'M' sports: You never really know

You never really know. You can't, not when you're talking about a group of athletes barely old enough to vote. Not when they're also learning to live away from home, wash their own laundry and even, on occasion, make an appearance in class. They aren't pros. You never know what might happen.

That's why college sports are special. That's why, in particular, a year like the past one - in which Michigan's football and hockey teams won national titles, as everyone knows, and six other teams (soccer, softball, field hockey, men's cross country, women's track and women's swimming) won Big Ten titles, which nobody knows - is even more special than most.

It was an unprecedented year for Michigan, a year in which a campus rallied around team after team and was rewarded with more sports success than in any other year in recent memory.

Jim Rose Rose Beef

The best part about it? Easy. It was all so unexpected. Consider what happened in the fall. Even the truest of maize-and-bluebloods had to admit, last August, that the outlook was less than rosy for a group of Wolverines that had lost four games for four straight years. The schedule was a mountain, we said; the quarterback was a mouse.

Week after week, as the team continued to surprise everyone - even its staunchest fans - the anticipation built, and the frenzy on campus grew with it. By December, the schedule had been beaten; the quarterback had grown into a hero and a national celebrity. And the Michigan students - the ones not on the field - were loving it.

It was an excitement so contagious that at one point it led University President Lee Bollinger - a former law school dean who's as academic and level-minded as they come - to throw open his doors and invite a postgame street party into his house. The presidential carpet may have been soiled, but it was worth it.

Soon after, the men's basketball team (an exciting team, if not a consistent one) got in on the action, springing to life to win the first-ever Big Ten Tournament. The Wolverines were as hot as anyone in the country, and it looked, it seemed, it had to be, that they were poised to make a big run in the NCAA tourney.

They didn't. They lost. Just like that. Careers were ended. Fans were stunned.

So it works both ways. You never really know.

And just a few weeks later, as Red Berenson's hockey team - one year removed from the graduation of its most heralded class ever - completed an improbable, impractical, seemingly impossible run to the NCAA championship, that frenzy was back. The fans were beside themselves with excitement. The campus was alive.

And why? Because nobody expected it. Nobody thought it could happen. Even after it happened, it was hard to believe. It represented all that was great about college athletics.

You never know. And that is why, as we head to Ann Arbor - some, for the first time, others, for one last time - we can look forward to the coming year in sports with optimism.

The football team adds to the mix the best group of freshmen in the nation; the hockey team returns most of last year's title team. The men's basketball team looks like it might be in some serious trouble, with a depleted squad and little help on the way - but then again, you never know.

So go to a football game at the Big House. Go to a hockey game at Yost. Or, if you need a quiet couple hours and you're sick of the library, got to Crisler and catch a basketball game. Even if you've done it all before, something will sneak up on you. Something will surprise you. Something always does at this level.

That's the great thing about college sports. No matter how much you've seen, or how much you think you know, something always happens to make it all new again. Whether it's the revival of a down-on-its-luck football program or the sneak attack of a now-feared hockey program - it's always something.

Will the coming school year see as many championships as last year's did?

In all likelihood, the answer is no. But then again, you never really know, do you?

- Jim Rose is the Managing Sports Editor of the Daily. He can be reached via e-mail at jwrose@umich.edu.

09-08-98