Meet The ‘Flintstones’
AFSCME members raise their children well, producing three hoop stars who brought home the NCAA championship.
By Jimmie Turner
FLINT, MICHIGAN
A couple of years ago, Michigan State University (MSU) basketball players Mateen Cleaves, Charlie Bell and Morris Peterson were dubbed by the national media “The Flintstones,” in reference to their hometown here. They form the nucleus of the Spartans squad that defeated the Florida Gators for the 2000 NCAA championship.
Also in Flint, you’ll find the Hurley Medical Center, a facility filled with employees represented by AFSCME Council 25. Charlie’s mother, Belle, and aunt, Shirley Hatcher, work there alongside Mateen’s oldest sister, Monique. The women have followed the stars, and others from their hometown who’ve come before and after them at MSU, since they were in grade school.
“It’s like a family,” says Belle of the relatives who travel across the country to see the young men play. “We’re all such good friends, and we’re all kind of old school. You don’t see any of our kids with a real attitude.”
The trio of players attended different high schools and were rivals in some intense matchups. But three years at MSU have brought them close together. Mateen and Morris are graduating seniors; Charlie returns next season as a senior.
“Without the support of our families, through the good times and bad, we wouldn’t have accomplished what we did,” says Charlie.
BORN LEADERS. Mateen is the point guard and vocal leader, and has a “refuse-to-lose” mentality. That was evident when he crawled off the floor in the second half of the championship game with an ankle sprain, then returned minutes later to run the team. “He’s been determined like that ever since the second grade,” says sister Monique. “He could be down 30 points with one minute left in the game and would still try to find a way to win. He has the heart of a lion.”
Charlie, who Bell and Hatcher consider soft-spoken, had been dogged by a nagging knee injury all season. “I don’t think it hampered him too much in that Florida game when he was getting all those rebounds,” Hatcher remarks, testifying to his intestinal fortitude. Although only 6-foot-3-inches tall, he was the team’s second-leading rebounder in the championship game. “In high school, he was the biggest guy on the team, so rebounding isn’t anything strange to him,” Bell says of her son.
But what the three women appreciate most about the players is the way they’ve carried themselves as student athletes. When one gets an offer to come home and speak to youngsters, all three come together.
“They’re such fine young men,” says Bell. “There’s just so much negative stuff going on in college ball these days, so just having them staying in school all four years, graduating and being proud of their hometown is special. They’ve brought so much pride to the city of Flint.”
