Ralph Isaac "Hike" Heikkinen (May 14, 1917 – January 12, 1990) was an American college football player who was a guard for the Michigan Wolverines from 1936 to 1938. He was a unanimous All-American in 1938, the first player from the Gogebic Range area of Michigan's Upper Peninsula to win the honor. His exploits were widely reported in the Upper Peninsula press, where he became a local hero. He played professional football in the National Football League (NFL) with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1939.
From 1940 to 1944, he was the line coach for the Virginia Cavaliers football team while attending the University of Virginia School of Law at the same time. After practicing law in New York for a time, he spent a year as a line coach and law professor at Marquette University in 1947. After leaving Marquette, Heikkinen worked as executive secretary and attorney for Studebaker-Packard Corporation. He later joined the legal staff at General Motors (GM), retiring in 1978 after 20 years of service in GM's legal department. Heikkinen also helped initiate and implement a corporation-wide alcohol treatment and education program at General Motors.
Youth in the Upper Peninsula Born in Hancock, Michigan, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Heikkinen was the son of Finnish immigrants. He grew up in Ramsay, Michigan, a heavily Finnish American community in the Gogebic Range area. Heikkinen's father, Jacob Heikkinen, was a "noted organist" who played at St. Paul's Finnish Lutheran Church.
He attended A.D. Johnston High School, in Bessemer, Michigan, from 1933 to 1935. As a junior in 1933, Heikkinen was elected president of the student council. Heikkinen was a superior student who graduated with high honors student, and finished third in his high school class academically. When a new library opened in Bessemer in 1934, Heikkinen was the first person to check out a book, A.B. De Mille's Three English Comedies. He was also an officer in the school's ROTC program, and received honors for his participation in the high school's military, athletics and student affairs programs.
Despite weighing only , Heikkinen won a spot on his high school football team; his high school coach Robert Reihsen said he won a spot due to his aggressive play. Local papers reported that Heikkinen's line play during high school was marked by hard tackling and blocking. During his junior season in 1934, Coach Reihsen recalled Heikkinen played every minute of every game. Coach Reihnsen's team was known as the "Speed Boys," and gave up only two points in the first four games, outscoring opponents, 65–2. In November 1934, Coach Reihsen took Heikkinen to Minneapolis to attend his first Big Ten football game, the Little Brown Jug match between Michigan and Minnesota. Reihsen recalled that, after the game, Heikkinen said: "Some day I'm going to play in this stadium."
University of Michigan
Heikkinen won an academic scholarship In July 1935, Heikkinen won an academic scholarship to the University of Michigan. The Bessemer Herald noted: "It was no surprise to learn that Ralph Heikkinen of Ramsay has been awarded a University of Michigan Alumni scholarship, although only 50 high school seniors in the state can win the honor each year . . . Ralph is a very good student; he ranked third in scholastic standings in a class of 128 . . . Heikkinen was also an outstanding guard on the B.H.S. football team for two years and he intends to try out for the Wolverine freshman squad this fall." The scholarship was renewed from year to year and covered Heikkinen's tuition.
To supplement his income, Heikkinen worked eight-hour days in a Fort Dearborn plant during his freshman year. The president of the Gogebic Range U-M Alumni Club later recalled that Heikkinen won his scholarship by passing a competitive examination. Of those receiving scholarships, Heikkinen was credited with the finest all around record of any undergraduate among the alumni scholarship students.
Heikkinen's diminutive stature When Heikkinen graduated from high school, he weighed only and was thought too light to play Big Ten football. His height was reported variously as , , and . Heikkinen was described by the Detroit News as a "pigmy" compared to Michigan's last great guard, Albert Benbrook, who was and more than . He was also described as "the stock atom," and the "pint-sized" lineman. But Heikkinen viewed his size as an asset: "My size had been a help rather than a hindrance. It is easier for a small man to pull out of the line and run interference than a big one. I had no trouble out-charging big men; it was the small men who gave me all the trouble."
Freshman and sophomore years Heikkinen did not excel on the freshman team, but was invited by Coach Harry Kipke to spring practice in 1936 to try out for the varsity team. In April 1936, the people back in Bessemer gave Heikkinen a vote of confidence; the school board approved a $55 payment to Heikkinen as "advance payment" for some form of employment to be given "during the coming summer months."
However, Heikkinen did not win a starting spot on the 1936 team and was not even ranked among the top sophomore guards on the team. At the end of the 1936 season, the highest praise Coach Kipke could muster was to call him "one of the better defensive linemen on the squad." Assistant coach Bennie Oosterbaan said Heikkinen had "the right attitude," and coach Wally Weber described him as "a hard worker." However, the Michigan Daily noted: "The only weakness of the Ramsay boy is his lack of speed. Speedy guards are needed to pull out of the line and lead the interference, and Heikkinen hasn't quite shown that he is fast enough to move in Big Ten competition as yet."
Role of Hunk Anderson The first person on the Michigan staff to believe in Heikkinen was Heartley Anderson. A fellow native of the Upper Peninsula (Tamarack City, Michigan), Anderson played guard at Notre Dame from 1919 to 1921 and was Knute Rockne's successor as Notre Dame's head coach in 1931. In 1937, Anderson became Michigan's line coach, and came to the conclusion during spring practice that Heikkinen was Michigan's best football player. After a strong showing in spring practice, Heikkinen "hardened up" over the summer working at the Wakefield Iron.
1937 season In 1937, Heikkinen won the starting job at right guard, but the team finished 4–4, and were outscored by opponents 110–54. They were soundly defeated by Minnesota, 39–6, and Ohio State, 21–0.
Heikkinen was the one bright spot in the Wolverines' 1937 season. In early November 1937, Anderson described Heikkinen as "the smallest but best lineman in the Michigan forward wall." Anderson continued in his praise for Heikkinen: "Heik has shown the stuff in both of our tough games against Minnesota and Northwestern . . . Minnesota didn't split our guards more than twice during the game. Heik was responsible for a lot of that. My conception of a good guard is one that stops anything that comes his way on defense and leads the blocking on offense. Heik has done just that. When we have the ball he is our fifth man in the backfield. He pulls out most of our plays and bowls over the opposition. We have made most of the gains through the line over his position."
Heikkinen's interception of a forward pass proved to be the key break in a 7–0 win over Penn. He also blocked kicks for points after touchdown in one-point wins over Illinois (7–6) and Chicago (13–12). Without Heikkinen's big plays against Penn, Illinois and Chicago, the Wolverines likely would have been 1–5–2 instead of 4–4. Even in a 21–0 loss to Ohio State, Heikkinen blocked two kicks.
Described at the end of the season as Kipke's "pride and joy," Heikkinen averaged 50 minutes a game in 1937, and was the only Michigan player selected to the All-Big Ten team (UP first team; AP second team). He was also voted by his teammates as the team's Most Valuable Player, an honor never before bestowed on a junior. And Anderson noted, "if Michigan's record had been better, Heikkinen would have made the All-America. There isn't a better guard in the country; I don't know another as good. Wait til next year."
A Detroit newspaper wrote that Heikkinen was the surprise of the 1937 season. "Heikkinen has no spectacular record as a high school player to show. He was a reserve guard last season and really just started to show up in spring practice this year." The Bessemer Herald reported on the impressive turnaround of the first player from the Gogebic Range to be named All-Big Ten: "Heikkinen, one of the quietest and least boisterous men on the Michigan grid squad, has suddenly shot from obscurity into the Western Conference hall of fame . . . From a lowly bench warmer last year, 'Hike' became one of the most consistent first-stringers this season. He played many if not more minutes than any other member of the squad."
After the team's 4–4 finish, Michigan dismissed Harry Kipke as head coach. Anderson, described by Heikkinen as the "greatest line technician in football today," also resigned as line coach. Asked about rumors that players did not like Kipke, Heikkinen said those reports were probably originated by disgruntled players who did not make the squad or were in other ways dissatisfied. However, just over a year later, in February 1939, Heikkinen led the opposition when Kipke ran for the university's Board of Regents and campaigned actively for Kipke's opponent.
Political campaigning in 1938 Heikkinen majored in political science and did political organization work for the Young Republicans during the summer of 1938 in Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties. He was the Upper Peninsula field representative for gubernatorial candidate Harry S. Toy in 1938, traveling more than 16,000 miles over the course of the summer.
1938 season In 1938, with Heikkinen returning at guard, a new coach in Fritz Crisler, and sophomores Forest Evashevski and Tom Harmon joining the varsity squad, the Wolverines began to turn things around. They finished with a 6–1–1 record and were ranked #16 in the final AP poll.
Harmon and Evashevski made immediate contributions, but Heikkinen was once again voted the team's Most Valuable Player. Having been the first junior to win the award in 1937, he became the first player to receive the award twice in 1938. Though line coach Anderson did not return in 1937, Michigan hired Clarence "Biggie" Munn to replace him. Munn was a unanimous All-American guard for Minnesota in 1931. Under the new coaching staff of Crisler and Munn, Heikkinen became one of the best college football players in the country. After the 1938 season, Heikkinen credited Crisler and Munn for his development. Heikkinen noted that Michigan linemen were taught not to depend on sheer strength. "We have not been taught to rear up and hurl back the opposition. We have not been taught to roll it back by power. We have been schooled to out-block and out-trick the other side. Our method is to be alert. We try to catch the other fellows off balance."
Michigan won the first game of the season against Michigan State, 14–0, and Heikkinen drew attention for playing 59 of 60 minutes in the game. The team's only loss was a close 7–6 defeat to Minnesota in the third game of the season.
The fourth game of the season was a 45–7 win over Yale. An Ann Arbor newspaper reported that Gerald R. Ford, former Michigan center then serving as a scout for Yale, "tried to feed Hike a line . . . on how impossibly inferior" Yale's team would be. According to the report, Heikkinen, "in his typically pungent manner, nipped Ford's eulogies in the bud with some poignant remarks on who was trying to kid who and how."