Something to Prove: Mark Flood, ’78, Finds Success at Hillsdale
Written by Doug Goodnough
After setting a state record as a star high school running back, Mark Flood, ’78, thought college was going to be easy. He was wrong.
A two-sport standout in football and track and field, Flood first enrolled at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, but didn’t find much success either on the field or in the classroom.
“I was kind of lost,” he said.
Enter Hillsdale College. Flood drove more than 500 miles from his tiny Upper Peninsula hometown of Crystal Falls, Michigan, to visit. New football coach Jack McAvoy told him he could be on the team, but he would have to earn his way on the field.
Then-Dean Robert Hendee also sat him down early and told him where he stood academically.
“He said, ‘You have one semester, or you’re out of here,’” Flood said. “He scared me straight.”
Flood buckled down in the classroom, and was also able to participate in track and field, where he quickly became a standout. However, in football, he watched from the sidelines his first year. Coming from a small, Upper Peninsula high school, he said the coaches knew very little about his level of competition.
“I think he really needed to see me more than most people because he just had more question marks,” Flood said of Coach McAvoy. “So I had to prove myself more. Then things were good.”
Eventually his opportunity on the football field came, but as a defensive back. Intercepting a pass on his very first play, Flood became a two-year starter. He was named the team’s most improved player as a junior, and as a senior received the Kimball Award for being an outstanding student-athlete and citizen.
“It meant a lot to me. I looked at this as more of my character on campus,” he said of the award.
Flood finished his career a two-sport standout at Hillsdale, setting several track and field school records, and also had a strong academic performance. He was inducted into Hillsdale’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003.
After graduating, he eventually moved back to the Upper Peninsula to help with the family business, and since 2003 is the owner of OEM Equipment Parts, which sells replacement parts to industrial manufacturers.
In recent years, Flood has been instrumental in helping his alma mater bring alumni back for Homecoming. Hosting a tent party after the football game, he encourages former Chargers from all eras to come back and support the College.
Doug Goodnough, ’90, is Hillsdale’s director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.
Published in November 2022