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.