RICKY FLOWERS

He played football, basketball and ran track  at Saginaw High School. The 6-foot-2, 159-pounder was best known in track where he became a state champion  during his junior year for the Trojans when he ran a leg on the winning 880-yard relay team in 1975. He also ran the 100-yard dash in 9.9 that season. In 1976 Flowers was a member of the Trojans’ basketball team that finished  runner-up in Class A. In track Flowers was the MVP at the  Graves Relays where he ran 49.7 in the 440 and jumped 21-2 in the long jump. That same year he recorded a 9.6  in the 100-yard dash and 22.0 in the 220. As a freshman at Michigan State University he sprinted to a 9.6 in the 100-yard dash and competed in the 100, 200, and 400-meter races for the Spartans. He was one of 35 athletes selected by a National AAU squad and competed in five countries. Flowers was fifth in the Big Ten in the 100-meters (10.85) and second in the 200 (20.0). In ’79 he recorded a first place in the 55-meter dash at the Western Michigan University Relays with a time of :6.23. He was MSU’s top man at the Michigan Relays in the 300-meters (30.6), and was the team’s anchor in the mile and sprint relay teams. As a junior he was MVP at the Big Ten championship meet where he scored 21.5 of the Spartans’ 40 points. In 1980, Flowers ran a blistering :4.2 in the 40-yard dash. He took first place in the 100 meters (10.5) at the pre-Olympic race while placing second in the 200-meters (21.5). That same year he was ranked the fourth best in the world in the 300-meters by Track and Field magazine. Flowers was making a bid for the 1980 Summer Olympic track and field team but the Olympics were boycotted that year by the USA. He came out of retirement in 1996 to run in the World Masters Track and Field meet. In 2003 he won two silver medals in Puerto Rico. He has been the owner of Adult Fitness & Youth Training, Inc. since 1998.