The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1123063
26 THE WOLVERINE JUNE/JULY 2019 BY JOHN BORTON J im Harbaugh continues to dream big — on the football field and beyond. He's all about taking the next step at Michigan Stadium and other football palaces. He knows, though, there's more to life and education than can be experienced on a football Sat- urday. Two years ago, his team ventured to Rome, even presenting a gift to the pope. Last spring, it witnessed the grandeur of Paris and the solemn sanc- tity of Normandy. This year, the Wolverines came face to face with the horrors of apart- heid, not to mention a bracing glance and growl from a lion, just feet away from their open Jeeps. A journey to South Africa, May 3-10, will be forever burned onto their memories. Harbaugh summed it up on Attack Each Day: The Harbaughs' Podcast, by quoting his favorite author, Ernest Hemingway. "He wrote this about Africa: 'I never knew a morning when I woke up and was not happy.' I concur," Harbaugh said. The same could be said by his play- ers; coaches; trip sponsors, Stephen and Nicole Eisenberg; and anyone else associated with this year's educational team journey. The trip took the team from Detroit to Amsterdam, to Cape Town, South Africa, to Johannesburg and finally back to the United States. It proved so impactful, so engrossing, Harbaugh spent two of his hour-long podcasts recapping it with the Eisenbergs and Matt Dudek, Michigan's director or recruiting and unofficial Africa pod- cast narrator. Here, drawn from the podcasts, is their story: LONG JOURNEY TO CAPE TOWN The Wolverines flew in two groups from Detroit's Metro Airport to Am- sterdam, and it didn't take long for frequent flyers to note the import of even this part of the trip. It's one thing for world travelers to make the journey. It's quite another for an early enrollee freshman who has never been on an airplane and who could be prepping for graduation to do so. So it was for new U-M tight end Erick All. "Erick All's very first flight ever was from Detroit to Amsterdam, and then from Amsterdam to Cape Town," Dudek mentioned. "He prob- ably thinks all flying is this long, that they feed you three times and you can watch unlimited movies. He's going to be sad when he flies from Detroit to Miami." Nobody was sad when U-M made Camps Bay in Cape Town, after spend- ing roughly 18.5 hours in the skies. Their accommodations, right on the Atlantic Ocean, were waiting, along with a meal. They next split up to head for two hotels and some welcome sleep. The Wolverines spent their first full day in South Africa hiking, observ- ing the breathtaking views of Lion's Head and Table Mountain, and learn- ing about the country from Albie Sachs. Sachs, who became a judge on the Constitutional Court of South Af- rica, delivered an hour-long talk to the travel party. "We're sitting there and essentially have a Supreme Court justice of South Africa speaking to us," Dudek said. "He got a standing ovation," Har- baugh noted. "He was a college stu- dent in the very beginning, opposing apartheid. He was there from the be- ginning, as a demonstrator and a pro- testor, and eventually was exiled." "He was blown up," Stephen Eisen- berg noted. "He was in a car bomb. He lost his arm. He lost sight in one eye. His background and experiences were just tremendous, the amount of things he did." SUBLIME SOJOURN The Wolverines Take The Trip Of A Lifetime Into Africa