Your favorite Michigan sports anecdote

Submitted by EverybodyMurders on January 2nd, 2019 at 11:10 PM

Now that the football offseason has begun and the REAL season is the focus, Id like to hear your favorite random Michigan sports related anecdote, no matter how inconsequential to the actual game results

For me I recalled last year walking to the Loyola final four game and just happened to be walking with the team family members. Briefly chatted with a man who said that Belein got stuck in the hotel elevator that morning and they had to call the fire department. I have no evidence of this fact but just the idea of coach being in that elevator and then walking out with a giant grin brings a smile to my face. He was probably gameplanning there

 

Yessir

January 3rd, 2019 at 1:31 AM ^

My Chris Weber story when he played here... I was driving in a Sacramento burb on a parkway (3 lanes both ways, whatever that is). I was in the left lane traveling a little over speed limit I'm sure. He cut all the way across from the right hand, slow lane, cut me off, to the left hand turn lane. Had to slam on my breaks, so I'm pretty pissed. Light ahead turned red.  So we both had to stop.  I looked over.  Chris Weber. He had a girl in his black Hummer.   He looked over at me as the light turned green.  I wanted to flip him off, but instead threw up a Time Out sign and took off.  He did see it, cuz he was actually laughing in my side mirror.  

Winchester Wolverine

January 3rd, 2019 at 10:46 AM ^

That's awesome XM, what a moment for the kids! I can't wait until my kids are old enough to take along.

And I just figured it was time for an update. The new pic still features me coaching on the sidelines but with my pops off screen. He's still out there though, barking orders on defense 

 

1blueeye

January 2nd, 2019 at 11:26 PM ^

1997 Ohio state game. I was the first one over the wall to rush the field. As I hit the ground a rather portly security woman had pepper spray in both hands ready to unload. So she has me pinned against the brick wall while all the lemmings are climbing down over top of me.  She starts firing pepper spray 360 degrees and then gives up as the castle was stormed. I fire up a cigar and she gets a second wind and comes running toward me yelling “you can’t smoke that in the stadium! “ just then Marcus Ray and some other players come sprinting past high fiving everyone. As the celebration moved toward midfield, I stayed back enjoying my cigar and saw a UM backup QB with his parents standing quietly near the wall. I asked if I could get a picture. Some guy named Brady. Still have it on my wall. 

old98blue

January 2nd, 2019 at 11:42 PM ^

I had a similar thing with Brady. He was standing at the entrance of the tunnel on media day and I had a actual football helmet given to me by a friend whose son played on team. I was standing at the end of the tunnel and I asked Brady if he would sign it, I still remember to this day him saying I'm just a freshman and probably will never see the field you sure you want my name on it? I still have it on my shelf. And last season sitting around in the evening at our tailgate watching some of the night games and Chase Winovich, his Dad and Mom stopped by our tailgate that was pretty surreal.  I will say what a great guy!

ChuckieWoodson

January 3rd, 2019 at 1:29 PM ^

Another Brady story: My Mom was a public school teacher in Ann Arbor for 40+ years and for a time the football players would come in and visit her class.  Somewhere I have a signed paper with Biakabutuka's autograph on it (probably a violation? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ early 90's... whatever).

From her: "I'll never forget his (Brady's) Life Skill presentation of "Perseverance" years ago when he mentored some kids there and I asked him to help the second graders with our assembly. I thought he'd bring a clip of great passes and plays but he had about 5 minutes of film of him being thrown down, intercepted, hit, fumbles...but he got back up each time and kept trying. What a great lesson for the kids...""

Also that same year, he did a Q&A with the kids in her class  and one of the kids raised his hand and said, "My Dad says you're too slow".  He and the other players laughed.  They came back a few weeks later, told Coach Carr and he thought it was funny too.  Apparently made the rounds in the locker room for a bit that year.

old98blue

January 3rd, 2019 at 12:21 AM ^

I agree portly is awesome I had a conversation with the owner of the Saline Sports Shack several years ago about what do you call a larger girl when we were ordering softball uniforms for my daughter's travel team we decided you can't use the word husky or stocky he ended up saying athletic

Bando Calrissian

January 3rd, 2019 at 12:31 AM ^

I got Brady's autograph through a similar story. At the football bust a few weeks later, everyone was mobbing the stars in the hallway after the ceremony was over, and I noticed a player standing by himself with some people. I went over and asked for his autograph. Someone (maybe he did) said something like "You don't want his autograph, he doesn't play." But I did. And it was Tom Brady.

Chicago Blue Fan

January 2nd, 2019 at 11:37 PM ^

Anthony Carter bringing in the play against Indiana. As they break the huddle, AC (the shy kid who never said a word, according to Wangler) says, "Throw it to me, Johnny.  I'll be open..."

Anthony Carter is the single biggest reason I bleed maize and blue.

Harlan Huckleb…

January 3rd, 2019 at 3:19 AM ^

Watched it from the far end zone, the student section. Carter was unlike any Schembechler recruit before him – a nationally recruited playmaker from Florida. But on that day, the entire stadium was d e f l a t e d  due to a lackluster performance by the Wolverines, with everyone resigned to a wholly unsatisfying 21-21 tie with the freakin' Hoosiers (coached by Burt Reynold's old Florida St. roommate and current College Gameday mascot Lee Corso, now 83!). It was absolute madness when Carter took that Wangler pass to the house from the 20-yard line (no Hail Mary here) with no time left on the clock: 

Stringer Bell

January 2nd, 2019 at 11:38 PM ^

Met Austin Hatch before the PSU game this year.  It's maybe 30 degrees out, all the tailgaters are bundled up, and he's out walking his dog in a white t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops just walking around and chatting with people.  Thought it was funny, super cool dude.

old98blue

January 2nd, 2019 at 11:49 PM ^

Nearly forgot the best one years ago when parking in the golf course me and a friend heading to the stadium ran into BO coming out of one of the fundraising tents they had pitched on the golf course we walked to the stadium with him and he talked to us like he knew us for years. A LEGEND

Qmatic

January 3rd, 2019 at 12:17 AM ^

It was 2015 Memorial Day weekend and I drove back to Ann Arbor where a good friend from undergrad still lived and was also living a strong professional life. Him and I and couple other friends wanted to go back and enjoy a night on South U like old times. We end the night at the Blue Lep in the basement. 

I’ve had far too many and go into the bathroom as it approaches 2. I put my beer bottle on the toilet paper dispenser. The bottle falls over and shatters behind the toilet. I decide to try and pick up part of the bottle. As I do that the guy in the stall next to me is full on missing the toilet and pissing pretty much on my hand. 

I get out of the stall now super pissed ready to confront this drunk asshole. The guy who walks out the stall is Mitch McGary and he goes “my bad dude my aim is a little off today” 

ATC

January 3rd, 2019 at 12:26 AM ^

Favorite for poignant reasons.  Finished mowing Mr Damms yard (Russ Damm ‘32 M starting tackle) for the child labor rate of 2 bucks (I crap you negative) with a push mower.  Sharing a coke on the porch, he states: “this Schembechler kid ain’t interested in Johnny Williams...is bullshit...” Couple years later, Johnny ends up beating Michigan rushing for three Wisconsin  touchdowns.

fast forward several years, got my acceptance letter and thought Mr Damm would kick my ass if I went anywhere else but Michigan.  (He didn’t have to pay the bills)

We live our lives moving forward but understand them in reverse.

 

UMxWolverines

January 3rd, 2019 at 12:29 AM ^

My parents were at the art fair one year and my mom sees Lloyd Carr standing right next to here at a crossing and just goes "Hi, Lloyd". I guess he was nice and chatted for a while, I just couldn't believe she said that when she told me.

Sam1863

January 3rd, 2019 at 4:43 AM ^

I met Lloyd twice. In late 1998, he was the guest speaker for the organization I worked for. A lot of the guests were expecting a review of the '97 championship game, or an inside look at this season, with emphasis on the X's and O's. Instead, Lloyd talked about the qualities of leadership, about the different ways to motivate a hundred different individuals, and get them pulling together. It was a great speech - very little football, but a whole lot of inspiration.

Then 6-7 years ago, he and some of his family were at Greenfield Village, where I volunteer. They stopped by to watch the vintage base ball (two words back then) game. After posing for a few pictures with fans, Lloyd talked with a couple of us players about the game: why were weren't wearing gloves, the differences in the rules, did players really wear ties back then, and so forth. He was very nice, very approachable, and seemed genuinely interested in the game.

Toasted Yosties

January 3rd, 2019 at 12:30 AM ^

If you’re familiar with the Speech 100 meme, my dad has it. My cousin, who is a huge basketball fan, was in town during the Steve Fisher era. While on a self-guided tour of the Michigan athletic facilities (something we do every time I’m home visiting), my dad drove us to wherever Steve Fisher’s office was to, you know, just drop in and say hi.

When my dad asked his receptionist whether Coach Fisher was in, she indicated he wasn’t, yet she somehow decided it was okay for us to go and step into his office. This itself is weird (don’t worry, we didn’t snoop through his desk), but for whatever reason one of the old-design Rose Bowl trophies was there on a pedestal. We didn’t dare pick it up, but it was thrilling for us, three Michigan knuckleheads, to be there in the office of a National Championship-winning coach with the physical embodiment of one of Michigan football’s triumphant seasons.

redwhiteandMGOBLUE

January 3rd, 2019 at 1:33 AM ^

My high school basketball team went to Bill Frieder's team camp the summer of 1987.

Mike Griffin refereed several of our games and was very friendly to all of us kids .  After playing a game at Crisler (one of probably 30 games we played around campus that week) Griffin and one of the student managers said they needed help moving some boxes and tables and they asked for a few volunteers.  The bleachers were full of a bunch of high school punks who thought they were too cool to help out so me and one of my teammates said we'd help.  As expected, the tough guys gave us shit about helping and just kicked back on the bleachers laughing at us while awaiting their next game.

So we follow Griffin and the manager into the concrete bowels of Crisler (you wouldn't believe how many storage closets and rooms lined the interior concourse) After unlocking several doors we end up just pushing around a bunch of those big canvas laundry type carts full of what we thought was miscellaneous boxes.  We moved carts around for 10 minutes tops and were happy to have gotten an inside look into the behind the scenes rooms that made up Crisler at the time.

Once we finished moving the carts around the student manager thanked us and informed us that as standard practice the team was getting new uniforms, warm-ups, shoes, practice gear and the like for the 87-88 season and that equipment was what we had been moving around in those boxes and carts.  As a thank you, the manager unlocked a big, blue trunk and said "you each can pick out one item". It was a storage trunk full of away game uniforms/warm-ups from the 86-87 season. My buddy grabbed a jersey (I cant remember the #) and I took a pair of shorts with the #55 written in marker on the waist band. #55 belonged to Mark Hughes.  When we got back to the bleachers with our bounty everyone played it off like they didn't care that we got hooked up but we knew they were pissed that they didn't volunteer to help out.

Griffin hung out with my team, playing HORSE and just shooting around inside Crisler after our games ended that day.  We shot around for maybe 30 minutes and Mike had to go which meant we had to go so we followed him out of the arena to his beat-down, green Volkswagen station wagon, complete with hippie stickers plastered all over the back and said our goodbyes. We had to walk back to the quads (I think we were staying in East Quad?) where Luke Skywalker and 2 Live Crew was blaring on a non-stop loop that entire week.  It was a great day and I was always thankful that my mother had taught me to not worry about peer pressure especially  when helping someone in need.

redwhiteandMGOBLUE

January 3rd, 2019 at 2:30 AM ^

Fall of 87 I sat next to Matt and the rest of Jumbo Elliott's family during The Game.  As you might've guessed, the Elliott family is comprised of large individuals but they were very, very friendly.  Terry Mills walked down the isle and sat right behind me, wearing his Romulus varsity jacket and it was like a rock star was in the building.  Everyone knew who he was and they all were telling him to come to Michigan.  That was Earle Bruce's last game against us and the first UM/osu game that I attended.  We lost and I was completely bummed but sitting with the Elliott's and Terry Mills almost made up for it.

tybert

January 3rd, 2019 at 1:36 AM ^

Anecdotes.

1. Rum and Coke Zero after midnight

2. Watching my favorite UM wins YouTube favorites (1980s and 1990s wins vs. OSU and Bowls, just about any JB hoops game in March)

3. Combined 1. and 2. above is best

4. You Tube replays of key plays for UM games I was at: 1979 Wangler to Carter (was a HS JR), 1991 Desmond PR TD and Heisman pose in my EZ, 1997 Woodson PR TD right down the sideline watching the game with my sister, Denard 2011 vs. OSU, etc.

tybert

January 3rd, 2019 at 1:43 AM ^

When I was a senior, loved going to a place now closed - Thano's Lamplighter pizza on Liberty. AWESOME deep dish Sicilian Pizza. 

Remember Frieder liked going there along with some of his team. Still remember fall 1985 seeing Mark Hughes, Loy Vaught (both were redshirting I think) along with Glen Rice pass by our table. Told my college roommate - if we have three players like that - big and strong - and don't win a National Title, something is wrong. Thankfully, 3.5 years later, Fisher as interim coach guides us to the NT and those three guys were a big part of it. Just HUGE physically imposing players. 

JohnGalt

January 3rd, 2019 at 3:07 AM ^

I went to a Michigan basketball game a few years ago and ran into Dick Vitale.  We got to the game early, walked around, and stood by the court when Vitale walked out of the tunnel and stopped a few feet from the baseline.   I didn’t say one word to the guy because all he did was stand there and pick his nose.  And it was the finger deep in the nose digging pick too.  It bothered the hell out of me.