4B - The Michigan Daily Graduation Edition - Thursday, April 15, 1999 Thanks for the GRADUATION '99 -MRIE S - '97 football season - we'll never see one like it again Editor's note: This story originally ran in the Jan. 6, 1998 edition of the Daily. By Nicholas J. Cotsonika Daily Sports Editor PASADENA, Calif. - Long after the trophy has tarnished and even this newspaper has yellowed, tales will be told with chest-bursting pride of these Michigan Wolverines and this Rose Bowl, of this team's character and its comebacks, of the emotional energy shared by those lucky enough to behold the marvelous magic made on New Year's Day, 1998. The greatest football season in school history ended here as the rosy tw ilight gleamed off the San Gabriel foothills. Michigan's 118th team won the 84th Rose Bowl, 21-16, and fin- ished No. 1. Nothing can spoil it. Not a controversy about how the game ended, with Washington State begging for one more second, one more play and one more gasp of life. Not a split decision among the voters, who awarded half of the national champi- onship to Nebraska by a miniscule margin. No, nothing can spoil this. Nothing can top this. Nothing could quell the crowd's cheers, even a half-hour after the game, when the fans were still chanting with the band, "WE'RE NO. 1!" "I will cherish this game, this uni- versity, for the rest of my life," said senior quarterback Brian Griese, who was named the game's most valuable player. "You have opportunities in life, and those who stand out are the ones who take advantage of those opportu- nities. It's just sweet for us to capital- ize on an opportunity to make histo- ry." The Wolverines are the winningest program in the NCAA and won their 32nd Big Ten championship this sea- son, but they finished 12-0 for the first time ever to win their first national championship since 1948. They con- sider it their 11th national champi- onship; time may consider it their most unlikely. When this season began, the Wolverines were ranked 14th, and recovering from four consecutive four- loss seasons seemed daunting enough. An unblemished record and a national championship weren't in the picture. "If you would have told me then," defensive end Glen Steele said, "I would have laughed." After all, Michigan didn't win a national cham- pionship in coaching legend Bo Schembechler's 21-year era of emi- nence. Bo never went 12-0. Though coach Lloyd Carr ended up emerging from Schembechler's shad- ow, standing alone in the bright, California sun as the winner of four of the five major coach of the year awards, Carr's mission simply had been to silence the critics who had hounded him since his hiring three years ago. "Nobody gave us a chance to be in the Rose Bowl, let alone win the national title," said all-purpose star Charles Woodson, the Wolverines' game-breaker who this season became the first primarily defensive player to win the Heisman Trophy. "Everybody thought we were going to go 8-4 again. We played hard every week to get to this position. We all felt we could go undefeated; we just had to go out and do it." They went out and did it the way they had all autumn - by doing what no one but themselves thought they could. Griese, a one-time walk-on who had lost his starting job and rode the bench a year ago, threw his longest two passes of the season for touch- downs. Both were to wide receiver Tai Streets, who hadn't caught a ball in three of his last four games because his fingers, two of which were dislo- cated, wouldn't let him. And when it was over, they knew it would never be this good again. They walked off the field, their faces flick- ering in front of flash bulbs, glimmer- ing with triumphant tears. Having overcome so much, emotion overcame them. "We won all the major awards, the Heisman Trophy, coach of the year," said senior co-captain Eric Mayes, whose knee injury ended his career in October but couldn't keep him out of uniform for his final game - and his finest hour - as a Wolverine. "We're undefeated, ranked No. 1 ... this may be the single greatest season ever - in college football history." The day Michigan made it back to Pasadena Editor's note: This story originally ran in the Nov. 24, 1997 edition of the Daily. By Janet Adamy and Jeffrey Kosseff Daily Staff Reporters Emotions surged through Ann Arbor that Saturday as fans celebrated Michigan's 20-14 conquest of Ohio State by rushing the field, crowding outside the University president's house and packing campus bars. "I came to school here just for this moment," said Business senior Jeff Williams, as he celebrated on the field with an estimated 8,000 other students. "I've been waiting 21 years to do this and it feels great," said Education senior Dave Hebert. "Oh, my God, it feels great. It's like I've been reborn as a Michigan fan." When the game clock reached zero, handfuls of fans braved the 7-foot drop from the stands onto the field. A few min- utes later, thousands of fans rushed down the stairways to crowd onto the stadium grass. Fans took victory laps around the Big House, lit cigars on the 50-yard line and carried football players high above their heads. "I couldn't move after the game. It was so crowded," said Michigan cornerback Charles Woodson. "All the fans were grabbing me ... So far it's so great, and we're going to Pasadena." Fans hugged and kissed strangers and friends alike as they stayed on the field for nearly an hour after Michigan's tri- umph. Others took pieces of the actual field as a souvenir, digging up chunks of the turf to save for posterity. "I've been waiting for this day ever since I got here," Business senior Rob McLeod said as he hugged his friend in celebration. "It's fantastic" said LSA sophomore Matt Plumb, a trumpet player in the marching band. "It has to be one of the greatestmoments of my life." During the on-field melee, Plumb turned to his fellow band members and said, "I love you guys." Outside the stadium gates, thousands of students rushed down South University Avenue and crowded onto University President Lee Bollinger's lawn. Bollinger didn't greet the crowd nor did he invite students into his house as he did after the Penn State victory, but thou- sands of fans continued to crowd the street and lawn, shouting "We want Lee." Exuberant Wolverines surfed through the crowds, climbed trees, jumped on moving cars and videotaped the moment. One student fell 40 feet from a tree out- side the president's house. Partiers celebrated on South University, which became so crowded that people couldn't move at times. LSA junior Kevin Fogelberg, who screamed from atop a circular bench, said he felt "amazing" with so many students gathered in one location. "I've never seen this much energy and this much life in this school since I've been here; Fogelberg said. "It'sike (your) birthday and Christmas all in one." 0 0I MARGARET MYERS/Daily Michigan's all-everything star and Heisman Trophy-winner Charles Woodson helped make the 1997 Michigan football team Into Champions. Hockey was the best over time 0 0 We have 3 POWs in Kosovo POWs never have a good day. www.soft-vision.com/hanoi/ Gary Lillie & Assoc., Realtors www.garylillie.com Editor's note: This column original- ly ran in the April 6, 1998 edition of the Daily B OSTON -Years from now, no one will remember Michigan losing at Yost Ice Arena for the first time in 36 games. No one will remember the first Great Lakes Invitational loss in a decade, or losing to Michigan State four times in one season, or losing the CCHA regular season and conference playoffs. But everyone will remember the West Regional victories at Yost. Ever feel Ann Arbor housing is overcrowded, overpriced, and low quality? Is it the same for your classes? Check out http://universitysecrets.com Everyone will remember Saturday's game and the outcome. Everyone will remember the 1998 NCAA championship. This season's edition of Michigan hockey really is unique, worthy of a movie or a book, or at least a minis- eries. The Wolverines are a team everyone can relate to because they're not perfect, the way the 1997 edition seemed SHARAT or even the 1996 RAJU team that won Sha rat this very title in the Dark was. _ They're not unstoppable. There's no Hobey Baker Award winner here, no record-setting win total, no single player carrying the team on his shoulders night in and night out. Even Marty Turco couldn't always bail the Wolverines out, nor could Bill Muckalt. We all can relate. Sometimes in life, you come up short. You can't win every award, every tournament or every accolade. But you can succeed if you work hard, play hard and come through when it counts. And that's exactly what this team did. They worked hard and fought back, and can truly be called Champions. Captain Matt Herr often said early in the season that this team wasn't going to be the most talented in the country, but they would be the hard- est-working one. That's something to live by in hockey, in sports and in life. If you work hard, good things happen. Funny how it all worked out for the Wolverines. Funny how the best-laid plans of the best teams (read: Michigan State, North Dakota, Boston University) went awry. Michigan fans are spoiled this sea- son. First, a football national champi- onship, now a hockey title. Again. 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