Started by Tico in 1998, the minority-owned firm serves municipalities, large insurance companies, several manufacturers and a variety of automotive suppliers. Tico and Todd co-own Duckett Brothers Distributing, a janitorial and industrial supply company on Lansing’s north end. That’s definitely preserved our relationship.” “We’re 11 years apart, and didn’t fight over cereal. “We’re definitely brothers, but we’re two different people,” says Tico Duckett of his brother Todd “TJ” Duckett. But when seated at the table, there’s a noticeable sibling chemistry that binds the two together. One wears a business suit, the other fashionable camo and a knit winter hat. While among many, Duckett Brothers Distributing and Granger stand out as two lineage-founded firms in greater Lansing. “Family-owned businesses tend to want to be in a community for the long haul and to be good to their employees.” “If it’s anything like what I’m feeling right now, it’s going to be magic.“The impact on the community is tremendous both in terms of business and philanthropy,” says Ellie Frey, director of the Family Business Alliance in Grand Rapids, a Michigan-based organization that researches and provides information on family businesses (See more on page 20). at a loss for words trying to imagine what it’d be like as he sat in his car. Tonight, all three got to share the shine together for the first time. “This is my brother, so I’m not going to be mad because my brother’s getting shine.” “We were friends first, and we were just playing the game that we loved,” he said. Duckett followed soon after, but after Duckett switched from defense to offense, he began taking away opportunities from his friend.ĭuckett said he has never seen someone respond the way Flowers did, but for him there was no other option. Tico Duckett was the first of the three to head to MSU and had major success early, leading the Big Ten in rushing and winning the conference’s offensive MVP as a sophomore while helping the Spartans to a Big Ten title.įlowers and T.J. Having him and my mom there to keep me focused was big because there are a lot of people that didn’t make it out.” “He busted his butt without a high school education and raised four kids, and he pretty much showed me the way. “My father was a hard worker,” Flowers said. He felt lucky to have the benefits of two sets of parents when many don’t have one. That sounded about right to T.J., who joked he was glad he didn’t have his dad as a coach.īut Flowers was grateful for the additional parenting, which included officiating video-game arguments between him and T.J. “I think I even had 20 carries on one series on that rainy day.” “I always say, his dad tried to kill me,” Flowers said. Tico Duckett sees one difference in his little brother today from the one he grew up with. “But for three people, whether they’re football family or real family, to reach this life dream and have it be done not in Spartan Stadium but Kalamazoo, a different home is special.” “When you’re a kid, you have all these dreams, and a lot of times those dreams are unrealistic. He and his two big brothers - one biological and the other a childhood friend he simply calls “Little,” all had managed to make their childhood dreams come true. Yet it wasn’t until he sat in his car, ready to head back to the town that raised him, that he realized what the hometown honor meant. Duckett was set to hit the road for Michigan State’s opener at Western Michigan tonight, but at the last moment he was stopped in his tracks by a thought he hadn’t previously realized.Ĭoach Mark Dantonio had named Duckett one of three honorary captains earlier in the week, along with fellow Kalamazoo natives and former MSU running backs Tico Duckett and Little John Flowers.
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