Bloomfield Hills Andover High School

Some people didn’t like their high school daze. I loved high school…excited when I entered 10th grade in Fall of 1968, feeling down when I graduated in June, 1971. Most photos are from our yearbook…our senior year was peachy! The Class of ‘71 ROCKS!

The High School Years (10th-12th Bloomfield Hills Andover High School, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan '68-'71)

Soccer, 10, 11, 12 (Captain, Team and League leading scorer with 14 goals, All League, All Area); School record for goals in season (14) and career (28).  Team won two league championships, 32 games without a loss.

Basketball, 10 Varsity/JV, 11 Varsity, 12 Varsity (Captain, All League honorable mention).  Team won League Championship junior year. Averaged 11 points a game.

Track, 10, 11, 12;  3rd in league in 440 yard run by a nose (51.6).  High jump personal best: 6 feet. Team won League Championships junior and senior year.

Received eight varsity letters and won Andover Athlete of the Year 1971.

B-Club (Varsity Club), 10, 11, 12 (Vice President)

Pep Club 10, 11, 12

Student Council 10, 11

Shield Newspaper 10, 11, 12 (Sports Editor)

School Sports Reporter to Birmingham Eccentric Newspaper 11, 12

National Honor Society 11, 12

Hillcrest Yearbook 12 (photographer)

Variety Show 12

Executive Club 12

Class Officer 12 (Class President)

Commencement Speaker 12

Bloomfield Barons, you’re on the ball

Fight, fight, fight, for you’ll never fall

We are the champs, and this is the test

So prove you’re the best

Rah, Rah, Rah.

Win this game for old blue and white,

Bring home Bloomfield fame tonight.

So fight, fight, for Andover High and victory!

Senior class officers: Alan Robbins, Barb Wotila, Sue Rodgers, Pam South and Andrea Cohn.

Loved working with the other class officers…they contributed to making our senior year peachy!

My letter sweater which I used to wear on “game days”. Since I was on three sports teams (soccer, basketball and track), I had a lot of game days to wear my letter sweater. You can see the three teams on the letter. A star represented being captain of that team…I was captain of the soccer team and basketball team. A “Champs” pin represented a team winning the league championship. I was on two championships in soccer, my junior and senior year. I was on two championship track teams, my junior and senior year. And I was on one championship basketball team, my junior year. The “B” in the middle meant I was a member of the Varsity Club, or B Club, people with a varsity letter who made it through the rough initiation process. The ribbon/medals on the bottom signify winning third (bronze) in soccer MVP voting my junior year and soccer team MVP (gold) my senior year when I lead the league in scoring with 14 goals. The other medals are from track meet finishes in the league and Oakland County championships: I competed in the high jump, 440 dash, 880 relay, mile relay and shuttle hurdle relay. Our mile relay team and 880 yard relay team won 1st in the league. Our mile relay won 2nd in Oakland County meet. My junior year, our mile relay team won 4th in the state, Class A. I was on the Shuttle Hurdle relay that won 2nd in the Oakland County meet. The blue stripes represented years of varsity letters…I received eight varsity letters, two in basketball and three each in soccer and track, hence three strips for three years of varsity letters. The nameplate “Bowers” was attached to my basketball warm up jacket. After my last game, Coach Henderson could not just give me the nameplate for some weird reason, so he had me stand by the waste basket as he threw it away…which I retrieved from the basket to keep forever.

Driving our family 1909 Model T Ford in Homecoming Parade.

I wanted a Super Bee…my Dad bought me a 1965 Corvair to drive while in high school.

Soccer team my senior year. I’m sitting next to our coach Ernie Knecht, the mastermind behind our 29 game undefeated streak! I had a good year…lead the league in goals (14) and was selected to the All-League First Team.

Doug Byrum and I were co-captains of the undefeated team, both selected All-League First Team, and he is one of my best friends!

Ken Heidel and I heading up the field!

Varsity team my senior year. I wore number 22 at home, number 23 for away games. I was Captain so I got to hold the ball for the photo. I averaged 11 points a game and was selected All-League Honorable Mention. I lead the team in shots taken, shots missed, free throws missed and lost balls. Yes, Coach Henderson had a category called lost balls and I lead the team in that category. I was second on the team for assists, saves, steals and shots made.

Article in Eccentric before season began.

Article mentioning my “hot hand” and scoring 23 points against Lahser. That was the most points I ever scored in a varsity game…but we lost…to cross town rival Lahser…bummer!

Article in the Oakland Press also mentioning a “hot hand”. Cool! Two of the guys on Lahser’s team, John Cvengros and Tim Lewis, I had known since elementary school.

Our 98 points vs Kettering broke a school record, a record I saw broken by a team in the 90’s. We lost to Lahser by four 65-61 in the first game of the season. I scored the most points of my three year varsity career, 23, against guys I grew up with on the East side like John Cvengros and Tim Lewis. We did beat League Champion West Bloomfield…almost beat them twice. Notice we lost to Campy Russell and his Pontiac Central team by 31 points in our gym…Pontiac Central went on to play in the Class A Final. We lost to Seaholm in the first game of the Districts…another bummer!

Let’s Kill Keego! Making two clutch baskets in the closing minutes of the game vs league rival West Bloomfield at home was just downright crazy. I’ve seen the video of this game and the crowd pours onto the court like we had won the NBA Championship! Because they were undefeated going into this game, it was an upset no doubt about it. As it turns out, had we beat WB in the last league game at their place, we would have been league champs but, alas, we lost by seven…ouch! But after losing our first four games (one of those vs Lahser another ouch), we came back winning 9 out of 10 league games to be in the position to defend our title…we were very proud of that!

As it says in the article, we “shattered the Andover (team) scoring record” with 98 points! Too bad we didn’t get 100 but breaking the school record and scoring 98 points in a high school basketball game was super cool! Paul and Kenny got 22 each and I scored 16…fun!

Not sure how we got Pontiac Central on our schedule but it was like David vs. Goliath only Goliath prevailed. Pontiac Central was ranked #1 in the state Class A and they had the best player in the state, Campy Russell. Two of their other players were All State. Even though we got beaten badly, I felt good that I scored 14 points against the best high school basketball team in the state.

Campy went to University of Michigan then on to the NBA where he played for nine seasons mostly with Cleveland.

I made the list of the top scorers in Oakland County at 15.2 points per game, same as Ken Rump from Lahser. Notice Campy Russell was first scoring over 28 points a game.

Pistol Pete up, up and away! We had lightning bolts on our jersey and pants…not sure the significance of that. I tried to have big socks like Pistol Pete Maravich wore…didn’t really get that look.

Jump shot ala Pistol Pete…great photo by someone.

Paul Denzer wins the tip-off…I’m (22) heading for the basket!

One of the perks of being the Captain of the basketball team…I had the honor of breaking through the paper wall heading into warm ups before the game. One time I slipped on the paper and fell on my butt…how embarrassing!

Photo in newspaper my junior year with Scott and Larry. Oh, by the way, I didn’t play football, I played soccer. Shoes…Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars!

This was super cool! Looked like we were going to lose in overtime until I stole the ball twice and passed it to Ken Heidel who shot two baskets. The article said that Ken and I scored seven points in the last 10 seconds to win the game!

Photo in Pontiac Press. I was one of two sophomores who made the Varsity team, Bob Reid was the other. I stayed on the team for most of the season but not getting a lot of playing time so Coach Henderson moved me down to the Jr. Varsity team where I played a lot every game, even scored 27 points against West Bloomfield.

Love this photo which was in the Pontiac Press! Note that I’m taking a left handed layup shot and I’m not left handed…proud of that!

I made the Varsity basketball team as a sophomore but wasn’t getting a lot of playing time so Coach Henderson thought it would be good for me to move to the Junior Varsity team and get more game playing time. That’s why I’m in this photo with my Varsity jersey on. Poor Paul Denzer, they spelled his name wrong. I loved playing with these guys, and I had the best game of my life when I scored 27 points against our rival…West Bloomfield!

Help! I’m trapped in a full court press! Does another dilemma mean I’ve been in numerous dilemmas?

Point totals sophomore year, four games on Varsity, 12 games on JV. 27 points against West Bloomfield was the most I ever scored in any basketball game…Jr. High, JV and Varsity.

In satin warm ups…warming up before game.

Wide open jump shot from the side…better have gone in.

With Ken Heidel and Andover gym serving as referees for Intermural Basketball league on Saturdays. Varsity players were refs because they were not allowed to play on any IM team.

Our school sponsored Spring Break trip our senior year was a week in Nassau Bahamas. I’m the one with the Captain America t-shirt…Where’s Pete? My parents were chaperones…my Dad was president of the School Board…and it was handy to have a doctor on the trip, especially for people like me who got sunburned so bad I spent a day just sitting in my room.

I had one field event, the high jump, and my best was 6’0’’, two inches under the school record. I was pretty proud of that since I was 5’11”…I jumped higher than my height. And I did the “Western roll” style of high jumping, not the Fosbery Flop. I had been high jumping even at elementary school and all through Jr. High. I ran the 440 yard dash with my best time of 51.6 seconds. In the league meet, it looked like a three way tie for the 440 and the judges determined that I finished 3rd…by a nose. I also ran on the 880 yard relay and the mile relay which is really 4X440. So after high jumping, two relays and a 440, I was pretty pooped at the end of every track meet. In the Oakland County meet, Coach asked me to run in the Shuttle Hurdle relay since we had three all-county hurdlers and he needed me just to get from one end of the track to the other and just jump over the hurdles the best I could since I never ran hurdles before. I did my best and our relay team won 2nd in the county meet. Our mile relay team also got 2nd Place in the Oakland County meet my junior year (Al Murray, Todd Murphy, Pete Kopke and me).

Rare photo of me high jumping in high school and this was at practice, not a meet. As I said earlier, I did the Western roll style of high jumping, not the Fosbery Flop. The landing pit was an inflatable giant pillow that was supposed to be good for landing after the jump. Have to say it was OK but sometimes I rolled right off the front onto the ground.

Results of our League track meet…written by yours truly. I didn’t do so well in the high jump that day. But I was on the winning 880 yard relay team (fastest time of season, see article), got third in the League (for second straight year) in the 440 yard dash (almost a three way tie…read article) with my personal best time of 51.6, and I was on the winning mile relay team (fastest time of season, 15 yards ahead of second place team, see article), the last event in the meet…a event we needed to win the League track meet and a very large trophy!

I competed in four events at the All Oakland County Track and Field Meet held at Oxford High School May 28, 1971: 440 yard dash, high jump, 880 yard relay and mile relay. These four sheets are from the meet program showing where I stood in the county in the high jump and 440 yard dash…and where our two relay teams stood in the county.

I saved this Outstanding Athlete trophy from being thrown in the dumpster with other Andover trophies. Not just because my name is on it, but because of the historical value of these athletes who received this prestigious award. I saved the nameplate.

Getting through B Club initiations was rough, but being a B-Club member meant you got a special letter for your jacket (V.C. stood for Varsity Club and a “B” pin for your letter sweater). Was it worth it? Sure! Hey, what’s with the plaid pants?

My clipboard used to obtain signatures of B Club members during the initiation day…a day that will live in infamy. I can’t really tell you what we had to do to get signatures. Let’s just say I made it through the day, got the signatures I needed, and became a B Club member.

Hillcrest was our yearbook. I was a photographer for them, taking photos of events and submitting them to editors. Some of my photos appeared in the yearbook…pretty cool!

The Shield was the name of our school newspaper. I was the Sports Editor responsible for covering Andover sports for the paper.

The Executive Club was created to coordinate all the clubs in their various activities. Its members consist of the presidents of each club in the school. I was senior class president…that’s how I got into this club. Wearing a tie…really? It was picture day, that’s why the tie!

Not sure how I got into the National Honor Society but I’m in the photo so it did happen somehow. I’m in top row next to Paul (not Raul…that’s a typo) Denzer.

I was a member of the Andover Students for Environmental Quality (ASEQ). The club did a walk-a-thon and I participated along with 127 Andover students who did the 15 mile walk and raised over $2000.00 (in 1971 money, pretty good!) The hat was because I had short hair (thanks to basketball team rules) and the shoes were Chuck Taylor Converse All Stars, low and black…shoes that have seen better days!

I was a Special Writer for the Birmingham-Bloomfield newspaper called The Eccentric. I covered sports teams at Andover and other activities like this article about Intramural Basketball. I didn’t get paid much to do it but I did get my photo in the paper every week…which was pretty cool! I did have aspirations of studying journalism in college and maybe being a sports writer as a career. I did minor in Journalism at Central Michigan but got the broadcasting bug and chose to major in that.

I decided to do a sports quiz for the Shield when I was Sports Editor.

This is a yearbook photo of the School Board my senior year. My Dad, Dr. Charles L. Bowers, was president.

Our football team was awesome, winning all nine games and extending the school winning streak to 19 games, ranked 6th in the state for Class A by the Detroit News. I do believe that was the first time Andover football was ranked in the state top ten…and the last time Andover was ranked in the state top ten!

We had a ton of good players on the team with four players getting All-State honors…Bob Reid making First Team (Class A), the best running back in Michigan high school football that year!

Commencement was on a Thursday evening that year, not the traditional Sunday like most schools. And we had it on the football/soccer field under the lights which were installed our junior year. A little risky having it outdoors unprotected, but Mother Nature was kind to us and it did not rain.

I was the first one to speak after the Invocation, no pressure! Plus my Dad was sitting right behind me! I did a shout out to our principal Mr. Spiess who was retiring after a long career in education, it was his last Commencement. I thought giving the speech at Commencement would be my last task as class president…boy was I wrong about that! But I love being President-For-Life…no regrets!

Being senior class president has it’s perks…I got to speak at graduation…which was held on the football/soccer field June 9, 1971 under the lights. The guy on the right (my left) is my Dad, Charles L. Bowers MD, who was president of the Board of Education. He appears to be enjoying whatever I just said. The other man is Anne Cole’s father, Ed Cole, president of General Motors and our commencement speaker.

I graduated so long ago, they hadn’t invented color film yet…jk. If it was color, guys are in blue and gals are in white. Looks like I have my speech in my hand…break a leg kid!

Photo op with Mom and Dad at Franklin.

In front of Franklin house.

See…school colors blue and white! Janice Carrier, Greg Phelps and Ann Coughlin get ready to walk across the stage.

Got my diploma signed by my Dad…cool beans!

The Senior All-Night Party was held at Bloomfield Hills Jr. High, not at the high school. Remember that our senior trip went to Nassau? So they had a Bahamas backdrop for photos, this one featuring me and my girlfriend Barb Wotila. Is that a Parker T-ball Jotter in my pocket? I think so!

This was drawn by a caricature artist at the All-Night Party. Are my ears really that big?

Janis Carrier, Bill Hartmann, Jan Harley, Ann Coughlin, Tim Wiegert, Rick Kaufman, Mark Dean and Bob Fischer.

Jan Harley, Mark Dean, Ann Coughlin and Anne Cole.

Our winning Homecoming float in color…great job by our float team!

Article that appeared in The Eccentric in May of 1971.

Junior year ID. Homeroom was Mr. Wareck’s room.

Junior year yearbook photos.

My girlfriend was Barb Wotila whose father was a math teacher at Andover. We attended a lot of school events together and being able to share those fun times with someone made my high school experience more memorable!

Junior year soccer team that went undefeated, pretty impressive!

Made first team, all league soccer team as a junior. Had 14 goals and 8 assists…lead the league in goals scored.

All Area soccer team, 1st Team, my junior year. My friend Duffy McAlpine from Seaholm also made 1st Team…we both went to Central and played together for four years there.

Left footed pass to Kurt Hubert, junior year.

Junior year basketball team that won the league championship!

Junior year track team that won league championship! I ran 440 yard dash (3rd in League 53.0), 880 relay, mile relay (2nd in League, All Area Team 3:28) and high jump.

Junior year…photo of me high jumping is somewhat embarrassing…I mean…nice shot of my…shorts!

Shield staff junior year. I was a sports reporter.

Junior class representatives.

B Club (Varsity Club) junior year.

Sophomore year yearbook photos.

Soccer team my sophomore year.

Sophomore year, here with coach Ernie Knecht who came to America from Germany, got a job with Bloomfield Schools and then got involved coaching the high school soccer team. His leadership lead to an amazing win record and numerous league championships.

Varsity basketball team my sophomore year. Bob Reid and I were the only sophomores on the team.

In article…”crowd of 1,300” to see Andover play Lahser for the first time. I did make the scoring column with one basket! Wahoo!

Class representative photo…what’s with the sad face Bowers?

Prom our Junior Year…with Barb Wotila, photo taken in the living room of our house on Franklin.

Prom Jr. year, with my parents who were chaperones for the event.

Prom, Senior year, with Barb Wotila, photo taken in our living room at our house on Franklin.

Prom, Senior year, with Barb Wotila.

Class members at Homecoming Game October 14, 2011: I’m with Mike Morelli, Rob White, Barbro Andren, Sue Britt Wright, Bill Wright, Ellen Pankratz White and Trent Dalrymple. Varsity jacket fit…not!

Class of 71ers (Dave Wertz, Doug Byrum) stop by the high school for a photo op in 2008.

Those three years at Andover…Those were the best days of my life (line from Summer of ‘69 by Bryan Adams)