The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1123063
JUNE/JULY 2019 THE WOLVERINE 29 dates of these hangings, and it was like June 5, 1989. You're standing there like, wow, this person was executed and hung 30 years ago. … It was really, really moving, that room." A drive to the Entabeni Safari Con- servancy set up two days of experi- encing the Africa seen in every travel brochure. Elephants, lions, warthogs, baboons, zebras, giraffes, rhinos and the deadly Black Mamba crossed their path, along with other animals. A guide earned their attention im- mediately at the quarters where they stayed. Dudek recalled him saying: "'Just so you know, as you're outside, coming out of your rooms, only food runs.' The whole room, you could see every- body kind of tense up. Everybody's mouth drops. "They told us make sure your doors and windows are closed, because the baboons and monkeys will go into your room, they will ransack it, and they will try to find all the food that you have." From new defensive line coach Shaun Nua and his crew push-starting a stranded Jeep with elephants ap- proaching to point-blank lion encoun- ters in the Jeeps, the Wolverines were transfixed. "We were the only ones to see li- ons the first day out," Harbaugh said. "They walked right close to our Jeep and then walked behind it. I was go- ing to take a video, and our guide said, 'No, don't get up.' These lions see the vehicle and the people as one thing. That Jeep is too big to take down." "It was incredible. The elephants, the lions, they make your heart stop. You look into their eyes, and it's unbeliev- able." "The Black Mamba, the most ven- omous snake, scoots right underneath our Jeep, stops under our Jeep and then goes off into the woods," Dudek recalled. The stories are endless, and will flow freely for years. This one, for those involved, goes straight into the win column. ✦ Players and coaches all agreed that they experienced breath-taking views on the trip. PHOTO BY CHAD SHEPARD/COURTESY MICHIGAN The notion of taking a college football team to another continent and within striking distance of deadly wild ani- mals might be daunting to some. Other programs might not even be trusted with a weekend in Iowa City. Jim Harbaugh came back all smiles over every aspect of Michigan's trip to South Africa — with an admitted sigh of relief at the end. "Touching those wheels down at Detroit Metropolitan Air- port, knowing that our team … nobody stayed out late after curfew, nobody even had a single complaint," Harbaugh said. "Everybody making it there and everybody making it home safely, that was a real proud moment." The Wolverines, he noted, even drew praise from those helping them get home, including the flight attendants. "They'd flown other teams around, and they weren't look- ing forward to flying our team," Harbaugh said. "But we were the most first-class team they'd ever had on a flight. Every- body was a real gentleman, said please and thank you, and were a joy to fly with. Those kinds of things, for me person- ally, were the best part of the trip." Nicole Eisenberg, who along with husband Stephen spon- sored the trip, seconded that notion. She offered up endless praise for the Wolverines on Harbaugh's podcast, including their advice to her if bitten by a Black Mamba. "The players were just so protective, the whole trip," she said. "They're unbelievable kids. Their mothers raised them right and so did you guys. They were so cute. "They just looked at me and they said, 'Listen, you better be very careful. If they bite you, you've got to cut off what- ever it is. Your hand, your leg, whatever it is, because it's going to go straight to your heart. It's going to kill you. You have to amputate whatever it is if you get bit.'" She insisted she learned something new from them every day, and Harbaugh himself learned plenty that he liked. "It was fun," he said. "It was fun to be around a team, a group of people, that was not pained, that they had to be there, had to wake up early, had to go do something. Everything was voluntary, and they were doing it with en- thusiasm." — John Borton Wolverines Keep It Safe And Classy