The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/230001
INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS athletics director David Brandon explained in a blog on Michigan's athletic website. "He is a member of the State of Michigan Sports Hall of Fame and the University of Michigan Hall of Honor, but he never felt he had to wear his accomplishments on his sleeve. He just went about his life and was always more interested in what was going on in your life." The Hall of Famer accomplished plenty on multiple levels of sport, despite his reticence to self-promote. Lund starred in three sports at Michigan, earning three letters each in football, basketball and baseball from 1942-44. His baseball number, 33, remains only of only six retired by the Michigan program in that sport. He decided to forego a chance to play for the NFL's Chicago Bears in 1945, even though he'd been drafted in the first round. He instead chose Major League Baseball, playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers, St. Louis Browns and his hometown Detroit Tigers in a pro career that spanned nine seasons. Coming back to Ann Arbor, Lund took over as Michigan's head baseball coach and led the Wolverines to the national championship in 1962. He guided the Wolverines to an 8555-3 record from 1959-62, directing Michigan to the 1961 Big Ten championship before winning it all the following year. Former Tigers All-Star catcher Bill Freehan, who played under Lund at Michigan, noted: "After my father, Don Lund is the most important man in my life … Don was the one who taught us how to win, both on and off the field." Lund eventually went back to the majors, serving eight years in the Tigers' front office. He served as director of player personnel and ran the franchise's farm system. Returning to Michigan in 1970, he became an assistant athletics director, serving more than two decades in the U-M athletic department. Back in Ann Arbor, Lund dealt with alumni relations, working with the Victors Club and athletic development. He retired following the 199192 academic year. Along the way, he made Michigan's Hall of Honor and the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame. More importantly, to those who remember him well, he was a Hall of Fame individual in how he dealt with people on a day-to-day basis. "I had to be told about Mr. Lund's legendary athletic status," Brandon commented. "Everything I learned about his athletic prowess I had to learn from somebody else or from reading background information. It was his friendly demeanor and the respect he gave to us as student-athletes that made me appreciate and respect him immediately. "He clearly connected with student-athletes because he had been there and done that. He knew the life we led and what we had to do to be successful. Mr. Lund was a huge advocate of what we're about and how we needed to represent the University of Michigan in the right way."