Clarkston High School’s Varsity Baseball team had strong showings in the 1970’s making it to districts in 1972, 73, 74 and 75, but there was just something special about that 1976 team, according to former Coach Paul Tungate. That was the year Clarkston had a 23-8 record and won the state championship.
“There is no question about it that this bunch of guys was the best ever,” Tungate said. “They were just outstanding.”
Members of that championship team gathered at Mr. B’s Roadhouse in Clarkston on Aug. 27 to celebrate together and remember that special time of their youth.
Tungate, who coached from 1966 to 1978 before transitioning to athletic director from 1978 to 1996, said “there was no question” that 1976 year was the highlight of his educational career.
“It was one of those years you didn’t want to stop, you wanted to keep on going,” he added. “We didn’t hit that well, but our pitching and defense was good. We averaged less than an error a game, which in high school you don’t hear about that. They turned double plays. Our catcher could throw guys out. It was amazing.”
Bill Matthews agreed. He said it helped they all grew up playing ball together as Little Leaguers.
“All the coaches we had knew what they were doing, so as we were growing up they taught us all we knew and then by the time we got to high school Coach Tungate went the rest of the way. But we already had our habits built in our stuff, so everything was like natural,” Matthews said, noting that they should have won in 1975 too. “(1976) was the year that was magical. It was fun.”
To be a good coach, Tungate said all he had to do was say “you guys are playing today.”
“And I could sit back and watch the game,” he said. “They knew what to do and they were great.”
That’s not how Doug Manigold remembers it.
“He wasn’t just a ‘you guys have fun and go play,’ Manigold said. “He was tough.”
He also noted they had “fantastic parents” who came to every game and cheered them on.
“We knew what the coach wanted and we just got a run,” Manigold added. “Everybody contributed whether you were a starter or not. We could plug people in and it just worked out. It’s just one of those things.”
Larry Bennett attributed the team’s success to both Tungate and Assistant Coach Roy “Pop” Warner.
“They treated us like adults, but they let us have fun,” he said. “We had a lot of fun.”
Because they never scored a lot of runs and their strength was in their pitching and defense Bennett said they had a lot of “fluke wins.”
“So the memory of just pulling these things out of derrière at the time was just priceless,” he said. “We always found a way to win.”
Bennett is thankful that so many of them have remained great friends for the past 40 years.
“There is only a few that I couldn’t get a hold of (to come to this reunion). A lot of them live out of state or have other reasons why they couldn’t make it, but they wanted to be here,” he added. “That’s just kind of a testament of the friends and camaraderie that we have.”
Dick Armstrong agreed.
“We’re more than teammates we were more like brothers,” Armstrong said. “It’s been great just remembering the old times and coming together and talking about them.”
With pitchers Steve Howe, Jeff Schatz and Bill Matthews on the mound, Clarkston seemed unstoppable.
“I remember The Oakland Press said we would never win a state championship and we did,” Schatz said. “We went on to do it and gave it our best.”
Schatz said his greatest memory was pitching in the state championship game.
“Finishing out winning was like nothing better,” he said recalling his worst memory of pitching a one-hit homerun where they lost 1-0. “It was a great team, these guys were all fun and everybody played their hearts out. We didn’t care who got the glory, we just wanted to win.”
Don Blower recalled that Schatz had an “awesome bank curveball.”
“The final game was great,” Blower said. “But it’s nothing like it is now. You’d probably go to University of Michigan to play a final game now. It’s just everything is accelerated.”
Dave Johnson said he doesn’t remember so much the games or the situations that happened but he remembers the relationships they had and how much they cared about each other.
“It’s been 40 years. One of the things I’ve learned is that even though you meet friends along the way in your 30’s,

40’s, 50’s and they are good friends; the people you grew up with and went to school with, you developed with and had the same teachers and had a lot of the same philosophies are actually closer to you than some of the friends you’ve made in the last 10-15 years,” he said. “You can go back and talk about anything and you pull for one another.”
Johnson said he’s more interested in talking about what some of these guys have done in the past 10-15 and some cases 40 years since he saw them last, than he is in talking about “back in the day.”
“For me it’s more exciting to be able find out what they’re doing now. How has life been,” he added. “Back in 1976 when we all graduated from Pine Knob, everybody was saying,’have a good life,’ and that’s really what it was all about, because you wouldn’t see them in so long, if ever. So, it’s good to be able to find out what has happened with these guys over the years.”
Manigold agreed.
“Back in the day was back in the day. I look at all these guys, the ones that are here and I think it’s fantastic,” he said. “You don’t get a lot of that. Most people go their separate ways and most of us stayed around the metro-area. One guy moved down to Florida, so he must be the really old guy, but this is good.”
Manigold said Tungate looked like he could still coach them.
“To be honest with you, I think we could still play,” he added. “I think we could still play.”