0 T.- v 0 A v -9 RESURRECTED DERRICK ALEXANDER CLASS OF 1993 Lyingthere onthe field, Derrick Alexander did all he could to fight a truth he'd never had to face. Desmond and Derrick. Derrick and Desmond. Oh man, this was supposed to be our year. No, no, no, this couldn't be happening. The pain shooting through my knee - pain I've never felt before - it didn't hurt that bad. Right? I'll just sit out the Notre Dame game and be back to play against Florida State. Yeah, I'll be back. "It was the first game of the year (in 1991)," Alex- ander says. "We're juniors now and Desmond and I are supposed to be the best receivers in the coun- try. We're on the road, at Boston College, and we're doing good. We start off the game great. I think I had a few catches already. Desmond had a few. They're kicking the ball off to us, and I'm running the kick back. f This is another opportunity to make a play..." Another chancetoshowoffhisgift; everything had always come so easyf to him. "It'shard for me tounderstandhow some people can't do certain things," he says now. "I always thought that I could do anything, and I usually could." When he ran, his teammates said it looked like the 6-foot-3 receiver was gliding. He wore his skin like a fine leather jacket, always comfort- able and confident. They'd call him aloof, his personality was so laid back. This is why he never got rattled - his great self-confidence wouldn't allow it. Like the time in high school when Derrick took flight and slammed home a thunderous dunk on an opponent's 7-footer, with Bo Schembechler and soon-to-be-coach Gary Moeller in the stands. Heck, you know what? Ifelt good enough to play right now. Jogging up and down the sidelines, every- thingfeltfine.Right?Coach,putme back in the game, I'm ready. What had even happened? "I don't know I made a cut, and nobody even touches me and my knee is gone," he recalls. "I'm like, 'Ah man, I'm in pain."' The truth began to poison his mind, ruin his fan- tasy. This wasn't how they planned it. He had decided to come to Michigan, the school he grew up watching on TV, to be a part of a new passing revolution. That's what Moeller promised him. He met his antithesis freshman year - the short and loud Desmond Howard - and they took a lik- ing to one another. He'll never forget the time he starred in Desmond's commercial for a class. Des- mond filmed while Derrick flew across the screen, dunking in the CCRB, doing his best to be Des- mond's Michael Jordan. They both thought of each other as stars. On the field, Derrick was starting to make noise The coaches had drilled routes into him until th routes felt as comfortable as he was. By his sopho more year, he wore the No.1 jersey, the one he gre up watching Anthony Carter don, the one Moelle made him earn after he wore the No. 40 his fresh man year. This was his chance to define himse and resurrect, re-invigorate, the jersey Antnon made famous. Well, he earned it, and to top it all off, his posi tion coach, Cam Cameron, made the game eve easier for him, if that were at all possible. "Cam was a great coach to where when w would watch film and go over things during th week, it would be exactly - like if he would say: this guy is standing in a certain place, they're goin to run this defense," Derrick said. "It would be tha way and all we had to do was look at the guy an we'd know exactly what they were doing. "It just became so easy for me to go out thee and just play, where I didn't have to worry abou what I think the defense was going to do becaus we already basically knew. Then it was really easy Two years in, there were no more excuses. Th plan was set: Desmond and Derrick were going t dominate the offensive game plan because the e. wentfor it all!" e Desmond dove, arms outstretched in the back of - the endzone. W "A diving catchfor a touchdown! HOLY COW!" the r screen blared. - Derrick's thoughts raced. His career may have if ended right there on the field in Boston. y Desmond was just following the script. All of the passes that would've gone to Derrick were sent to i- Desmond, and he took off like a rocket. n "He had a lot more opportunity," Derrick says now. "Moeller kind of changed the game plan a little e bit so Desmond, he was all over the field. He played e every position. I'm not taking anything away from if Desmond. He did everything he had to do and he g made every play he had to make. ... I just think the it situation gave him just so much more opportunity d to have a chance at those plays. "He was the punt returner. He was the (top) e receiver. He was the reverse runner. He got it all." it Desmond caught 62 passes for 985 yards and 19 e touchdowns, with Derrick watching from the press ." box. Derrick spent two months on crutches and e when he could walk under his own power, his work- o out regimen began - slowly climbing stairs, work- y ing out in a pool, stretching. He started jogging and running - slowly, his deceptively fast longstrides quickened. By 1992, his redshirt junior year, Derrick felt like himself again. A large brace and a big scar were the only reminders of the first time in his life he had really been injured. Desmond was gone now. He left for the NFL, Heis- man Trophy in tow. "I was like, 'Okay, now it's myturn,' " Derrick says. "We ran some plays for me and I was just feeling great. That (1992) season was probably the best season I had my whole career, when I came back. We were doing a lot of things that Desmond was doing-they basically did with me the next year. "I kinda had that same opportu- FIE PHOTO/Daily nity, but the other guys were a year older. They got more chances. Amani g. (Toomer) ended up being a great receiver, Mercury d Hayes (too). We had a great trio of receivers." r Despite the crowd, Derrick still lived up to the No. 1. Now he was the one making the spectacular catches, and the No. 1 jersey was running up and e down the field like it was racing in its own personal e track meet. That year, as the team's top receiver and punt al returner, he was an All American, catching 50 e passes for 740 yards and 11 touchdowns. He also is returned two punts for scores, in Desmond-like fashion. His encore included another first-team All Big Ten selection, as he racked up 621 yards and - averaged nearly18 yards per catch in 1993. The 6-foot-3-prototype receiver left Michigan as al the first in a long-line of modern-day receivers who made it look so easy. And eventually, for his own k sake, he came to peace over the 1991 season. r- "I don't think I was jealous," Alexander said. r- "Desmond is a great player. And if I had that chance, at if he had been the one that had gotten hurt, I i- would've taken full advantage. 91 "So there's no jealously,no animosity.Whenever I 1, see Desmond now, there's not even really a question: s. He just had a great chance and he took full advan- 3e tage." Astronomy professor Hazel "Doc" Losh stands with the 'M' Club and their flags before kickoff. were the only experienced receivers returnini They were both going to return kicks. Desmon would handle the punts. The big plays were up fo grabs. What if the kickoff had gone to Desmond? The trainers wouldn't let Derrick back in th game, and his knee swelled like a balloon on th plane ride back from Boston. The next day, he cried sitting in the hospita when the doctors shattered his world with th truth. He tore his ACL. His season was over. Thi wasn't so easy. After the surgery, Derrick stayed in the hospit for six days. Desmond visited on a daily basis. But Desmond wasn't there when Derric watched Michigan play Notre Dame the next Satut day. The nurses tried to turn the game off, but Det rick refused. He watched helplessly, sitting in the hospital bed as Desmond made one of his first mem orable plays of what was about to be a magical 199 season. Elvis Grbac dropped back on fourth-and- as Desmond sprinted downfield past two defender "Grbac tofirefor it," the announcer exclaimed. "H The flags were retired, but the graduate 'M' Club came to fill the void, offering a giant blue banner to stretch across midfield when the team ran on. One of the ban- ners was stolen, Renfrew recalls, but the 'M' Club's support has carried on through Bump - who needed it most - to Bo, Gary, Lloyd, Rich and now Brady. The Doc checks in to hoist the banner Hazel "Doc" Losh looked com- pletely out of place - a misfit standing among world-class ath- letes: wrestlers, football and hock- ey players alike. But don't be mistaken. Doc Losh fit right in. Losh was an astronomy pro- fessor at Michigan for 41 years, teaching over 50,000 students, including Heisman Trophy win- ner Tom Harmon, Bob Ufer and Ron Kramer. There was no stron- ger supporter of Michigan athlet- ics than Doc. Losh picked up her first job at the University in 1927 teaching astronomy after earning her PhD in 1924. She was later selected as Michigan's first Honorary Home- coming Queen. For years she attended every football, hockey and basketball game. And over the years she had a reputation for rather cheeky grade distribution. "She was the professor who graded her kids A, B, C - A for athlete, B for boy, and C for co- eds," Renfrew laughed, remem- bering an old friend. "She wasn't like that, but we always said that." "I've got this awful football problem," Losh told the Michi- ganensian Yearbook in 1978. She smiled and added, "And D for dummies that believed it." Because of her popular- ity among the athletes, Losh was asked to speak to the undergradu- ate 'M' Club on multiple occasions - an honor reserved for the most influential folk around campus, like band leader William Revelli. Given that opportunity, Losh and former Michigan letter win- ner Ernie Vick joined the 'M' Club's efforts with the flags and joined the ever-growing tunnel emerging onto the Michigan Sta- dium turf. According to Renfrew, Doc was the first woman ever allowed onto the field at the Big House. "Well, there were no women who were letter winners, either," Renfrew continued. "She was quite a gal." On Nov. 20, 1964, Losh gave an impassioned speech at the base of the library steps, looking out at 4,000 faces at a pep rally - mem- bers of the band, the football team and more. She voiced her frustration over the failures of the football team, having not gone to the Rose Bowl for 14 years. "Remember this," Losh coun- seled. "Scholarship is not the only important thing at Michigan. Go Blue!" The next day, the Wolverines blitzed the Buckeyes, 10-0, to punch their ticket to Pasadena. Michigan Men through and through The original 'M' flag, now 49 years o from th dium, 1 baseme The wood i remain its mak Thef ter. Marl After A from tl Depart is imj at they re St., witl House' Acro poem h Michig on a cli has slo forgott Renf how hi used to Red Wi once, p send al the min Hej Wing g Gadsby ld, still rests just a block St. after a game. The only issue he pillars of Michigan Sta- was not telling his wife about it. tucked away in Renfrew's "She thought she was being nt. attacked," he says. "They all had colors have faded and the 100 stitches." s worn. But the stitching Renfrew remembers having to s immaculate, evidence of call Marge after his Wolverines er's handiwork. won the national championship in flag even outlasted its mas- 1964 because there was no radio coverage. ge passed away in 2007. But, most of all, Renfrew d and Marge stepped away has stories of the coaches - his heir posts in the Athletic friends. ment ticket office in 1991, Renfrew looks down at a photo of a dozen men huddled around a hockey goal and smiles. He knows the place - it's the old Coliseum - Scholarship but the time is fuzzy. He pegs it as sometime in the early 1960s. not the only "In those days we were a close- knit family," Renfrew says. "Title portant thing IX hadn't kicked in then, and all the coaches were on one floor Michigan." there. "We had a hockey game when the kids went home for Thanks- giving or Christmas. We had pret- tired to a home on Snyder ty near the whole staff there, plus hin easy eyesight of the Big we used to have (Jim) Northrup s brick fagade. and some of the old Tigers come ss the basement, Rice's up." iangs on the wall. A 2011 With the players gone on break, an football schedule hangs the coaches would just use the oset door. Renfrew's world team's equipment. wed down, but he hasn't Simply put, it was a fraternity. en his passions. "We'd get a couple kegs of beer rew has stories. He tells and put them in the dressing s Michigan hockey teams room. One of the guys, who was play against the Detroit an assistant football coach at the ngs. His team beat Detroit time, was Jack Nelson, who later rompting Jack Adams to coached the Vikings. He was a handful of players back to pretty good high school player. tors. But Dave Streck didn't know how remembers sending Red to stop when he put skates on. reats Gordie Howe and Bill "When they got a couple beers over to his house on White in them, they became very brave." But it wasn't all fun, beer and games. As Renfrew repeated over and over, "it was a different era then." While new Michigan coach Brady Hoke's staff preaches accountability, those coaches lived it pretty well. Renfrew recalls a time when his son was at home on White Street and somehow managed to rip his toenail off. As he stood in the upstairs bathtub with blood gushing out, his sister Judy ran for the phone and dialed the Athletic Department's number. Minutes later, help arrived to drive the hockey coach's injured son to the hospital. "I called over there and Bump Elliott came to the door," Judy said. "The head football coach," Ren- frew repeated. "That wouldn't happen today." But Renfrew doesn't harbor any bad feelings for the way teams are being run these days. He's still just as big of a supporter as always. "They're on the right track, they just need good players, that's all," he said. "When Lloyd left he left them nothing. Poor Rodriguez never had a chance." Two weeks ago he and Judy watched a replay of running back Mike Hart slicing through Michi- gan State's defense for 110 yards in 2007. "It's a great rivalry," Renfrew says of the Spartan-Wolverine matchup. "But it isn't the biggest, and that really makes them mad. "It's a good rivalry and a clean rivalry - nothing like Ohio. Those people down there are idiots." "' 8 1 FootballSaturday - September 3, 2011 TheMichiganDaily - www.michigandaily.com j 5