Molly Brennan, 1978, Mott High School
Rhodes Scholar 
Brennan earned All-American honors in track three times while at Mott High School and two more at Michigan State University. She also excelled at basketball in high school and graduated with a perfect 4.0 grade point average. While at MSU, Brennan was a two-time All American in track and set 12 different track records. She was also named Sportswoman of the Year and Big Ten four times.

After a brilliant career at MSU, Brennan won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, England, and became the second Oakland County resident to ever be named a Rhodes Scholar in 1982. While at Oxford, Brennan became the first woman to earn a “Blue”, a varsity award based on bettering strict standards of athletic excellence.

Brennan joined General Motors and won the first World Solar Challenge, setting four solar and electric land speed records in the Guinness Book of World Records. Brennan was named one of the top two engineering graduates in the nation in 1982 by Tau Beta Pi, the National  Engineering Society, and was the first National Laureate recipient.

Brennan has also been honored with “Molly Brennan Day” by the Michigan State Legislature and has served in a wide range of community positions. She has served as president of the College of Engineering Board and has been a member of the MSUAA’s National Alumni Board. She served on the Capital Campaign 2000 and on the Campaign for MSU. She was MSU’s 1990 Commencement Speaker. She and her husband William Devlin have made many donations to MSU and endowed a joint Honors College/Engineering student scholarship. She served as a national committee chairperson for the MSU Student-Athlete Academic Center campaign and many other endeavors. She has won numerous awards, including the 1996 Nell Jackson Outstanding Alumni Award and induction into MSU’s Athletics Hall of Fame.

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Gail Goestenkors, 1981, Kettering High School University of Texas Basketball Coach  Former Kettering High School basketball star Gail Goestenkors attended Saginaw Valley State University and graduated in 1985. At Saginaw Valley State Goestenkors earned NAIA All-America honors and was named conference MVP, as well as being selected to the Academic All-Conference Team. Goestenkors led her team to a 114-13 record in the seasons she was there, along with a second place, a third place and two quarterfinal finishes at the NAIA National Championships.   Goestenkors arrived at Duke to coach women's basketball in 1992 and has accomplished feats that no other women’s basketball coach in school history has been able to achieve. In her 13 years at Duke, Goestenkors has four more winning seasons (12) than the previous 17-year history. She has guided Duke to 11 consecutive NCAA Tournament berths, three NCAA Final Four appearances, five ACC Tournament titles, seven ACC regular season titles, and five straight 30-win seasons. Prior to her arrival at Duke, Goestenkors spent six seasons as an assistant coach at Purdue University, where she helped lead the Boilermakers to a 135-42 (.763) record, five straight NCAA Tournament berths, and five consecutive 20-win seasons.   In 2005 she piloted the 2005 USA U19 World Championship Team to a perfect 8-0 record and the gold medal in Tunisia. In 2004, Goestenkors served as an assistant coach to the gold medal winning 2004 U.S. Women's Olympic Team that finished a perfect 8-0. Goestenkors was named the 2003 National Coach of the Year by Naismith, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and was awarded the Victor Award. She was also the 2000 United States Basketball Writers Association National Coach of the Year, 2001-02 GBallmag.com National Coach of the Year, 2001-02 WBCA District II Coach of the Year, 1999-2000 Basketball Times National Coach of the Year, the 1999 recipient of the Victor Award. She is now the head coach at the University of Texas.

Kirk Gibson, 1975, Kettering High School
Major League Baseball Player
Gibson was a standout in baseball and football at Kettering. He was All-American in both sports at Michigan State University but attended on a football scholarship. He played only one year of college baseball. After Gibson set several Spartan football records, the NFL St. Louis Cardinals drafted him in the seventh round in 1979. In 1978 the Detroit Tigers made him a first round draft selection and signed him for a $200,000 bonus after his only season of college baseball.

Gibson had free agency status in 1988 and the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired him. In one of his finest all-around campaigns, he hit .290 with 25 home runs, 76 RBI, 106 runs scored, and 31 stolen bases in 35 attempts in 1988, earning NL MVP honors and helping the Dodgers win the NL pennant. Gibson was traded at the end of the 1990 season and signed with the Royals. He was again traded in 1993 to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

He rejoined the Tigers as a free agent in 1993 after Anderson called him and invited him to spring training. Although initially used strictly as the DH, he later started in center field and hit .261 with just one error in 116 games. His arrival sparked the aging Tigers to their best season in years, with the team in first place as late as June. Teaming again with Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker, and joining Cecil Fielder, Mickey Tettleton, Travis Fryman, and Tony Phillips, Gibson was part of an explosive offensive team that hit at least one home run in nearly 50 straight games. He retired in 1995.

In 2003 he was named the Tigers’ bench coach and served in that position until the end of the 2005 season. Gibson was the Arizona Diamondbacks bench coach and is now the manager.

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Pat LaFontaine, 1984, Kettering High School

National Hockey League Player 

LaFontaine was a player on the Canadian Junior “A” team and collected a league high of 234 points with Verdun in 1982/83. He was the New York Islanders’ first choice selection, drafted third overall in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft.

 

He received the USA Hockey Distinguished Achievement Award presented annually to a U.S. citizen who has made hockey his/her profession and has made an outstanding contribution to the sport. A five-time All-Star, he won the bill Masterton Trophy in 1995 and represented the US at the international level at the 1984 and 1998 Winter Olympics and 1996 World Cup.

LaFontaine enjoyed a 15-year hockey career before retiring from the NHL in 1998. LaFontaine achieved the “Empire State Hat Trick” by playing for all three NHL organizations within New York State – Islanders, Sabres, and Rangers.

 

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003. He was also inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame that same year. In 2006, the Buffalo Sabres retired LaFontaine's number 16. He was also inducted into the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame that same year. Since 2001, the Pat LaFontaine Trophy has been awarded to the winner of the Rangers-Islanders season series.

 

LaFontaine resides with his wife, Marybeth, and their three children, and continues to do charitable work, particularly his affiliation with the American Academy of Neurology.

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Jean Racine, 1996, Mott High School
Olympic Bobsledder
Ranked number one women’s bobsled driver in the country, Racine has competed in this sport since 1996. She made the shift from the luge to bobsledding when she was 17 after watching bobsled teams in action at the lake Placid Olympic track. She called 800-BOBSLED, got information on the national team, tried out, and the rest is history. After putting her business studies at Oakland University on hold for a year or two, Racine emerged as one of the world’s top drivers.

 

Racine is a two-time U.S. Olympian in bobsledding (2002, 2006) and a two-time World Cup champion (2000, 2001) with partner Jen Davidson. Racine was at the forefront of the campaign to include women’s bobsledding in the 2002 Winter Olympics and was a pioneer in this Olympic sport.

 

Combined with then-partner Krista Ford in 1998, Racine and Ford became the first American women to win a bobsled medal (silver) on a foreign track. Racine finished 5th at World Championships with partner Vonetta Flowers in 2005 and earned six top-five World Cup finishes out of eight 2005 World Cup races with one gold medal and two bronze medal finishes. Racine has obtained an estimated $500,000 in endorsements from Kellogg’s, General Motors, Xerox, Northwestern Mutual Insurance, and GNC sports performance stores.

 

Racine has a wonderful singing voice and hopes to one day appear on Broadway. She listens to music of Barenaked Ladies, Dave Matthews Band, and particularly Limp Bizket before races.

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