St. Cecilia’s is a legendary part of Detroit history, but like too many parts of our city, one that has fallen into disrepair. That's about to change.
If you go there now, you see an empty basketball floor in a decaying brick building. But if you narrow your gaze and let your mind drift, you can picture the crowds of wanna-be players over the decades, stuffing the narrow rafters, waiting for their chance. You can hear the excited yells and sneaker squeaks and the pounding dunks of a leather ball through a metal rim. You can feel the stifling heat of hot summer nights with no air conditioning and dreams of making a name for yourself sizzling beneath the hardwood floor.
And when you consider the talent that once sprinted up and down that court — from Dave Bing to Magic Johnson to Earl Cureton to Jalen Rose — you can feel yourself start to sweat.
This place is called St. Cecilia’s — or to many, the Saint — a legendary part of Detroit’s history, but like too many parts of our city, one that has fallen into disrepair, decay and disregard.
That is about to change.
On Thursday, Dec. 11, during our annual SAY Detroit Radiothon, I was joined on stage by the current mayor of Detroit, Mike Duggan, the former mayor, Dave Bing, and — via telephone — the current Mayor-elect Mary Sheffield (who was on her honeymoon), all of whom came together to help me announce the revitalization of a city landmark.
St. Cecilia’s, its adjacent 25-room school building, and the areas and lots surrounding both, will soon be the site of the new SAY Detroit Play Center at St. Cecilia’s.
The 8-acre campus on the city’s west side will be home to hundreds of afterschool kids from around the city, featuring academic labs, STEM robotics, arts programs, community spaces and, of course, sports, from a brand new football field to a rebirthed basketball facility that will honor the greats who played on that hardwood, while transforming it to a state-of-the-art level.
The Saint is rising.
A beacon of collaboration
“I am so excited,” Sheffield said, when she heard the news. “These are the partnerships that I believe are extremely important. And my husband — I finally can say that — he grew up playing in St. Cecilia’s. It’s very near and dear to the community. ... It’s near and dear to my heart.”
This is admittedly an ambitious project, one that may cost, in the end, close to $10 million. As the founder of SAY Detroit, that would make me nervous, had we not done a similar thing over the last decade on the city’s east side, at another abandoned facility called the Lipke Rec Center.
Although not as storied by NBA greats as St. Cecilia’s, Lipke was also once a home to many Detroit kids, who played sports and swam there from the 1950s through the early 2000s.
But like so many rec centers in Detroit, Lipke closed during the bankruptcy years and fell into decay.
Back in 2014, Mayor Duggan asked SAY Detroit if we could somehow find a use for one of those closed facilities. We visited many and finally chose Lipke, even though all the HVAC equipment had been stolen off the roof and the swimming pool was covered in mold.
Ten years later, through the amazing enthusiasm — and elbow grease — of community partners and volunteers, Lipke has been transformed it into a vibrant hive of activity. There’s a football field donated by Matthew Stafford, a baseball field donated by the Detroit Tigers and a large basketball court, rejuvenated by Tom Gores, owner of the Pistons. Stafford and other investors added a 15,000-square-foot education annex a few years ago.
The SAY Detroit Play Center at Lipke now serves 300 kids from all over the city, who are transported from their schools and taken back home when they are finished. Sure, kids can play sports — but only after they complete 90 minutes of study in our digital learning center. They also fan out, in even greater numbers, to a recording studio, an E-Gaming hub, and STEM robotics and arts and dance programs.
Blueprint for success
Our goal for St Cecilia’s is follow the blueprint we used at Lipke. The sizes aren’t the same — there is less acreage the second time, for example, yet a larger school building — but the philosophy will be consistent: involve the community, lean on those who loved and used to use the space, raise funds through partnerships with foundations, companies and individuals, transport kids safely to and from their schools and homes, and hire caring, dedicated people to direct the academics and recreation.
We have already gathered several million dollars toward this project, chiefly from the Wayne and Joan Webber Foundation and an anonymous, but large, donor. Gores also pledged $100,000 toward it at Thursday’s event.
We should note that others have dreamed of reinvigorating this storied place, including Bing, Rose and notably Cureton, the former Piston, who, as a teenager, used to take two busses just to play with the talent at St. Cecilia’s.
On Thursday, at the radiothon, Earl’s widow, Judith Pickop, and their daughter, Sari, sat with us when we made the announcement.
“My dad loved Detroit and I think that reflected in his love for St. Cecilia’s,” Sari said. “The city offered him so much … an opportunity to grow, to learn, and become the person he became.”
That will be the goal of this new facility. To grow. To learn. To become the person you can become.
And to touch history. Detroit history. It was fun to hear Bing recall how, during a holdout from the Pistons in the early 1970s, he kept his game sharp by playing at St. Cecilia’s, and how Sam Washington, the legendary athletic director there, convinced him to get the NBA to donate the fines he was accumulating so he could buy a new scoreboard.
It was fun to hear former Police Chief Ike McKinnon recall how, during the uprising-plagued year of 1967, his officers would get stress reduction and recreation at St. Cecilia’s and how Washington would feed them.
Mayor Duggan noted how our Lipke project had not only revitalized that facility, but sent property values in the area soaring, and uplifted the immediate neighborhood.
We hope to do that twice.
There are ghosts now in the paint-peeling walls. We will not chase them out. Rather, we will give them a home among the sudden high-pitched squeals of children enjoying new facilities, and families knowing their kids have a place to go for hours after school and in the summer, a place where they can improve their grades, their college chances and their jump shots.
The Saint is rising.
If you would like to be a part of this effort, or join us somehow in the rebirth, please contact us at Saydetroit.org.
History never dies. It just sometimes gets ignored. That ends now at St. Cecilia’s. Let’s make it front and center again.
Contact Mitch Albom: [email protected]. Check out the latest updates with his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow him @mitchalbom on x.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mitch Albom: St. Cecilia’s is on the rise – on wings of new partner
Category: General Sports
