DETROIT / A living lexicon / ¼
Famous Detroiters
People who were born here, moved here or built their careers in Detroit: musicians, carmakers, athletes, writers, inventors, civil-rights leaders and a few notorious names. With their dates, their Detroit story and the places where they lived, worked and played, closed ones included.
- 664 famous people
- 66 Detroit places
- 14 fields
Field
Connection
Born in
A–Z (family name)
7 people
Clear filters
Sports · 1941–2021Bill Freehanbaseball catcherDetroit-born catcher who spent his entire 15-year career with the Tigers, an 11-time All-Star who caught the final out of the 1968 World Series.
Sports · born 1942Willie Hortonbaseball player, left fielderDetroit-raised slugger of the 1968 champion Tigers; his No. 23 is retired, his statue stands at Comerica Park and the field on the old Tiger Stadium site bears his name.
Sports · 1940–2026Mickey Lolichbaseball pitcherLeft-hander who won three complete games, including Game 7, to be MVP of the 1968 World Series; he holds the Tigers' career strikeout record and stayed in metro Detroit for life.
Sports · born 1944Denny McLainbaseball pitcherTigers right-hander who won 31 games in 1968, the last major-leaguer to win 30 in a season, taking the MVP and Cy Young awards for the world champions.
Sports · born 1948Ron LeFlorebaseball player, center fielderEast-side Detroiter who went from Jackson State Prison to center field at Tiger Stadium in 1974, a story told in the TV film One in a Million.The lexicon keeps growing. Every entry lists its sources at the bottom. Dates were checked against Wikidata and Wikipedia. The texts are our own.