Lew Alcindor - best ever "almost" UMer?

Submitted by robpollard on

Since Big 10/Big 12/Demar Dorsey/USC-probation/etc-palozza seems to have calmed down, I spent some time flipping through a 2-week old issue of SI (the one with John Wooden on the cover).  The article in there was pretty short, so I went online to look for more stuff, particularly about the Ed Martin of UCLA, Sam Gilbert, and I found this incredibly detailed article:

http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1153



Definitely read that if you want to know about Gilbert, and what Wooden did or did not know, but my topic here was about one part that stopped me in my tracks.



"After the 1967 season (Lew) Alcindor was making noises about a possible transfer to Michigan, while Lucius Allen was mulling a transfer to Kansas."



UM was quite the Big 10 power in those days (Cazzie Russell, etc), winning three straight Big 10 titles from '64-'66, but still - if Lew Alcindor (as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was known in those days) had transferred to Michigan, WOW!  He was literally the best player in modern college b-ball history and he almost went to Michigan.  I had no idea we were close to getting him.

I tracked down an SI Vault story (a HUGE two parter written by Kareem; pretty interesting, it's almost like a long blog post) and in it, he expanded upon the reasons (essentially, he didn't like how blacks were treated in LA):



"Well, one night Lucius and I said the hell with it, we were through with UCLA; we were going to leave at the end of the year. I was going to go to Michigan, and Lucius was going to go to Kansas, in his home state. The governor had written Lucius a letter that led him to believe that he would live in a gilded cage on the KU campus. As for Michigan, I remembered how nice it had looked when I'd visited there in my senior year of prep school, with all those trees at Ann Arbor and a representative enrollment of black and white kids. I figured I would be able to relax and enjoy myself socially for the first time in my college career. So it was decided. Lucius and I would spend our junior years elsewhere."

(Source: http://tinyurl.com/28wyeha ;  who knews trees were such a recruiting coup?)

He obviously didn't end up coming here, as he decided to stick it out and "pretend UCLA was a job."

Maybe other folks knew this, but in my recollections and searches on this board, I don't recall it ever coming up.  I realize it was a long time ago, but his coming here for '68 and '69 would have surely shifted the direction of the program (and likely given us more than one national championship in our history, would really have built the prestige of the program).

Can anyone think of a bigger and better athlete who almost came to Michigan (in any sport)?  I can't think of anyone, but since I never knew about Kareem, I may be completely missing someone (and no Demar Dorsey doesn't count!)

Bosch

June 18th, 2010 at 9:00 PM ^

did attend U of M... he just didn't play baseball.  He was enrolled as a freshmen when I also was a freshmen.  He was actually friends with a kid in my hall.  Funny thinking back at how I really had no idea who he was.  What was his story anyway? 

M-Wolverine

June 18th, 2010 at 11:33 PM ^

...live on Jeter's Hall, or was a kid in your Hall just friends with Jeter?  Because I knew Jeter's roommate. He lived in the same floor/hall as us, and then Jeter moved in the next year.

Bosch

June 19th, 2010 at 9:25 PM ^

I was in Markley, 5th Van Tyne. 

I'm guessing he was either in South or West Quad.

On a related note, I did run into Jeter (sort of) in Ann Arbor after he was well into his MLB career.  I graduated in 1997 but lived in Ann Arbor through 1999.  My roomates were ex U of M baseball players.  The evening after the 1999 OSU game, we ended up at Rick's.  Jeter was there, as was Chuck Knoblauch.  Rich Eisen was there.  Some of the U of M basketball players were also there, including then freshman Peter Vignier. 

Some of the guys that I was with knew him from back in the day.  Jeter was trying to get Rick's to let them have a private party after hours, which I would have been invited, but Rick's didn't allow it.  Bastards!

I didn't end up actually talking to Jeter that night.  People were all over him and I felt kind of funny making such a big deal over someone who was an ex school mate.  Besides, he was a little more interested in his female fans.

I did talk to Eisen briefly........ I remember putting my arm around him in a drunken stuper and mumbling something like, " I wonder how these basketball players got in here."  I'm sure he was impressed.

M-Wolverine

June 20th, 2010 at 1:16 AM ^

Jeter lived in Couzens Hall. If you call barely a semester living there. I want to say 5th floor (God damn...I can't remember what floor I lived on...).

And small world...I was at Rick's that night too. I never really liked it that much, but friends were in town, so between that and all the celeb, it stood out. Don't remember Rich, but I believe you. None of us got the courage to see if Jeter would remember us. (And to think back, how much was he slumming with the tail he was getting considering the incomparable list he's had since). But then, at that time, Tom Brady was living in the apartment below me, so i've never been awestruck around athletes.

Heh...I remember being in school, and my best friend had a friend from his hometown visiting, who went to another school, and as we were walking down South U. Webber and Rose passed by going the other way. The out of towner was freaking out, but we were like "what's the big deal...? They're only freshmen...". ;-)

Bosch

June 20th, 2010 at 9:44 AM ^

But he didn't have an entourage with him so he was pretty low key. 

I came across Juwan Howard on a few occasions.  The first was waiting in line to CRISP in the basement of Angell Hall.  Remember having to go through that?  I had been in line for 45 minutes or so and he walked by all of us to the front of the line. 

I will admit that I was in awe once when running across an athlete.  I did see Derrick Alexander walking into an apartment complex when I was a freshman.  I ended up looking out for him every time I walked past that building that year.

robpollard

June 18th, 2010 at 6:40 PM ^

Good one - I didn't remember us being quite so high up.  It looks like we were definitely on his list, but it would have been a Terrelle Pryor situation (not that he's as good as Kobe/Kareem - just a mega-profile recruit) where we would have come in 2nd or 3rd (along with N Carolina) to another school - in this case Duke.



http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0501/06/lkl.01.html

KING: Do you think there's anything you missed in making the jump? You would have gone to Duke, right?



BRYANT: Yes. Yes. I'd have been a Blue Devil.

(found through Wikipedia link - thanks Wikipedia!)

Jarred

June 18th, 2010 at 7:07 PM ^

He obviously didn't end up coming here, as he decided to stick it out and "pretend UCLA was a job."

 

Uh-huh, and Sam Gilbert paid him well for his services I'm sure.

skunk bear

June 18th, 2010 at 8:29 PM ^

Reggie Bush...     (yikes!).

Brian Cushing

Jerome Bettis

Eric Montross

Earvin Johnson

Matt Leinart

Joe Paterno.. (as head football coach).

skunk bear

June 18th, 2010 at 9:48 PM ^

Tebow.

I was trying to think, and of course that meant I couldn't.

As I recall, it was down to Michigan and Florida. I remember thinking at the time that if Meyer were Michigan's coach, Tebow would have chosen the UofM.

Meyer could also be put on this list as a coach. It seems Urban asked Lloyd for a job as an assistant and was turned down.

MGoShoe

June 18th, 2010 at 8:02 PM ^

...what was going on with Alcindor's emerging political consciousness and the leading role U-M and A2 had in the student activist movement, this doesn't surprise me one bit. 

robpollard

June 18th, 2010 at 10:40 PM ^

I knew about Owens' unbelievable, world-record day at Ferry Field in '35 (thx to the beautiful plaque there, http://mvictors.com/?p=7139), but I didn't know he was ready to come to U of M.  Too bad for us.

If you go to Jesse Owens' official site (weirdly, his musuem seems to not be part of this), there's no mention of this "bidding" war w various job offers for his dad for Jesse's services. It just says, "Owens chose the Ohio State University, even though OSU could not offer a track scholarship at the time. He worked a number of jobs to support himself and his young wife, Ruth."  http://www.jesseowens.com/about/

It's good to get confirmation, once again, that college recruiting has been dirty, in all sports, for basically 100 years.

M Fanfare

June 18th, 2010 at 10:41 PM ^

I heard somewhere that Alcindor was going to go to Michigan out of high school but UCLA/Sam Gilbert offered him more money than Michigan and their boosters were offering him. Just goes to show that college basketball recruiting has been dirty dirty dirty for a long time.

geno

June 20th, 2010 at 2:38 AM ^

Many moons ago I read that Wilt Chamberlain said that he almost came to Michigan. Then there was Lew Alcindor. Rudy T . Campy, Rickey and Phil, Rice and Rumeal, deleted era. Johnny Orr and Dave Strack were very good coaches. We could have several more titles. Bill Frieder should have had some, not even including the one we have. Second round exits every year. After M destroyed IU in final game with Tarpley, Brett Mus said cancel the tournament.