Your Weird Connections to Players: A Little Levity During a Tumultuous Week

Not a Michigan player but when I was in 7th grade, I was trying out for my grade school football team. We were doing the drill where there were two lines, one the runners and one the tacklers.  When it was my turn to tackle, I looked at the other end of the lineup and the runner was Mike Varty who was in 8th grade and later played linebacker for Northwestern and the Washington Redskins.  Even in 8th grade Mike was a BIG guy.  I was tall but carried no weight.  I tackled him just above the knees as taught and I have always been proud that he only dragged my ass for about 10-12 yards. I ached for a week and didn't make the team.

Michigan related - Dennis Franklin was in my 1st year accounting class.

My kindergarten teacher was Rick Leach's sister. 

I used to work with Khaleke Hudson's sister. 

I met Manny Harris while mopping puke off of the floor at Pizza House during the Super Bowl. It was not Manny's puke.

Tom Strobel and I were both sprinting through Chicago Midway to catch a flight at the same time.  

When I was in high school in suburban Detroit, I was on the track team as a hurdler and long distance runner.  Unfortunately, our school was in the same state regional as many of the Detroit city schools, and so in my regional 110m high hurdles heat I had the privilege of being smoked by one Thomas Wilcher, who set the state record in that race, along with several sprint relays, and went on to the M football and track teams.

Ex #2 is from cbus ohio....  it was 2010 or 2011, we were at her mom's in Worthington, I was wearing a Michigan hat like I ususally do.  There was a crew doing survey on the lots in the sub due to a dispute over a fence location....  One of the guys on the crew says, "Michigan fan?"  of course I'm waiting for some slander that's common in that area...    He says, "my brother plays for Michgan"  Turns out it was Fitzgerald Toussant's brother....

Played intramural basketball and ended up guarding Greg Skrepenak in a game at the IM building.  Mammoth guy, though not quite as much by today's standards, I think he was about 315 at the time.  I was ... not.

Also played pickup ball in a few games with Rob Pelinka at the CCRB.  Zero conscience, just a shooter.

tom brady was in my sociology class. i mistook him for drew henson.

I come here for angst, sarcasm and wit. If I wanted levity, I’d reach for the bottle.

I worked at St. Louis Center (Beilein's favorite charity) back duirng school and the Fab Five era. On many winter Saturdays I would take my group of disabled boys on a field trip to watch WBB and the "clean" the arena after the game (they paid SLC and I can't say we did much of a cleaning job, maybe picked up a few pieces of trash).

We sometimes met the men's team going to practice after WBB while we were cleaning. They were all kind. Chris Weber promised a dunk and finger point to one of the boys and when it happened the next day, there was so much joy at the boys' home. But it was Jalen Rose who I'll never forget. He took a lot of time and engaged with each kid, for as long as they wanted and as many times. He looked into their eyes and connected with them. It was quite incredible. Some of the boys were severely disabled, some had almost no control of their bodies or emotions. Many people were uncomfortable in their presence. Not Jalen. I've very rarely seen someone respond in that way to these kids. He'll always be my favorite Wolverine.

My dad was Jim Harbaugh's 8th grade math teacher at Tappen Middle School in AA. 

Teacher vs Student basketball game was legendary. As my dad tells it

• Teachers were down a point with a few seconds left
• Gym teacher scored a basket and was fouled
• Up by one with one free throw
• Time out
• On the bench all the teachers reminded everyone not to foul. No fouls
• Missed FT and the stupid science teacher (who was clearly not an athlete) got an obvouls over the back foul on the missed FT.
• 8th grade Jim Harbaugh walked to the FT line with two seconds left
• Teachers call time out
• Teachers take a very long time on the bench
• Meanwhile Harbaugh never leaves the FT line. And after the refs blow the whistle for the game to resume while the teachers were still at the bench,
• Harbaugh yells, "Hurry up I have a game to win"
• Harbaugh hits both FT and students beat the teachers

Summer of '86 Jamie Morris and Jeff Brown lived across the hall from my sublet.  My roommate ended up giving Jamie his dog. 
 
Also know a tale of Harbaugh living next door to a friend who went over to ask an O-lineman to move their car out of his driveway, and noting their taste in party refreshments.

I hang out with Kerry Smith a bit (Harbaugh era halfback).   Cool guy.   I got to know his wife from the real estate business, which was the initial connection.   In 2018 we watched the Michigan-Penn State game from Finn McCool's in Boston and had a blast.  It was fun watching that one with a former player.   He just had different things to say that your average guy. 

I had a Creative Writing class with Steve Breaston. He asked me to take a look at his work to see what I thought, and I gave him some feedback about it (nothing crazy, but it *is* possible I technically violated NCAA rules). 

Then, when I was eating lunch in the Union one day, I felt a colossal hand on my shoulder. When I turned around, it was Steve. He had a tray in his other hand and sat down and had lunch with me. It was fucking dope. 

I accidentally grabbed BJ Askew's Art History paper in the fishbowl, it was underneath a several page paper I had printed 

Played HS with Jack Miller after his family moved from Cleveland (St. Eds) to toledo ( St Johns Jesuit) really good guy and funny af also. Ended up committing to Michigan a year after I graduated 

I’m was born the same rural county in Virginia Blake Corum is from, although I’m probably about 13 years older than him, likely born in the same hospital. 
 

Also, I played Upward Basketball in 2001 as a 12 year old, and my basketball coach was Zia Comb’s High School football coach. 
 

My dad played middle school ball against John Wangler, he was the opposing QB to Wangler. 
 

I was waiting to board a flight in Chicago to Detroit and Devin Gardner was sitting in the boarding area. I believe it was after a bowl game somewhere in FL. I didn't want to bother him too much but I was wearing an M hat. I said, "Go Blue!" when I walked by him to board and he gave me the obligatory "Go Blue!" reply.

We were on Southwest and I sat in the window seat of about the 5th row. Gardner got on the plane about 10 people after me, looked over and saw me in the window seat, and then took the aisle seat. I was geeked, expecting to get to at least have a short conversation. Then, the 3rd person behind Devin, a kid about 20, climbs over Devin into the middle seat. (If you fly SWA, you know no one ever takes the middle seat until the plane is full, definitely a plane etiquette faux pas.) This kid proceeds to tell Devin how he's a student at Bowling Green and saw him play against BG, etc., and Devin smiles and sort of nods at him, and while the kid is talking, Devin slides his headphones over his ears and closes his eyes. 

I got jock blocked by some kid from BG!