Tyran Steward, Willis Ward and Rashan Gary

Submitted by BursleyHall82 on

Here’s the backstory on U-M history professor Tyran Steward, who was one of the presenters at SOTS (he took the stage with Brad Keselowski). In case you were thinking he’s just a random professor they picked to lend a little academic prestige to the occasion, you would be wrong.

He has a strong connection to Michigan football, and considering he helped us land Rashan Gary, we owe the professor some thanks.

It’s quite obvious he was selected for SOTS because he’s Rashan’s favorite professor. I’m not sure if they asked him as a thank-you for helping to land Gary, or if it was designed to help push Gary over the maize-and-blue edge. But he wasn’t on the Hill Auditorium stage by accident.

When Gary came for his official visit, they arranged for Rashan and his mom to have breakfast with Professor Steward. You’ll remember that Rashan’s mom gushed about it to Scout:

“I met Tyran Steward. He’s a history professor,” Coney said. “He was just telling me about his classes. I can talk to this guy for hours. The day we left, Sunday morning, we went and had breakfast together and we just talked about everything. Not so much about Rashan, but just about life. Going through questions that I had, picking his brain… I was really impressed by him. I said if Rashan goes to Michigan, Rashan will be definitely taking one of his writing courses.”

Tyran Steward is also the one who’s largely responsible for bringing the story of Willis Ward to life. If you’ve seen the excellent documentary “Black and Blue,” you know the Willis Ward story. He’s the extraordinary Michigan man who was benched for the Georgia Tech game in 1934 because of the color of his skin. Oh, and he was Gerald Ford’s best friend.

Steward wrote his master’s thesis (at EMU) on Willis Ward, and he was interviewed extensively in “Black and Blue.” Here he is in the trailer for the documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAxx5UzKqPA

If you haven’t yet seen “Black and Blue,” then get a copy and see it. You’ll not only learn an extraordinary story - you’ll also get to meet Tyran Steward.

So, if you’re wondering who that anonymous professor at Signing of the Stars was, that’s who he was. And I think we all need to offer some thanks to Professor Tyran Steward today. Thanks for bringing the story of Willis Ward to life. And thanks for being the kind of excellent professor that brought Rashan Gary to Ann Arbor.

Oh, and the kicker? Tyran Steward got his doctorate at Ohio State.

Thanks, Professor Steward.

 

MGoBoard
Football

readyourguard

February 4th, 2016 at 7:47 AM ^

Thanks.  I ws wondering who that was.

OT: Am I the only one who thought about the short appearances by some of the guests? For a guy like Professor Steward, a 60 second appearance isn't an invconvenience at all.  He has a short walk from his office to Hill Auditorium.  But Jim Leland and Migos were on stage for one quick introduction and dab, then were gone, not to be seen again.  I wonder how those guys felt about trekking to Ann Arbor for such a brief appearance.

Joined: 08/21/2008

MGoPoints: 40986

LDNfan

February 4th, 2016 at 7:50 AM ^

Thanks for the back story...

Its amazing how well the program (SOTS) was concieved and executed. It almost seemed too polished lol.

I keep hearing that other schools will try to copy this...the one major problem with that is Harbaugh has set the bar so high that others may be too intimidated as to draw neg comparisons. Hell, I'm not even sure how UM will top it in the years to come..but I'm sure they'll figure that out too.

Joined: 09/28/2014

MGoPoints: 10397

scanner blue

February 4th, 2016 at 7:55 AM ^

When I saw Prof. Steward on stage yesterday I thought I recognized him from somewhere but I couldn't remember from where. They had a showing at the Alumni center when they were first releasing the documentary and Tyran was there for comments and questions, he was engaging there also.

Joined: 07/14/2014

MGoPoints: 10253

Everyone Murders

February 4th, 2016 at 8:09 AM ^

I've been out of school for a while now, but it was interesting that Gary's mother said that her son would definitely be taking one of Prof. Steward's writing classes.  Are they making professors outside of the English Dept. teach writing?

(I understand that the lot of an associate professor was never all that great w/r/t what you could choose to teach, but this seems like a direction most of my academic friends would not like.)

In any event, nice to have the background.  My hope is that Gary and the rest of the players develop close bonds with many of their professors in many disciplines.  Some of the greatest influences on my life were undergraduate professors, and I hope this is true for these new UofM students too.

Joined: 12/14/2010

MGoPoints: 65552

RGard

February 4th, 2016 at 9:41 AM ^

When I was there we had a Junior year writing requirement.  I think it's the same thing as the Advanced Writing requirement and may have been called that when I was there.  I just can't remember.

For that class what I do remember is it was a History class.  You received a grade averaged between your content and your writing.  The History professor graded the content and we had and English Dept. TA grade the writing.

Joined: 10/20/2014

MGoPoints: 56995

Blue_sophie

February 4th, 2016 at 10:57 AM ^

from various departments are often asked to teach classes to incoming freshmen. The nominal content of the course is in the teacher's research area, but the intent is to teach the students college-level reading and writing. It is a helpful way for early-career academics to flesh out a syllabus and develop classroom skills. I'm not sure, but this might be what Gary's mom was referring to.

Joined: 02/22/2015

MGoPoints: 2766

kevin holt

February 4th, 2016 at 8:21 AM ^

To be clear to people who don't know, he was benched because Georgia Tech refused to play otherwise. Gerald Ford was pissed but it was more GT's fault, while the way it's written sounds a bit like we decided to bench him for his race alone (though we should have told them to eff off or forfeit if they wanted to).

Joined: 03/16/2010

MGoPoints: 17447

Jpnets54

February 4th, 2016 at 8:22 AM ^

I was in Professor Steward's class last semester called "Sport and the 20th Century Color Line" and it was a fantastic course.  He is one of the most knowledgable professors I've had at U of M.  I didn't know about the Willis Ward story before taking his class.  I knew he was a huge Michigan football fan (because he would talk about it for the first few minutes of class from time to time), but I'm impressed and grateful to hear that he contributed to Rashan Gary coming to Michigan.

Joined: 03/23/2015

MGoPoints: 977

901 P

February 4th, 2016 at 8:24 AM ^

Great find--thanks for sharing! A little side note that may not be of interest to anyone but me: one of Steward's PhD advisors at Ohio State got *his* PhD at Michigan before moving to OSU. His advisor was the great Sidney Fine (whose name popped up in an earlier thread today). Interesting academic "genealogy." 

Joined: 01/12/2015

MGoPoints: 9973

MGoBlue22

February 4th, 2016 at 9:30 AM ^

Great story, thanks for sharing.  It never ceases to amaze me to see and hear how truly special some (most?) of our faculty are here at Michigan.  I firmly believe that more and more athletes will place an emphasis on the student part of "student athlete" when choosing a college, so the fact that we have such special professors on staff should only help the cause...and, of course, HARBAUGH.

Joined: 02/09/2009

MGoPoints: 301

djlaczyn

February 4th, 2016 at 10:10 AM ^

It's a shame when you learn about these great profs AFTER you leave UM. If I could do it again, I would take one of his classes as well as one with John U Bacon. Motion to make a "MGoBlog list of recommended professors to have before you graduate"???

Joined: 12/17/2014

MGoPoints: 25

alum96

February 4th, 2016 at 10:47 AM ^

Thanks, I was unaware of all this so appreciate bringing it to our attention.  And yes I was wondering why they picked that specific prof to SOS.  It sounds a lot like the guy who impressed Hand's family last year in engineering.  Very impactful to have guys like this in faculty who can pitch in and impress moms and sons.

Joined: 04/28/2012

MGoPoints: 82377