Scott4Pack wrote: ↑11 Mar 2023 16:56
Grant does not get enough credit.
Came across this one today, its packers historian Cliff Christl talking about Bud Grant, the greatest high school player in WI history
Terry from Manhattan Beach, CA
Q: Did the best high-school athlete in Wisconsin history just pass at 95?
A: "Packers' nemesis or not, paying tribute to Bud Grant would certainly be an appropriate gesture here. As Vikings coach for 18 seasons, Grant was 23-11-1 against the Packers, starting with a split against Lombardi in 1967, and then usually by outcoaching Phil Bengtson, Dan Devine, Starr, and Forrest Gregg. A Superior, Wis., native, Grant was talented enough to play for both the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL and the Minneapolis Lakers in the NBA. And, yes, he'd get my vote for greatest high-school athlete in the history of Wisconsin.
In basketball, Grant played four years at Superior Central, from 1941-45, and started as a freshman on a state tournament team. Overall, he scored 897 points, when I believe the state record was 1,180. "He could do everything," Ron Blomberg, a former high school teammate who later coached the Milwaukee Bucks' minor league team and ran their summer basketball camps, told me in 2005 when I polled coaches and others to select an all-time Wisconsin high school basketball team. "He was such a great natural athlete. Bud had good height; inside, but go outside, too. He could shoot and he was strong. He was a star as a sophomore."
But what I find most impressive was that after Grant moved from end to fullback as a senior and led Central to a 7-1 record, he enlisted in the Navy and reported to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center outside Chicago. There, as an 18-year-old end, he played on the base football team coached by the legendary Paul Brown and alongside college and pro players. The star of the team was 25-year-old future Pro Football Hall of Fame fullback Marion Motley, and Great Lakes' schedule included a handful of Big Ten opponents. In fact, Great Lakes capped its season with a 39-7 victory over then fifth-ranked Notre Dame after scoring victories over Michigan State and Illinois in two of its three previous games."
"At age 16, Grant also was chosen to play in an American Legion All-Star baseball game in Chicago. A pitcher, Grant was once labeled, "The Hired Gun of Town Team Baseball," because of the money he made playing summer ball for, among others, Ridgeland, a community of about 200 located in northern Dunn County in Northwestern Wisconsin. Grant also doubled as an outfielder and was a three-sport star earning nine letters at the University of Minnesota in the late 1940s."
Man, what a life he created. His athletic ability was the foundation, but he made it so much more.
