Bubba Paris' Massive Weight Loss
I know I'm biased because they played in my era, but the best tackle tandem we've ever had is Bubba Paris and Ed Muransky.
Bubba (who played for the 49'ers) was tipping the scales at nearly 400 pounds until he recently shed almost 100 of them. He posted this on Facebook yesterday.
Way to go, (still) Big Guy!
August 15th, 2019 at 9:51 AM ^
Congrats!
August 15th, 2019 at 9:52 AM ^
My era as well. I remember seeing Bubba and Ed in one of the cafeterias (South Quad I believe) and realizing I had never seen guys that big. Stay healthy Bubba!
August 15th, 2019 at 8:35 PM ^
Bubba used to always cut the line at the cafeteria in south quad. “Size has its privileges” he would announce as he walked to the front.
August 15th, 2019 at 9:56 AM ^
Looking good my man...
August 15th, 2019 at 11:30 AM ^
Schmitts. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
August 15th, 2019 at 10:02 AM ^
I was Muransky's orientation leader. A big man at 18!
August 15th, 2019 at 10:17 AM ^
This is often a struggle for the big fellas as they leave the game, especially for guys back in the day before we had more advanced nutrition for players. I know a couple guys that were former O-Lineman in college and it was just hard to make the adjustment to normal life after they stopped competing and keep their weight in a healthy place.
Great to see Bubba getting healthy - he played around 300 lbs give or take so going from nearly 400 back under his playing weight has to feel good.
August 15th, 2019 at 10:18 AM ^
Stay strong Bubba. Keep jamming like Jimi.
# Uncle Swami.
# Expect Victory.
August 15th, 2019 at 10:28 AM ^
Whoa! He looks great! I wonder if we'll start seeing him in commercials alongside Rodney Peete.
August 15th, 2019 at 11:06 AM ^
I always thought Peete looks really bloated in those commercials.
August 15th, 2019 at 10:31 AM ^
I lived in South Quad at the same time as Bubba and Ed. And, I recall the first time I walked into South Quad arriving for my freshman year - having flown into Detroit Metro, taken a bus to AA (Michigan Union), dragging my suitcase and foot locker down State Street to the East side entrance of South Quad - as I'm walking in the door, Bubba was walking out. He was a mountain. I was looking down to make sure my luggage was OK, and I turned to see this large person in front of me - and having to tilt my head further and further upward to finally see the face of this mountain.
August 15th, 2019 at 10:39 AM ^
Cool story, bro. I would have felt so good being John Wangler or Steve Smith, knowing those guys were keeping me safe. Bubba and Big Ed just kicked ass and took names.
August 15th, 2019 at 10:51 AM ^
Yep, I'm brimming with "cool stories, bro" from my years in AA: Arthur Ashe, Butch Woolfolk, Anthony Carter, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Paul Girgash, Bruce Springsteen, ...
August 15th, 2019 at 10:56 AM ^
Well, keep 'em coming!
August 15th, 2019 at 2:07 PM ^
Short version of each CS,B ...
Ashe - ate lunch one table over from him at the Michigan Union restaurant (back when there was just one). We exchanged greetings.
Woolfolk - played pickup basketball with him @ CCRB. Spoiler alert: he's very fast.
A.C. - lived a few doors down from him on 47** hall in South Quad. Freshman year (for both of us), he used the phone in our room for making multiple long distance calls home to Florida before my roommates and I moved in (presumably during [his] fall camp). We found out when the first Michigan Bell bill arrived and there were lots of charges for calls to Rivera Beach, FL.
Paul Girgash - also lived a couple of doors down on 47** hall. He was the football player with whom I socialized most. Sweet guy (off the field). Though, there was this one incident with Paul and my roommate where one of them was able to successfully tear a phonebook in half and one was not. Paul was somewhat annoyed.
Abdul-Jabbar - crossed paths with him in the parking lot of Crisler Arena. We did not exchange greetings since he was walking about 10 yards in front of me and we were both heading to the basketball game (M vs. MSU). Learned later that Lakers were in MI for a Pistons game and Magic Johnson took some of the team to AA to see his Spartans play.
Springsteen - my friends (visiting me in Ann Arbor from home for the weekend) got to meet him (and take photos with him) in the parking lot of Crisler Arena. They were there when his tour buses pulled up for the load-out. I, unfortunately, missed all this because I was dutifully spending the afternoon in organic chemistry lab.
August 15th, 2019 at 10:59 AM ^
One of the scariest moments of my life was having Bubba Paris kick open the door of the TV lounge in South Quad and leap full length on the guy sitting immediately in front of me. I didn't know the guy well, but he seemed like a real goofball.
August 15th, 2019 at 11:44 AM ^
What a great player he was!
August 15th, 2019 at 11:50 AM ^
At the time, Muransky and Paris were two of the first really big tackles Michigan had that exceeded 270 pounds. The 1980 game programs listed both at 270, but who knows what they actually weighed. Before them, linemen were mostly in the 250's and 260's. Of course, as time went on, their size became the norm and it went up from there.
August 15th, 2019 at 12:09 PM ^
If I recall correctly, Bo didn't think any player should weigh as much as 300 pounds, so several of our linemen played at "299". Not sure if Bubba and Ed were among that group.
August 15th, 2019 at 12:33 PM ^
Dang!!!
August 15th, 2019 at 12:35 PM ^
Good for him, I wonder if he was hypnotized?
Anyways, I met Bubba at some type of motivational conference for athletes when I was in junior high. He was a great speaker and gracious man, aside from being huge.
August 15th, 2019 at 12:38 PM ^
Not an easy thing to do as you get older (I just turned old yesterday) so congrats to him!
August 15th, 2019 at 1:11 PM ^
Bubba Paris and I went through freshman orientation together, both of us hailing from the Bluegrass State. He was one of the greatest Michigan players ever, and one of the kindest and cheerful Wolverines I was privileged to know. Glad to see he's doing so well.
August 15th, 2019 at 1:25 PM ^
I was in Evanston to see U-M play Northwestern the year Bubba was a freshman, and he started the game. I believe he was the first true freshman to start on the o-line during Schembechler's tenure.
August 15th, 2019 at 10:56 PM ^
The largest man I've ever run into in public. It was the late 70s and I was in line at the book store in the Union. All of a sudden it goes dark the lights are blocked and I'm in a shadow. I turn around and it's Bubba. I look at him the blocked lights and we both start laughing. I will remember that day for a long time. He was a very large man for that time.
August 16th, 2019 at 1:44 AM ^
I always thought his play made a good name for Michigan.