On Friday night, the Michigan
hockey team was celebrating
its win over Notre Dame and
looking ahead to its next game.
On Saturday night, the team
suddenly had no idea when its
next game might be.
On Jan. 23, the University of
Michigan announced all athletic
activities would be paused for
two weeks following confirmed
cases of the COVID-19 B.1.1.7
variant
within
the
athletic
department. The hockey team
has had no positive cases since it
began practicing in October.
“I guess my initial reaction
was a little bit of shock, a little
bit of surprise, a little bit of
disappointment, a little bit of
anger.” Michigan coach Mel
Pearson said. “But here we are
and we’re looking to spin this
into a positive.”
Pearson also understood and
supported the administration’s
decision and instead turned
his focus to how he could help
his team through the next two
weeks. Following the news,
the Wolverines held a couple of
team meetings to discuss the
next steps.
“The main point of the calls
was just to reinforce the message
from our athletic director in our
department as to what this means
and what our responsibilities are
as
student-athletes,”
Pearson
said. “And to make sure that they
were all OK and (the coaches) are
going to be a resource available
to them.”
After the players got over
the initial disappointment, a
big concern they expressed
was how they would be able to
practice during the pause with
the team required to quarantine
and practices prohibited. They
want to continue to train, but
without being able to gather in
large groups or use indoor ice
rinks, that may be difficult.
“They’ve got a regiment
from
our
strength
and
conditioning coach,” Pearson
said. “We’ll do a lot of zooms
and stay in touch with them,
give them different games to
watch just to make sure that
we’re keeping them mentally
into the game; and then they
have to do what they can
physically to stay ready.”
Michigan had been playing
some of its best hockey since
it returned from winter break.
The Wolverines won five of their
past six games and are currently
the seventh-ranked team in the
country.
Following the Notre Dame
series,
they
were
already
scheduled to have a 12-day
break before facing Penn State
at home on Feb. 3 and 4. As of
now, those are the only games
to be postponed. Pearson also
mentioned it would probably
take the team 4-5 days to get
back into game shape and they
currently are scheduled to play
Michigan State on Feb. 9 — just
two days after the shutdown is
supposed to end.
“We’ve had past experience
with this almost every year with
the (Great Lakes Invitational)
tournament,”
Pearson
said.
“Normally we have a two and a
half week break, we reconvene
after Christmas, maybe have
three and a half, four days of
practice and then we play. And
we’ve been able to manage that.
“Now the only difference
here is are our kids going to have
access to ice somewhere? And
when you’re in a quarantine,
that answer is no.”
The Wolverines are faced with
a lot of uncertainty, but that was
expected with a season being
played amid an ongoing pandemic.
When players returned to Ann
Arbor, they didn’t know when
their season would begin and
what health and safety protocols
they’d be under. The shutdown
is just one more challenge they’ll
have to overcome.
“We’re
all
dealing
with
adversity in our lives,” Pearson
said. “It’s how you handle that
adversity. We’ve got to come
up stronger on the other side
whenever we’re allowed to come
back.”
Wednesday, January 27, 2021 — 18
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Cliff Keen grew up on a farm in
Oklahoma. In college, he was an
undefeated wrestler, a football player
and a track athlete for Oklahoma
A&M, which is now Oklahoma State.
He came to Ann Arbor to attend
the University of Michigan Law
School, from which he earned his law
degree in 1933. He then stayed in the
community, working at a small law
firm in Ann Arbor while coaching the
wrestling team. Just a few years after
he became the head varsity wrestling
coach, he left his law job to focus on
coaching full-time.
During his time as the wrestling
coach, Keen was also part of the
football coaching staff for 33 years
and was an assistant coach under
the helm of Michigan greats: Fritz
Crisler, Fielding Yost and Bennie
Oosterbaan.
Keen was also the head coach of
Michigan’s 150-pound football team
during the 1947 and 1948 seasons
— the only two seasons in which
the team existed. He won national
titles both years and brought the
T-formation into Michigan football.
As a wrestling coach, Keen had
the longest tenure of any coach in
University athletics history and holds
the record for the longest career of
any collegiate wrestling coach. He
was the head coach at Michigan for
42 years, spanning from 1925 to 1970,
with a three-year break during World
War II where he spent his time as a
naval commander.
During his tenure as the head
coach for Michigan, Keen led many
teams to outstanding success. His
accomplishments include 12 Big
Ten
Conference
Championships,
11
individual
NCAA
champion
wrestlers, 68 All-Americans and 81
Big Ten Champions.
In 1977, Keen was inducted into
the National Wrestling Hall of
Fame. A few years later in 1980, he
was inducted into the University
of Michigan Hall of Honor. In 1981,
he was inducted into the State of
Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
Statistically speaking, Keen is
one of the greatest coaches of all-
time at Michigan in any sport. But
what makes him truly a legend is his
value in building the character of his
wrestlers and those around him by
setting a positive example with his
coaching style.
“You know he was quite a task
master, but he had a unique style that
he used to motivate people,” Rick
Bay, a former Michigan wrestler and
Keen’s assistant coach from 1970-
1974 and successor, said. “His way
was really to always let you know that
he thought you could do better, but
at the end of the day, his philosophy
was even if he had been getting on
somebody during practice for one
reason or another, at the end of each
practice if that had been the case he
would take that person aside and say
something positive. He always felt
like you should leave any coaching
situation each day with something
positive.
“He was inspirational in a way that
was sort of quiet and philosophical
… he wasn’t much into chewing
anybody out, especially in front of the
team,” Bay said. “He would say, ‘You
know, it takes a long time to build up
someone’s confidence, but a person
with authority can tear it down
pretty quickly,’ and so he coached in
a positive way. You know there are
coaches who coach negatively that
works too for some but not for him.”
Jesse Rawls Sr., an All-American
wrestler for Keen during the last
years of his coaching career, spoke
about the impact that positive
coaching and reassurance can have
on an athlete through an experience
he had with Keen.
“He said to me one day, came up
to me (after) I won the match. I did
something, I don’t know what, I
was losing, I ended up winning and
I didn’t quit. I can remember sitting
beside him, and he hit me on my
knee and he said, ‘Boy you’re one hell
of a guy, one hell of a wrestler.’ And
that just did a lot for me as a person,
because when a coach says you did
a fine job and you know that, deep
down inside, you tried to do a fine job.
That really gave me a big plus sign.
“I went on that year and won the
Big Ten Championship without a
doubt, and he was very proud of that.”
Keen believed in coaching the
fundamentals and he often taught
wrestlers by stepping on to the mat
and giving demonstrations himself —
even at the end of his career, when he
was in his late 60s. Even at matches,
Keen would sometimes demonstrate
a move that he thought would be a
good strategy.
“Even though at that moment
he’d be in coat and tie and I would
too because we were the coaches, we
would take our team out and heck,
he’d take off his suit coat if it popped
into his mind, he’d get down on the
mat (and say), ‘Rick jump on top of me
I wanna show this,’ ” Bay said. “He
was wearing a coat and tie and he was
demonstrating on me for the sake of
the wrestlers trying to make a point,
and of course he’d mess up my shirt
and he elbowed me in the ribs while
he was demonstrating all this, but
that was kind of the way he did it. It
was sort of off the top of his head, but
he had a lot of experience.”
Even after his retirement, Keen
continued to influence Michigan
wrestling. In his career as a
wrestling coach, Bay incorporated
many coaching techniques that he
learned from Keen when he became
Michigan’s next head coach.
“I used everything I learned from
him,” Bay said. “I mean I talked about
positive reinforcement, I was not a
screamer, I did not swear at my team
or individuals on the team, I always
tried to treat everybody with respect.
I tried to be more organized than I
thought (Keen) was, but that was just
my own personality.”
Rawls also incorporated many of
the coaching techniques he learned
from Keen when he coached at
Harrisburg University after his
playing days.
“If you talk to any of my wrestlers,
I would always say, ‘Son do this, son
do that’ and I always prepared them
for the next step,” Rawls said. “I said
that ‘cause coach Keen used to always
use these terms.”
Keen’s coaching style also led to a
close-knit team atmosphere that was
commended by those who wrestled
for him.
“We’re going out here, the A boys,
and we’re gonna act like men and
we’re gonna wrestle and we’re gonna
be tough,” Rawls said.
Bradford Stone — my grandfather
and a class of 1950 wrestler for Keen
— had similarly positive memories
from his time competing with the
Wolverines. He especially enjoyed
the camaraderie of the team.
“That’s what separates wrestling
from a lot of other team sports is that
you have no one,” Stone said. “Look
to your left, look to your right, there’s
nobody there, (but) they would
always root for you and so forth and
you would root for them.”
Jerry Hoddy, an All-American
wrestler for Keen who wrestled
during the last years of Keen’s
coaching career, also spoke about
how close the team was and how the
team had each other’s backs even in
difficult times.
“One of his favorite sayings,
particularly under duress when we
were traveling, was when something
would go wrong … (he) had his boys
and if we got anywhere and there was
some sort of snafu — and about 9 out
of 10 times there was — Cliff would
get into a dither and you’d hear this
booming voice say well I got my boys
here,” Hoddy said. “He was just an
immense father figure for everybody
that came through that program for
years and years and years. Everybody
cherishes that time and I think most
people would say (they) unabashedly
loved Cliff Keen dearly.”
That team dynamic not only led
Keen’s wrestlers to want to win for
themselves, but also win for Keen and
the University.
“You wanted him to be proud of
you,” Bay said. “That was always a
dynamic that was pretty pervasive,
so you wanted to win for yourself, but
you (also) wanted to win for coach
Keen.”
Keen was a man who was true
to his word and who highly valued
integrity, hard work and old school
sportsmanship.
“I first met him in 1968,
when he came to Lawrenson,
Minnesota
(where)
we
had
the
Junior
College
National
Wrestling Championship,” Rawls
said. “That’s when I met him
and that’s when he offered me a
scholarship at the University of
Michigan. And his words to me —
that I will never forget — was that
he had never recruited a Black
wrestler.
“And he came to Minnesota
to recruit the best wrestler in the
tournament. And I happened to be
the best wrestler in the tournament
and happened to be Black. So,
we recruited. And he said ‘If you
come to Michigan, I’ll give you a
full scholarship,’ and my whole life
changed. That stuck with me and I
will always remember that. And he
was true to his word.”
Stone also spoke about the values
and integrity that Keen had.
In the Big Ten dual meet,
Michigan’s Larry Nelson won his
previous round, but not without
cost. Nelson was injured and with it,
Michigan’s chances of a championship
lowered. Stone, who was standing
nearby,
suggested
Nelson
make
an appearance despite his injury
— the appearance would help the
Wolverines’ chances of making the
conference championships. However,
Keen refused.
“And he said, ‘I would not take
a chance on injuring a young boy.’
Sports didn’t matter as much as the
health of his boys, in other words.”
Keen also believed strongly that
being a student came before being
an athlete. Hoddy spoke about the
importance of academics to Keen.
“He took great pride in his rate of
graduation, of the people that went
through the wrestling program
there at the University of Michigan.”
Hoddy said. “He was always talking
about (how it’s) not so much what you
do while you’re here in Ann Arbor, it’s
what you do after you leave.”
Keen also believed that lessons
learned on the mat could be used in
the athletes’ lives outside of sports as
well.
“There was one time when there
was a guy named Byron Dean in my
weight class and we would wrestle
off to see who gets to represent
Michigan and who was going to go
down and wrestle Illinois,” Stone
said. “I actually won the match
internally. And I really wanted to get
this, now he would beat me 6-3 or
8-4, so that night I couldn’t sleep half
the night and I was so charged up,
went out there and I beat him 5-0.
And I found out that if I just put forth
regular effort, I’m sort of average,
average at a high level of course,
not off the street, but if I really
wanted something and really put my
effort into it without reservations,
how much better I could be. And I
carried that over the years. I learned
that from Keen while wrestling.
Multitudes of us were made better
people for having wrestled under
Keen.”
Keen cared about his athletes
very much and still had strong
connections with his wrestlers
after they graduated
In
1975,
Rawls
needed
somewhere to train for the 1976
Olympics. Where else but with an
elite program at Michigan? There
was just one problem: He had
nowhere to live, but Keen looked
after his wrestlers.
“He said, ‘Let me see what I
can do for you.’ I got there Labor
Day, which was September 1975,”
Rawls recalls. “I called him, and
that … Tuesday or Wednesday I
had an interview, and Friday I was
moving into housing. Just that
fast. That’s how much pull that he
had.”
At his retirement party after 42
years of coaching, wrestlers decades
apart in age came together to share
their well wishes.
“And all his former wrestlers that
were still living all came back to pay
him homage upon his retirement.”
Stone said. “It was an evening just full
of love and full of respect and that was
a remarkable evening.”
“He was an immense father figure
for everybody that came through
that program for years and years
and years.” Hoddy said “Everybody
cherishes that time and I think most
people would say, unabashedly,
they loved Cliff Keen dearly and
everything that he did to represent
the University of Michigan was a
proper thing.”
Keen’s legacy lives on through
the University and the sport of
wrestling. The wrestling supply
company he founded in 1958, Cliff
Keen Athletic, is one of the premiere
companies in the business and
wrestlers across the country use
the signature Cliff Keen headgear
designed by the coach.
Keen positively impacted many
people’s lives during his coaching
career and his legacy will live on.
“You gotta say he is one of the
great Michigan coaches of all time
in any sport,” Bay said. “He was
a unique individual. Nothing one
dimensional about him. He was
dignified. He was a gentleman
coach. He coached the way I always
felt you should coach. I think the
principles he stood for are still
important today.”
Even now, Keen commands a
high degree of respect in wrestlers
of all ages, including those too
young to remember his time at
Michigan.
“Last year at a shopping mall in
Livonia, we saw a teenager wearing
a Cliff Keen Wrestling Club shirt.”
Stone said. “We asked him about
it. He was a high-school wrestler. I
told him that I had wrestled for Cliff
Keen. He said, with an expression
of awe, you wrestled for Cliff Keen?
“I realized, (as) if I didn’t already
know, that his influence spanned
generations.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF RICK BAY
Legendary Michigan coach Cliff Keen was inducted to the State of Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1981.
MADDY STONE-WHEATLEY
For The Daily
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Michigan coach Mel Pearson felt disappointed about the two-week pause.
Cliff Keen: Tales of a Michigan Legend
PHOTO COURTESY OF RICK BAY
Legendary Michigan coach Cliff Keen made wrestling a family.
JOSH TAUBMAN
Daily Sports Writer
Michigan coach Mel Pearson reflects on what pause means for season