True Blue Grit

July 24th, 2022 at 6:38 PM ^

I can't upvote you enough.  Rob Lytle was also one of my favorite Michigan players.  He was an instrumental part of the Michigan teams right before I entered U-M in the fall of 1977.  And that's when I became a huge lilfelong fan.  All the players and coaches loved him.  To me, he'll always be THE #41 at Michigan. 

Joined: 01/21/2011

MGoPoints: 32373

True Blue Grit

July 25th, 2022 at 8:41 AM ^

The "official" cause of death was a heart attack.  But after he died, his family donated his brain to the VA-BU-CLF brain bank, where he was diagnosed with moderate to severe CTE.  In the latter years of his life, he suffered with various symptoms like bad headaches and memory loss.  He estimated he had as many as 24 concussions during his football career.  This is a really sad and touching remembrance from his wife Tracy:

https://concussionfoundation.org/personal-stories/legacy-stories/rob-lytle

Joined: 01/21/2011

MGoPoints: 32373

JWG Wolverine

July 24th, 2022 at 12:20 PM ^

Don't know why photo uploading isn't working at the moment. As is the case with many of Michigan's first black players (Mr. Derricotte being one of them), that is one of those wiki links you're gonna want to actually click on though.

EDIT: Here we go:

Joined: 01/07/2017

MGoPoints: 28434