A young Melvin “Sugar” McLaughlin earned his forever nickname for a “sweet as Sugar move” from George Knight at the Baxter Community Center in Grand Rapids, became the all-time leading scorer at Central Michigan University and a local legend.
Scoring records from the now defunct City League and closed Creston High are incomplete, but he reportedly averaged over 30 points per game as a junior and senior playing for Creston in 1978-79, and in 2016 was named the best high school player to ever have come out of Grand Rapids by mlive.com.
He turned down a scholarship offer from the University of Michigan when an assistant coach who had recruited him left the program. He headed to Mount Pleasant at the urging of a former Grand Rapids area coach (Dave Ginsberg) who had joined Dick Parfitt’s staff at CMU. He scored 2,071 points for CMU, still the top career total for men in program history and bombed away often from well over 20-feet in the era just a few years before the 3-point shot was implemented.
McLaughlin was the Mid-American Conference Player of the Year in 1982, and twice made first-team All-MAC. He broke the 40-point mark twice, including a career best 46, and he averaged 20.3 points per game for his career with a high of 24.1 in 1982-83. At the close of his career he was also the career leader in steals.
He was selected in the sixth round of the 1983 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers, but didn’t make the team. He played in the then Continental Basketball Association for the Detroit Spirits, and for the Magic Johnson All-Stars, a barnstorming team Johnson created in 1992.
He has lived, worked and played basketball in Grand Rapids for most of his life and annually presents youth basketball camps. He is also a member of CMU’s Athletics Hall of Fame and the Gus Macker Basketball Hall of Fame.