Panther pride: Who are some of Linden-McKinley High School's famous alumni?

Linden-McKinley STEM Academy has a history of beating the odds.

After more than a decade of dismal football seasons, the Panthers last year qualified for the playoffs for the first time in team history after winning eight games under Coach Eric Valentine.

This was just a few years after Valentine first took over as head football coach in 2018 and the Columbus City Schools Facilities Task Force, made up of local residents, recommended that the Columbus Board of Education close the high school after the 2019-2020 school year.

But the board ultimately ruled to keep Linden-McKinley open, and Valentine brought in a culture of positivity and community outreach — the football team started picking up trash around the neighborhood — and, ultimately, brought home a winning season.

'It just worked like magic':Linden-McKinley football's unprecedented turnaround

This was by no means the first example of the high school's students beating the odds to make headlines. Over the years, the high school has produced its fair share of graduates who have gone on to achieve fame on and off the field. Here are a few:

From Broadway to 'The Cosby Show' with the Rev. William 'Butch' Thomas Jr.

The Rev. William "Butch" Thomas Jr. graduated from Linden-McKinley in 1965 after his family moved to the city's Northeast Side. The Columbus native was a natural entertainer — from the piano to the silver screen.

After earning a degree from Ohio State University, Thomas moved to New York City and eventually became a minister of music at Stuyvesant Heights Christian Church while working on Broadway. He performed in the original production of the musical "Godspell." Thomas also was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for his role as Cool Charles in the 1987 CBS comedy "Frank's Place."

His most-famous role came during the final season of "The Cosby Show" when he played Vanessa Huxtable's fiancé, Dabnis Brickey.

Thomas died at age 73 on Nov. 14, 2020, according to an obituary published in The Dispatch.

The height of hoops with Skip Young, Jim Cleamons, Reggie Rankin and Todd Penn

Throughout the 1960s and into the 1980s the Panthers were a dynamic basketball squad full of talented players that went on to play and coach across the NBA.

In 1967, Linden-McKinley won the AA state championship before the high school was moved up to the AAA league.

Skip Young, a 1967 Linden-McKinley graduate, founded the Greater Columbus Basketball Legends Association in 2012 and was a star in high school and at Florida State University. Young was one of the first starting varsity African American athletes at Florida State and one of the first Black athletes in the Deep South at a predominantly white university.

Young also played a year of professional ball and was a fifth-round NBA draft pick by the Boston Celtics.

Greater Columbus Basketball Legends:Hall of fame induction a special night for Central Ohio hoops legends

In his days as a Panther, Young played alongside Jim Cleamons, who later played for Ohio State and won an NBA ring with the Los Angeles Lakers as a player. He went on to win nine more rings as an assistant coach with the Lakers and Chicago Bulls.

“Basketball in Columbus is as good as anywhere in the country, in my opinion,” Cleamons told The Dispatch last month. “So many young men have represented the city, and the area, so very well. I have a lot of pride in central Ohio."

In the mid-1970s, the Panthers dominated the Columbus City League. In 1975 and 1977 Linden-McKinley won the AAA state championships.

That 1977 undefeated team was led by point guard Todd Penn — a legendary Panther who dropped 38 points on the Barberton Magic during the championship game. Both Linden-McKinley and Barberton were 25-0, and Barberton was on a 50-game winning streak when they met for the title.

Penn, who went on to play for Ohio State, led a fourth-quarter charge to give the Panthers the lead. Linden won 80-74.

Reggie Rankin graduated from Linden-McKinley in 1985 after earning first-team all-state honors as a senior. Rankin once scored 50 points in a game as a Panther, and he has two NBA championship rings as a basketball scout with the Golden State Warriors and will be given his third this fall.

Golden gloves: Duking it out with Jerry Page and James 'Buster' Douglas

Jerry Page is a Linden native and Olympic gold medalist in welterweight boxing — a class in between light- and middleweight classes.

The 61-year-old attended Windsor Elementary School, Linmoor Junior High and graduated from Linden-McKinley. He went on to earn a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

According to Dispatch archives, "within eight hours of having his gold medal draped around his neck in the Los Angeles Sports Arena, Page was on a jet headed for Columbus. 'I want to get back to the state fair,' he said at the time."

Page, a three-time Ohio State Fair boxing champion, was honored with a parade through Downtown after he won his gold medal and was inducted into the city's hall of fame.

But Page isn't the only Columbus son with Linden ties.

James "Buster" Douglas, the world-renowned heavyweight boxing champion of 1990, also graduated from Linden-McKinley in 1978 — 12 years before he knocked out Mike Tyson in what is regarded as the biggest upset in boxing history.

According to Dispatch archives, Douglas, "with a vicious left uppercut, then three more punishing blows ... beat the thought-to-be unbeatable ... he knocked out Mike Tyson."

Hot off the press:Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson, Feb. 11, 1990

Douglas began boxing at age 10 and won multiple Golden Gloves and Ohio State Fair awards as a teenager before beginning his professional career at 21.

A crowd of roughly 30,000 fans in Tokyo and a global audience watched Douglas knock out Tyson in the 10th round of their 1990 fight to capture the heavyweight champion title. Douglas was also noted for his perseverance throughout the fight, given that his mother, Lula, died of a stroke just two weeks before.

"I'd like to dedicate this fight to my mother," he told then-Dispatch reporter Tim May inside the Tokyo Dome.

The 62-year-old still lives in Columbus and has since started a youth boxing programs in Columbus city recreation centers.

This story is part of the Dispatch's Mobile Newsroom initiative. Visit our reporters at the Columbus Metropolitan Library's Linden branch library and read their work at dispatch.com/mobilenewsroom, where you also can sign up for The Mobile Newsroom newsletter.

Céilí Doyle is a Report for America corps member and covers rural issues in Ohio for The Dispatch. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible gift at https://bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.

You can reach her via email at cdoyle@dispatch.com or follow her on Twitter at @cadoyle_18

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Who are the famous alumni from Columbus City Schools' Linden-McKinley?