The Beefcake of Saginaw, Michigan

There's an old Johnny Cash song that goes:

I was born in Saginaw, Michigan
I grew up in a house on Saginaw Bay
My dad was a poor, hard-working Saginaw fisherman
Too many times he came home with too little pay

Saginaw Bay is about 20 miles from Saginaw, Michigan, so Johnny Cash didn't know what he was talking about.  But I guess "factory worker" doesn't rhyme with "Michigan."

Saginaw, Michigan (you can't just say the city by itself)  is a rust belt city about 100 miles north of Detroit.  Population 50,000 (down by half since 1950), mean household income $29,000, 34% under the poverty line.  A rough, abandoned downtown straddling the Saginaw River, with a city park called Rust (named after Ezra Rust, not oxidizing metal in aging buildings, but either is fitting).

The best restaurant in town is Fuzzy's, an old-fashioned diner that specializes in ice cream concoctions.














There's a castle (previously a post office) and an art museum, but I'm not sure that's enough.

A reviewer on City Data says: "Saginaw, Michigan is great, if you hate yourself and want to have someone to hate you as well. If you are thinking about moving to our besieged city, here are a few tips,bulletproof your car, to avoid lethally embarrassing situations have a "throwaway weapon" at your disposal, and by all means check out the violent, alcohol soaked bands."

Homophobia seems rampant.  In 2014, a city council member criticized advocates of an anti-discrimination proposal as Nazis.  In 2015, the pastor of a Lutheran church in Saginaw, Michigan made headlines after he advised a gay teenager to kill himself, then went on Grindr to look for a hookup.

At Saginaw Valley State University, the link to the "LGBTQ Resources" page yields a 404 error.

Google maps displays four high schools, but three have closed, been consolidated, or turned into grade schools, leaving only Saginaw High, "committed to ensuring a safe and academic environment."  Sounds scary.  No Gay-Straight Alliance, but at least there's a book club.

Beefcake photos were hard to come by.  A search on Google Images for "Saginaw State University Wrestling" yielded nothing.

"Saginaw High School Wrestling" yielded this, but they don't look like wrestlers, and their jackets say "Owosso Trojans"

Owosso, Michigan is about 40 miles south of Saginaw.



The Saginaw Riders is a motorcycle club.  Are these kids even old enough to have drivers' licenses?













This wrestler won second place in the EMS-ISD Tournament.  First and third place went to girls. A victory for women's equality, but not great for beefcake.

Now that I think of it, didn't the guy in that Johnny Cash song leave Saginaw, Michigan?