I Ran In To Tate Today

Submitted by corncobb on

I have been working at the stadium since February and have not met a single notable Michigan figure since I have been there. The one day Lloyd Carr came through and shook hands with my crew I was at a different job filling in for a day. Figures.

Today, however, I was out with the guys for breakfast and in walks Tate. I thought briefly about trying to get a 'see, I got proof' pic with him and then realized I didn't want to be the guy that bugs the 19 year old phenom in the middle of a southern omelet. We got up to pay and I turned around and he was right there. I shook his hand and wished him good luck against Penn State, and that was that.

It was cool to meet someone in person that we all talk so much about on the boards. It was one of those rare, unexpected things that you won't forget. Has anyone else had any of these experiences, and should I have gone for the photo op? For the record, he actually might be a legit 6'1"!

STW P. Brabbs

October 23rd, 2009 at 9:21 AM ^

After a game in 2000 my freshman year, I went to dinner with my parents at Gratzi and still had my 7 jersey on (classy, I know ... at least it was before I had it customized to become the Old No. 7 jersey).

While we're sitting there, Henson and his whole family are seated right behind me. I felt like a big tool wearing his jersey, since it was at that moment it really hit me that he was just a damn college kid too.

I think this is why throwbacks are ideal. If you ever run into the person whose jersey you are wearing, at least he'll be considerably older than you, and will likely have attained 'legend' status, and you won't feel so weird.

MGoAndy

October 23rd, 2009 at 2:15 AM ^

I have a class with Vogrich, McLimans, and Akunne now. Vogrich takes crazy notes, McLimans is always looking back at Vogrich and smiling, and Akunne is always squinting and shooting Vogrich death stares. It's entertaining.

One time last year Tay Odoms was playing HORSE with a kid on the basketball court outside of SQuad. I had a football with me and threw him a pass. He caught it and threw a beautiful spiral back. At the same time Brandin Hawthorne was playing basketball with some non-football players, and he was absolutely ABUSING them. He was like, laying these poor scrappy white kids (MAYBE IT WAS KOVACS!) out on the court. It was hilarious to watch.

Also, at the SQuad / W Quad snowball fight last year, Kenny Demens laid some girl out, who got up claiming to be bleeding. It was ridiculous. I chatted up Barkevious Mingo, Travante Stallworth, and Marcus Hall. I obviously struck out.

NYWolverine

October 23rd, 2009 at 3:00 AM ^

Odd story as it was.

My first week of school (I think) the School of Public Policy was christened in the M-tastic splendor of Gerald Ford. Rather splendid indeed, it was a true event, obviously, with a former POTUS on campus.

Enter me, an 18 year old pissant on my way back from Central Campus to Couzens Hall. My route took me through the Diag, past Rackham via the League, and I believe through Mendelsohn. Not so important. The interesting part was fighting through the dense crowd gathered by the fountain in front of the Bell Tower.

DENSE. Now, I'm a NYer, and I fight through crowds on the daily. I'm used to fighting through crowds on the daily. Maybe I was a little too headstrong. Because, I end up pushing my way through, with 'pedestrian rage' fueling my surge (NYers know what I'm talking about), straight into Kissinger's back. I reach out, "pardon me..." (I didn't realize I had just shoved Henry Kissinger).

Retorting in a deep, Schwarzeneggerian voice (he really kind of sounds like Arnold), Kiss replies 'on your way, young man...'

I immediately recognize the situation (the future Pol.Sci. major that I was), and exclaim something along the lines of, "Holy Christ! My first week on campus, and I'm conferring with a former Secretary of State! Suck it Harvard!"

Probably not exactly what I said, but Kiss recognized my froshness, thought I was witty, and next thing I know, I'm being photographed with Hank and Gerry...I think for the Daily, but it may have been an AA paper or the FREEP. I never saw the picture.

Shook a former POTUS' hand in my first week at school. THat's why I mean it whenever I say 'It's great to be a Michigan Wolverine.'

True Story.

maizenbluenc

October 23rd, 2009 at 7:14 AM ^

Jim Harbaugh was in both of the two history classes I took as electives. The were one or two other players as well (receivers I think, but the names aren't coming to me). They sat in a group in the back (where I usually sit as well), and didn't interract much with the other students beyond the usual good luck / go get them type stuff.

(When Jim was talking to the press about how Michigan has a history of steering players to general studies, he mentioned he had wanted to be a history major.)

Corncobb: as long as you didn't hit Tate in the shoulder or on the head, and didn't squeee his hand, I think you did fine.

Trebor

October 23rd, 2009 at 7:40 AM ^

I played hockey for two years when I was like 11-12 with Matt Hunwick. He was one of those kids that you knew even then was going to have a shot at the NHL.

I had a freshman philosophy class with Lamarr Woodley. He was goofy as hell but nice and not completely retarded.

uniqenam

October 23rd, 2009 at 8:12 AM ^

My buddy played pick-up ball with JT Floyd at CCRB, and that kid was sloooooooooow. Seriously, I couldn't believe it, he had no game-burning speed in a full-court game.

jmblue

October 23rd, 2009 at 8:16 AM ^

I had a seminar with Dhani Jones. Awesome guy. He participated quite a bit in class. The funny thing was that in the Residential College (which I was enrolled in at the time), most of the other students had no idea he was a football player.

rappjason

October 23rd, 2009 at 8:53 AM ^

my sophomore year, me and some friends lived in a house on State street, across from Schembechler Hall. on football saturdays, we used to sell parking at our house, and our best customers were Dhani Jones's parents (great people, by the way). after one game, Dhani came back with his parents. one of our roommates, who hadn't gone to the game, was the only one at the house and Dhani jokingly scolded him for charging his parents for parking.

barebain

October 23rd, 2009 at 8:24 AM ^

Walked by Tyrone Wheatley as a freshman. Shorter than me, but HUGE! He was like two people thick.

A couple guys from the 1995-96 basketball team tossed the football with us one day in the West Quad courtyard. Albert White called me "Green Linguini" (LP was our favorite)

Heard Biakabutuka say "Lick my balls" once. True story.

Was also mistaken for an athlete a couple times. Once at the IM building as a basketball player (I happened to follow the team in), and once as a hockey player in the West Quad cafeteria when the check-in lady asked me to autograph her jersey (we had just won the Nat Champ, and no, I didn't sign it).

Blue in Yarmouth

October 23rd, 2009 at 8:52 AM ^

I am from Nova Scotia Canada but grew up with a lesser known player in the NHL. We played hockey together our whole lives and he was just a great guy. He is currently an inforcer for the Sharks (Jody Shelley) but was really a great skill player growing up.

He was 6'3 when he was 13 so he towered over most of the other players. We were always on the same team so never went up against eachother much but as two of the best players we always had a bit of a friendly rivalry going.

A bunch of us rented the ice for a night and the week leading up to the event there was a lot of friendly trash talking going on. One of my best friends (who was always a little jealous of me growing up) pulled Jody aside and told him to get me during the game (in a friendly, funny sort of way).

Right off the faceoff the puck went back into our end and into the corner. I was playing D because in games that don't mean anything I always liked to try positions I didn't usually play.

I was the first to the puck and shot it around the end boards. I was about 10 feet from the boards and turned to skate out of our end and as I did I met Jody's right shoulder. I had a half visor on and his shoulder caught my jaw. I literally flew the entire 10 feet in the air to the boards and landed like a pile of crap on the ice.

I got right up and finished my shift but the bells didn't stop ringing the entire night. I am pretty sure I was mildly concussed but nothing serious.

My friend (the one who called out the hit on me) was laughing his ass off when we got off the ice and told me how he got Jody to do that. It didn't matter much because in the end I got a hat trick (after promptly moving off D after that hit) and we won 4-3, and got a pretty nice open ice hit on Shelley before the game was over to pay him back.

Jody is a great guy and returns to our home town every year to put on a charity golf event for our local hospital. We are still good friends and I hope he keeps his spot in the NHL for years to come (though enforcers are getting less popular these days).

Cameron

October 23rd, 2009 at 9:40 AM ^

I crossed paths with Woodson outside West Quad as a Freshman in '96, but it all went downhill from there.

Lived across the hall and was friendly with Demetrius Smith (who roomed with Ray Jackson) in West Quad: both kicked off the team.

Frequently ran into William Peterson (now Will James of the Lions), who spent a lot of time with Smith and Jackson and lived in the basement level in West Quad (pretty sure this is where the infamous stripper robbery occurred): kicked off the team.

Had Bio-Anthro (everyone deserves to take an easy class now and then) with DeWayne Patmon and Patrick McNall: underachieved and transferred, respectively, IIRC.

Needless to say, I don't plan on showing up for too many Victors Walks.

BlueDog

October 23rd, 2009 at 9:42 AM ^

I was in and around West Quad when Walt Downing and Dwight Hicks, who both played on the 49ers Super Bowl teams lived in Adams. Downing had astounding morning gas, smells I never want to face again.....making him the Methane Mammoth.

Leach lived in West Quad as well (two years later), and was a very normal guy. I brought him to a party once, and he told people his name was Richard and football never came up. I believe he had a summer job as a sign language instructor.

The wildest, craziest guy in the early 70's was All American LB Steve Strinko, who went out one Halloween with a plaster covered head, a cape, and sneakers. Nothing else. Spectacular entrances! Strinko used to put lighter fluid in his mouth and blow flames across my desk to indicate my study time had concluded.

Fresh Meat

October 23rd, 2009 at 9:48 AM ^

I'm sorry, but I've gone to the victors walk twice and Tate has been within a few feet of me, and I am 6'1 on the dot and he is shorter than me for sure. Not a ton, but he isn't 6'1

Flying Dutchman

October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 AM ^

I was in my sister's room in South Quad in 1992 (I as a junior in high school visiting for the weekend). This massive dude walks past the open door rocking nothing but his damn bath towel. Despite my unblemished record of staunch heterosexuality, I had to stick my head out the door for another look. It was Tyrone Wheatley.

I'm six foot three and I think Tate is six foot awesome.

Still in AA

October 23rd, 2009 at 10:08 AM ^

I almost ran into Tate this past summer... with my car. I was approaching State St. (from Hill) and did not notice right away that the light had turned red. He crossed in front of me before I came to a complete stop and I smiled and gave him a thumbs-up... he gave me a much deserved "you are an idiot" look.

Greg McMurtry

October 23rd, 2009 at 10:18 AM ^

I was hanging out in Novi for a birthday party back in 2005 and the chosen venue was Tequila Rain (now called MBarGo.) Upon entering, being a guy, I had to wait for the typical douche bouncer to check my ID. But this time it wasn't a douche, it was Chad Henne! He was working there as the ID guy on a Friday or Saturday night. I know that it was after the 27-25 comeback Penn State game because I remarked to him how awesome it was. Looking back at the 2005 schedule, it must've been November 5th as that was an idle week. I remember him being very gracious and quiet. I had my girlfriend stand next to him, as I snapped a cell phone photo, who also said to me "who's that?" She also quickly spoke to him, but agreed that he was pretty quiet. There was another guy working with him who jokingly said "I'm Jeremy Shockey" to spark the interest of my girlfriend, although, much to his dismay, she didn't know who that was either. I spoke to this guy, and I'm not sure if he was a player or just some guy as I didn't recognize him, and he told me that Rueben Riley was also working as a bouncer upstairs. A shook Henne's hand and gave him a shoulder pat with a "good luck the rest of the season" and that was that.

ggoodness56

October 23rd, 2009 at 10:20 AM ^

He came to my high school for a summer camp. I was in the 9th grade. I drew a picture of him dunking on Funderburke and he loved it and signed it...shook my hand. I ran home (across the street) going crazy and told my mom over dinner. In my excitement, I realized that Webber was still at the school. I took off and ran back to the school, just in time to catch Webber getting into his car in the parking lot. I asked him to come over for dinner and he was in a hurry so I made him a to-go plate of hotdogs and mac-cheese. I thought Webber was incredibly nice and he was very polite to my mom. A very good guy.

sec39row82

October 23rd, 2009 at 10:25 AM ^

Played in the group in front of Lloyd at the alumni golf course after hitting balls on the range next to him.

My girlfriend from senior year takes the cake, though. She was an RA in Stockwell, and one of her residents was one of Don Canham's granddaughters. So for Christmas that year she bought me a copy of Tradition and asked her resident if she could get it signed. She said sure, and dropped it off for her. Two days later my wife got a call and was told it was ready to be picked up. So she walks down to Schembechler Hall and eventually to Bo's longtime secretary's desk right outside his office, and is told that it's not signed yet. So the secretary, gets up knock's on his office door and tells him the lady's here and he needs to sign this book. So he says "Well have her come in here and I'll sign it." So my girlfriend walked into his office. He was sitting behind his desk, asked her if she was doing well in school, and who the lucky guy was, signed it and gave it back. Needless to say I proposed to this girl 6 months later and we've been married for the last two years!

KTChicago

October 23rd, 2009 at 10:55 AM ^

and one of the girls who lived next door to me was Tony McGee's girlfriend. One night while I was watching movies with some friends in my room, one of the members of the women's basketball team banged on their door and started fighting with her, so my friends jumped up and tried to separate them (which was semi-amusing, since both of my friends were much smaller than the Amazon-woman-on-the-moon basketball player) until Campus Security showed up. The friend who was holding back Tony's girlfriend spent the rest of the year hiding from Tony because he had apparently decided that my friend was trying to help the basketball player beat her up. His girlfriend was friendly with me, but every time I saw him in the hall he was surly and rude.

Now I see him on the Big Ten network and he looks tiny compared to how he looked in 1990 (but maybe I just remember him being much bigger).

ken725

October 23rd, 2009 at 12:50 PM ^

I met Derrick Alexander when I was in kindergarten because my after-school day care teacher was dating him at the time.

I have tried to meet the team whenever they came to the Rose Bowl. I guess Coach Carr liked to go to one of the steakhouses at South Coast Plaza. All the times I tried, I was told that I was late.

Hopefully Coach Rod does the same when we get to the Rose Bowl.

Mirasola

October 23rd, 2009 at 1:01 PM ^

Saw Hart playing basketball at the CCRB on campus over spring break of 2007. I didn't bother him or try to talk to him. He's short, but damn is that guy huge.

I met Chad Henne at Red Hot Lovers (now called Ray's Red Hots) in 2007 a couple months before the Florida game. We were actually at Charlie's and first saw him there on his way out. A few minutes later we decided to leave too and go get some food at our favorite place. We walk in and Chad Henne is ordering hot dogs. I talked to him briefly about the Florida game and my girlfriend and I got pictures with him.

dennist717

October 23rd, 2009 at 3:08 PM ^

www.dwuapparel.com

Dear Wolverine Fans,

Just want to remind you to order your Rich Rod Hope Shirt before they are all sold out. There are only about 300 printed and have been received rave reviews not just here in New York but across the country. Show your support for this young team coming down the home stretch against the rest of the Big Ten.

The shirts are printed on American Apparel tees, available in Navy and Grey, sizes S - XL (sizes are mens, but women don't worry - the small fits all females). I would love the support of all my fellow Wolverine alumni. They also make great gifts for the family members and feel free to forward along to others. The shirts can be purchased at WWW.DWUAPPAREL.COM.

www.dwuapparel.com
Facebook page: Rich Rod Hope Shirt
Google search: Rich Rod Hope Shirt

Sommy

October 23rd, 2009 at 4:02 PM ^

Had a class with Marques Slocum. One day in class, we were doing group work, and he was called on to give an answer or something. He replied with, "Aw shit, I don't know. I'm not used to standing up in class. I'm used to standing up to get awards and shit." He then left the room.

hailtothevictors08

October 23rd, 2009 at 4:09 PM ^

it really is not that rare to run into athletes espicially football players ...

the scariest is mike martin, he could snap me in half with a glance it seems

tate likes going around in his car and blaring rap

its also not rare to see a certain tangent partying

my favorite expirence though was splitting a cab with kenny demons at like 3 in the morning

EverybodyMurders

October 28th, 2009 at 2:44 PM ^

I am 6 foot exactly and having met Tate once and passing him maybe 5 times on campus this year, I can't believe what I'm reading here. From my point of view the guy is no taller than 5"9, 5"10 at best.

fatbastard

October 28th, 2009 at 11:38 PM ^

with Leroy Hoard in '89 at Dooleys. One really, really short big dude.

at the Frieder basketball camp with Terrance Green (a camper who didn't go to M), Eric Turner who was lightnin' fast or so it seemed.

Hangin' with Denny Felsner in West Quad.