The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/178977
Carr never wanted his players to take for granted the place where they played, so he had an idea. "On the last day of training camp, before we go into a regular week of practice preparation for the first game," Carr said, "I would take the entire team up to the stadium that Friday night. I did that with every team that I coached. "I would get them all gathered around in a big circle and say, 'This is our stadium this year. We get these six or seven games here, and that's it. You will have the memories of these games your whole life.'" Jim Schneider, a retired Michigan sports information department publicist who worked closely with Carr, Gary Moeller, and Bo, smiled while listening to Carr recall the scene of those bonding expeditions at the stadium. "We didn't have lights then," Schneider said. "It was dark, and the only light would come from the few lights in the tunnel or the moon." If they ever make a movie about Charles Woodson, Brian Griese, and the 1997 national champions, recalling their Friday night from that season on film would be a must. "We would all circle on the field," Carr said, "and I would have the captains talk. And they often said the same kinds of things they had heard when they first came to the team: You have to say to yourself, 'Every day that I am going to be here, I am going to do my best every one of those days. And for you freshmen, you have so much to learn on how to be a real part of a team. Listening will be most important for you.' "And then other players would chip in and say things that were on their minds. I did it every year for 13 years. It was a fun thing, a great night." Carr leaned back with the satisfied look of an old coach who knew how to bring together some 100 players from across the country, from entirely different lifestyles and even different languages, at the start of a new campaign through the Big Ten. "When I got to introduce and speak about Brian Griese at the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame induction," Carr said of the December 2012 event, "I went out to eat with Keith Jackson and Bob Griese. And at that dinner, we talked about that." For each of them, and for so many fans of the Wolverines, there is much more to it than what is visible on football Saturdays. There is that special matter of football Fridays without the lights. ❏ This excerpt from Go Blue!: Michigan's Greatest Football Stories is printed with the permission of Triumph Books. For more information, please visit www.triumphbooks.com/GoBlue. Want to read the rest? Go Blue!: Michigan's Greatest Football Stories is available for purchase from our online store: thewolverineondemand.com