The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/152358
Leaders In The Making Alum Curt Stephenson Gives Back After Incredible Experience C By John Borton urt Stephenson's Michigan journey began with a dream, and a 2,500-mile drive across the United States. Most would have considered it foolhardy, but to Stephenson the drive changed his life — and the results still reverberate for him and for Michigan. After playing all of one year of high school football, at La Jolla (Calif.) High School, the transplanted Michigander decided nothing could stand in the way of his dream: to become a Wolverine under Bo Schembechler. In August 1973, he packed two boxes of clothing into his 1969 Mustang, bid farewell to his parents and headed out for Ann Arbor. He'd closely watched the Wolverines, dreaming of the winged helmet, and knew nothing could stop him … except, perhaps, reality. Reality involved him weighing roughly 140 pounds, and approaching a wellstocked football powerhouse unexpected and unannounced, seeking to just show up and make the team. Some might have thought he'd taken one too many surfboards to the cranium. Stephenson didn't care. He was going to meet Schembechler and become a Wolverine. Unfathomably, that's precisely what happened. In Stephenson's book, Those Who Stay, he recounts his initial encounter with the man refashioning the football dynasty in Ann Arbor. The 17-year-old bounded into Michigan's football offices ready to meet Schembechler, but quickly discovered it wasn't that easy. No, he didn't have an appointment, he acknowledged, before getting redirected. Dennis Brown, former U-M quarterback and at that time an assistant coach, listened to Stephenson pour out his story, about how he'd fallen in love with Michigan football watching the Wolverines beat Ohio State in the iconic 1969 showdown. Brown told him Schembechler would enjoy his tale, and minutes later Stephenson found himself ambling down the hallway to the head coach's office. Stephenson recalled, in his book: "Bo didn't look up when I entered.