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.