunyan Bryant, Leon Burton, Norm Bryant, Dave Copeland, Gary Crowell, Willie Dickerson, LeRoy Dismuke, Bob Failing, Jessie Gallion, Eddie Giles, Marvin Goff, Mose Henderson, Clarence Jarrett, Art Johnson, R.G. Johnson, John Langhom, Ernie Lansdown, James Logan, James McGill Richard McKenzie, Jerry Miller, Lloyd Miller, Don McCray, Robert McGruder, Larry Pool, Arvie Pope, Jerry Reaves, Richard Ruhala, Dr. John Schriner, Taylor Simmons, Eugene Taylor, Kelly Thompson, Dr. Douglas Wright
Norm Bryant remembers looking out his math class window at Emerson Junior High and watching Northern High’s track camp practicing on the oval below.
Burning up the cinders were guys like Leroy Bolden, Ellis Duckett and Sylvester Collins, and Bryant recalls thinking, “I’ll never be that fast.”
“Then, when we got over there,” Bryant says now with a chuckle, “we broke all their records.”
Indeed, they did.
Bryant and his 1953 Northern teammates not only matched the 1950 team’s state championship, they erased many of their names from the city, regional and state record books.
Now, the ’53 Vikings are getting ahead of their predecessors again, with their induction into the Greater Flint Area Sports Hall of Fame.
Led by Leon Burton, one of the fastest hurdlers in the nation, Northern was nearly unbeatable in 1953, winning the regional 20 points over Dearborn Fordson and taking the Class A state crown by 13 points over Pontiac.
The nucleus of the team also included Bryant, brothers Art Johnson and R.G. Johnson, John Langhorne, Jerry Miller and Gary Crowell. All qualified for the state meet, along with miler Doug Wright, quartermiler Jim Logan, hurdler Lloyd Miller and pole vaulter Bob Failing. Burton (1987), Art Johnson (1996) and Bryant (2005 Special Service Award) already are in the hall.
The Vikings were so deep that, when coach Bill Cave took seven of them to the Mansfield Relays in Ohio, the rest of the team still beat Bay City Central 68-41 in a dual meet.
Cave was assisted by Norb Badar, who molded Burton into a champion hurdler.
“He was a hurdler himself and l learned a lot from him,” said Burton. “How to get over the hurdles, how to snap the back foot over. But I couldn’t run the high hurdles. They were too high for me.”
After sitting out his junior year due to ineligibility, Burton got everyone’s attention in Northern’s first dual April 7.
On a soft, slow track at Saginaw Arthur Hill, he broke Collins’ track record in the 65-yard low hurdles, soared a field-record 22-1 1/2 on his only broad jump attempt, led a 1-2-3-4 Viking sweep in the 100 and anchored the 880 relay team to a 1:32.6 clocking.
Three days later at the Saginaw Relays, he began a season long duel with Pontiac’s Alonzo Harris that would culminate in the state meet.
They missed a showdown in the Saginaw Valley Conference meet, because Burton was suspended for school attendance reasons. Northern finished fourth without him.
Burton stormed back in the May 16 regional, clocking 19.2 or the fastest low hurdles time in Michigan prep history.
“He would just step over the hurdles like they were something in his way on a sprint,” said Langhorne.
Burton also went 10-flat in the 100 and joined Langhorne and the Johnsons in clocking a Northern-record 1:30.9 in the 880 relay.
Meanwhile, Bryant, Crowell, Art Johnson and Jerry Miller equaled the state record of 2:32.4 in the three-quarter-mile relay (two 440s and two 220s), and R.G. Johnson set a regional record in the high jump.
At state, Burton lowered his hurdles time to 19.1, two-tenths below the national record.
“He was four hurdles ahead of everybody,” Bryant said. “If somebody had been pushing him, there’s no telling what he would have run.”
Burton was pushed by Harris in the 100, but in looking back to check on the Pontiac Star, both were beaten by Kalamazoo’s John Johnson in 9.9.
No matter.
Miller, Crowell and the Johnsons ran a state-record 2:29.7 in the three-quarter-mile relay, and Burton, Langhorne and Johnsons won the 880 relay. Northern totaled 37 points to Pontiac’s 24.
“We knew we had it,” said Art Johnson. “We knew Leon Burton was the best hurdler in the nation, we knew no one was going to beat us in the relays and we had a coach who could tell you how many points it would take to win it. We had a tremendous team that year.”
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