ALMOST GREAT
SMOOTH SAILING

n Even without Spike Albrecht, 

Michigan coasted to an easy win 

over Delaware State. Page 4B

A guard, a grandpa 
and the end of an era 
W

hen Frank Brunski 
Jr. passed away on 
Sept. 1, 2012, he left 

behind a wife of 50 years, three 
children, 10 grandchildren, one 
great-grandchild and a legacy of 
hard work.

One of those grandchildren 

— Spike Albrecht — 
adopted that hard 
work ethic.

Frank was a 

lifelong Hoosier. He 
was born in Gary, 
Ind., in 1938 and 
stayed put in that area 
his whole life. For 43 
years, he worked as 
a bricklayer in the 
steel mills of Indiana. 
You could count the 
number of days he missed work 
on one hand. He missed even 
fewer of his grandchildren’s 

sporting events.

“He was unbelievable,” 

Albrecht recalled. “He came to 
everything. He was the grandpa 
that was so supportive and 
bragged about me, thought I was 
the best thing since sliced bread. 
That’s how our relationship was. 
We got along great.”

Watching Grandpa Frank, 

Spike learned a thing or two 
about hard work. When Spike 

was a senior in high 
school, Frank came over 
and built a deck for his 
family’s pool.

Spike embodied that 

sense of hard work and 
determination. He went 
from having no college 
basketball offers after 
graduating high school 
to a full-ride scholarship 
to Michigan a year later, 
after playing one season 

in prep school.

When Grandpa Frank passed 

away the week before Albrecht 

started classes at Michigan, he 
kept quiet about it. It tore him up 
on the inside, but he had a college 
basketball career to begin — one 
most people never thought he 
would have.

“I never wanted people to feel 

sorry for me or anything like 
that,” Albrecht said. “But it was 
something that was just tough to 
deal with.”

That’s Spike. He doesn’t want 

to talk about himself. He doesn’t 
want your sympathy. He just 
wants to do his thing and go home.

So Friday — when he 

announced that due to injuries 
he would end his career with 
Michigan — he was out of his 
comfort zone. He was forced to 
talk about himself, his time at 
Michigan and his future.

Asked about his legacy, he 

paused.

“That’s a tough question. I 

don’t like talking about myself,” 
Albrecht said. “I think that I 
showed people you can’t ever let 

someone tell you what you can or 
can’t do. You know, my whole life 
I was told I wasn’t good enough, 
I wasn’t big enough, I wasn’t 
strong enough, fast enough — 
things like that. But I never really 
let that faze me. And I always just 
tried to go out there and prove 
people wrong.”

For three and half years, that’s 

what he did at Michigan. He 
proved people wrong. His legacy 
won’t be in his stat line, it’ll be in 
everything you don’t see in the 
box score.

Forget the 17 points in the 

National Championship Game 
in 2012. Forget the postgame 
tweet to Kate Upton. Forget the 
acrobatic pass to Aubrey Dawkins 
against Illinois in the Big Ten 
Tournament last year. Forget the 
3s from deep, the circus passes 
and the gritty defense.

Remember this: With Michigan 

up 19 points in the second half 
against Houston Baptist last 
Saturday, Albrecht hit the deck 

in an attempt to get a loose-ball 
rebound. The ball went out of 
bounds and Albrecht slapped the 
floor with his right hand.

Michigan didn’t need that 

rebound — it went on to win, 
82-57 — but Albrecht wanted it. 
So, with 12:10 left in the route of 
the Huskies, Albrecht laid out, 
new hips be damned. 

Remember this: During 

Michigan’s Final Four run 
his freshman year, he was 
simultaneously working on a 
group project for school. He 
never missed a meeting or an 
assignment. His group got an A.

Remember this: When he 

comes home from Michigan, he 
goes into his mom’s second-grade 
class and reads to her students. 
Spike Albrecht — Michigan 
basketball royalty — hangs out 
with second graders when he 
goes home.

And most importantly, 

remember this: Spike Albrecht 
cared. He cared when he hit the 

deck for loose balls, when he’d 
smile with a fan for a photo and 
when he went back home and sat 
in a second-grade classroom.

There was never an ego with 

Spike. He was never bigger than 
the game. And because of that, in 
Spike, we saw ourselves. He was 
the little engine that could, and 
with him on the court, anything 
was possible.

He left Michigan the same 

way he came into the program, 
with humility and gratitude.

After his press conference 

Friday, he got up from his 
seat, pushed his chair back in, 
shook a few hands and — as 
he walked out the door — said 
thank you to everyone.

With the help of a work ethic 

he learned from his grandpa, 
Spike Albrecht made his dream 
come true.

Grandpa Frank never got to 

see him play college basketball, 
but he would have been damn 
proud if he had.

BSportsMonday

The Michigan Daily | December 14, 2015

“I think that I 
showed people 
you can’t ever let 
someone tell you 
what you can or 

can’t do. ... I always 
just tried to go out 

there and prove 
people wrong.”

FAREWELL, SPIKE

n The Michigan hockey team nearly 
rallied for a series sweep of Minnesota 
on Saturday night. Page 3B

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

SIMON
KAUFMAN

