Who is the Best Athlete you've ever played against?
I don't remember how many yards he had against us his Sophmore
year when we beat them 8-6 on the road,
but his Junior Year he had only 67 yards on 11 carries.
It was 1989 and Saline just beat Dearborn Heights Robichaud for the
2nd year in a row for our first game of the season.
I remember watching the scout film on him with his incredibly long stride
and ridiculous speed. How the hell we beat them 24-0 at home
will always be a prideful memory.
He was none other than my future favorite
Michigan Running Back - Tyrone Wheatley.
Who? The Mexican Indoor Mile record holder.
OK, it wasn't me, it was my son, a college middle distance runner. He was home on winter break his freshman year and wanted to test his speed before Indoor season started so he entered an open race at the New Balance Armory. My son is a D3 runner who's PR is like 4:25. This guy who no one had ever heard of took off like he was shot out of a cannon. There was a small crowd there - mostly recreational runners and they laughed at this fool who was going to burn out before he'd done 200 meters. He didn't. As the race went on we started to realize something special was happening. The guy lapped most of the the field (in an 8 lap race) and ended up running 3:56:86. I've seen other sub 4:00 miles before but not in a race like this.
He was the QB for Northern Mi & I was on the D line for Saginaw Valley. This was around 1977 or 78? We were rotating in and out to chase his ass around and we were gassed. He was throwing the ball all over on us and killing us.
Finally, we nailed him and put him out of the game. The team erupted knowing we would put NMU away without him. Dang, a lefty came off the bench and the air assault continued. We folded up and the game slipped away. It wasa long ride bus ride to SV.
The guy could throw the ball, scramble, feel the pressure coming, and get rid of the ball. He was the best QB I ever played against. If he were taller and at a bigger school - Hummm.
Played a game of pickup hockey with Bobby Hayes when he was student teaching at Northside and I was working as a rink guard when they froze part of their soccer field in the winter.
Not athletics, but I also "murdered" Eric Nystrom in a high school film class project ... really bad mafia script, I was the corrupt cop.
Both of them were nice guys.
I didn't play against him, but I practiced Football/Basketball every damn day against Glen Steele from 4th grade to our Sr year of HS. I'm 6'5" too so we pretty much got matched up all the time.