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| MARGARET MYERS/Daily Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson skates across the ice during a team practice. Berenson, a University alumnus who saw success as a player and coach in the National Hockey League, has overseen the Michigan hockey program for 13 years. |
"The home crowds weren't always the way they are now, you know," Berenson says. "I remember when Michigan State would come into Ann Arbor, and they expected to have the crowd advantage. The place would be full, and three-fourths of the fans would be rooting for Michigan State. It was green and white, everywhere." By now he is leaning forward in his seat. "In our building!"
He gradually resettles into his chair and sips coffee from a mug with "Michigan Hockey -- 1996 National Champions" written in gold lettering across the top.
The story brings a smile to Berenson's face these days.
These days, after all, are relatively easy. These days, Yost Ice Arena is full of rowdy fans wearing maize and blue, and the green-and-white horror stories are but a distant memory. These days, thousands and thousands of fans are familiar with Michigan hockey. The Wolverines are the winningest team of the decade.
But this is Red Berenson's 13th season as coach of the Michigan hockey team. The wins didn't always come so easily.
When Gordon "Red" Berenson played hockey at Michigan from 1960-62, he was a two-time All-American and won the league's Most Valuable Player Award once. He still holds the school record for goals in a season. He scored 43 -- and had nine hat tricks -- in just 28 games as a senior.
His professional career spanned 17 years and four teams, and he is still well known for the night when he tied an NHL record by scoring six goals in one game for the St. Louis Blues.
In 1982, he joined current Detroit Red Wings coach and NHL legend Scotty Bowman as part of the Buffalo Sabres coaching staff. Berenson was playing for Bowman in St. Louis in the late 1970s when he had his six-goal game.
"Berenson was very serious, and he was a well-conditioned player," Bowman said. "You didn't have to do a lot of coaching with him. He knew the game well."
Berenson stayed in Buffalo until 1984, when he accepted the job at Michigan.
"I thought we could be a winning team in a couple of years," Berenson says of his initial timeline. Then he shakes his head. "I didn't really fully understand what I was getting into."
What he was getting into was a program that had become accustomed to losing. And he inherited a team full of players who were used to that losing mentality.
"I would say it was probably a year or so before I realized that this was going to be a long process," Berenson says. "We just didn't have the parts. We didn't have all the pieces you need to win night after night."
Berenson says that "the image of the program had to change, off the ice."
Berenson started by bringing in new people -- his type of people. He says he made academics a priority in recruiting, and he made it clear that players should only come to Michigan if they're serious about hockey and school.
The painstaking climb continued. Berenson says it was "like pulling teeth."
"You know, after three years, we were still a losing team, but you could see things were getting better," Berenson says. "And by the time we finally got over .500, the team really started to believe that they could win, rather than hoping to win.
"And I thought that was the big changeover."
The big leap came in the 1990-91 season, when the team won 34 games and finished second in the league. A stellar freshman class that included David Oliver, Brian Wiseman and Steve Shields contributed immediately. After not making the NCAA tournament the previous season, the Wolverines were, not-so-suddenly, one of the nationŐs premier teams.
The recruits kept coming. By the time the Oliver-Wiseman-Shields class was in its final year, there was another crop of freshmen helping out. This group was led by a couple of kids named Brendan Morrison and Jason Botterill.
After years of steady improvement and limited exposure, Red Berenson and the Michigan hockey program were finally developing a reputation.
And then it got tarnished.
On the night of March 16, 1994, as Berenson left Banfield's Bar and Grill in Ann Arbor, a police officer was watching from across the street. The officer watched as Berenson first urinated outside next to a wall of the public library, then got in his car and put it in reverse. Berenson had gone about 20 feet before the officer stopped him and arrested him for drunken driving and urinating in public.
And suddenly, like never before, Red Berenson was a front-page story. And so was the Michigan hockey program.
"It was good for me, and it was good for our team," Berenson says now. "It made us realize how vulnerable we all are and how visible we all are and how accountable we all are to each other. You know, you do a hundred good things and one bad thing ...
"And that's good. It may not be fair, but it's a good lesson for everyone. I set high standards for my team and for the people around me, and I'm accountable to them as well."
The next year, Michigan won 30 games. And the rest is history.
Two seasons ago, the Wolverines won their first national championship in 32 years, and last season, the team was ranked No. 1 nationally for all but one week.
And Berenson has evolved with the program. Ninth-year assistant coach Mel Pearson says that winning has made Berenson "a little more mellow."
09-03-97
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