Andy Crouch talks to the crowd gathered at the 54th annual U.P. Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony Saturday in Harris. (Jason Juno/For the Gazette)

HARRIS — It was on the practice plan everyday. It’s what Andy Crouch lived by as the Lake Linden-Hubbell football coach.

It’s amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares who gets the credit.

It’s no surprise, then, that he gave the bulk of the credit to others while being inducted to the U.P. Sports Hall of Fame Saturday. The coaches he played for that showed him the way. His teammates who were focused only on winning, not stats. The athletes he coached that found a way to win despite the school’s size. His wife who took care of their kids when he was coaching.

“For every aspect of my life, for the last 50 years, I’ve been around unselfish people, goal-driven people,” Crouch said at the 54th annual induction ceremony in front of a huge crowd at the Island Resort & Casino.

It started as a player for the Lakes.

He was an All-State and All-U.P. defensive back and an all-conference quarterback for the Lakes in 1991 when they finished runner-up in the state in Class DD. He was also a member of the 1989 Class D runner-up team.

“I was so fortunate to play with guys that really had one goal,” Crouch said. “It was to win. I don’t remember anybody ever being worried about stats or this or that. It was about winning. And we experienced great success. As a 15, 16 year old kid walking out on the floor of the Pontiac Silverdome, that’s crazy. Thirty-five, 40 years later, I can still remember it.”

The coaches he had along the way were impactful as well.

“I am extremely fortunate to have played for great coaches and learned the way things should be done,” Crouch said. “I played for Ron Warner, who’s a member of this U.P. fraternity. I learned a lot from him. I was fortunate enough to be able to come back and then work with him after my playing days were over.

“Russ Laurin, who again in my eyes is a hall of famer, his name’s on a building.

“Neil Artley, who was one of the big, big reasons for success in the background. He taught me a lot, a lot of which my parents were not happy about.

“I played basketball for Gary Guisfredi. He was my basketball coach, later an AD, for most of my tenure, got to work with him.”

“The best part about this is I learned how to do it the right way,” Crouch said. “I was around so many people that had success and did so much for young people that that’s what I wanted to be.”

Any coach worth anything will say the players are behind a coach’s success, he said.

People often ask how they do it in Lake Linden, with such low numbers — most often 15 or 16 players on a team — compared to even other small school teams in the U.P. It’s the type of kids Lake Linden has, he said.

A rival coach at an all-conference meeting summed about Lake Linden-Hubbell football pretty well.

“He says, ‘You look at Lake Linden’s roster, they got 15, 16 kids on that roster,” Crouch said, “and then you watch them get off the bus and you’re like, ‘There is no way in heck you’re going to lose to this team. There is no way we’re going to lose to these kids.’

“‘And then the ball’s kicked off and you’re down three scores.'”

Crouch agreed with him.

“Those are the types of kids we got right there. Maybe they don’t know any better, but they sure as hell play pretty hard. I’d like to say that those kids gave everything they had, but in most cases, they gave more than they had. We have kids that just played above their heads. And I appreciate that.”

Crouch also recognized the assistant coaches who worked with him over the years. The coach he was with for most of his tenure, Jamie Koskela, was also the team’s center when Crouch was quarterback.

“He made me look better as a player and then when we took over a very successful program, he made me look even better as a head coach,” he said.

The community of Lake Linden has been there, also. In a time that parents care very much about playing time, those complaints didn’t happen there, Crouch said.

“From the days as a player to a coach, it really is something special,” he said. “One thing that I’ve always felt obligated to do is when we experienced success back in the 1800s when I was a player, I always felt it was my obligation to create the same environment for the young men who were playing now, so that they would get that same experience.”

The Lakes enjoyed plenty of success with Crouch as coach.

They finished with 13 playoff appearances, six conference championships and four U.P. Team of the Year selections while ending with a 120-57 record from 2002-19. He was U.P. Coach of the Year twice and head coach at the U.P. All-Star Football Game three times. Forty-five Lake Linden-Hubbell players received All-U.P. recognition during his time as coach with eight making the Dream Team, five getting Defensive Player of the Year and four Offensive Player of the Year.

And while he put the spotlight on everybody but himself Saturday, it was his day to get his fair share of the credit for all of that success after all those years of not caring who got it.

He’s a U.P. Sports Hall of Famer.

“I know in the world I live in, the U.P. Hall of Fame is the ultimate honor,” Crouch said. “I don’t think there’s anything higher than this and I’m very humbled by this.”

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Fred Teddy of L’Anse made his mark decades ago and no one has been able to match it yet.

His two-mile run time of 9 minutes, 22.7 seconds at the U.P. Finals in 1972 set a U.P. record. The state switched to metric and no one has run a faster time at the U.P. Finals in the slightly shorter 3,200-meter run.

He didn’t lose for three years in the two-mile run while at L’Anse. The same was true in cross country. Teddy won the U.P. title in that sport four times and was also a four-time U.P. champion in track-and-field.

He lettered for four years at Michigan State University. Teddy medaled seven times in Big Ten competition. He went on to coach for 30 years at L’Anse, including in varsity basketball.

Teddy said it was tough to think of what to say about an eight-year portion of his life that happened so long ago. He said he was surprised to learn of his induction this year into the hall of fame.

“I just figured that any accomplishments that occurred so long ago would’ve been forgotten,” he said.

He thanked a man he met before his sophomore year of high school, Roy Green, “who completely changed my thoughts on distance running.” He helped with researching, taking him to summer track meets and he started cross country at L’Anse.

“Through his practices, I found myself … prepared for Division I competition entering my freshman year at MSU,” Teddy said. “Running at state was difficult as race distances increased at the college level, but the styles and types of training I had already been exposed to.”

He hopes that someone is able to put down a faster time in the U.P.

“I’ve always believed records were meant to be broken,” Teddy said. “So I challenge U.P. runners to go for it. Fifty-four years has far too long and I would look forward to congratulating that person on their effort in doing so.”

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Other inductees were: They are: Burt Angeli (sports writer/editor, Iron Mountain), Stephanie (Boyer) Lovell (track/basketball, Rapid River,), David Miller (basketball coach, DeTour), Erica Helmila Smith (track and field, Marquette,), Lori Juntila Rupert (basketball, Ishpeming), Janet (Hallfrisch) Sbar (track, Menominee), Mark Simon (basketball, Stephenson), Gary Sparpana (ski jumper, Iron Mountain).

New members of the U.P. Sports Hall of Fame include from left: Mark Simon (Stephenson), Dave Miller (DeTour), Erica (Helmila) Smith (Marquette), Janet (Hallfrisch) Sbar (Menominee), Lori Juntila Rupert (Ishpeming), Stephanie (Boyer) Lovell (Rapid River), Fred Teddy (L’Anse), Andy Crouch (Lake Linden-Hubbell), Gary Sparpana (Iron Mountain) and Jamie Angeli (brother of inductee, the late Burt Angeli, Iron Mountain). (Jason Juno/For the Gazette)