The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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MARCH 2017 THE WOLVERINE 113 WHERE ARE THEY NOW? brother, Pete. They had a family ob- ligation out there, but they took time to come out and watch the game and were there to congratulate us for winning the Big Ten championship." A first-team All-American, Free- han moved on to a remarkable major league career after that campaign. Standout pitcher Mike Joyce turned pro as well, leaving some to question Michigan's ability to repeat. "We knew in '62, we were going to be a pretty good team, but a lot of people didn't think so, outside of the coaches and the players," Hood said. Standout pitcher Fritz Fisher re- turned, along with an infield Lund deemed the best in college baseball — Dave Campbell (a 10-year major leaguer) at first, Joe Jones at second, Dick Honig at short and Harvey Chap- man at third. The Wolverines did not, in fact, repeat as Big Ten champions. They raised the bar, following a late-season disappointment. The Wolverines entered the final two games of the regular season, at Wisconsin, leading the Big Ten. The league title then slipped away in shocking fashion, thanks to Pat Richter, who would later go on to be Wisconsin's athletics director. "We were winning with Fritz Fisher, our All-American pitcher, on the mound," Hood recalled. "We were up by a couple of runs, and this guy comes up to bat and hits a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh, so they win." The second game produced a pain- ful déjà vu. "Same situation — we were up by a run or two going into the seventh, and up comes this fella and bam, hits a three-run homer," Hood said. Cue the concern, since Michigan lost its automatic qualifying status for the national tournament. It didn't last long, the Wolverines named a wild card appointee by a selection committee. After a loss to Western Michigan, U-M first got by University of Detroit, led by a formidable foe in future New York Knicks star Dave Debusschere. "Dave was also from Detroit, and we all had played on the same teams," Hood said. "Everybody knew him, and knew he was tough. It was nice to knock them out." They beat Illinois, and needed to take down Western Michigan twice to reach Omaha and the College World Series. The Wolverines did just that, winning 3-2 and 7-6, with John Kerr throwing some 300 pitches in the leap to Omaha. "He would throw what was called a squeegee — in effect, a screwball, which just dropped like mad," Hood recalled. "John could throw it for strikes. John probably threw in the mid-70s — didn't throw very hard. But the ball danced and jumped all over the place. He became a remark- able pitcher for us his senior year, and that was totally unexpected." That wasn't the only drama for the Wolverines. The national champion- ship game went 15 innings, with Jim Bobel — who missed much of the season due to injury — stepping up. "He wins against Santa Clara in the final game for the championship," Hood noted. "They were the heavy favorites, in everybody's eyes. "Jim came in, in relief, in the eighth and pitched through the 15th. He gets the win and knocked in the win- ning run with a two-run triple. We won, 5-4, and that was remarkable." Hood could have gone into coach- ing, but chose law instead, signing on with Detroit firm Dykema Gossett after graduating from law school at Michigan. "I applied to law school, and I got a call from Bump Elliott," Hood re- called. "He said, 'Ed, I've got a posi- tion open, and I'd like you to join us as a grad assistant while you're in law school. If you do that, when you graduate from law school, you'll have to make a decision. But if you do that, I'll do everything in my power to make sure you're placed on a Big Ten staff somewhere.'" After two years in Detroit, Hood wanted to return to Ann Arbor, switching firms because Dykema Gossett had no branch there. That eventually changed. "I had a case where the managing partner of Dykema was on the other side," Hood noted. "He just looked over at me and said, 'I think it's time for you to come home.' I did, and it was good." He stayed with the firm until retir- ing in 2008, capping an Ann Arbor- based run that seemed to fit his de- scription of the World Series: "It was beyond my wildest dreams." ❏ The Ed Hood File Michigan Accomplishments: Played both football and baseball at Michigan, 1959‑62 … Served as captain on the Wolverine's national championship baseball squad in 1962 … Part of U‑M's Big Ten title team in 1961. Professional Accomplishments: Practiced law from 1966‑2008, chiefly with Dykema Gossett … Served on the firm's executive and finance committees, and managed the Ann Arbor office … Served at the governor's behest on the Detroit Water Board for 18 months in 2015‑16, helping straighten out massive financial and infrastructure issues. Education: BA in political science, 1963 … Law degree from Michigan in 1966. Michigan Memory: "After we won the national championship, we had the good fortune to be in the right place at the right time. A group wanted to send us to Hawai'i to play the Japanese national champions [whom Michigan defeated]. "The thought was this would turn into an annual international series. As it turned out, it only happened once. We've got a special claim to fame, in that our team was the first and only international world champion college baseball team. "As you can imagine, spending 30 days out there with guys you had played baseball with for 10, 12 years, that you had known for a significant part of your life, that was a very, very special time." Family: Wife, Jana Lee, daughter Julie, and sons Jim and Andy. Hood earned his law degree from Michigan and then set out a career that spanned four decades before retiring in 2008. PHOTO COURTESY ED HOOD