Stories indexed with the term ‘Fab Five’

As the University of Michigan prepares for the NCAA basketball championship game, New York Times columnist William Rhoden argues that it’s time for UM to reconcile with former Fab Five star Chris Webber: “… Michigan is the parent who took Webber and the Fab Five into the world of big-time college athletics. Indeed, [former UM basketball coach Bill] Frieder said he began recruiting Webber for Michigan when Webber was in seventh grade. The university owes Webber an apology as well.” [Source]

The past two Sundays, ESPN has been running a documentary called “The Fab Five,” about Michigan’s famed five freshman basketball players who captured the public’s imagination twenty years ago. It’s not quite journalism – four of the Fab Five produced it themselves – but it is a pretty honest account of what those two years were all about. And it is undeniably compelling. The first showing reached over two million homes, making it the highest rated documentary in ESPN’s history.

A lot of this story, you already know: In 1991, five super-talented freshmen came to Michigan, and by mid-season the Wolverines were the first team in NCAA history to start five freshmen. They got to the final game of March Madness before losing to the defending national champion Duke Blue Devils. The next year, they made it to the finals again, but this time they lost to North Carolina when Michigan’s best player, Chris Webber, called a time-out they didn’t have.

Along the way they made baggy shorts and black socks fashionable, and imported rap music and trash talk from the inner-city playgrounds to the college courts. It’s been that way ever since. [Full Story]