Calling Fab Five Historians, 1993 when Juwan (or Rose?) wiped his ass on the Breslin Center logo
One of the great stories of the Fab Five was when, during his last visit to Breslin Center, Juwan Howard (or was it Rose?) rubbed his ass, like a dog itching and scooting his bunghole across a carpet, on the logo in the middle of Breslin Center after Michigan defeated the Spartans. I believe the year was 1993 when we beat Sparty at Breslin.
This was in an era in which not everything was recorded so there is no film of this event. My memory was hearing about this story the next day or so. My memory was that it was Jalen Rose (seems more true to his form than Howard), but I read a confident historical account a decade ago that it was Juwan Howard. MSU fans were particularly hostile and used racist slurs during the game. After the game Juwan (Rose?), without much forethought, just felt compelled to sit down midcourt and sort of scoot his butt across the logo.
This is a legendary story. Memories are a funny thing though. In my mind, I'm sure of all of this but want confirmation.
Calling Michigan and Fab Five historian:
Is the story true?
Was it Juwan or Rose?
Any details?
Go Blue! Beat Sparty!
I know the uniforms they have now are close to this, but I would love to see throwbacks of this exact kind. Big M on the shorts. Larger font on the front of the uni. Smaller font for the names on the back. Those uniforms are absolutely iconic.
I miss when the typeface on Michigan apparel could be found on shirts from like four or five different brands and every team had the exact same block numerals on jerseys. Now companies like Nike have to make these not so subtle changes to the official script logos and jersey numbers so that imitation products are harder to make, and as a result everyone's uniforms look just a little goofy.
I want to see these retro uniforms, with retro black shoes and socks, for the team when they hand the Fab Five banners. Nike/Jordan would make a ton of money on this.
Thumbs up for "bunghole."
Beavis & Butthead is coming back, too.
It was 1993 afterall
I was actually at that game. My recollection was it was Weber and Rose...but the memory isn't always reliable nearly 30 years later. Just remember after the game (went to OT I think) seeing a couple guys at center court and wondering what the hell they were doing...
I wonder if coach called up later to apologize???
Hoke apologized for this incident.
I remember this was mentioned in the book Fab Five. I don't have the book with me but I believe it described it as you said - MSU students were chanting racist things at the team throughout the game and after we won, some of the Fab Five went to midcourt and pretended to take a dump on the "S". IIRC Jalen was one. And then according to the book, someone from MSU wrote a letter of protest about this to the Michigan athletic department.
It wasn't their last trip to Breslin though, except for Webber. The rest were back for '94.
Awesome.
I remember reading it was Rose. I think I read Rose's account of the story in the Michigan Daily or the Ann Arbor News. I was certain about this for years until I heard the other account.
Was at UM during the Fab Five era and believe this agrees with what was said at the time about the racial epithets thrown out the entire game. Stay classy Staee.
Staee and classy can never be used in the same sentence.
Staee and stupidity - yes.
As well as Staee and mouth-breather....or Staee and knuckle-dragging
I remember hearing that a couple of home teams during that era had particularly virulent crowds and the Fab 5 were given an earful of racist BS, so it doesn't surprise me that MSU was in that group. I saw a couple of MSU fans alluding to the butt wiping after the last game but seemed to forget the inciting incident, which isn't surprising.
I googled this incident and the first results were two MGoBlog threads asking the same questions. Both were started by Wolverine Devotee. One was from 2012 and one was from 2018.
From reading through those comments, It sounds like Jalen discussed the incident on the Jalen & Jacoby show and took credit for the booty-scootin. There was a link to the game, but I think the video was taken down from YouTube. The butt wiping wasn't on the video anyway.
The story is on page 258 of Albom's Fab FIve. According to Albom, Jalen and Juwan wandered out to half court. According to the famous letter (it came from an Anthropology Professor, Loudell F. Snow (I don't know if there is a relation) claimed there were four University of Michigan players.
It would be nice if they were as upset at the racist taunts uttered at the players in front of their parents as they were at a ltitle smack after the game.
The Michigan Difference.
Thanks so much for the details.
Big Ten network had the Michigan vs MSU doc " Divided We Stand " on this morning . You can start a little bit earlier , but the 16:20 mark might answer the OPs question .
It was a real good Doc IMO.
FWIW, video of the 1992 game is on YouTube. I'm pretty sure the incident was 1992, not 1993 (I may be wrong). It was an old Raycom TV broadcast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKyPGS_TD40
------
Nothing visible at the end of the game in the video.
As regards the racist comments by MSU fans, that has never rang completely true to me. I'm 100% sure there was TONS of trash talk between the players and the fans, but racist trash talk is a pretty substantial claim. I don't regard Mitch Albom's book as a valid source - that guy has had many issues as regards the truth over the years.
But who knows at this point. It is now nearly 30 years out.
FWIW, here is a RCMB post from last night about this very topic:
Anon1200092_Scout
Posted on 19 hrs,
ManBearPig said... (original post)Supposedly someone was saying it from behind the scorers table, despite the fact that Shawn Respert (and Eric Snow) was on the court. Respert is ...
show more
Most of the posters on this site won't like what I'm about to say, but there may be some truth to Howard's claim of racist comments coming from the crowd during the fab 5's first game at Breslin. I had student season tickets just behind the Spartan bench, in the north corner, just 3-4 rows back, in 91-92 and 92-93. That first game there was a drunken frat boy (no other way to describe him) that stumbled his way down in front of us during pre-game, while the Wolvies were shooting warm-ups. He started ranting at and calling Chris Webber every filthy name you could imagine, (cheating mother-f'er, etc..) and I'm almost positive a few n-words slipped out too. I remember being a little shocked at how nasty this guy was, but he was going to town on Webber until someone in security pulled him back. Webber didn't seem to respond, but he definitely heard, and I was embarrassed to be there for that display. I don't remember seeing the butt-wiping of the Spartan S after the game, but I remember those guys grabbing their crotches and gesturing to the crowd after. It wasn't a pretty scene.
Good lord that thread is a shitshow. Funny how you have posts claiming Juwan is making up that the Fab Five had racist comments hurled at them mixed in with blatantly racist posts about Juwan. What a trash fanbase.
I won't defend MSU too hard but having attended a couple of football games in my days there are a decent number of racist liquid courage types in the stands. Now, do I think there might have been a couple more in East Lansing in the 90s than elsewhere? Absolutely. But it's a trash fanbase for a lot of reasons beyond the drunk racists.
I don't think many of the posters talking about Juwan's "7 baby mommas" or him having herpes are drunk, just racist. Those same people refuse to acknowledge Izzo's enabling of sexual assaulters like Mateen Cleaves, Travis Walton, Keith Appling, and Adreian Payne (I might be missing a few). Of course, the reporting of the sexual assault story was merely a hit piece by ESPN who just has it out for MSU for some reason. Fuck their fans.
I'm 100% sure there was TONS of trash talk between the players and the fans, but racist trash talk is a pretty substantial claim.
The accusation isn't against their whole student section, just certain fans. We're probably talking about guys who didn't come to the game sober, and who have a profound hatred of all things UM. It's not shocking to me if some crossed the line.
That was fun. The commercials were one of my favorite parts. Thanks for posting.
Webber was amazing.
It was Jalen only I believe
I believe you're correct.
I just asked by text the question to one of my best friends (sadly, he's a spartie fan/5 year Staee football season ticket holder), and he's very certain it was Jalen only.
There you go. Case closed !
Wait a minute, best friend is a Sparty? Say it ain’t so.
Et tu, Brutus?
Spartans that whine about this event always leave out the racist Spartan fans using racist epithets beforehand. Spartans are always the victims and their actions have no cause and effect.
Unfortunately, we have enough trashy, racist "fans" of Michigan who also had no issue spewing all sorts of racist and derogatory insults toward the Fab Five. I think it was on the Fab Five TV documentary where Steve Fisher talked about all the nasty mail the team would receive from M alumni and "supporters" about how the team carried itself on and off the court. Just pathetic.
Yeah those letters the AD got were awful
Agreed. The claims of the Fab Five playing, "Street Ball" where not subtle. This is the garbage that still goes on today.
I'm thinking this was the same game where a student or two from the MSU student section dressed up as pregnant women and got behind our bench holding signs saying something to the effect like "Juwan the baby is yours"
Here's the thing...where was the outrage at any of this..the racist idiots in the stands, the racist UM alum? Were any of them dealt with in a serious manner. Did any of the Alum lose their season tickets? Did the idiot Sparty fans get barred from returning to games? If so, great. But far too often incidents like this are just a sidebar to another story yet for those guys, their families, friends etc. it had to feel personal and deeply offensive.
I'm glad we got some answers in this thread. Google search shows a couple MGoBlog topics on this but without much definitive answers. This thread has contains more context and links. Great work fellas.
This was an important moment in the annals of UM vs MSU basketball.
Go Blue. Beat Staee
I was there working media relations for the team at that time. The story is true and describing the msu fans as "particularly hostile and used racist slurs" is an understatement. The things they were saying were disgusting and I have witnessed alot of vitriol from opposing fans (and players), but nothing on this level. It was so bad that I didn't understand how msu's players could have continued to be inspired by the cheers from these "fans" or wear their uniform with pride that day (or for the rest of the season). Under the circumstances, the response by the Michigan players (that went beyond the ass wiping incident) was more than measured.
Rose