OT: Did you know any athletes while at UM?

Submitted by WindyCityBlue on

...And do you have any funny stories about them?

I wasn't close, but I did know Tom Brady.  I was at Rick's with some of my Daily friends (I was good friends with the head football writer et al.) and Tom Brady came up to us (yes, me and one other person) and said something to the tune, "I don't what it is with the woman at this place, I can't talk to any of them!" 

Now look at him!

I also knew Dhani Jones.  He was in my dorm and we were bio lab partners.  Nothing too funny about him other than that we liked to wear nail polish.  

HermosaBlue

April 29th, 2010 at 3:57 PM ^

Only notable is Kelly Dransfeldt, who played (EDIT: sporadically over the course of) 5 years in MLB.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Dransfeldt

My housemate was Bill Freehan's nephew and a student manager of the baseball team, so I met many of the baseball players.

Dransfeldt enjoyed his time in Ann Arbor immensely, and some portion of that was spent on my sofa with a 3 footer.

Bosch

April 29th, 2010 at 4:55 PM ^

but they were mid to late 90's so unlikely that we knew the same guys.

One of them that I knew was Mike Cervenak.  We weren't close or anything.... only knew him through a couple of the other players.  Played some IM flag football together.  I bring it up because there is a good story.

Mike graduated in the late 90's and had been a journeyman minor leaguer through 2008.  Then a month before he turned 32, he was called up to the majors.  He didn't spend a whole lot of time in the show, but he did get 2 hits on 8 plate appearances.

Is this Disney worthy?

Steve Lorenz

April 29th, 2010 at 3:21 PM ^

Know personally? No, but I went to an Alpha Phi date party one year and Jake Long was there with his girlfriend.....friendliest guy you'll ever meet and he was cracking jokes the whole night. Great guy. 

WolvinLA2

April 30th, 2010 at 1:30 PM ^

I was OK friends with Jake in college.  This is going to sound more obscure than it really is, but Adam Kraus (who was very good friends with Jake) was dating the sister of one of my good friends (and fraternity brother) so Adam and Jake would hang out at our house quite a bit.  We had those stackable plastic chairs on our porch, and one night Jake laughed really hard and the chair he was sitting on just snapped.  We all laughed really hard.

Search4Meaning

April 29th, 2010 at 8:19 PM ^

Many funny situations, but since they are now...  A) happily married, and B) friends - these exploits will remain private.

I can assure you that the things you have seen and heard pale in comparison to what these guys did (some of it legal - none of it drug related).  Now drinking... that's a different story.

Ann Arbor cops once pulled us over and determined that none of us should be driving.  One cop drove us back to the apartment (off campus), followed by the other cop in the squad car.  They kept the keys, which we had to pick up at the station the next day, but no report was filed.

I thought that redefined "To Protect and Serve", and as bad a rap as A2 police often (deservedly) get - I have never forgotten that.

jtmc33

April 29th, 2010 at 3:38 PM ^

I was in a study group with Tyrone Wheatley.  He would drive to our place in his '84 Ford Escort.  He was actually pretty quiet and chill

I found it very interesting how Ty drove an old beat up Escort... while his Basketball equivelent J. Howard drove around campus in a brand new '95 Jeep Cherokee with gold colored rims and a booming system.

A few years later I found out why.

jtmc33

April 29th, 2010 at 4:09 PM ^

Not a comment about Ed Martin (specifically), but a comment about Frieder/Fisher/UM B-ball being outright shady during the enture 90's (if not earlier).  It wasn't until my senior year (1997) and later that the wheels started to fall off.

Ignorance was bliss from '93-'97.

So, no, I know nothing you don't know.

MMGoBlueATL

April 29th, 2010 at 3:57 PM ^

The Fab 5 all had "beaters".  I believe Jalen was pushing a Reliant K at the time.  It wasn't until I saw Tractor Traylor driving a Suburban in front of Scorekeepers that things went the Ed Martin way.

I still remember a Sportscenter leadin to a Michigan Basketball game when the allegations first came out: "You can watch the game on your TV, or the TV in the back of Tractor Traylor's car"...

jmblue

April 29th, 2010 at 4:34 PM ^

Actually, we never found out why Howard drove a Cherokee, because he was never implicated in the Martin scandal.  Was there another street agent out there?  We'll never know.  (I'm pretty sure there were a few football players with nice rides around this time, too.)

MMGoBlueATL

April 29th, 2010 at 3:51 PM ^

Willie Mitchell once jumped in the back of my car and asked me to give "my cousin Willie" a ride to class...

Makhtar Ndjae (readily admit the spelling is not even close) once kept a South Quad front door open for me at 2am when I was stumbling back to my dorm room...

bamill010

April 29th, 2010 at 3:59 PM ^

I know a couple players on each the women's and men's varsity tennis teams. Pat Omameh and Matt Cavanaugh (a walk on) were in my calc group last year. Pat would always bring us fresh fruit to snack on, which was awesome. He's really smart and an incredibly humble kid so I'm rooting for him this year. I know the two pairs of skaters that were in the olympics. I'm friends with Evan Bates from middleschool and highschool so I've met his partner and his roommate is Charlie White. A friend of mine from highschool is a diver and she dated Tyler Clary who has won a few NCAA championships in swimming. That's about it.

M-Wolverine

April 29th, 2010 at 4:38 PM ^

But some interesting encounters, knowings:

Tom Brady lived downstairs from me with some other players...including Aaron Shea, who sideswiped my car in the parking lot (felt really bad about it, and was cool...but the mirror was never the same).  Tai Streets picked them up once in his truck, and blocked the driveway for over 10 minutes...when I honked because I wanted to pull in, he pulled out and dropped enough curse words and slurs that he should have been embarrassed.  I was for him. He may be the only player I'm not really a fan of.

Matt Elliott was in my friend's Frat, so I partied with him.  Bernie Legett (is there an E on the back of that?  I thought there was, but Google disagrees) used to hang out too.

Derek Jeter spent his one semester as a roommate to my friend in the dorm I had lived in.

I have a friend who's an ex-baseball player, Brian.  No, not that one.  Or the Other one.  Lives in Cincy now, and is my source for Michigan Athletes down there.

I'm sure I've had other run-ins, but those are probably the least boring.

 

VictorsValiant09

April 29th, 2010 at 4:19 PM ^

I met and interacted with a spate of them during my four years. 

Most notably, I had classes with Elliot Mealer, Tim Miller, and Travis Turnbull.  I'm sure I'll think of a few more later.

Bando Calrissian

April 29th, 2010 at 4:22 PM ^

Not really.

In the fall of 2006, however, I was sitting in class bored out of my mind reading MGoBlog on the laptop.  I'm in the back row of an auditorium in Angell, and who comes into class late and sits down next to me but Mike Hart.  Right at the moment I scrolled to an entry with a picture of him very prominently displayed.  He looked at my screen and kind of chuckled a bit.  I, of course, navigated back to Microsoft Word.

So, yeah, that was that.

Hard Gay

April 29th, 2010 at 4:22 PM ^

I got beat up by Carson Butler in West Quad once.

Kidding.  The only athletes I know personally are non-revenue sports players.  I met Patrick Omameh when he and Kevin Koger came to my hall to hit on my Volleyball player hall mate.

Also one time I was walking through the Crisler tunnel after the women's team lost to Miami(YTM) in the Final four of the WNIT, I gave Krista Phillips a hug.  Totally made my month.

kdhoffma

April 29th, 2010 at 4:32 PM ^

went to HS with a certain Hebrew kicker.  Guy was a tool.  One night, he had come over and there was a bunch of people in our room enjoying some beverages... someone left the door wide open and the RA walks in and freaks out (she was crazy)... the kicker interrupts her with "hey, how about on your way out you shut the door".  Needless to say she calls DPS... I ended up getting written up and had to make/hangup posters stating the dorm alcohol policy.

 

johnvand

April 29th, 2010 at 4:46 PM ^

Mike Cammalleri and Mark Mink (hockey, duh) lived across the hall from me in the dorms in 1999-2000.  They were pretty damn funny.

They used to order a ton of pizza with their "I'm an athlete and get a couple meal credits a week" cards, bring it in to our room, share it, and call random girls from the freshman directory and ask them the most f'ed up stuff.

In hind sight, I'm shocked we never got in trouble because they were using my room phone, which I'm sure would have been traceable back to me.

They were a riot.

flyboy

April 29th, 2010 at 4:57 PM ^

I had the honor of sharing a 7 person house with 4 lacrosse players from 07-09 and they won the national championship both years!    In fact, one of them was the best defensive player in the MCLA in the 08-09 season, Mr. Zach Elyachar.

BlueVoix

April 29th, 2010 at 5:00 PM ^

Living in West Quad, especially in the football area, means you inevitably knew quite a few football players.

The one I wish I didn't know is, yes, Mr. Plow.  A lot of the trash that gets talked on here doesn't even begin to describe how much of a whiny brat he was.  And he really, really didn't fit in at U of M.

burtcomma

April 29th, 2010 at 8:18 PM ^

As any number of football players can tell you that lived in South Quad, from Bubba Paris to Ed Muransky to Anthony Carter to Paul Girgash to Karl Tech to Kurt Becker to Rich Hewlett to Lawerence Reid can tell you, WEST QUAD STILL SUCKS!