Michael Thomas

Thomas had known success in high school as his team went 24-4 his senior year. His expectations at North Park were no different. While he holds the school record for points, assists, and steals, he said the only numbers that truly mattered were the ones on the scoreboard, preferably with his team compiling the higher number of points.

"I used to come home from away games and my mom (Mattie) would ask how I did and I only knew that we won or lost," Thomas said. "Coach Whittenberg was adamant that we play the game right at Proviso East. He made sure that we never thought we were bigger than the game. He made sure that I understood that.

"I felt I could shoot the ball as well as anyone on the team at North Park," Thomas continued. "But to me, penetrating and getting the ball to others was not a problem. That was a thrill. I played the off guard position in high school - I was the scoring guard. But if you're the off guard you still have to wait for the point guard to give you the ball."

In conversations with North Park's 1978-80 team members, nearly all lauded the leadership provided by Thomas on the court. Given the combined 83-10 mark during North Park's 'three-peat,' it is evident that Thomas' leadership skills were proficient. But Thomas stated that his teammates made it easy, calling his role during his first three years at the school, "a point guard's dream."

"I had Tom Florentine as my off guard my first year, one of the best shooters that ever went to North Park," said Thomas of his freshman year in college. "I had Modzel Greer, a good shooter, who could play the point and who could go down low if needed. He could play any position he wanted to. Of course, we had Michael Harper in the middle. I had big Al May, who was like the glue of the team. And then Jimbo (reserve Jim Clausen), who was an excellent passer. You just had all the right parts. We had many people able to score 20 points a night. And it to me, it didn't matter who did it just as long as it got done. After playing together for a while, it just began to click."

Harper, Greer and the team's top reserve during the 1979 and 1980 title teams, Keith French, left school after the 1980 championship year and Thomas' role changed dramatically. He was moved to shooting guard by coach Dan McCarrell and averaged 23 points per game as the Vikings made the NCAA Division III playoffs and lost to eventual runner-up Augustana College. That summer he was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association, but was eventually cut. A few months later, Thomas decided to enlist in the U.S. Army and will celebrate his 20th year in the military in March.

"That was the first time in my life that I tried something I couldn't accomplish," Thomas said of being cut by the 76ers. "I thought it was unfair - I thought my camp should have been extended a bit longer than that - but I could see the writing on the wall. One guy I was competing against had a guaranteed contract and another came from a bigger school. Maybe I thought I wasn't as good as I may have been. But after that, I was sour on playing ball and got away from the game for a while.

"I was working in a management training position at Jewel Foods and trying to get a transfer and leave the Chicago area," Thomas continued. "I had been born and raised there and went to school there, but I couldn't get a transfer and I just said to myself that I've got to go away, to breathe. The military was the best option. And in the military I gained a lot of insight about things I didn't realize. I broadened my horizons."

Once he went into the military, Thomas began to enjoy basketball again. And he eventually played on some national All-Army teams traveling all over the world to play the game he loves. After being stationed in Cuba, Korea and Germany, among other places, he is now serving at Fort Riley, Kansas, as installation work program manager, helping manage the feeding of 15,000 people. The competitiveness and leadership qualities he displayed at North Park are still evident, as the story of how he got back into basketball will attest.

"When I first got to my permanent port (Fort Hood, Texas), not knowing anybody or having anything to do, I went to the gym and shooting at a rim," Harper said. "Then a bunch of guys came in and as they were warming up, the ball rolled out to the side. As I picked up the ball, a guy I knew form Oak Park high School, Mike Underwood, saw me and asked me what I was doing there. I told him and he introduced me to the coach and told him I could play.

"The coach said that if I could make this team I would be released from all duties and would just play ball," Thomas said. "I thought to myself, 'One of these guys is going to get aced out, because I'm getting one of these spots.'"

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