The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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60 THE WOLVERINE ❱ JUNE/JULY 2023 BY ANTHONY BROOME F ormer Michigan running back great Tyrone Wheatley has lived as full a football life as any. The 1992 Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year and three- time All-Big Ten first-team selection was a first-round pick of the New York Giants in 1995, kicking off a 10-year ca- reer in the NFL. He even ran track for the Wolverines, earning All-America honors in the 110-meter hurdles in 1995. Wheatley followed up his playing career by jumping into coaching three years later and never looked back. Af- ter making a name for himself in the coaching ranks at the high school, col- lege and NFL levels, he returned to the state in January 2023 as the head coach at Wayne State University, a Division II program located in the heart of down- town Detroit. Wheatley was raised in Inkster, Mich., and had to assume a guardian role in his family due to tragic circumstances growing up. He persevered through it all, becoming a dual-sport athlete at Robichaud High School in nearby Dear- born Heights and developing into a nine-time Michigan state champion (seven individual titles in track and field and one team title apiece with both track and football). The old adage is that the best players in Michigan become Wolverines, but that was never a given for Wheatley. "I grew up a Michigan State fan," he told host Mike Vaccaro on the "In The Front Row" podcast. "It was an influ- ence of my neighborhood. A lot of peo- ple where I'm from didn't go to Michi- gan "As a matter of fact, I was kind of a Michigan hater because we called 'em snobs. They just thought they were bet- ter than everybody else. "I was a huge Michigan State fan. And then a lot of people in the neighborhood went to Wayne State, Eastern Michigan. "You gravitate toward what you see every day. I saw more green and white in my neighborhood, whether it was East- ern Michigan or Michigan State, than I saw maize and blue." Things changed for Wheatley when one of his teachers suggested he give Michigan a shot. He made his way to Ann Arbor for a visit and was hosted by defensive back Lance Dottin, who changed Wheatley's mindset on what he wanted out of a school. "I said, 'Man, I just want an oppor- tunity,'" Wheatley recalled. "He said, 'Brother, you already have the oppor- tunity. You created it. Look at the word opportunity,' and he handed me a dic- tionary. I started to read and it says, cir- cumstance. "'Everybody's looking for an oppor- tunity,' he said, 'You create the oppor- tunity. Right now, what you need are the right circumstances. Stop looking for the opportunity. You created it.' "I go back to my hotel room, and I'm sitting there thinking about my circum- stances and realized I need discipline. I need strong men around me. Michigan would be a different place for me. ❱ WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Tyrone Wheatley Returns Home To Coach And Give Back Wheatley (shown with his wife, Kimberly, at left) was named head football coach at Wayne State University in Detroit in January 2023 by interim athletics director Erika Wallace (right). PHOTO COURTESY WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY