The Wolverine

March 2017 Recruiting Issue

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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112 THE WOLVERINE MARCH 2017 BY JOHN BORTON F ifty-five years after he and his team stood at the pinnacle of the college baseball world, former Wol- verine Ed Hood remains a picture of grace and gratefulness. A successful law career behind him, he'll show up at a local eatery on Thursdays to discuss the latest devel- opments with Jim Harbaugh and his Wolverines, surrounded by luminaries from University of Michigan athletic lore. There's an unbreakable link to the school, one that began with Hood sitting in a third-grade classroom. He regular teacher didn't show up that day, on Detroit's East Side. Instead, a mammoth figure strode in, subbing to supplement his summer income as a member of the Detroit Tigers. "Lo and behold, Don Lund appears in our classroom," Hood recalled. "Back in those days, baseball players didn't make much money. You had to have a job in the offseason. They all did, including Al Kaline, when he was Rookie of the Year." Lund, the three-sport athlete at Michigan and later National Coach of the Year in Ann Arbor, didn't have much trouble establishing order. "I can still remember this today," Hood said. "I thought, 'Oh my word, is this guy big.' He was unbelievably huge. He captivated the classroom in a matter of seconds." It's not often a substitute teacher has to linger after class to give auto- graphs, but Lund did. When Hood fully grasped the gentlemanly gi- ant's efforts in football, basketball and baseball, he suddenly discovered a path for himself. "I can remember thinking, that's just great," Hood recalled. "Michi- gan's got to be the place to go. I got a good early start." Hood played baseball in Detroit leagues teeming with talent in the 1950s. Future Tigers stars such as Bill Freehan and Willie Horton barely scratched the surface of the available talent. Hood himself played baseball, football and basketball at Denby High School. When Lund became Michigan's head baseball coach in 1958, he hired Moby Benedict as an assistant and Hood became part of their first recruiting class. Benedict gave up a three-year play- ing career with the Tigers to come to Ann Arbor. "That was a wonderful thing for Don," Hood said. "Moby was ex- tremely loyal, a bundle of energy, really knew the game, and was great with the players. And, of course, no- body was more a consummate pro- fessional than Don. "The two of them made a great team, and we knew it. It was clear to us that these guys really know what they're doing." The duo, which went to school to- gether at Detroit Southeastern High, began assembling parts for a title machine. "Don and Moby, with their Detroit connections, quickly recruited the Detroit area and just cleaned up," Hood said. "They recruited the core guys in the first couple of years that eventually became a national cham- pionship team." Hood wound up on a football schol- arship, since head coach Bump El- liott had more grants to dole out. But Hood played both sports at Michigan. His football career endured a rocky beginning. All freshmen were ineli- gible to play, but Hood absorbed an unexpected blow on the brink of his sophomore season, breaking his jaw in the last practice before the opener. "I had a triple fracture of my left mandible," he recalled. "A defensive tackle brought his arm up under my facemask, and it shattered the jaw. I ended up missing the first five or six games." That's plenty in a nine-game season, and a second injury wiped away the year. Hood performed his final two seasons as a backup, behind backs Bennie McRae, who later played for years with the Chicago Bears, and Dave Raimey, who wound up in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Hood played safety on defense, while subbing in for 27 carries and a pair of pass receptions on offense, along with special teams work re- turning kickoffs and punts. He performed in every game after his sophomore season for Elliott squads struggling just under the .500 mark. "Bump was an excellent football coach, but his record for the first few years doesn't reflect how good a coach he really was," Hood recalled. "It just took him a while to get his recruiting underway." In the meantime, Lund continued building a powerhouse. The Wolver- ines won the Big Ten championship in 1961, Freehan hitting an other- worldly .585 in conference play, a record that still stands. Hood delivered a clutch hit to help wrap up the conference champion- ship in a doubleheader at Illinois, an event he remembers well. "That was very exciting," he said. "Bump Elliott was there with his   WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Ed Hood Served As A Captain For The 1962 Baseball National Champions Hood played both football and baseball for the Wolverines from 1959-62, and served as a team captain for the title-winning baseball squad in '62. PHOTO COURTESY ED HOOD

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