Announcements

Alamogordo, NM Extends Deadline

Alamogordo, NM 10/14 - 10/15

The Alamagordo, NM tourney has extended their deadline until October 2nd.  This is your chance to get into the last outdoor Macker of 2023!

 

Register Here!

Welcome to Gus Macker Basketball

The Gus Macker 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament is designed so that anyone can play: male or female, young and old, short and tall, the most experienced or no experience at all. This maintains the purity and integrity of the driveway game.

Since 1987, the Macker tour has expanded, holding a total of 972 tournaments with over 2.2 million players – male and female from 7 years old to 50+ - and more than 23 million spectators.

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Dynamic Duos Named to Gus Macker Hall of Fame

BELDING, MI – When the next class of the Gus Macker Basketball Hall of Fame is inducted it will include a pair of dynamic duos – Central Michigan University professors Dr. Tim “T.O.” Otteman and Dr. Lori Irwin of Mt. Pleasant, MI, and Jamey Mullen and Tom Revoir of the YMCA in Norwich, N.Y.

The two duos will join previously announced honoree, Tony Wysinger of Peoria, Ill., a famed Macker participant, community leader, coach and Team Macker national staff worker.

The Gus Macker Basketball Hall of Fame has inducted a new class every five years during anniversary celebrations since the 25th anniversary of the touring three-on-three basketball tournaments company. Gus Macker, based in Belding, MI, celebrates 45 years in the summer of 2018, during which the next class will be inducted in special ceremonies.

Otteman and Irwin lead the effort at Central Michigan where they have created a class (RPL 333 Production of Festivals and Events) that with 35 students puts on a Macker tournament each year. It is the only Macker that is presented by college students as part of an academic program. Scott McNeal, a.k.a. Gus Macker, is a graduate of CMU.

Mullen and Revoir have led the YMCA of Norwich, N.Y., efforts in hosting a Gus Macker tournament annually for the last 22 years. Norwich, a city known for its festivals, has accepted the tournament as a major event in the community. The tournament benefits the many community charities served by the YMCA.

Otteman and two CMU students, as well as Mullen and Revoir made presentations at the recent Gus Macker 2017 Conference in Grand Rapids. The conference calls together Gus Macker tournament staffs from across the country for education and an exchange of ideas.

In 2016 Gus Macker tournaments in 35 communities across 10 states hosted almost 31,000 basketball players in three-on-three basketball tournaments witnessed by an estimated 332,000 spectators.

Over the years Gus Macker has presented over 1,000 tournaments for over 2.2 million players, male and female, from ages 7 to 50-plus. An estimated 23 million spectators have witnessed the community-minded basketball festivals and helped raised countless charitable dollars.

The first Macker was presented in a Lowell, Mich., driveway by brothers Scott and Mitch McNeal on spring break in 1974 with 16 friends making up six, three-player teams. It grew in fun and numbers into a neighborhood festival and eventually a phenomenon launched to national fame by a July 8, 1985 story in Sports Illustrated by Alexander Wolff. In 1987 Gus Macker Basketball expanded from a single tournament to a national tour.

Visit www.macker.com to learn more about Gus Macker or play in a tournament in one of the 40 tournaments scheduled across the country for 2017.

Spotlight

Dynamic Duos Named to Gus Macker Hall of Fame

Gus Macker Hall of Fame

Larry Abbey

The Forgotten Brother

Craig “Skinny Mulligan” Anderson

Dominant Driveway Player

Cla Avery

Local Organizer, Roswell, N.M.

Bad Boyz, In Your Face

Cedric Wynn, Artese Simmons, Ernest Walker, Mike Hidden, Mike Ayers, Lester Hubbard

Russ Bartz

Parini’s Pasta Palace

Bob Becker

Putting Gus in the Headlines

1987 Belding City Council and City Manager

Will Youngs, Ed Jenkins, Val Whitkey, Dan Blunt, Ron Hughes, John Nienela

Shawn Biggs

Macker’s Quiet Stat-Man

Dick, Nola, and Lane Bryan

The First Family

Bill Buckey

Ultimate Macker Hoops Junkie!

Laurie Byrd

Queen of The Macker

Chippewa Pride

Val Bracey, Tim Bracey, Leon Guydon, Coach Tom Crean

Judge Connors and his Ann Arbor Squad

The Judge and His Court Jesters

Steve “Baby Dawk” Doyle and Geoff “Stormy” Stormzand

Original Macker Advisory Council

Dream Kids

Gus Macker’s Youngest Stars

Sharon and Gary Eickhoff

Original Neighborhood Volunteers

Miss Elizabeth’s Fan Club

Jerry Fike, Richard Paff, Ralph Mora, Bernard Balaney

Frankovich Family

The Frankies

Rodney Glassnor

“For The Love of the Game”

Orloe and Mary Ann Gwatkin

The original Macker neighbors

Chris “The Artist” Hankinson

Bringing the Macker Man to Life

Ned Henley and Dave VanKeulen

Ned and His Neighbor

Kipp Jones and Kita Jones

Tom Men’s Division

Jumpin’ Jack Kelly

Dunk Legend

Joe “Smoothie” Killinger, Art Maui Legend Finger

The Original Gus Busters

The Flying Knueppel Brothers

Klint, Kon, Kole and Klay – Akrobatic Kings of the Kourt

Tom LaMonde

The Georgia Gunner

Mike Lavery

Quincy Macker’s Founding Father

Steve “Preacher” Lee

Louie’s Records

Marvin Stevens, Karl Newman, Hank Cornley, Derek Fields

Gary Love

The Defender of Human Rights

T.O. “World” Mattern

Macker Fanatic

Melvin "Sugar" McLaughlin

Dick and Bonnie McNeal

Mom and Dad Macker

Coach Parfitt

Coach Dick Parfitt of Central Michigan University

Ron “Huckleberry” Parker, Bill “Manute” Saunders

King Ding Ding and Captain Crunch

The Root Brothers

A Family Tradition

Rick Thomson

Nickname Originator

Carlton Valentine

The Big Fella with the Big Heart

Don Warsaw

Senior Player

West Michigan All-Stars

Bob Mitchell, Steve Harvey, Todd Hennink, Tim Muller, Steve Honderd, Brad Holwerda, Shawn O’Mara

Betsy Wiersma and Don Zulauf

Local Tournament Organizers

Zach Williams

The Happy Macker Hoopster

Alex Wolff

Sports Illustrated Writer, Player

Larry Wray

Godfather of Macker in Ohio

Tom Crean

From the Macker Driveway to Indiana University

Ernie Cryer

No. 1 in our Hearts, The Entertainer

Gus Ganakas

Put the “Gus” in Macker

Don “The Bracketologist” Stabenow, Dean “Mr. Happy” Wallin

The Gusbuster Originators

Warren Reynolds

Grand Rapids Sportscaster Legend

Our Staff

Scott McNeal

Macker Basketball LLC - Owner

Patty Donovan

V.P. of Marketing and Community Affairs

Mike Fuller

V.P. of Event Sales & Operations

Betty Elliott

Bookkeeper

Noah Williams

Event Operations

Gary Youngs

Warehouse Supervisor

About Gus Macker

The Original Gus Macker 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament was started in 1974 by Scott McNeal (alias Gus Macker) on his parents’ driveway basketball court in Lowell, Michigan.

About Gus Macker

The Macker Tournament is designed so that anyone can play: male or female, young and old, short and tall, the most experienced or no experience at all. This maintains the purity and integrity of the driveway game. Since 1987, the Macker tour has expanded, holding a total of 972 tournaments with over 2.2 million players – male and female from 7 years old to 50+ - and more than 23 million spectators.

Teams are computer-matched into male and female divisions within one of the following categories: Junior, Adult, or Top. The age, height and experience of all four (4) players are considered. Teams receive at least three (3) scheduled games each tournament. The Macker is a double elimination tournament with a consolation bracket: the “Toilet Bowl” for teams losing their first two games. A GusBuster maintains law and order on each court and calls all fouls and violations in the Junior Divisions.

The History of Gus Macker

The Original Gus Macker 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament was started in 1974 by Scott McNeal (alias Gus Macker) on his parents’ driveway basketball court in Lowell, Michigan. It started with 18 friends playing competitively for $18.

The tournament continued to grow and in 1987 moved from Lowell to Belding and took to the road because of a tremendous demand from communities outside of the home base.

The “Gus Macker All- World Tour” was greeted with enthusiasm and spectacular news coverage in every area. Over 10,400 players participated in five cities in that first year. Since 1987, the Macker Tournaments has expanded, holding both indoor and outdoor tournament in over 75 cities and with over 200,000 players and 1.7 million spectators enjoying 3-on-3 competition and family fun each year.

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