I Was There (A Fab Five Story)

I was 14 and lucky enough that my dad was an alum who had the means to take his son on a trip he'd never forget.

No matter that the banners have been taken down, no one can take away those memories: the excitement after the Kentucky game, the first walk down Bourbon Street and sitting in a courtyard jazz club for hours, how crushed we were after the loss.

I just finished watching the documentary and immediately texted my dad. A little bit to find out if I should save my copy, but more to catch up and maybe say thanks.

It elicits the same reaction as the documentary -- very compelling but painfully depressing at the same time.  This:

"They don't have any more timeouts. That's a technical foul. We're going to lose." Our section, crazy with noise moments ago, jumping with the certainty that our guys were going to pull it out, fell slowly quiet.

... is similar to situations I've been through, but never in a game of that magnitude.  I would've cried my eyes out.  I almost want to now, still.

P.S. The pictures of hot chicks and high-fiving bunnies were pretty cool.

Great read.  Thanks for bringing back the memories.  I wasn't there but it was the Fab Five who really made me the Michigan fan I am today.  Both of my parents went to State and my grandfather to Michigan.  Growing up I had both shirts, but wasnt a huge fan of either.  My brother and I here were huge fans of basketball however, and when the Fab Five came on the scene I was a Michigan fan for life.  I immediately bought all the Michigan stuff I could and laughed in my parents face whenever they beat State.  I will never forget them and thank them from the bottom of my heart for changing me over from the dark side.  I don't want to think about what would have happened to my fanhood had the fab five not had happened.

Well written, nice conveyance of real emotion.  

Great read and thanks for sharing. I was 12 years old watching with my buddy who was on my basketball team & also a rapid UM fan. It seemed every game they played came down to the wire, but this is still one game where I still get angry/sad every time I see it. I remember being so upset I couldn't get words out, I was really upset about it for over a week (at 12, that's like 3-4 years). 

This documentary was so awesome to watch, I had goosebumps the entire time and was that excited 12 yr old on the edge of the couch. My girlfriend could tell something was different about how much I was into this and actually left me alone to watch. Just wild how much I remember about each of these games, each pair of shoes, and the swagger they brought to an otherwise pretty vanilla (no pun intended!) college basketball landscape at that time.

Great reliving these great memories. Just 3-4 months prior my Dad took me to my 1st UM football game, which happened to be a buttwooping at the expense of OSU & a certain Heisman pose game!

I will always love this team & remember them forever. 

Great diary.  I was too young to really understand that teams like the Fab 5 don't come around every year, and only now do I realize how lucky anyone who got to follow this team really was.

I grew up in a house hold that only watched the NFL. Then I saw the Michigan vs Noter Dame game in 88 and that's when I became a Michigan football fan. I never watched basketball untill I came across a Gab Five game and fell in love! They did shape a generation and I'm glad it was mine!

but the thing I remember the most was the win over Kentucky (and the awesome party on Bourbon Street Sat night afterwards).

They were never expected to beat UNC and they were never really in the game. Although they could've had a chance at the end, it didn't feel like it was going to happen.

I didn't mind so much.  I was still in the glow of the run in '89 and especially the epic Final Four game against the Illini.  That and the wipe-out of Virginia with Rice and Higgins draining 3s from everywhere.

Well said, sir. I always love reading these old bits of nostalgia.

Jalen underestimates how closely Fab Five fans followed that team in this manner: off the top of my head, starting lineup NC team that beat M - D. Williams, D. Phelps, E. Reese, G. Lynch, Eric Montross.  We reaaally cared Jalen, I think I could probably name the starting lineup of every team they played that year take away Coastal Carolina.

Thank you for sharing this memory. I fell in love with the 5 times instantly. I can tell you how many points webber and jalen scored in the first game they ever played at cobo against u of d.

I agree with every word.  That game just ripped my heart out as a fan - I think it's still the most painful loss I've gone through.  I hated UNC, more than Duke even, for a long time after that.  We were better than them!

Very well written. The only game that I think was as vomit inducing for me as that one, would have been the 1994 game vs Colorado and the infamous Stewart to Westbrook hail mary.

I remember being 10 during the Nat'l Championship game, and 12 during the Colorado game. I remember being downright sad and apathetic to everything and the tears welling up. I think those two will forever be burned into my memory, the start of my obsession.

from being a fan of a sporting team.

It was that night when the timeout was called.

I was 13.

I'll never forget it.

Nor will I forget all the great feelings and memories that they gave us all.

Excellent diary post - i appreciate it.

Thanks.

If we had another timeout; if Webber had seen Rob Pelinka for an open three; if Webber had not called timeout at all; and IF we had won that game... Do you think that the legend would instead be about how Webber got away with an obvious travel in the backcourt as we inbounded the ball?

There is an alternate/mythical ending to the Fab Five story that I would have liked.  (But which Ed Martin would have ruined, no matter what).  It is this:  That all five players remained all four years and got degrees.  That they'd have been the first team since Wooden-era UCLA to go to four Finals all four years.  And while they might have last the first two, they might have won the next two.

That was my freshman year.  I watched the Kentucky game and the UNC game at Crisler.  The crowd was so electric, it was almost as if we were actually there. 

Coach, you and I are the same year at UofM and it's as if we felt the exact same things about the ride with the Fab Five.

I lost the lottery, so I didn't make the trip to New Orleans, but the weekend in Ann Arbor was just as exciting.  Everybody was nervous about Kentucky, and more than just Mashburn, Travis Ford had been lighting up the tournament.  Jimmy shut him down and that may have been the difference.  After the game, I recall turning to friends and saying that if we didn't do the same to Donald Williams (who won tournament MOP), we might not win.

I felt bad for Chris after the time out.  When he went to the corner and put his hands together, I stood up from my seat, said "that's the ball game" and walked out of the viewing party because I already knew.  I also couldn't get over the errant (and fast) three we took on the possession before when we didn't need it.  I too dreamt about that play for weeks after (like it did after Desmond getting tripped and Kordell's bomb - sorry about this part).

That IU class (of 93) with Cheaney, Graham, Graham, Lawson, Leary and Reynolds (and at one point, Funderburke), was considered one of the best classes of all time.  UNC followed it up with Montross, Sullivan, Phelps, Reese, and Salvadori (and at one point, Rozier) which replaced IU's class at the top of the chart.  Then the starts aligned for the Fab Five.  The difference for us, was that our crew didn't stay together.

After they returned to campus, I was talking to Juwan and asked him what Chris was going to do.  He told me Chris was leaving and when I asked why not stay together until they make their mark with a title, I vividly remember his reply: "there talking about a lot of money man."

Jalen's comments in the documentary about all the people making money off of them - except them - was what resonated with my most.  They had already made the most amazing 2-year run in 20+ years (better than Duke's) because of their youth, yet we never got to see them reach their full potential.  That has become the bigger heartbreak for me over the years.

...and have had many friends from Latin America over the years after graduating in '89.  I watched the UNC title game with friends from Ecuador who knew nothing about basketball.  Within minutes of the opening tip, marveling, one of them asked, "Wow, who is that number 4?"

I remember thinking it was interesting that even people who had never seen a basketball game in their lives could tell that Webber was special.

Anyway, the end of that game is my most painful sporting memory ever, worse than Kordell's bomb (devastating, but a regular season game), Isiah's errant inbounds pass (horrifying, but they beat Boston the following year), or the premature retirement of a still-in-his-prime Barry Sanders (that one's actually pretty close).

But it's also true - we were in the final b/c of Chris, and we were in position to win it b/c of Chris.  He gave us a lot more great moments than bad ones.