by Mitch Albom | Aug 18, 2019 | Detroit Free Press, Sports, Sunday Comment |
It’s not that Michigan fans WANT to hate Ohio State. It’s that Ohio State keeps providing so many good reasons. Forget about the hiring of Urban Meyer as football coach, or the seven straight times he beat the Wolverines, or the fact that when he retired, the Buckeyes...
by Mitch Albom | May 23, 2019 | Detroit Free Press, Sports |
People make this mistake about the Fab Five. They were not all the same guy. Not even close. Chris Webber and Jalen Rose, inseparable back then, were, personality wise, miles apart. Jimmy King and Ray Jackson were both from Texas, but the sameness ended there. And...
by Mitch Albom | May 14, 2019 | Detroit Free Press, Sports |
A dream is a wish your heart makes. That’s how the old Disney song goes. So let’s take the high road and say the dream of coaching an NBA team was just too strong a wish for John Beilein’s heart to turn down. Better to think that. Better to think Beilein, at age 66,...
by Mitch Albom | Apr 8, 2019 | Detroit Free Press, Sports |
They came for a trophy. They went home with a story. It’s a good story, sure, with choked-back tears and credit-where-credit-is-due hosannas. But a story is words and a trophy is solid. And at some point, the Spartans’ Tom Izzo needs to again lift something solid over...
by Mitch Albom | Apr 5, 2019 | Detroit Free Press, Sports |
Twenty eight years ago, Tom Izzo hung up the phone, sat down, and cried. He had just been informed that a high school star named Chris Webber, whom he had been recruiting for years, had chosen archrival Michigan instead. Izzo wasn’t even the head coach at Michigan...
by Mitch Albom | Feb 25, 2019 | Detroit Free Press, Sports |
All game long, the ball was in his hands, a Greenergizer Bunny in a sea of yellow jerseys. Dribbling, driving, dishing, laying it in. He never came out. Never took a breather. Finally, after all that action forged a sizable lead, Michigan had no choice but to foul...
by Mitch Albom | Sep 9, 2018 | Detroit Free Press, Sports |
Mark this down. History was made — and stopped — Saturday afternoon at the Big House. First the stop. Facing Western Michigan, under a milky white sky, Shea Patterson dropped back in the second quarter and heaved the ball 44 yards to the end zone, where it was caught...
by Mitch Albom | Aug 26, 2018 | Detroit Free Press, Sports, Sunday Comment |
When Urban Meyer stood to read his “apology” at a news conference last week, he looked like the bully who was forced to say he’s sorry to the skinny schoolkid. He raced through it and sat back down, as if to say, “OK? Satisfied?” It is the behavior of someone who only...
by Mitch Albom | Mar 28, 2018 | Detroit Free Press, Sports |
Well, this just isn’t fair. After beating Montana, Houston, Texas A&M and Florida State, the Michigan Wolverines now have to defeat God. OK, maybe not God, His or Herself. But one of God’s more dedicated servants. A nun. And not just a nun. A 98-year-old nun. And...
by Mitch Albom | Mar 4, 2018 | Detroit Free Press, Sports, Sunday Comment |
As we grapple with the evils of money and college sports, we might want to remember Jodie Foster. The actress, who enrolled at Yale University when she was 17, had already been nominated for an Oscar, been paid for many Disney movies, and even hosted “Saturday Night...
