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Jim Skrocki was a small kid from a small school. But it took him just one day to know he was going to fit in nicely in Roy Kramer’s fast-rising football program at Central Michigan University. “We were sitting in a theater with about 100 guys, and Roy walks up to the microphone and yells ‘You’ve gotta hit!’ All of the guys jumped,” Skrocki said. “We probably lost about 20 guys after that speech. I was sitting in this room with a bunch of Class A players, players who were All-State. But I said to myself ‘I’m going to make it.’ “Roy didn’t care how big you were. If you were lean and mean, if you could hit somebody, if you could block somebody, you could get a spot on his team. And that’s what I did.” The rough and rugged aspects of football were right in Skrocki’s wheelhouse, serving him well on the family farm, as a three-sport star at Bay City St. James, as a hard-blocking receiver at CMU, as a U.S. Army soldier in Vietnam and in virtually every endeavor he’s tackled since. Now his nose-to-the-grindstone approach earns him a spot in the Bay County Sports Hall of Fame. He’s part of the induction Class of 2025 that is being honored with a Nov. 9 banquet at the DoubleTree hotel and conference center in downtown Bay City. Skrocki put in the work to get there. Growing up as one of nine children on the family farm in Munger, he learned the value of a hard day’s work. Hoeing fields and cultivating beets, corn and navy beans literally taught him you reap what you sow. “My dad always said ‘Do the job and do it right.’ So, my brothers and I, that’s what we did,” he said. His work ethic, tough skin and farm strength served him well as an All-State halfback at St. James in 1965. His running was electric and his blocking was emphatic, making him a valuable commodity in coach Ray Dombroski’s T-formation. “He was a hard-core kid. He kept his nose down and did his job,” said Neil Kent, a backfield mate at St. James. “What I remember most is his competitiveness. He was not a rah-rah guy. He was more of a silent assassin. He’d look at you and smile, then beat the hell out of you.” Skrocki was a junior on the St. James team that endured a 1-8 campaign in 1964. He was also a key figure in the senior class that changed everything one year later, flipping the script to go 8-1 and win the Valley Parochial League championship. The seven-win improvement remains tied for the greatest one-year turnaround in Bay County history. “We all came together and said ‘1-8, that’s not going to happen again.’ We told Coach ‘We’re going to do this for you,’” Skrocki said. “I remember the very first game, the other team came out growling and screaming like a bunch of animals. We were all thinking ‘What did we get ourselves into?’ Then I took the first play 85 yards for a touchdown.” Skrocki found himself at Central Michigan the following fall. In an era when first-year players were ineligible to compete on varsity, he led the freshman team with nine receptions for 190 yards and three touchdowns in a 4-0 campaign at wide receiver. The following year marked the arrival of Kramer, the Hall of Fame coach who would guide the Chippewas to the NCAA Division II national championship in 1974 and eventually become commissioner of the SEC. Kramer’s devotion to the I-formation and the all-out running of the football meant “Skyrocket” Skrocki’s pass-catching skills wouldn’t often be put to use. But it was his other abilities that caught Kramer’s eye and made him a three-year varsity performer on CMU teams that went 8-2, 7-2 and 7-3. “Ninety percent of the time, we blocked. Coach Kramer was not a firm believer in passing,” Skrocki said. “That’s how I won my position on the team, I could always block.” Skrocki caught one touchdown pass his senior year in 1969 and served as team captain for the season finale. He graduated at the end of the school year and was soon drafted into the U.S. Army. He spent two years in Vietnam, ranking as a Specialist and primarily serving on perimeter guard duty during his time in the conflict. He said he returned to the U.S. to a mob of protestors in Oakland, California, and quickly headed home to Bay City. While beginning a long career in logistics and starting a family – he and his wife of 53 years, Carol, raised children Jason, Amy and Sara – Skrocki immersed himself in every athletic activity he could find, including fastpitch softball and City League basketball. But touch football would become his new niche for about 15 years, standing as a staple of the Sempliner’s team that thrived on local, statewide and national levels. He was named an All-American receiver after leading the team to a Top 20 finish in the national championships and was inducted into the Michigan Amateur Football Hall of Fame in 2004. “He had good speed and was always in fantastic shape – he’s probably at the Y as we speak,” said Stan Izykowski, who played on that 1979 squad. “He never took a play off, which I admire, and I never heard him complain once. You could always count on him.” Now, at age 77, Skrocki is still very fit and still very active. He picked up Taekwondo and rose to a third-degree blackbelt. Delivering martial arts punches are a regular part of his workouts as he continues his trend of putting in the work and getting the most out of his abilities. “I guess you’d call me an overachiever,” he said. “I always wanted to do my best in anything I did, and sports were my outlet.” Skrocki is part of the Bay County Sports Hall of Fame induction class that includes Jim Eurick, Christie Gruszynski Konieczny, Tom Herek, Trenton Robinson, Dave Schwartz, Denise Tasiemski Toogood, the 1989 Pinconning volleyball team, the 1991 Bay City All Saints baseball team, the 1999 Delta College softball team and President’s Award winner Dinah DuRussel. Tickets for the Hall of Fame banquet can be purchased online or at Renue Physical Therapy, 804 N. Water Street in Bay City, by the Oct. 31 deadline. RELATED READING Read more Bay County Sports Hall of Fame stories Football mastermind Jim Eurick led Bay City Western to glory era Delta College softball rose from nothing to national champion Tom Herek welcomed All Saints football players into the fold 1991 All Saints baseball rose from rag-tag to runner-up Garber leader Dave Schwartz prepares for worst, delivers best ‘Spaghetti arm’ didn’t stop Christie Gruszynski from HOF rise Cookie-baker, impact-maker Dinah DuRussel earns HOF honor
