The North side of Flint, Michigan is home to an inauspicious safe haven and one of the more symbolic locations for Tom Izzo and the Michigan State basketball program. Berston Field House is the local community center where Izzo was able to reign in Flint stars Antonio Smith, Morris Peterson, Mateen Cleaves and Charlie Bell. Eventually they would become known as the Flintstones and while Cleaves was undoubtedly the star of the bunch, it all started with the member who receives the least notoriety; Smith.
Spartan head coach Tom Izzo had just been hired to his position prior to the 1995-96 season following the retirement of Jud Heathcote. Izzo was not a newcomer however, as he had been on staff since the 1983 season as an assistant coach and spent the last five seasons of Heathcote’s reign as the associate head coach.
Antonio Smith was a top flight recruit for Izzo and he helped usher in the Flintstone era as he quickly got sharp-shooting lefty Morris Peterson to pick Michigan State as his school of choice as well. The following season State was able to add Mateen Cleaves. A McDonald’s All-American, Cleaves had his pick of the litter but his last two choices were Michigan State and in-state rival Michigan.
Cleaves was the x-factor. Sure, Smith and Peterson made a nice twosome but without Cleaves it just didn’t work — and he almost chose the Wolverines. On what would later be noted as an “unofficial recruiting trip” Cleaves was involved in a rollover accident that could have not only ended his basketball career, but his life. Luckily he walked away from the accident and shortly after chose to attend Michigan State with his Flint buddies and the rest is history — glorious, hard-nosed, awe inspiring history.
In 1997 Charlie Bell rounded out the Flintstones and the train to the NCAA Championship was full of players who would stop at nothing to reach their goal. The first two seasons under Izzo were rocky as the team went 33-28, missing the NCAA tournament both years. Over the next four seasons the team lost 25 games total.
The Spartans played a style true to their namesake, riding a vicious defense led by the tenacious Cleaves. No doubt these were special talents, but they were blue collar, grab-your-lunch-pail-and-get-to-work kind of kids and their background helped shape them and the Spartan program into a tough-as-nails team.
At this time, Flint was a city rampant with poverty and crime. The Flintstones acknowledged this fact and Berston was their sanctuary; their place to get away from it all and just play the game they loved. It was the place to prove you could play and garner the respect of your peers and all four of them had that in spades. Their run to the Final Four in the 1999 season electrified the state and gave Flint the one thing it needed most — hope.
They fell short in the ’99 tourney losing to Duke in the Final Four, but the 2000 season was theirs and they would not be denied their ultimate victory because they were playing for something larger than themselves, they were carrying a city on their backs; a city that molded them into the men they had become and they had to pay Flint back.
The 1999-00 season included three of the four Flintstones as Antonio Smith had graduated the year before. The team ended up finishing 32-7 after defeating the Florida Gators in the National Championship and culmination was like no other before it and none since. Coach Izzo invited Antonio Smith to the game and he was behind the bench cheering his Flintstone family on the entire time and once the confetti started to rain down, he was allowed to come out and join his Spartan team in the celebration. It was a memorable moment for anyone who can appreciate the fact that Smith kick started this entire era.
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The Michigan State team that we all know and love quite simply would not be what it is today without Antonio Smith and the Flint family which followed his footsteps to Lansing. They started slowly, missing the NCAA tournament their first two seasons, but the Spartans have not missed a tourney since and this year will be their 19th straight appearance. Before the Flintstones, they had never had more than three straight appearances.
Their footprint can be seen in any Michigan State game you watch, as the school has a never-say-die culture and the basketball team embodies that like no one else. The Flintstone era was over the following season as Charlie Bell’s senior year ended with a loss in the Final Four, culminating a six-year span for the group. Over those six seasons the MSU record was 148-53 (.736), they had three Final Four appearances and a National Title when all the dust had cleared.
Some might say, the Flintstones helped lay the bedrock for everything that has followed their era. The Spartans have endured no lapses in success since the Flintstones came on the scene and Izzo has been able to transfer that toughness and grit to every team he coaches.
Let the legacy of the Flintstones never die.