MUNISING, Mich., (WJMN) – Pete Heyrman hasn’t been to a Munising High School football game since 1996 but that hasn’t stopped him from being a fan and supporter of the team.
Last year he joined the Munising Lions and donated money from his award scholarship toward new benches. Greg Quinn, President of Munising Lions, says Heyrman joined the Lions in November 2019.
“This winter we had some long conversations, some great conversations, he’s really an optimistic guy and we started talking about his time up here in the field,” said Quinn. “And I’ve done some work up here at the field and I mentioned the benches so Pete and I came up with the idea to build new benches for the field.”
The Pete Heyrman Award was created in 1994 and in 2014 Heyrman added a scholarship to go along with it. Heyrman says the recipient is a senior team member who is typically not a starting player, somebody who gave their all even though they didn’t necessarily play every game.
“Since then it’s evolved to whoever is the player that best represents the traits that they claim I have,” said Heyrman “Courage, tenacity, character, spirit and loyalty and perseverance.”
There is a plaque in Munising High School that recipients are listed on and they also receive a $1,000 scholarship. There is also a scholarship for female varsity athletes who fill out an application which is reviewed by Heyrman.
Heyrman says he remembers feeling like a part of the team when he was a student assistant for the Football and Track teams.
“Football, it’s just the memories that you really make during that time and they considered me kind of more of a teammate than a student assistant,” said Heyrman.
When Quinn asked him if he would be interested in helping make updates to the football field Heyrman says he jumped on the opportunity.
“I got the lumber for him and he did the building,” said Heyrman.
Quinn says that the Lions intend to do some more updates around the stadium. He’s already built tables that will have business sponsorships on them and they also intend on making improvements to the ticket booth.
“Right now, our partnership through Lion’s club is just going to fix up a few things and make things better for everybody,” said Quinn.
Typically in the Fall, a fundraiser is held to support the Pete Heyrman Award Scholarship but because of COVID-19, it wasn’t possible. To support the fund donations can be made by contacting Pete Heyrman or his father, contact information is listed on Facebook.
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