SEPTEMBER 15 • 2022 | 31

SPORTS
Gelb’s wish list until a few years ago.
He didn’t start playing football until 
he was a junior in high school and had 
grown too big to pursue baseball, his 
first sports love.
He was a catcher, first baseman and 
third baseman.
“I was about 6-2, 275 when I was 
a junior in high school. I sent bombs 
flying when I batted,” he said. “But I 
wasn’t fast enough to be a big-time 
baseball player.”
Gelb didn’t have any college football 
offers after he graduated from high 
school, so he attended football camps 
put on by colleges.
Harbaugh liked what he saw from 
Gelb at the U-M camp and invited Gelb 
to join the Wolverines as a preferred 
walk-on, a status Gelb maintains today.
“I grew up wanting to play for the 
Michigan baseball team. I couldn’t do 
that, but I was very happy to join the 
football team,” Gelb said.
Gelb has two seasons of college foot-
ball eligibility remaining after this sea-
son. He doesn’t plan to use them at the 
moment, but the option is there.
If he does continue his U-M football 
career, Gelb could set a most unusual 
and unofficial team record.
He’s worn four jersey numbers during 
his four years at U-M.
He was No. 62 in his first two years, 
No. 55 as a junior and now he’s No. 50 
as a senior.
Why the numerical revolving door?
“Guys came in and wanted those num-
bers, and I was fine with that,” he said.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Gelb’s career goal is to be a strength 
and conditioning coach. To help him 
on that path, he was an intern this sum-
mer in the U-M football team’s strength 
and conditioning program.
“Mica did an exceptional job,” said 
Ben Herbert, director of strength and 
conditioning for the U-M football team.
“We demand a high level of commit-
ment and attention to detail from our 
staff members, and Mica demonstrated 
both. I’ve seen that on a daily basis 
from him as a player. I hold him in the 
highest regard,” Herbert said.
“Each of our staff members must 
receive instruction, embrace instruc-
tion, and execute what needs to be done 

with their God-given ability day in and 
day out, seven days a week. Mica did 
that.”
Unlike his sisters, who attended pri-
vate high schools, Gelb opted to attend 
a public high school.
Despite the resultant academic strug-
gles when he got to U-M, he said it was 
a great decision.
“Going to that public high school 
made me who I am today,” he said. “I 
made friends with kids who had to 
fight for everything they got in their 
lives, and I gained a lot of respect for 
them. They didn’t have anyone holding 

their hands.”
Amos Gelb, Mica’s father, has seen 
how his son has benefitted from attend-
ing that high school.
“While his high school education 
may not have been the best, Mica defi-
nitely grew socially during that time,” 
Amos Gelb said. “He bonded with other 
students you wouldn’t expect he’d be 
friends with.”
Mica Gelb attended Woodrow Wilson 
High School, which opened in 1935 
and was renamed Jackson-Reed High 
School this year in honor of Edna 

This happy guy is Mica Gelb following 
the U-M spring game earlier this year.

continued on page 32

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

