Mount Morris - Gus Ganakas

Gus Ganakas has also been involved in athletics his entire life. If you go online and Google his name, you will find a huge amount of information about his historic career. As a high school student at Mt. Morris, he excelled in soccer, basketball, and baseball. He was the leading member of the school’s first Livingston County Basketball championship team in 1943-44. He was such a leader in that magical year; he was named to the Section V All-tournament team. In one game, he scored 31 points, which was a school record that stood until 1951. He was also the starting shortstop and leading member of 3 consecutive LCAA Championship Baseball teams in 1942, 1943, and 1944. In both 1943 and 1944, he was named to the Livingston County all star teams in both basketball and baseball. In soccer, he was the leading forward and wing of the 2-time LCAA Championship teams in 1941 and 1942. After high school, he went on to a very successful coaching career beginning in East Lansing High School in Michigan. He coached 11 years there compiling a record of 176 wins and 53 losses. In one special year, 1958, his team went undefeated at 24-0 and won the Class B state championship. In his year’s at East Lansing, he compiled two very impressive winning streaks, one of 38 consecutive wins, and another of 42 consecutive wins. His impressive resume led him to become the Assistant Men’s Basketball coach at Michigan State University in 1966, under head coach John Bennington. He held this position until 1969 when he was promoted to the Head Coaching position. During his tenure as head coach, he compiled a record of 89 and 84 and coached three of the best offensive players the Big Ten has seen. He was also responsible for helping recruit basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson to attend Michigan State. He finished his coaching career with five straight winning seasons before becoming an administrator at the university as the Assistant Athletic director and Special assistant to Head Coach Tom Izzo. Since 1987 and to this day, he has served as the basketball radio broadcaster for the MSU basketball radio network. He has many other accomplishments, including the Harry Agganis award, which is given to the most outstanding Greek-American in the field of athletics, as well as winning the MSU basketball distinguished alumni award in 2002. This also marks the 3rd Hall of Fame he has been inducted to. He was inducted into the Greek-American Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Greater Lansing Hall of Fame in 2003. As small towns go, he is actually the uncle and godfather of another of this year’s inductees, Donald C. Chichester.