The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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20 THE WOLVERINE NOVEMBER 2019 about 30, 45 degrees. She snaps him back into place without anesthesia, puts a cast on him, and the next day, he's back out there playing with his brothers." Jordan was about 6 then, but even before that, he asserted himself into the big brothers' athletic endeavors. From the perspective of the elder Glasgow boys, they'd done the tough, trailblazing work. Steven assured: "If you ask them what it was like, they would say, 'Jordy had it easy. We're the guys that had to pave the way. We're the guys who had to put up with all the non- sense. We finally earned the right to do certain things, and it was grossly unfair that Jordy was able to do them, even though we weren't at an earlier age.'" It began with karate, Steven noted. Michele definitely didn't want the boys playing football, taking the non- violence stance in the household. So their dad took them to karate, when Graham and Ryan were in about the fourth and third grade. "My wife wouldn't come," Steven recalled. "She's like, 'I'm very anti- violence.' I told her, 'This isn't about violence. This is about the aggression that these beasts have, and that they need to learn how to control and chan- nel this and deal with it. This is going to be good for them." They'd head off to the sessions, and Steven would come back with hys- terical stories about how the "morons" were behaving, how much fun it was, etc. About a month into the experience, others joined in the journey, including the boys' grandmother, their mom and the littlest Glasgow. "Every time the sensei would turn around, Jordy would be out there, be- hind his brothers, doing the moves," Steven recalled. "The sensei would yell at him and send him off." That happened roughly 10 times per session, until the mentor tried to put a stop to it. "Finally, the sensei came to me and said, 'He's too young. You can't bring him to class.' I said, 'I'm not fighting that fight. This is your problem. It's not my problem. I can't leave him at home. He won't tolerate it,'" Steven argued. "So the next time we go to practice, Jordy gets his belt and his gear, and he's the youngest guy there by three years, because he won't take no for an answer." When the older boys begged their way into football in the sixth and fifth grade, a second grader insisted he was ready, even though football in their town wasn't available until the fifth grade. He'd done the same for wake- boarding and snowboarding, so why not? Steven noted: "I've got this kid who says, 'I need to play. You can't do this to me.' He was in second grade. We had to take him out of town to find him a football team." Their father made Graham and Ryan earn their way to expert-level skiing classes before they got to switch to the more-hip snowboarding experience. Jordan earned the instant promotion. "I've got this kid laying on the ground, saying, 'I'm never touching skis again. I want what my brothers have,'" Steven noted. "They're going, 'You can't do this, dad. This is unfair.' I said, 'It's absolutely unfair, boys, but this is the way it's going to be.' "Which just got him pounded on more, by the way. They were like, 'He doesn't have to pay the price, like we had to pay the price. We'll take care of business here and make him pay for it in other ways.'" Eventually, the brotherly bond be- came cemented by more than staples, broken bones and grudging accep- tance. The Glasgows sent their boys to Marmion Academy, a Benedictine monk military academy 45 minutes away for high school. When Ryan was a senior and Jordan a freshman, they rode together every day. "We got pretty close, driving to school and back," Jordan acknowl- edged. "We were in all the same sports. I started getting a real relation- ship with my brother at that point. I developed more of a relationship with both of them as I went on throughout high school. "When I came to college, both of my brothers were here. I was able to spend a lot of time with them, and keep growing our bond." Jordan, center in front of his proud dad, Dr. Steven Glasgow, followed in the footsteps of older brothers Graham, right, now a starting guard for the Detroit Lions, and Ryan, a defensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals who has battled injuries over the last two years but has started in two of his four games played this season. All three originally joined the Wolverines as walk-ons and even- tually earned scholarships. PHOTO COURTESY GLASGOW FAMILY Steven Glasgow, father of Graham, Ryan and Jordan "It's been quite a journey and an amazing ride for us. We thank God every day. There aren't a lot of families that get to spend nine years at Michigan doing this. That's pretty special."