The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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MAY 2019 THE WOLVERINE 61 BY JOHN BORTON M ichigan's Outstanding Defen- sive Player award bears Way- man Britt's name, more than four de- cades after he tied players in knots for Johnny Orr squads of the mid-1970s. As Kent County administrator in Grand Rapids, Mich., Britt still plays defense for what he calls the "vulnerable and underserved in our community." Wolverines on the west side of the state, and far beyond, will always remember him for making opponents vulnerable. Britt and his teammates reestab- lished Michigan in the NCAA Tour- nament, a decade after the Cazzie Russell squads of the mid-1960s orig- inally ushered U-M there. "We laid the foundation, for sure," Britt said. "It had been 10 years since Cazzie had been gone. We showed up and put our stamp on the program." The hugely talented athlete from Flint could might have made his mark for North Carolina's Tar Heels instead. His father, a sharecropper in Wilson's Mills, N.C., stopped work- ing the land when he moved to Flint in 1967, taking a job in the foundry at General Motors. His son's coach was a friend of UNC icon Dean Smith, and Britt considered staying behind with the coach's family and donning Carolina blue. His dad put the no-nonsense kibosh on such a notion. "Dad says, 'Nope. Everybody's leaving,'" Britt recalled. The rest of the crew moved north in 1969. Wayman and brother James became part of two state champion- ship teams at Flint Northern, playing for eventual Michigan head coach Bill Frieder. Captain of an undefeated squad as a senior, Wayman Britt found himself drawn to Orr's drawl and Michigan's talent. "I chose Michigan because Johnny Orr reminded me a lot of my dad," he said. "They had, I felt, the best tal- ent in the Big Ten at the time. Campy Russell and Henry Wilmore were there, two All-Americans. It felt like that was the right place for me to be." He made it so, adjusting to the rigors of tougher academics, while meshing seamlessly into the social life in Ann Arbor as an outgoing for- mer senior class president. Basket- ball-wise, he knew he needed to hone a rugged edge to play in the Big Ten. Britt took care of that as well. Part- way through a freshman season rep- resenting U-M's only NCAA Tourna- ment miss, Orr called on him to open a game against Michigan State. "I started, we beat them, and from there I became a starter on the team," Britt recalled. His drive toward becoming a lineup fixture wasn't without imped- iment. His sophomore year became an immediate challenge. "I got real sick during train- ing camp, right before the season started," Britt recalled. "I was in the infirmary on campus for about a week, with really bad strep throat. "Steve Grote was filling in at the guard spot. Joe Johnson was the other guard, I came back and coach says, 'Well, Britter, we want to see if Grote can play the guard, and we want you to play forward.'" Gulp. Not that Britt ever backed away from a challenge. But starting in the Big Ten at forward, against players ranging from 6-5 to 6-8? And that wasn't the worst part. "It didn't go well for my room- mate," Britt noted. "He was the guy I had to beat out. That was a bad deal. I didn't like that." Britt and everyone else did like the fact that the Wolverines became Big Ten champions that year. They beat back Bob Knight's Indiana Hoo- siers in a playoff game for the title in Champaign, Ill. They went 22-5, making it to a re- gional final in the NCAA Tourna- ment. Along the way, Britt stared down every challenge, including playing up a position. "I was gifted in my ability to adjust around the rim, do the extra things — blocking out, positioning," he ac- knowledged. "I learned that growing up, playing against my brothers." He learned his lesson well enough to snag an astounding 29 rebounds in the state championship game against Ket- tering his junior year in high school. But the next level required more than great instincts and athleticism. "I had the talent, but it wears you down after a while," Britt said. "I re- member having knee problems from having to jump and work on my leaping ability. I really pushed hard. I did some very unusual things to try to master that position — jump rope, ride a bike up the hills in Ann Arbor. "I just had the tenacity, the heart and the smarts to figure it out and play at that level. But it took its toll over a period of time." It didn't help that Indiana un- der Knight featured a conditioning coach, getting a mention in Sports Illustrated at the time for its rarity. Michigan offered "a leg machine and maybe a dumbbell," Britt recalled. "They had all this extra stuff," he said. "They were much more physical than we were, and stronger than we were. We were faster, had a lot of heart, and some really talented players." WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Wayman Britt Set A Standard That Is Still Carved Into Hardware Britt was a four-year starter that helped the Wolverines to three NCAA Tournaments, high- lighted by reaching the national championship game in 1976. After his senior season, he received the program's Outstanding Defensive Player award. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS