Eric Witzke. Waiting in the wings, were 5-11guard Marvin Lane and 6-0 sophomoreJohn Lockard.“We had a bunch of guys that coulddunk the ball,” noted Lane, who quarterbackedthe <strong>Pershing</strong> football team andwould later play major league baseball forthe <strong>Detroit</strong> Tigers. “I believe five guys onthat team ultimately played professionalsports.”“In our case, the whole team had ademeanor that we took on,” said Lockard.“Spencer would say, 'Tear it down,' and wewould practice power dunks. We wanted tointimidate. To be honest, I think most of theopponents were beat before the gamestarted. We would run through ourpregame drills and look back to see theopponents, lined up, watching us.”“We did tear it down once, and it wasn'tbecause we hung on the rim” recalledHaywood, laughing about the incident. “Itwas a dunk in warm-ups and delayed thegame for about an hour. We wanted to putthe fear in you.”Robinson knew he had a special teamin the '67 squad. As with all his teams, hecontinued to emphasize the importance ofdiscipline and hard work. He did his best tokeep his players occupied and out of troublelate into the evenings. Players wereexpected to play more than one sport duringthe school year. There was no time forgirlfriends, and certainly no slacking in theclassroom. Education was the name of thegame. Sports might provide an avenue tocontinue one's education, but it was not theonly avenue available. He preached thosevalues throughout his career.A squad with this much talent presentedits own set of problems. Perhaps thebiggest challenge for Robinson involvedkeeping the team humble and focused forfour quarters of basketball. He receivedsome assistance from the prep writer HalSchram of the <strong>Detroit</strong> Free Press, a.k.a TheSwami.<strong>Detroit</strong> Northwestern – not <strong>Pershing</strong> –carried the Swami's cherished No. 1 rankingin the weekly prep poll throughout theregular season. Featuring Curtis Jones, theteam's leading scorer and a playgroundlegend in later years, and all-city basketballselection, John Mayberry, (another futureMajor League Baseball player),Northwestern backed it up with a 63-61 victoryover the No. 3 ranked Doughboys in acity league championship matchup of theundefeated. Jones nailed the game-winnerwith a shot from the top of the key before asold-out crowd at Osborn <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong>. Thegym seated just under 1,000, but a metro<strong>Detroit</strong> television audience numbered thousandsmore.“That loss did something to our team. Itlit a fire under us,” said Simpson, whoscored 19 points in that contest. “Weabsolutely knew it was going to be a tightball game. We knew Jones real well. Hewas small, but a great one.”“We didn't play at our maximum,” statedHaywood, who finished with 18 points and14 rebounds. “Afterward, I made up mymind that regardless of what it would take,“We wanted to put the fear inyou,” Spencer Haywood(right) would say of himselfand his 1967 teammates.More often than not, they did.there were not going to be any other letdowns.We were going to do what ever ittook.”As if it were scripted, Northwestern and<strong>Pershing</strong> met again in the opening round ofthe MHSAA Regionals. As <strong>Pershing</strong>promised, the result differed.Both Haywood and Simpson scored 29points, while Cook added 14 as theDoughboys downed Northwestern, 77-71,before 1,000 fans at <strong>Detroit</strong> Redford, inanother locally televised game.Following the win, <strong>Pershing</strong> cruised allthe way into the Semifinals, as 15 playerssaw action in the team's 89-59 trouncing ofWarren Fitzgerald in the Quarterfinals atEastern <strong>Michigan</strong>.Two nights later, Haywood hit 35 points,Simpson 23 and Connally 14 in an 84-78win over <strong>Detroit</strong> Catholic Central in theSemifinals, setting up the title game withFlint Central.The Indians went in with the intent ofstopping Haywood, and in doing so, theyhelped Simpson into the record books.Haywood spent the night ripping downrebounds and feeding passes to Simpson.The budding superstar overwhelmed theIndians with a Finals record 43 points in the90-66 win.“One superstar helped make anotherhere Saturday night,” proclaimed Schram inaccount of the game the next day.The final margin was somewhat deceptive.With just under six minutes to play, theDoughboys clung to a six-point lead beforeexploding, led by Simpson’s 14 fourthquarterpoints.“My thought was if you come after me,I'll just throw it out to Ralph,” recalledHaywood, who despite being double andtriple teamed, still finished with 24 pointsincluding 14-18 shooting from the freethrow line. “I was the captain. After that lossto Northwestern, we decided that if a guygot hot, we would go to him. No ego. Whatwas incredible is that Ralph’s shots neverhit the rim. They were beautiful shots.“It was a huge growing spurt for me,”continued Haywood. “I came into the seasonwith All-American honors (as a junior)and started the season with certain expectations,but I learned to accept what washappening. After that Northwestern loss, Iwould do whatever it took to win. We werenot going to lose. Never again.”It was the first PSL school to win anMHSAA title since the league rejoined the<strong>Association</strong> in 1962, following 31 years ofsponsoring its own championships. Theachievement meant the world to many ofRobinson's former players, as well as thealumni of the other <strong>Detroit</strong> schools. It wasthe realization of a long-standing dream forthose who had been denied the samechance during their playing days.For Robinson, who earlier in the daybecame the first African-American toreceive the <strong>Michigan</strong> <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong> Coaches<strong>Association</strong> Coach of the Year award, itwas his first MHSAA title, but it would notbe his last.During the 1970 season, after 28 yearsof service to the youth of the <strong>Detroit</strong> Public<strong>School</strong>s, Robinson had accepted the headcoaching position at Illinois StateUniversity. Named the first black headcoach of a Division I school, Robinsonwould head off to the world of big-time collegeathletics. His departure would comewith the end of the <strong>Pershing</strong>'s 1970 basketballseasonWhile Robinson had every hope ofgoing out a winner, few expected muchfrom the Doughboys, who had missed outon the <strong>Detroit</strong> Public <strong>School</strong> League playoffswith an 8-4 regular-season record.Mid-year graduation of their top two players,Paul Seal and Walt Williamson, (bothdestined for the gridiron at the University of<strong>Michigan</strong>) had altered the makeup of theteam. This, combined with the fact that<strong>Pershing</strong>'s bracket of MHSAA tournamentincluded No 1-ranked, undefeatedFerndale, seemed to insure an early exitfrom the tournament.<strong>Pershing</strong> <strong>High</strong> <strong>School</strong>