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DEL.ICIO.USToday’s Final Four memory
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
So there was Michigan, with much help from Glen Rice going nuts on offense, sliding by Seton Hall in overtime for the 1989 national championship in Seattle.
The ending was shocking, but only because of the beginning.
Not the beginning of the game.
March Madness in Atlanta:
Check out the AJC’s Final Four pageLet’s return to the beginning of the NCAA tournament that year for Michigan at the old Omni in Atlanta. Two days earlier, Wolverines coach Bill Frieder announced that he was leaving for Arizona State after the season. Then Bo Schembechler showed why he is one of my all-time favorite sports personalities.
Between growls, Schembechler barred Frieder from coaching Michigan in the tournament. Said Schembechler, the Wolverines’ legendary football coach and athletics director, “A Michigan team should be coached by a Michigan man.”
Goodbye, Frieder. Hello, Steve Fisher, Frieder’s assistant, who Schembechler promoted to interim head coach.
It got more interesting. Michigan opened with Xavier back then. When I glanced around the Omni before the opening tipoff, I saw Frieder sitting a few rows behind the Michigan bench. He was forced to buy a ticket for the game.
Frieder was besieged by so many Michigan fans and reporters that he decided to move around the arena. He settled underneath the basket near Xavier’s bench. That’s where he watched Michigan beat the first of six straight opponents along the way to an improbable title with a “Michigan man.”
Soon after the Wolverines’ first national championship in basketball, with Schembechler grinning as if he’d just whipped Woody Hayes or something, he told reporters of his plans for hiring a permanent head coach. “I think we ought to interview Steve Fisher,” said
Schembechler, grinning some more.
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