Detroit Free Press

They may be good, bad, glorious or depressing. But you have to admit, the Michigan-Notre Dame game will always give you memories.Gary Moeller has memories. Five memories from five autumn afternoons when it seemed like the whole world was watching. Moeller was head coach of U-M from 1990 to 1994, which was the last time the Wolverines and Irish met.A lot has changed since then. Neither Moeller nor Lou Holtz is in charge of those teams anymore. Neither man left under happy circumstances. Both will be working other jobs when the two football teams reunite Saturday.

Paul Coffey was on his knees, his left leg throbbing, his head slamming the ice in frustration. No. No. No. No. Seconds before, he had watched a bullet go through the lungs of Detroit's Stanley Cup hopes, and he was helpless to stop it, like some ill-fated soldier in the movies, who reaches, reaches, but just can't pull his friend into the foxhole."Get up! Someone get him up!" you could almost hear the Joe Louis Arena crowd scream Tuesday night, seconds before the goal that gave New Jersey a commanding 2-0 lead in these finals. "Somebody blow a whistle! Somebody do something!"

In his latest book, "Tuesdays with Morrie," published by Doubleday, Free Press columnist Mitch Albom writes about the final lessons from his college professor and mentor, Morrie Schwartz. The Free Press is running excerpts today through Thursday.The last class of my old professor's life took place once a week in his house, by a window in the study where he could watch a small hibiscus plant shed its pink leaves. The class met on Tuesdays. It began after breakfast. The subject was The Meaning Of Life. It was taught from experience.

Maybe they had an argument. I don't really care. All I know is a man was driving a Ford Bronco on the Lodge Freeway last week and a Cadillac pulled alongside him with several passengers inside and next thing you know, someone in the Cadillac was firing bullets. Three of those bullets hit the driver of the truck. He veered off the highway and began to die.An hour later, there was one less person in our city.

Of all the scenes I can picture in my mind -- and with an imagination like mine, that's a pretty nasty collection -- I cannot envision anyone throwing a rat at Jack Nicklaus.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The problem with college basketball, some say, is too many freshmen in ripped undershirts, too many sophomores with police records, too many juniors with agents, and not enough seniors. You remember seniors, don't you? The elder statesmen of the game? Not long ago, a coach would say, "We have a good team; we start five seniors." Today, five seniors is a golf tour.Which is what makes tonight's matchup between Kentucky and Syracuse both pleasant and -- I know this is a funny word when talking about college sports -- educational.

"Robinson, I need a man that will take abuse and insults. If some guy slides into you and calls you a black so-and-so, you'd come up swinging. And you'd be justified. But you'd set the cause back 20 years.""Mr. Rickey, do you want a ballplayer who's afraid to fight back?""Jack, I want a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back."There was a long pause."Mr. Rickey, if you want to take this gamble, I promise there will be no incident."-- Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey, as recounted by the scout who brought them together, Clyde Sukeforth.