John U. Bacon

Why in the world are the Winter Olympics in Sochi, one of Russia’s warmest places? Chalk it up to corruption – both the Russians’, which we’ve come to expect, and the International Olympic Committee’s, which … we’ve also come to expect. The IOC hasn’t just shown a willingness to be bought, but an insistence. If you don’t pay ‘em, you ain’t getting the Olympics.

That’s how you get a Winter Olympic skating rink built in the shade of palm trees. The warm weather is funny, unless you spent your entire life training for these Olympics, and there’s no snow. Then it’s just heartbreaking.

Sochi will also be remembered for the bronze water you can’t drink, and the ritual police beatings of a punk music group called Pussy Riot – which is the kind of name you come up with when you want to call yourself something shocking, but you don’t know English very well.

But this is important, for two reasons. First, it allows journalists to say Pussy Riot on the air. I don’t think my boss will let me say it next week. And second, it restores our sense of moral superiority. This way, we can still hate the Russians – then beat them in hockey.

And that’s exactly what the Americans did, thanks to a guy named T.J. Oshie.

Oshie is from a Minnesota town about six miles from the Canadian border called Warroad. It’s home to fewer than 2,000 people, but its hockey players have won silver medals in 1956 and 1972, and gold medals in 1960 and 1980. Oshie did his part for his remarkable little town when he scored in the eighth-round of the overtime shoot-out, to beat the Russians, 3-2 – and force millions of Americans to look up T.J. Oshie, and find out where he plays. People in St. Louis were surprised to discover that he lives there.

But it was not the Miracle on Ice – and it never will be again. Unless, that is, Al Qaeda puts together the best team in the history of hockey, then gets beaten by a bunch of American college players. Yes, young listeners, that’s how it felt in 1980.

Today the hockey players are millionaires who devote exactly two weeks to the Olympics, in a glorified all-star weekend. Sorry, that’s not the same.

The women, in contrast, are deeply invested. They play together all year, and you see their passion every time the U.S. plays Canada. For two countries that share the world’s longest undefended border, what little hate exists between them seems to be centralized in these two teams. They go at it with everything they’ve got every time they meet, including Canada’s 3-2 come-from-behind victory for the gold medal on Thursday.

Speaking of Canada: their Team House had a beer vending machine that dropped cold Molsons, but only if you scanned your Canadian passports. So, my question: What exactly does it take to get a Canadian passport?

Their Olympic coverage is better than ours, too. On NBC you see people talking. Flip to CBC, and you see athletes competing. Go back: People talking. Back again: Athletes competing. The Canucks just might be on to something here.

The U.S. networks – and it really doesn’t matter which one has the Games – happily interrupt the live action to give us pre-packaged personal stories, including The Worst Interview of the XXII Winter Olympiad. Just seconds after U.S. skier Bode Miller finished another disappointing run, Kristen Cooper grilled him about his dead brother until he cried. Nice work.

Some events seem less like sports than hobbies that nobody should be watching. Yet, we do. There’s no better example than curling – which is like bowling, but slower. We don’t know any of the curlers. They wear silly pants. They push brooms. We have no idea how the scoring works. And yet, we cannot look away. It is the lava lamp of Olympic sports.

So why are we Americans not dominating that sport? Seems like it was made for us. Even if we did win in it, we might not know, because NBC seems determined not to show any medal ceremonies – why, I have no idea.

Of course, there have been plenty of heroics, and much of it by athletes with Michigan ties – at least 18 of them, not even counting the Red Wings who play for other countries. At one point, the state of Michigan could claim more medals than 89 countries. And they say we’re dead? Suck it, Ohio!

The Winter Olympics can be corrupt, crass and downright crazy. But when the commercial chaos clears, we get to see these amazing athletes at the height of their games – and the spontaneous joy is something you can’t get anywhere else.

About the writer: Ann Arbor resident John U. Bacon is the author of the national bestsellers “Fourth and Long: The Future of College Football,” “Bo’s Lasting Lessons” and “Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football.” You can follow him on Twitter (@Johnubacon), and at johnubacon.com.

The Chronicle relies in part on regular voluntary subscriptions to support our publication of columnists like John U. Bacon. Click this link for details: Subscribe to The Chronicle. And if you’re already supporting us, please encourage your friends, neighbors and colleagues to help support The Chronicle, too!

John U. Bacon

The London Olympics features 26 summer sports, with 39 disciplines, and 302 separate competitions, in a desperate attempt to get everyone to watch.

As a result, the International Olympic Committee feels they now have something for everyone. So, we’ve got the Ancient Sports, or the Events No One Watches Anymore, like horse riding, rifle range, and archery – also known as, Things You Did in Summer Camp, But Stopped Doing After You Learned How To Drive and Talk To Girls. Why not include making moccasins and leather key fobs?

The Modern Penthathlon has got the complete collection of outdated events: fencing, horse jumping, shooting, a 3-K run and a 200-meter swim – or, The Full MacGyver. Introduced in 1912, the Modern Pentathlon is one of the least modern things about the modern games.

A truly Modern Pentathlon would include: (1) Aerobics – which is not as silly as rhythmic gymnastics; (2) Running Brain Dead On A Treadmill; (3) Bikram Yoga, for some reason; (4) Sitting On The Weight Machine I Want To Use For Five Minutes, While Admiring Yourself In The Mirror; and (5) Programming Your New Television.

The smallest category is The Things You Actually Want to Watch: swimming, track, gymnastics and basketball. Everything else is filler. Oh, and Tae Kwon Do, of course. Why? Because my editor likes it. That’s why.

At the other extreme, you’ve got Fake Sports the IOC Recently Jammed Into the Games in A Failed Attempt To Get Your Teenager To Stop Playing Video Games For Ten Minutes And Watch Through At Least One Commercial Break, which occur every 38 seconds. These sports include:

Mountain biking, wake boarding, trampoline, and beach volleyball.

Well, okay – lots of teenage boys will watch beach volleyball, because they have Discovered Girls.

If the IOC really wants to appeal to today’s kids, they should add:

• The 100-Meter Dash, With Your Pants Halfway Down Your Butt;
• Texting While Walking;
• Texting While Doing Everything Else; and
• Beer Pong.

The problem is, the table tennis snobs get upset when you call their sport Ping Pong, so perhaps we should call it Beer Tennis. Which, come to think of it, would be a pretty good sport, too.

The last category of sports includes rowing, cycling, weightlifting and distance running. Or, as most of us call it: Exercise.

But the silliest sport I have ever seen in the Olympics, without question, is Synchronized Diving. This involves two people jumping off the platform at the same time, and doing the same dive. Get it?

Of course, once they start doing the same dive, it’s kind of hard to speed it up or slow it down. And they’re pretty much guaranteed to fall at the same speed – which, last I checked, is the speed of gravity. So the only thing they really have to synchronize is when to start their dive – which they do by saying, “Ready?”

“Yeah.”

“1-2-3.”

Dive.

In other words, the exact same system kids use to play rock, paper, scissors. Synchronized bowling would actually be trickier.

But all is not lost. We can save this sport – and here’s how:

Start with two divers on the platform, but from different nations, and have them duke it out on the platform. First one to get tossed in the water, loses. I’d watch that – and you would, too. Even your sullen teenager with the baggy pants might stop texting for 38 seconds to watch that.

I know, I know. All these events are difficult in some way. But just because something is difficult, does not make it Olympian. Pushing the garage door button, then launching your body under the door before it cuts you in half is difficult – as my adolescence will attest – but it didn’t make me an Olympian.

Folding a fitted sheet? That’s hard, too. I’ve never seen anybody do it very well. But, you won’t get a medal for it.

At least, not yet.

About the author: John U. Bacon is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football.” He also co-authored “A Legacy of Champions,” and provided commentary for “Black and Blue: The Story of Gerald Ford, Willis Ward, and the 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech Football Game,” which has been airing on various stations in Michigan and nationally.

The Chronicle relies in part on regular voluntary subscriptions to support our publication of columnists like John U. Bacon. Click this link for details: Subscribe to The Chronicle. And if you’re already supporting us, please encourage your friends, neighbors and colleagues to help support The Chronicle, too!

John U. Bacon

Tonight, the U.S. Olympic team will enter London’s Olympic Stadium, led by Mariel Zagunis, the American flag bearer. What you probably won’t see, however, is Zagunis dip the American flag, unlike every other nation’s flagbearer.

Last week, I mentioned the origins of this unique custom in passing, but it deserves its own story.

At the fourth Olympiad in London 104 years ago, the American team was the only one that refused to dip its flag to the host nation during the opening ceremonies. A tradition was born.

The question is: Is this a tradition we should keep?

Before you answer, it might help to consider how it started.

The 1908 Olympics featured rugby, polo and tug-of-war, plus something brand new: a parade of nations walking around the track during the opening ceremony, complete with a flag-dipping ritual as each country passed the royal reviewing stand of King Edward VII.

The 1908 U.S. Olympic team picked Ralph Rose to carry the flag into London’s new 68,000-seat stadium. Rose was a native Californian who attended the University of Michigan, a huge guy who easily won the Big Ten titles for shot put and discus.

As a proud Irish-American, Rose didn’t possess an overwhelming affection for the English to begin with. In fact, most Americans at that time didn’t. You have to remember, the British had been America’s enemy in the nation’s first two wars, and the first London Olympics were held six years before World War I turned our nations into allies for the first time.

When the American athletes noticed that their British hosts had forgotten to include the U.S. and Swedish flags among the hundreds flying around the stadium, they grumbled. The Swedes got their revenge by skipping the opening ceremonies. When the Finns, then ruled by Russia, were told they would have to march behind a Russian flag, they elected to march with no flag at all. Ralph Rose had another idea.

When he led the American brigade past the King’s royal reviewing stand, Rose steadfastly held the stars and stripes perfectly vertical. The English spectators gasped, and booed. The British officials would soon take it out on the Americans in every event that involved judges – but Rose was satisfied. The legend goes that he explained his actions by saying, “This flag dips for no earthly king.” If he said it, he had a point. America is, after all, the first modern democracy.

What might have been a one-time thing only became a consistent U.S. custom in 1936. At the Berlin Olympics, the American team courageously refused to dip the flag for Adolf Hitler – and no American flagbearer has dipped it since.

But has this tradition run its course? It seems to me it’s one thing to refuse to dip the flag when you represent an up-and-coming nation, eager to show it does not have to bow to its former colonizer, a nation poised to join the world’s other superpowers.

But it’s quite another to continue this tradition when you’re the only superpower left on earth, one that’s turned its back on everything from the United Nations to the Kyoto Accords to the Geneva Conventions. What once seemed a brave gesture is now starting to look arrogant and obnoxious.

It might be time to break with this custom, and dip the flag – just like every other nation does. The question is: When? If the answer was not 1936 in Berlin, it shouldn’t have been in 2008 in Beijing, either – the least humane host nation since Hitler’s.

Since Queen Elizabeth will take King Edward VII’s place in the royal box tonight, I wouldn’t count on the custom changing this year, either.

About the author: John U. Bacon is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football.” He also co-authored “A Legacy of Champions,” and provided commentary for “Black and Blue: The Story of Gerald Ford, Willis Ward, and the 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech Football Game,” which has been airing on various stations in Michigan and nationally.

The Chronicle relies in part on regular voluntary subscriptions to support our publication of columnists like John U. Bacon. Click this link for details: Subscribe to The Chronicle. And if you’re already supporting us, please encourage your friends, neighbors and colleagues to help support The Chronicle, too!

John U. Bacon

The University of Michigan has sent 226 athletes and coaches to the Olympic Games. Wolverines have competed in every modern Olympics since the first in 1896. The numbers are impressive, but the individuals in those numbers, past and present, are far more interesting.

In the opening ceremonies next week, when the United States flag bearer declines to dip the Stars and Stripes for Queen Elizabeth, he or she will be following the lead of Ralph Rose, a Michigan alum who refused to lower the flag in the 1908 London Olympics, for King Edward VII. Rose explained, “This flag dips for no earthly king.”

Wolverines have also made their mark on the podium, winning 138 medals, including 65 gold. This year, Michigan is sending 26 athletes and coaches to London, who will compete in nine different sports.

The list includes Betsey Armstrong, a graduate of Ann Arbor Huron High – widely considered the greatest high school in the history of Western Civilization (which also happens to be my alma mater). She will play goalie for the water polo team.

Tiffany and Jeff Porter both set hurdling records at Michigan, before getting married – even as Tiffany was becoming a doctor of pharmacy.

There’s Connor Jaeger, an engineering student who wasn’t an exceptional swimmer when he started at Michigan, and finished as a three-time NCAA All-American.

There’s Sam Mikulak, a gymnast, who broke both ankles at a meet last year on the same landing. He finished his remaining events – and learned afterward he’d fractured both ankles. Not all tough guys play football.

And there’s Jerome Singleton. When he was just one year old, doctors amputated his right leg below the knee. He went on to become an engineering student, and a world-class Paralympian – Michigan’s first.

The 2012 Wolverine Olympic contingent is one of Michigan’s best, and is sure to make a splash in London. But it will be hard for any of them to surpass the legacies of DeHart Hubbard and Eddie Tolan.

DeHart Hubbard was a first-rate sprinter, who also set the world record for the long jump in 1925. He set Michigan’s record for the event the same year – which stood until 1980. It still ranks as the school’s second best mark – 87 years later. He also set the Big Ten championship long jump record, which was broken by Jesse Owens – and no one else, to this day.

In the 1924 Paris Olympics, Hubbard became the first African-American to win an individual Olympic gold medal. But in that distinction lay his only limitation. Despite graduating from Michigan with honors in 1927, Hubbard could only find work in positions reserved for African-Americans.

Right when DeHart Hubbard was leaving campus, Eddie Tolan was arriving. His track team at Detroit’s Cass Tech High won the national championship – and the “team” consisted of Tolan, and just one other athlete.

Tolan set plenty of marks himself, including a world record in the 100-meter dash – on a track that sloped two-and-a-half feet uphill.

In the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, Tolan won the 100-meters over the legendary Ralph Metcalfe in a photo finish, then breezed to another gold medal in the 200, earning him the title of “the world’s fastest human.”

Michigan’s governor declared the date of his return “Eddie Tolan Day,” as “as an expression of Michigan’s pride.” Detroiters packed the train station to give Tolan a hero’s welcome. But even as the crowd gushed over its native son, Tolan noticed his half-brother picking up trash on the park lawn, and realized he “was luckier than I am,” simply because he had a job.

Tolan had dreamed of becoming a doctor, but he could only get a poor-paying job as a county clerk. When that ended, Tolan went from city to city, walking the streets, looking for work. He even appeared in a vaudeville act with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, which cost Tolan his amateur status.

Tolan died in 1967, and Hubbard in 1976. Both were inducted into the University of Michigan’s Athletic Hall of Honor, posthumously.

Few, if any, of Michigan’s current Olympians will outperform these two – but all of them will have more opportunities when their careers are over.

No matter what they do the rest of their lives, however, they will forever be known as Olympians: a title everyone around the world respects, because so few of us are.

About the author: John U. Bacon is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football.” He also co-authored “A Legacy of Champions,” and provided commentary for “Black and Blue: The Story of Gerald Ford, Willis Ward, and the 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech Football Game,” which has been airing on various stations in Michigan and nationally.

The Chronicle relies in part on regular voluntary subscriptions to support our publication of columnists like John U. Bacon. Click this link for details: Subscribe to The Chronicle. And if you’re already supporting us, please encourage your friends, neighbors and colleagues to help support The Chronicle, too!

UM president Mary Sue Coleman, right, talks with Olympic silver medalist Meryl Davis, left, while regent Martin Taylor looks on. Davis is one of four ice dancers who attend UM and who competed in the winter Olympics. (Photos by the writer)

During the less rambunctious portions of the meeting, regents approved two building renovations – at the Duderstadt Center and Lorch Hall – totaling $3.8 million. They also authorized the awarding of six honorary degrees at the May 1 commencement ceremony, including one to the keynote speaker, President Barack Obama.

The main presentation of the afternoon came from Laurita Thomas, associate vice president for human resources, who updated regents on the status of employee benefits.

At the end of the meeting, one person spoke during public commentary. Ann Arbor resident Rita Mitchell urged regents not to proceed with the Fuller Road Station project, a joint UM/city of Ann Arbor parking structure and transit center planned on city-owned land near the university’s medical campus. She argued that the project violated both the spirit and intent of a city charter amendment passed in 2008, which requires voters to approve the sale of city parkland.

Thursday’s meeting was in its usual location – the boardroom in the Fleming administration building, on Thompson Street. UM president Mary Sue Coleman reminded regents that next month’s meeting will be held in a different venue: the city of Grand Rapids.

U.S. Olympians: “Proud Wolverines”

During her opening remarks, UM president Mary Sue Coleman alerted regents and others in the room that they’d be joined later in the meeting by the four UM students who had competed in the winter Olympics. Meryl Davis, Charlie White, Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates were on their way over after finishing practice, she said, in preparation for the upcoming World Figure Skating Championships, held March 20-29 in Torino, Italy.

Several minutes later, as Laurita Thomas – UM associate vice president for human resources – was wrapping up a presentation on employee benefits, the four Olympians quietly slipped into the room, taking seats that had been reserved for them behind the board table. They listened politely as Thomas concluded her description of health plan aggregate cost sharing and retiree contribution levels.

University of Michigan regents get ready to pose for photos with students who competed in the winter Olympics. Front row, from left: Denise Ilitch, Andrea Fischer Newman, Julia Darlow, Meryl Davis, Charlie White, Emily Samuelson, Libby Maynard. Back row: Andy Richner, Evan Bates, Martin Taylor.

But as soon as Thomas was done, Coleman introduced the skaters and they stood up to a round of applause. Coleman told them that they’d not only represented the United States well, but also “the maize and blue.” She added: “You just did us all proud.”

Regent Andrea Fischer Newman went up to the podium to read the text from a certificate of recognition that each of the skaters received. She said that as soon as she had received an email announcing that they’d be coming to Thursday’s meeting, she had immediately emailed back, asking if she could make the presentation. “That’s the science behind getting to do this,” she joked. After Newman read the text of the certificate, regents and university staff gave the students a standing ovation.

The four Olympians spoke briefly. Meryl Davis thanked the regents for  the recognition. Her partner and fellow silver medalist, Charlie White, explained his choice of sport: “At a young age, I knew I probably wasn’t going to make the football team,” he quipped. He noted that they were among the very few figure skaters who went to college, and they were proud of that.

Evan Bates said he was born and raised in Ann Arbor, and has always been a huge Michigan fan. “We do take the block M wherever we go,” he said. Emily Samuelson, who partnered with Bates to place 11th in the ice dancing competition, said they’d received incredible support from the entire campus: “We’re proud to be Wolverines!”

Regents then took a 15-minute recess from their meeting to talk with the students, take photos and try on their medals. “It’s the nicest piece of jewelry I’ve ever seen,” Denise Ilitch said.

HR Benefits Update

Earlier in the meeting, Laurita Thomas gave regents an update on the university’s employee and retiree benefits. UM president Mary Sue Coleman introduced her by noting that she’d been with the university for 38 years, and knows every facet of its human resources operation.

Laurita Thomas, UM associate vice president for human resources.

For fiscal 2010, the university will contribute a projected $554.4 million toward its benefits plans, Thomas said. That includes $297.35 million for employee health benefits covering 89,140 people. That amount is growing, she said.

Rate increases, compared to national trends, have been kept relatively low, she said. That’s due to several factors, including a decision to handle their prescription drug program internally, and the sale of M-Care, as the university moved to become self-insured – a change saved about $15 million annually.

The university also has seen an increase in the rate of generic drugs that are used – from 46% in 2003 to more than 70% last year. Each percentage increase in that rate decreases drug expenses for the university by $450,000, Thomas said.

UM is also keeping costs down by increasing the amount that its employees pay. Over the next two years, the university is gradually implementing a 70% (UM)/30% (employee) cost-sharing split, compared to a previous 80%/20% split for health care premiums and co-pays. The change is expected to save the university $31.3 million annually by 2011. Thomas noted that UM is using a salary index to calculate payments, meaning that employees on the lower end of the pay scale are paying less.

Other benefit changes include a modified retirement savings plan, which now requires a one-year waiting period before starting the 10% university match for faculty and staff retirement contributions. That change will save the university $8.3 million this year, and $11 million annually in 2011 and beyond.

Thomas reported that a committee was appointed in January to review retirement health benefits. They’ll be looking at ways to reduce costs, which at this point far exceed the market, she said. The committee will be making recommendations to benefit changes, as well as suggestions for how to implement those changes.

Looking ahead, Thomas said that employees will likely be asked to pay different rates for their health care, depending on what they do to reduce their risk factors. Incentives could be lower rates for premiums and co-pays.

Thomas also indicated that the university will be issuing requests for proposals (RFPs) for most benefits they offer, in order to secure more favorable contracts with vendors.

After her presentation, Coleman and several regents praised Thomas for her work. Coleman said that in addition to controlling costs, the university was also finding ways to encourage its employees to be healthier.

Olivia Maynard recalled that previously when benefits changed, she and other regents were inundated with complaints. This time, she didn’t receive any emails or phone calls: “That says it’s working.” Andrea Fischer Newman joked that they were not suggesting they wanted more emails.

Thomas credited the university’s union leadership, saying that six of the seven unions agreed to the changes in benefits because they understood it was in the best interests of their members.

Tim Slottow, UM’s chief financial officer, wrapped up the presentation by recognizing Marty Eichstadt, UM’s director of benefits, who also attended Thursday’s meeting. He noted that she’ll be retiring in June, and thanked her for her leadership.

Honorary Degrees

UM president Mary Sue Coleman read through a list of six people who’ll be receiving honorary degrees at the university’s May 1 commencement ceremony. They are:

• Jean Campbell, founder of the Center for the Education of Women
• Ornette Coleman, a jazz musician
• Barack Obama, current U.S. president
• Stanford Ovshinsky, president of Ovshinsky Innovation
• Susan Stamberg, a public radio journalist
• Charles Vest, president of the National Academy of Engineering

“We’re very excited about all of them,” Coleman said. Regents approved the awarding of the degrees, without comment.

Building Projects: Sealing Up “The Dude”

Regents approved two building projects, at the James and Anne Duderstadt Center and at Lorch Hall.

A $2.2 million project at the Duderstadt Center, located on UM’s north campus, will deal with the underlying cause of damage to soffits in the building that have been weakened by air infiltration and water condensation. Unless the problem is addressed, the soffits are at risk of falling off the building, according to a memo on the project.

In discussing the project, Tim Slottow – the university’s chief financial officer – described it as “basically to seal up The Dude.” Workers will install a vapor barrier and air barrier, add thermal insulation and upgrade the building’s mechanical systems.

Regent Larry Deitch wondered why the work needed to be done on a building that’s “relatively new.” Hank Baier, associate vice president for facilities and operations, said that though they think of it as new, it was built in 1995.

There was no question about the age of Lorch Hall, which was built in 1928. Regents authorized a $1.6 million project to do masonry and steel repairs, roofing repairs, and repair of damaged rain conductors. The building, at 611 Tappan, houses the departments of economics and linguistics.

Other Misc. Reports and Actions

Thirteen items required regental approval because of potential conflict-of-interest issues – all were approved in one vote, with no discussion. The majority related to contracts that in some way involved university employees. One item involved the purchase by the university of a piece of multi-media artwork created by UM faculty member James Cogswell Jr. – the work will be displayed at the Ross School of Business.

In a slight departure from the norm, the board’s finance, audit and investment committee report was given by regent Olivia Maynard, rather than the committee’s chair, Katherine White. Maynard noted that White had to miss the meeting because she was performing her civic duty – sitting on the city of Ann Arbor’s board of review. [The Chronicle covered a board of review meeting in 2009 on which White's father, Robert White, served.]

Thursday’s meeting was the final one for Michigan Student Assembly president Abhishek Mahanti, who noted that MSA elections will be held within the next month. However, he said he plans to attend the board’s next meeting in Grand Rapids, to introduce his successor. He received a round of applause from regents at the conclusion of his remarks.

Public Commentary

Ann Arbor resident Rita Mitchell was the only speaker during public commentary. She discussed the Fuller Road Station, a joint project between the university and the city of Ann Arbor. [James d'Amour, who also lives in Ann Arbor, had attended the regents' January meeting and spoke on the same subject.]

Rita Mitchell, an Ann Arbor resident, urged regents to reconsider the Fuller Road Station project.

Mitchell noted that in 2008, city voters had overwhelmingly approved a charter amendment requiring that the city get voter approval before selling parkland. By building a parking structure on city-owned land that’s designated as parkland, the project will irreversibly re-purpose that land without voter approval, she argued.

Mitchell acknowledged that the university has leased the site for several years, but said that a parking lot is reversible construction, while a structure is not. She also argued that the university’s payments to the city will be lower for Fuller Road Station than they have been to lease the surface parking lot – it’s a “gross undervaluing of the land,” she said.

Her main concern, however, was that the project would set a precedent for re-purposing parkland. It was coming at a time when city officials are saying they anticipate a $5 million deficit and budget cuts, she said, yet the city will be paying more than $14 million for the project, plus 22% of future operating costs. “I am seriously concerned with an arrangement for a project that would jeopardize the financial health of the city which hosts the university,” Mitchell said. “Our mayor told us that he does not yet know the source of the city’s funds for the project.”

She also questioned whether a later phase of the project – a train station for commuter and high-speed rail – will ever materialize. What’s more, she said, the project runs counter to the university’s sustainability efforts, as it will pollute the air, water and night-time light.

Mitchell offered four options as alternatives to the Fuller Road project: 1) use university-owned land for parking, 2) pay fair-market value for the land, 3) take a public vote on whether to sell the land, before re-purposing it, and 4) work with university engineers and experts to reduce the overall need for parking.

As part of her presentation, Mitchell gave regents a handout showing two photos of the site, at night and during the day, and asked them to imagine it with a large parking structure in place. The handout reads: “Fuller Park: Is it a noun or a verb?”

Present: Mary Sue Coleman (ex officio), Julia Darlow, Larry Deitch, Denise Ilitch, Olivia Maynard, Andrea Fischer Newman, Andy Richner, Martin Taylor, Kathy White

Next board meeting: Thursday, April 15 in Grand Rapids [details to come]. The meeting begins at 1:30 p.m. at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, 187 Monroe Avenue Northwest, Grand Rapids.

John U. Bacon

It was the best of Olympics, it was the worst of Olympics. For some, it was the season of hope; for others, the winter of their discontent. But to heck with all that. I’m just here to give you Coach Bacon’s Winners and Losers of the Winter Olympics. So, here we go.

WINNER: Vancouver

Great city, great people, great Olympics. Well done, my Canadian friends.

LOSER: Vancouver

In the opening ceremonies, the flame apparatus failed to rise, launching a thousand Viagra jokes. But the real joke was the speed skating oval, where the Canadians failed to manufacture decent ice. That’s like Jamaicans failing to manufacture decent sand. What’s up with that?

WINNER: Olympic Hockey

With the best players in the world, and six nations with an equal chance of grabbing the gold, the Olympics gave us hockey at its very best. The U.S.-Canada overtime final, with NO TV time-outs, made for an unforgettable finish – some say the best ever.

LOSER: NHL Hockey

Only the NHL can take this singular moment and blow it. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said the NHL might skip the next Olympics. Now you know why he’s considered the dumbest commissioner in all of sports. He did it the old-fashioned way. He earned it.

WINNER: The Medal Count

The U.S. set a record for most Winter Olympic medals ever, with 37, and the Canadians set a record for most golds, with 14 – redeeming themselves for being the only host nation to win no golds, twice, in Montreal and Calgary. Kudos, North America.

LOSER: The Medal Count

It took 20 Canadian men seven games of skating, passing and shooting to earn a single gold medal in hockey. Meanwhile, Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen had only to repeat the same basic motion in the sprint, the 10K, the 15K, the 30K, and the relay, to get five medals. Is cross-country skiing really five times harder than ice hockey? What’s up with that? I say all distance sports should be reduced to a short run, a long run, and a relay – that’s it. And hockey should count 20. There. That’d do it.

WINNER: Curling

Watching curling proved oddly compelling, like gazing at a lava lamp. And it gives all of us hope that – yeah, sure, I could be a world-class athlete. Look at that slob! He’s on the Olympic team?! Oh, yeah. I could do that.

LOSER: Curling

I’m sorry, it’s still just shuffle board on ice. And spare me your emails. My grandfather was a proud member of his New Brunswick curling team, but he didn’t expect to get a medal for it. He preferred beer, anyway.

WINNER: Ryan Miller

The former Michigan State star let in the overtime goal against Canada, but he was still the best player – by far – in the tournament, and rightly won the Most Valuable Player trophy.

LOSER: Miikka Kiprusoff

The Finnish goalie said he’d only join his national team if they named him the starter. He got what he asked for – then went out and let in four goals on seven shots against the U.S. He sucked at 400 pounds-per-square inch. Then he didn’t even wait for his coach to pull him, before skulking back to the bench. I have just two words for you, sir: Loo Zer.

WINNER: Ann Arbor

With seven players from the Ann Arbor-based U.S. National Development Team on the Olympic hockey roster, and two pairs of ice dancers all training at Ann Arbor’s Ice Cube, A-Squared was downright Olympian.

LOSER: The Biathlon

Making someone ski several miles, then stop to shoot at targets for no apparent reason, makes as much sense as making swimmers finish four laps, then get out and bowl three frames.

So I say, let’s spice it up a little. Each time the biathletes miss their marks, they should have to ski behind the targets before they’re allowed to shoot again. That would increase the stakes, and focus the mind.

Too much for you? Okay, how about giving them all paintball pellets to fire at their fellow competitors as they traipse through the woods? That way, no lead would be safe, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over, and the leader would be forced to ski in a zig-zag pattern down the stretch while the trailers try to pick him off from behind.

Or we could just kill this silly sport altogether.

WINNER: NBC

NBC gave us fewer taped fillers, and more live action.

LOSER: NBC

Still too much fireplace, and not enough first place. Oh, give me the CBC!

WINNERS: Us

Yes, the Olympics are over-hyped and over-packaged, but they’re still the best thing on TV. We see it all – the bratty skiers, the bodacious boarders and the inspiring skaters, like Joannie Rochette, who took to the ice just two days after her mother died of a heart attack – and delivered the single best short program of her life.

That is reality TV. And that’s why I can’t wait for 2012.

About the author: John U. Bacon lives in Ann Arbor and has written for Time, the New York Times, and ESPN Magazine, among others. His most recent book is “Bo’s Lasting Lessons,” a New York Times and Wall Street Journal business bestseller. Bacon teaches at Miami of Ohio, Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, and the University of Michigan, where the students awarded him the Golden Apple Award for 2009. This commentary originally aired on Michigan Radio.

John U. Bacon

The surprising United States Olympic men’s hockey team will play Finland today in the semi-finals, inspiring some to compare them to the last U.S. men’s team to win the gold 30 years ago, Lake Placid’s “Miracle on Ice.” Sorry, even if the U.S. wins it all, it will not qualify as a miracle. We are not likely to see anything quite like it again. And there will never be another coach like Herb Brooks.

I will never forget the impact the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team had on our country – or the impact the coach, Herb Brooks, had on me.

On Dec. 13, 1979, my best friend was heading home from hockey practice up north, when he was killed in a car accident. I found out the next morning, seconds before my Huron High School hockey teammates and I walked out onto the basketball court for our first pep rally. What started out as one of the happiest days of my life, had suddenly become the saddest.

I didn’t come out of it for months. But when the 1980 Olympic hockey tournament started, I watched every second of every game – I was transfixed by this team and their coach –  and that’s what brought me back.

Fifteen years later, as a sports reporter for The Detroit News, I decided to write a story about Mike Ramsey and Slava Fetisov, who were bitter rivals in Lake Placid Games, before becoming great friends playing together with the Red Wings. To round out the piece I knew I had to call Herb Brooks, who was famously impatient with sports writers.

When I reached Brooks at his home in Minnesota, he spent the first ten minutes chewing out my entire profession, from our lack of credentials to our lack of accountability, before he answered any of my questions. I stayed calm throughout, but after I hung up the phone, I looked down, and saw that my hands were shaking.

When the story came out, I sent Brooks a copy, then nervously called him a week later to get his response. I talked to his wife, Patty – a warm and generous soul – who told me, “Well, he didn’t throw it against the wall, like he usually does. So that’s a good sign.”

A year later, I called Brooks for a story on Russian hockey, and when that one came out, he asked if they could reprint it in a hockey magazine in Minnesota. After that, we talked every few months, and we would occasionally meet up in rinks from Ann Arbor to Nagano.

Our relationship deepened in 2000, when I took over my old high school hockey team, which had not won a game in a year-and-a-half. Making matters tougher, I was the worst player in school history. (I am not bragging. These are facts.)

But I had the best group of assistants in the state, plus a secret weapon: a world-class mentor in Herb Brooks. I stole from him shamelessly – and it worked.

In our second year, we got to the regional finals – but we had to face our Soviet Union, Trenton High School, which has won 12 state titles. Three weeks before the regional finals, they had smoked us, 10-1.

I knew we were better than that, but I also knew we needed a boost. So, the day before the game, I called Herb Brooks. He said, “Johnny, just tell ‘em this: Above all, you have to believe. If you don’t, you don’t have a chance. But if you do, anything is possible.”

I passed on Herb’s words to our players, who had heard me talk about Brooks many times. Our guys played like they were on fire, without any fear whatsoever, but we fell short, 3-2. Still, their fans gave our players a standing ovation. Back in the locker room, I told them, “We might have lost, but you did something more important: You dared to believe you could do it.”

The next year, Herb and I started working on his autobiography. But three months later, Herb died in a car accident.

The next season, my last in coaching, we traveled to Trenton and we beat them in their building, 4-3.

On the bus ride home I wanted to call Herb Brooks in the worst way, just to tell him: We believed.

About the author: John U. Bacon lives in Ann Arbor and has written for Time, the New York Times, and ESPN Magazine, among others. His most recent book is “Bo’s Lasting Lessons,” a New York Times and Wall Street Journal business bestseller. Bacon teaches at Miami of Ohio, Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, and the University of Michigan, where the students awarded him the Golden Apple Award for 2009. This commentary originally aired on Michigan Radio.

John U. Bacon

The modern Olympics started in 1896, but it took 28 more years before the winners would hear their national anthem during the medal ceremony.

The Vancouver Games will conduct 86 medal ceremonies, during which any of the 82 countries present could be serenaded with their national anthem. But not all are created equal – including ours.

You probably knew the melody for our national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner,” came from a popular British drinking song, and that Francis Scott Key added the words during the War of 1812. But you might not have known the song didn’t become our national anthem until more than a century later, in 1931. And we didn’t start playing the song before ball games until World War II.

“The Star Spangled Banner” may be two centuries old, but its status as our national anthem is relatively new – and, I think, not beyond reconsideration.

True, the song can be strong and moving. But who can forget Carl Lewis’s version, which sounded like a feral cat in serious pain, or actress Roseanne Barr’s rendition – which put the “f” back in “professionalism”?

In their defense, “The Star Spangled Banner” is notoriously difficult to sing – or even remember. Raise your hand if you really know what a “rampart” is? That’s what I thought. Thank you.

That’s just another reason why I think we should consider adopting a different national anthem, like “America, the Beautiful.” In 1895, a Wellesley College professor, fed up with the greed of the Robber Barons – sound familiar? – took a train to Colorado, and was reminded along the way what a great country this truly is. When her poem was coupled with Samuel Ward’s melody, a classic was born.

For my money, Ray Charles’ version is the best. When I hear him sing, “America, America, God done shed his grace on thee. And crown thy good, with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea,” there aren’t too many things I wouldn’t be willing to do for my country.

Just a few years after “America, the Beautiful” came out, Irving Berlin composed “God Bless America” to inspire victory in World War I. Twenty years later, he revised it to respond to the Nazis’ rise to power.

From the opening, “God Bless America, Land that I love,” to the close, “My home sweet home,” Berlin doesn’t give you much to quibble about.

If Ray Charles stamped “America, the Beautiful,” as his own, surely “God Bless America” belongs to Kate Smith. But in the aftermath of Vietnam, the patriotic standard’s popularity was slipping – until the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team started playing it before crucial contests. They’ve won some 80% of those games – and all three when Kate Smith arrived to sing it in person.

Her first appearance, on May 19, 1974, preceded the Flyers’ 1-0 victory over Boston, for the Flyers’ first Stanley Cup. Many credited Smith for lifting the crowd and the team to new heights. Even the famously tough Philly fans could not boo Kate Smith.

When the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team pulled off the greatest upset in sports history, the players spontaneously broke into a chorus – not of “The Star Spangled Banner,” but “God Bless America.”

They couldn’t sing it quite like Kate Smith, but they understood what they were singing, they understood why, and they meant every word. I think they were on to something.

About the author: John U. Bacon lives in Ann Arbor and has written for Time, the New York Times, and ESPN Magazine, among others. His most recent book is “Bo’s Lasting Lessons,” a New York Times and Wall Street Journal business bestseller. Bacon teaches at Miami of Ohio, Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, and the University of Michigan, where the students awarded him the Golden Apple Award for 2009. This commentary originally aired on Michigan Radio.
Excerpt

John U. Bacon

Twelve years ago I covered the Winter Olympics in Nagano. It was exhausting – and exhilarating.

Every day, right in front of me, I got to savor the skill and the speed of the skiers and the snowboarders, the hockey players and the figure skaters. But what I remember most is the energy generated by the athletes and the audience, who seemed to feed off each other. I didn’t get to merely see it. I got to feel it – an experience shared with thousands of people from around the world, right as it happened.

So that’s why I was stunned when I called my friends back home, breathless about the drama stirring all around me, only to learn they had no idea what I was talking about. They weren’t impressed by the Nagano Olympics, or the coverage of it – take your pick. And that’s when I realized the Olympics I was experiencing had nothing to do with the one they were watching – or not watching at all. (Nagano had the lowest ratings in 30 years.)

Now, I realize TV can’t compete with being there, especially 12 time zones away. But it can come a lot closer than it usually does.

American networks spend so much money on the Olympics – $2.3 billion for the rights alone this year – they feel compelled to protect their investment with too many safe, soft feature stories filmed months before the Games even begin.

Yes, I’m talking about those ubiquitous “Up Close and Personal” segments, about the cross-country skier from Eveleth, Minnesota, who became world class fast while being chased by dogs on his after-school paper route. And that’d be a fine story – if it didn’t keep us from watching the former paper boy competing in “The Actual Olympics” segments.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation does much better, with much less. Or they did, until they lost the Canadian rights to CTV. And that’s a crying shame, because the CBC consistently showed you the most interesting athletes, even if they weren’t Americans, and they showed them competing, live.

Why does that matter? Because sports is one of the few things on TV when nobody knows how it’s going to turn out. You just can’t get a preview of tonight’s game. So when we see a classic competition unfolding before our very eyes, we become participants in that event. We share it with family, friends, even strangers – or tell them, Awww, man! Ya missed it! And we remember it forever.

I’ll never forget watching the ’76 Winter Olympics on a school night with my brother and my dad. We saw skier after skier cut the leading time, until the last skier, world champion Franz Klammer, came flying over the hill in his skin-tight yellow suit in a reckless attempt to claim his title – and he did it. We jumped and cheered as if we were there – and we were, in our living room, sharing it with millions of people around the world.

The list is long. Think of Tonya and Nancy, right down to Tonya’s broken skate lace. Or speed skater Dan Jansen’s repeated heartbreaks before winning the gold. Or the Miracle on Ice medal ceremony, when captain Mike Eruzione spontaneously called his teammates up to the medal stand with him, and they all managed to fit, just barely – a scene no one who saw it can ever forget.

If you witnessed those events, when they happened, you’re probably nodding right now. It’s something we share, because, “We were there.”

And that’s why I wish NBC would be kind enough to get the heck out of the way, and let us watch the athletes, not the announcers, do what they’ve been preparing to do for years.

Only that way can we have a few more memories.

About the author: John U. Bacon lives in Ann Arbor and has written for Time, the New York Times, and ESPN Magazine, among others. His most recent book is “Bo’s Lasting Lessons,” a New York Times and Wall Street Journal business bestseller. Bacon teaches at Miami of Ohio, Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, and the University of Michigan, where the students awarded him the Golden Apple Award for 2009. This commentary originally aired on Michigan Radio.