The Road to Ann Arbor: Incredible Twists and Improbable Turns Along the Michigan Recruiting Trail
288
The Road to Ann Arbor: Incredible Twists and Improbable Turns Along the Michigan Recruiting Trail
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781629375922 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Triumph Books |
| Publication date: | 09/04/2018 |
| Pages: | 288 |
| Sales rank: | 666,549 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d) |
About the Author
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CHAPTER 1
Reggie McKenzie
Growing up in a blue-collar family in Highland Park, Michigan, lanky high schooler Reggie McKenzie never thought he would end up an All-American offensive lineman for the University of Michigan. The humble giant never imagined he would be drafted by the Buffalo Bills and eventually lead the offensive line group nicknamed the Electric Company that blocked for O.J. Simpson during his historic 2,000-yard rushing season.
McKenzie wasn't the only one who didn't think football was in his future either, as most big-name college programs didn't know anything about the 6'3", 190-pound football player and wrestler in high school. The Michigan coaching staff found him through a happenstance conversation, which led to a phone call that would forever change his life.
Born in 1950, McKenzie was one of eight children growing up near Detroit at a time of high racial tension. Police brutality sparked the Detroit riots of 1967, which were close to home and took place during McKenzie's junior year of high school at Highland Park High. He came from a hardworking family that instilled much of his toughness early in life. The oldest of 13 children, Reggie's father, Henry, was born in Georgia and quit school during his youth to help his father raise the family on their family farm. His mother, Hazel, went to college to become a nurse and eventually gave birth to Reggie at 40 years old and then had twins at age 41.
It was a tough family with little money, and they stuck together to get by the best they could. McKenzie credits his mother and father's work ethic for his own and for setting the example of what toughness really looks like. Raising eight children with minimal resources and always keeping their faith, the family stood by one another. "I thank God for my momma and daddy because that's why I'm at where I'm at today," McKenzie said. "They laid the groundwork. They said, 'You want this? You go out and work for it.' That's just the way it was."
In high school McKenzie wasn't the ideal size for an offensive lineman and didn't show much in terms of proper technique. He was a powerful wrestler, though, and showed his athleticism on the mat in his wrestling meets. He showed enough progress throughout his football career that a few programs saw potential and he started to receive recruiting letters from various schools. In the 1960s, though, the actual recruiting process typically didn't begin until a player was a senior in high school. That's when McKenzie saw letters come in from Nebraska, Western Michigan, and Brown. "I was really a Michigan State fan because you have to remember in 1966 they won the national championship with Bubba Smith," McKenzie said.
He was a fan of the Spartans and had a Michigan State coach come by his high school to conduct a preliminary interview to find out more about him as a person and player. His high school head coach, Jim Bobbitt, was an All-American for the Spartans, so he had connections at the program and knew that McKenzie could play in East Lansing, Michigan.
McKenzie had not heard a word out of the University of Michigan, so he figured that the schools that were in contact — Western Michigan and Michigan State — would be his final options. Bob Wyman was the offensive line coach at Western Michigan, and Bill Doolittle was the head coach. The two were recruiting the Highland Park linemen heavily and got McKenzie to visit Kalamazoo, Michigan, during his senior year in early 1968. That recruiting trip swung the momentum in favor of the Broncos to the point that McKenzie thought that's where he would play football in college.
It was still winter in the beginning months of the year, but McKenzie was done with his high school football career and starting to look ahead to college. Kalamazoo would potentially be his new home, but Michigan State was still lurking. Then, his mother went for a routine checkup at her gynecologist, Dr. Bernard Levine, and everything changed. Levine was a Michigan graduate and football fan. During the checkup Levine asked about the young McKenzie and found out he was a football player. "My mom was telling him about me and that I had been recruited by Nebraska, Michigan State, and Western Michigan and got letters from Brown," McKenzie said. "He asked her if Michigan had called. She said she didn't think so, but she would have to ask me to make sure. So Dr. Levine made a phone call to the [Michigan] coaches. Levine was an alum and he said, 'If Michigan State is talking to him, how come Michigan isn't down there?'"
George Mans was a former Michigan player and had a brief stint in the NFL before coaching at the college level. He joined Michigan head coach Bump Elliott's staff in Ann Arbor in 1966 after spending time as an assistant at Michigan Tech and Eastern Michigan. In those days the coaches regularly had alumni across the country who helped identify prospective student-athletes for the coaches. Bob Royal was one such alum who was a school teacher in the Detroit area. Royal and Mans knew each other well, and Royal happened to also know Dr. Levine. "The doctor and Mr. Royal knew one another, and they thought here's a guy that's going to grow a little bit, and Michigan should take a look at him," Mans said. "So they called me, and in my wisdom, I said let me call around a little bit, and nobody seemed to remember much about Reggie. So I said, 'Well I better go down there and take a look at this young man.' I called Dr. Levine and Mr. Royal, and they said there's going to be a wrestling meet that Reggie will be in, and I should come down to Highland Park and watch."
Mans made plans to watch the heavyweight match that McKenzie was participating in at around 190 pounds. His size wasn't prototypical for what Michigan looked for in offensive linemen, but Mans and Elliott loved toughness and players who worked hard, so Mans went to the wrestling match. "A young man was wrestling at 250 pounds, and I thought, Well, this will be over quickly," Mans said. "Before I knew it, Reggie had this guy on his back and was all over him. He had a great disposition to mix things up, and when I met him afterward, he was such a great young man, so we went and talked to his high school football coach."
Mans and McKenzie's high school coach, Bobbitt, had played against each other in the Michigan-Michigan State games, so there was some familiarity there. Michigan had not gotten a recommendation from Bobbitt on McKenzie prior to this meeting, so this was the first communication. After the meeting with McKenzie and his coach, Mans went back to Michigan to report back to Elliott on what he saw: a scrawny kid with potential to grow who fought his way through a wrestling match against someone bigger and stronger.
The Michigan coaches worked to find some football film on McKenzie, as they couldn't offer him a scholarship based on his wrestling technique. "On the film that we saw, the two things that stood out for us were the fact that he had such great quickness and speed for a lineman," Mans said. "He was built more like a sprinter. The technique wasn't very good. The whole thing in terms of individual technique, he was very raw in that regard, but you could see the potential. The one word I would use with Coach Elliott was I thought this young man had the 'potential' to grow."
Elliott gave Mans the go-ahead to offer McKenzie a scholarship based on that potential.
In the meantime, McKenzie hadn't heard much from Michigan State, which is why he had Western Michigan out front. The Spartans conducted the initial interview but then dropped contact after that. "A guy named Ed Rutherford [an assistant coach] at Michigan State said I couldn't play at Michigan State. Later he denied it," McKenzie said. "He had another guy he wanted to sign, who I knew. He said he wanted so-and-so, and we just don't have the numbers."
Meanwhile, Mans was still going on a hunch. But if Michigan was going to offer a scholarship, it would go after him 100 percent. So Mans made his way to Highland Park High, said hello to McKenzie, and told him the coaches wanted him at Michigan. As a 17-year-old kid who never dreamed the University of Michigan would want him to play football for them, McKenzie was naturally taken aback by the magnitude of the conversation. It was something he really had to process. "My high school coach took his right hand and stuck it up in the air and said, 'McKenzie, calling McKenzie. At Michigan you start here,' then he lowered it and said, 'at Western Michigan you start here,'" McKenzie said. "It's always easier to take a step back than it is to take a step up. He said, 'If I didn't think you could play at Michigan, I wouldn't have had him come here.'"
That lanky wrestler had doubts about how he could succeed at such a big program like Michigan, but Mans sold him almost immediately. Mans' passion for Michigan and confidence in how badly he wanted McKenzie in turn gave McKenzie some confidence in himself that he could have success in Ann Arbor. "One of the things that really sold me on Reggie is the kind of person he is. If you talk to him, you would know he's just a great guy," Mans said. "How could we go wrong in taking a young man like that? That was one thing that Coach Elliott was very concerned about and strict about. He wanted to make sure he took good people in the truest sense of the word, and Reggie fits that bill."
McKenzie didn't need much time to think about it. He knew Michigan was the place for him. He told Mans and Elliott that he would be a Wolverine, and in the spring of 1968, the undersized lineman, who grew up with little more than a loving family and a work ethic that kept them afloat, was about to join one of the most prestigious football programs in the country.
But just because he was headed to college, that didn't mean he could stop working. After his recruitment was over, McKenzie was sitting at the dining room table with his father in June of 1968. The Detroit News was sprawled open. His father was taking in each article and, without looking up at his son, he asked Reggie what he planned to do. Having already signed his tender to Michigan, a confused Reggie asked his father what he meant. "He said, 'I'm going to tell you like my daddy told me. It's time for you to start being a man,'" McKenzie recalled. "He said, 'You're going to need some money and you know me and your mom don't have any money.' So I went out and got a job."
Awaiting his 18 birthday in July, McKenzie found a job at a local moving company located at Clairmount Avenue and Woodward Avenue. He sat in a room with older men and waited until a driver came to pick them up and then went to work moving furniture. He worked that job until it was time to enroll at Michigan and left his home and family for Ann Arbor to start his new journey.
McKenzie takes pride in the fact that despite such times of racial tension he was part of a recruiting class that included a large number of African American players, including Glen Doughty, Mike Taylor, Billy Taylor, Butch Carpenter, and Mike Odom. Those players faced adversity on campus because of their race, but the whole class faced adversity on the field as well. Little did they know that one more piece of history would be added to their recruiting class. They would be the last class coach Bump Elliott would sign at Michigan as he moved into the associate athletic director role at the school.
Elliott was the coach for McKenzie's freshman season, but then a big change came in the 1969 season, McKenzie's sophomore year. Bo Schembechler took over after Michigan amassed an 8–2 record in 1968. Schembechler wanted to come in and instill toughness to his new team, and McKenzie and his teammates found out quickly that there would be no easy days with Schembechler in charge. "Because Bump was a nice guy, he thought we were soft," McKenzie said. "When Bo came in, we started winter conditioning, and a lot of guys left because he was so tough."
McKenzie was not among those who left. He knew he wasn't soft. And because of how he was raised, he knew what toughness meant. He eventually filled out to more than 250 pounds, played guard for Schembechler, and helped Michigan to an 11–1 record in 1971 during his senior season. He was named an All-American after that season.
McKenzie was then drafted in the first round by the Bills in the 1972 NFL Draft and helped anchor the offensive line widely known as the Electric Company, blocking for Simpson. The name came to be because they helped "turn on the Juice." He would go on to be named to the All-NFL team two seasons in a row and eventually finished his 13-year career with the Seattle Seahawks. Once his playing days were over, the Seahawks brought him on as a scout to find potential draft prospects and free agents. In the 1980s Michigan State had a tight end named Veno Belk that the Seahawks and McKenzie were interested in drafting.
In those days the scouts would make a trip to the university to talk with the head coach. George Perles had now taken over in East Lansing, but Rutherford, the man who said McKenzie couldn't play at Michigan State, was still there. McKenzie made the trip to see Perles and spoke with the coaches about Belk. As McKenzie was waiting in the lobby before meeting with the coaching staff, Rutherford walked out of his office and past the burly lineman sitting in a chair.
Rutherford eventually came back and asked if he was Reggie McKenzie. The Seahawks scout and former Wolverine was sitting in enemy territory with the man who said he couldn't be a Spartan. Rutherford asked if he could have a word with McKenzie after his meeting with Perles. McKenzie obliged and stuck his head in Rutherford's office once he was finished with his work. "He said, 'I wasn't the one who said no to you.' I said, 'Yes you were,'" McKenzie recalled. "He said, 'No, we wanted this other kid.' I said, 'Coach, listen, don't worry about it. Everything worked out all right.'"
McKenzie walked out with a smile on his face, knowing that everything may not have worked out the way he pictured it, but it worked out in his favor nonetheless.
Before legendary Michigan State head coach Duffy Daugherty passed away in 1987, McKenzie ran into Daugherty at a mutual event, and the two found themselves in the restroom at the same time. Daugherty, according to McKenzie, apologized to him for not recruiting him and letting him slip away to the Wolverines. Again, McKenzie smiled and said everything worked out all right.
Once his football and scouting careers were over, McKenzie went on to found Reggie McKenzie Industrial Materials as well as the Reggie McKenzie Foundation. The foundation organizes athletic and academic programs for the youth of Detroit. Many of the foundation's events take place on the same field in which he played during his early days of football. The only difference is that when McKenzie was their age, the field was known as Hackett Field. Now, after all the success he has seen and what he has given back to the community, it's aptly named McKenzie Field.
That young boy from Highland Park never could have imagined that one day he would play football for the University of Michigan, the Seahawks, and eventually have a football field named after himself. As McKenzie would say, everything worked out all right.
CHAPTER 2Jim Harbaugh
When reports surfaced in 2014 that the Wolverines would target Jim Harbaugh as their next head coach, longtime head equipment manager Jon Falk chuckled to himself. Falk reminisced to a time when Harbaugh was in high school and had yet to hear from Michigan in his recruitment. Falk mentioned to then-head coach Bo Schembechler that the young Harbaugh was hearing from other programs. "I remember going into Bo's office one day and said, 'Bo, what is this I hear Jim Harbaugh is looking at Miami of Ohio?' Bo looked at me and said, 'Jim Harbaugh is coming to Michigan; he just does not know it yet,'" Falk said. "I laughed when Jim was being recruited to be the head coach at Michigan. I remembered Bo's words that 'Jim Harbaugh is coming to Michigan; he just does not know it yet.'"
His recruitment to become Michigan's head coach was much different than his high school recruitment, but the love for the university was formed at a very young age. Harbaugh's father, Jack, was hired by Schembechler as an assistant coach in 1973 when Jim was only nine years old. Falk and assistant coach Paul Schudel fondly remember the young Harbaugh meandering through the hallways of the Michigan facilities as a youngster, playing with the other coaches' kids, and building the foundation for his love of Michigan. "When we came to Michigan in 1975, Jack was coaching there, and John, Jim's older brother, babysat for our kids maybe once or twice. My son still has — John carved up some building blocks we had and put his number on there and made a racing car out of it," Schudel said. "Our kids grew up with them and would go to all the bowl games until Jack left after the 1979 season and went to Stanford. He grew up in the office and he grew up around the football field and the buildings."
He grew up around Schembechler, around quarterback Rick Leach, whom Jim idolized as a child, but more importantly, he grew up around the game of football. As the son of a football coach, Jim gained knowledge and experience that would later be invaluable to his career on the field and in coaching.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Road to Ann Arbor"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Tom VanHaaren.
Excerpted by permission of Triumph Books LLC.
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Table of Contents
Foreword by Brian Griese,
Introduction,
1. Reggie McKenzie,
2. Jim Harbaugh,
3. Jamie Morris,
4. Mark Messner,
5. Tripp Welborne,
6. Desmond Howard,
7. Jarrett Irons,
8. Brian Griese,
9. Tim Biakabutuka,
10. Tom Brady,
11. Braylon Edwards,
12. Chad Henne,
13. Rashan Gary,
14. Aubrey Solomon,
Acknowledgments,
Sources,