MR. PAPPADAKIS served for twenty-two years, including a very important seven year assignment as Executive Secretary (1984-1991) as well as serving as Vice President (1992-93) and President (1994-95) of the organization.
Tom Yeotis, Nick Pappadakis’ best friend for more than five decades, admits he was not overly impressed with the future Central and Eastern Michigan basketball standout when they first met.
Yeotis was 12 and Pappadakis nine when they got to know each other while attending the Greek Assumption Orthodox Church in Flint.
“The first team we played on together was a Church League fastpitch softball team because even kids played fastpitch then,” said the 79-year-old Yeotis, a retired circuit court judge. “I suggested they put Nick at second base because he was never very big and I thought that was about as far as he could throw the ball.”
Pappadakis soon proved otherwise and began a life-long trend of playing above his slight stature in several sports and eventually becoming one of the nation’s top free throw shooters while at EMU.
Pappadakis, who died last year at age 75, is among this year’s Greater Flint Sports Hall of Fame inductees. He will be enshrined Dec. 4.
“Nick was a dynamo on the court or the field, a great competitor who always came to play no matter what,” Yeotis said. “He grew to about 5 foot 9, 165 pounds, but could do a lot of sports very well whether it was basketball, football, softball or baseball. He always showed good sportsmanship and the best teammate and friend you could ever ask for. What a great, all-around guy.”
Yeotis and Pappadakis seemed destined to be close friends. Yeotis said their parents immigrated to the United States on the same boat and later lived in the same apartment building for a time. Other than softball, they also shared a passion for basketball and spent plenty of time as elementary and middle school students honing their skills at Flint’s Berston Fieldhouse.
“That was just a mecca for basketball players in the area,” Yeotis said. “We both really learned a lot there and Nick started to aquire some of his skills he showed later.”
Those skills became obvious when Pappadakis was in the ninth grade as he led Zimmerman Middle School to a City championship.
“Nick was that team’s leading scorer and just lit it up that year,” Yeotis said. “He just had the ability to get his shot off quickly and was very accurate.”
Pappadakis was an All-City basketball and football player at Central and earned All-State basketball recognition.
“It seems crazy now, but Nick was a center and linebacker at 165 pounds and a very good one,” Yeotis said. “I know one of the biggest thrills of his high school career playing in the annual Central-Northern Thanksgiving games at Atwood Stadium, especially the 1950 game.”
That year, 20,600 watched as future NFL player Leroy Bolden scored from 79 yards out with 2:45 left as Northern won 20-13.
Yeotis said colleges were interested in Pappadakis for both football and basketball, but the court was his first love and he signed with Flint Junior College. After two standout years there, Pappadakis went to EMU. He served as team captain and was among the nation’s top ten free throw shooters as a senior. During the summer, Pappadakis worked on his game playing with Yeotis in a league at Ballenger Park.
“Nick was just a great ballhandler and knew how to get free for shots,” Yeotis said. “He was an outstanding free throw shooter and a great defender too. He was not super fast, but quick and hard to defend.”
In 1958, two years after graduating from EMU, Pappadakis joined with Yeotis on the Pfeiffers Beer team that won the Michigan Recreation Assocation state championship with a 24-9 record. That team was inducted into the GFSHOF in 2001.
Pappadakis and Yeotis played on various church and city league basketball and softball teams for more than 40 years. They also played in Greek basketball tournaments around the country.
“We probably played in more than 1,000 games together,” Yeotis said.
They also worked together for 23 years when Pappadakis served as circuit court administrator while Yeotis was a judge. Pappadakis also taught school and served on the Flint Township Zoning Board. He was on the GFSHOF Board and the Bruin Club Board at Mott Community College. Pappadakis was a softball and basketball official as well.
Pappadakis married wife Nikki in 1963. They had three children — George, Paula and Tony. His sons were also college athletes. Tony played basketball at Mott and Michigan Tech while George played baseball at Mott.
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