Monday, August 6, 2001 - The Michigan Daily - 9 '
Having met Berenson as his professor during
is first year at Michigan, Brophy has remained
friends with the coach ever since. He pointed
ut that they have a similar event at Ohio State.
heir arena is larger, but what is smaller is the fan
Ipport they receive, as Columbus (until recently)
ad been a southern hockey city and had not
derstood the game.
"Michigan is the best hockey program in the
tion and you have this generational overlap -
e old, old-timers and the young NHLers," Bro-
y said. "I mean, there is no other place that does
type of thing that I am aware. It is about
igan and Ann Arbor and people that love to
me back here. It is much more important than it
ould appear on the surface."
"At Michigan it is important to bring people
ck together," Berenson said. "I want these kids
have pride in the school they went to and
member where they come from and where they
t started and remember their friends and rela-
nships they developed here."
Berenson added that he hears stories of players
ailing and calling each other, remaining close
ite being far away from each other, and that
closeness is something that helps make his
gram special.
"I think the most important thing about coach
renson is that obviously he is concerned about
ckey and the Michigan program but he is more
ncerned about the individual and how they do in
"'Craig Malaki said. Malaki was Turco's back-
at Michigan but played forward on Friday. The
er goalie, who tallied one assist on Friday, is
w training to become a fighter pilot in Mount
ents, Mich.
The reunion was Berenson's brainchild 16 years
o when he first came back to Michigan to take
er a fledgling hockey program. And it was
renson who restored the tradition associated
th Michigan hockey.
When Berenson got to Michigan much of the
gram had grown separated from itself and there
sn't any unity of current and former players of
ich he knew.
'I said 'Gee, this isn't the way it should be.' I
't come back here to have a program that was
nted and not positive," Berenson said.
ds prompted him to start a golf outing, which
its first year received 30 participants. The
ion has continued to grow to the point where
y welcomed about 180 alumni last year.
o large has the golf outing become that they
ABBY ROSENBAUM/Daily
Former Michigan hockey players hit the links for a fun filled, Saturday. Seen here Is Gregg Daddario and
Bobby Hayes confusing the footlike golf clubs for hockey sticks.
have had to separate it into two different shotguns
- a morning and afternoon group.
After traditionally spending that Friday night
hanging out together, Berenson saw the night as
an opportunity to get together and play the game
which brought them all together in the first place.
This game grew into two games, and then three
to accommodate the different age levels ranging
from over-50 (the game Berenson participated in)
to 35-50 to an under-35 game (whose recent
addition included Andy Hilbert and Dave
Huntzinger).
Though still enjoying getting back on the ice
with old linemates Larry Babcock and Al Hin-
negan, Berenson was not pleased with the out-
come of his game that at 28-1 was by far the most
lopsided of all the games..
The next game saw a slight improvement in
speed on the ice and fewer gray hairs on the heads
of the participants.
Once the 35-and-under group took the ice, the
speed and skill of the game jumped a light year,
with players taking slap shots and professional
goalies making sprawling saves. But still it was
not difficult to see the joy on the faces of the play-
ers, listening to them trash talk on the ice.
The next day all the players met at the Univer-
sity Golf Course for a day of golf, food and
drinks. Most of the older players griped the 8:30
a.m. shotgun while the younger players who
admitted to having a "long night" showed up at
noon for the 2 p.m. shotgun.
Once on the course you could hear the sound
of laughing, balls hitting trees and the class of
1999, who road around with a boom box playing
the Allman Brothers Band, a sound that would
disturb most golfers on a normal day. .
But with an empty goal in the fairway on hole
No. 10 to distract players or the "Hit the green,
double your money" game on a par-three, there
was nothing normal about this day. The players
didn't care who won - they were there to have
fun.
It may have been more appropriate had they
placed a windmill on the green of the par-five
hole No. 3, where Blake Sloan and his group of
friends spend 10 minutes and more than 12 tries
to sink a 30-foot putt claiming to be distracted
by the boom box on the next hole. After making
the putt, Sloan turned to his group and said, "You
know, this is such a team sport."
Sloan, who shot a career best 75 the week
before the reunion, felt that he was starting to
catch fire, and was coming on at the right time.
"I couldn't do anything wrong, it was like
Caddyshack -- the rain coming down, the wind
blowing but I was putting everything in. I have
never shot in the seventies, I am a bogie golfer,"
said Sloan of his 75-shot day.
In the end, neither Sloan's group nor the sextet
of the 1999 class (all wearing matching green-
blue shirts from Bubba Berenzweig's father in-
law's insurance business) were able to overcome
the group that included Steve Shields and Brian
Weisman, who shot 19 under par.
"That is the fifth-straight year he has been
lucky," Turco said after hearing the news that
Shields' group won the scramble. Shields was
his successor between the pipes.
Part of that good natured joking is what makes
this program into a family, like brothers who
make fun of and rough house with each other.
"You feel so welcomed here," Al Hinnegan, a
linemate of Berenson, said. "You mention the
family and you always feel you are a part of that
family. These are not just classmates or team-
mates but life-long friends that are more like
brothers, and that is what is so unique about this
Michigan thing."
At the end of the day, Berenson could be
seen standing in front of the clubhouse with his
grandson sitting on his shoulders, looking out
over the golf course, his brothers, his children,
his family.
aying unity and excelent taste in fashion, Greg Daddarlo, Craig Asseamacher, Ray Skop wear shirts
n to them by former captain Bubba Berenzweig, a trend started by Marty Turco three years ago.