Carl "Scuppy" Backstrom - Class of 2017

(Calumet)

A three-sport letterman at Calumet High School and recipient of the George Gipp Award, Carl Backstrom earned football and basketball scholarships to Michigan Tech University and in 1953 signed a pro baseball minor league contract with the Boston Red Sox. Sidelined by an arm injury, he later played small-college baseball and basketball, graduated from Northern Michigan University and then became a teacher-coach and a recreation director at two U.P. correctional facilities.