Hal Schram

Hal Schram

Detroit Free Press Sportswriter (1945 – 1983)

Hal Schram was born in St. John’s Michigan and attended the Michigan School for the Blind in Lansing as well as Michigan State University. Schram has been one of the most influential men in Michigan High School Athletics covering prep sports as a journalist over a 42-year career, first at the Lansing State Journal and then starting at the Detroit Free Press on Jan. 14, 1945 until his retirement on Dec. 31, 1983. His fans may also know him as the “Swami” for his amazingly accurate (and sometimes controversial) predictions of high school football and basketball tournament games. His impact on Michigan’s boy’s high school basketball has been so strongly felt that the Mr. Basketball award given to the state’s top senior high school basketball player has been renamed the “Hal Schram Mr. Basketball Award”. Hal Schram was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1990. He passed away May 20, 1987 at 68 years of age.