Inkster celebrates inaugural rivalry weekend showdown
INKSTER, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - The city of Inkster is hosting a three-day event celebrating and reigniting a longtime basketball rivalry between the Inkster High School Vikings and the Dearborn Heights Robichaud Bulldogs.
"I am pumped," said Dr. Leon Crawford Jr. "Throughout the years, that has been the greatest rivalry. I will put the rivalry over Michigan vs. Ohio State. It is one of the greatest rivalries here in the metro area and probably in the world."
The inaugural Rivalry Weekend Showdown, presented by Antoine Shaw, owner of Inktown Store, and the Inkster High School All Class Reunion Committee (IHSACRC), is more than a game; it's a chance to showcase the pride of a city and its people.
"Coming into this weekend, I'm excited," Trina Hill said. "I'm excited about who's walking away with that trophy on Sunday."
Trina Hill spearheads the IHSACRC, and was instrumental in making this rivalry weekend happen, a rivalry that dates back decades.
"Oh, girl, it's deep. It's real deep," Deartriss Richardson said.
But Richardson, a former Inkster city councilperson, says the depth of the rivalry these days is more about camaraderie than competition now that Inkster High School has been demolished and the city of Inkster is without its public school system.
"It hurt to see our schools close and to see them destroyed. This weekend that Viking pride comes back," Richardson said.
"Every school that we had in Inkster has been torn down like we never existed," added Inkster High School alum Victor Deihl.
This weekend serves as proof that the schools did exist and that pride in Ink-Town is something that can never be destroyed.
The three-day event is hosted at the Inkster Recreation Complex at 2025 Middlebelt Road in Inkster.