A Saturday afternoon at Michigan Stadium was thrilling, but time spent with a coaching legend was even better.
By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — When a legend invites you to the Big House, you go.
That’s how I ended up among 110,250 fans at Michigan Stadium — the largest stadium in the United States — for last Saturday’s football game between the defending national champion Wolverines and visiting Arkansas State.
I sat beside Garth Pleasant, a longtime basketball coach and preacher featured in the documentary “COACH: Make the Big Time Where You’re At.”
I made the 1,000-mile journey from my home in Oklahoma — where I usually cheer for the Sooners — after Pleasant told me he had an extra ticket.
“Is it a date?” Pleasant asked in an email, punctuating his question with two smiley face emojis.
Given the distance, I brushed off the idea at first.
But then I wondered to myself: How could I turn down such an opportunity — not only to experience all that maize and blue once in my lifetime but also to spend time with Pleasant?
So I booked a flight to Detroit.
The Michigan native, now 75, won 720 games and four small-college national championships in 38 seasons at Rochester Christian University, north of Detroit.
The most incredible aspect of his success: His teams practiced in a cramped gymnasium on campus with a splintering plywood floor. They played their “home” games in borrowed facilities.
But the Rochester Warriors never made excuses for their circumstances.
This column appears in the online edition of The Christian Chronicle. Read the Religion Unplugged version of this column.
Photo by Klint Pleasant
Faith. Family. Fastballs. 