Steve Fisher was head coach at Michigan when he first met John Beilein. Michigan’s current coach was at Canisius then, an up and comer in a dog-eat-dog profession.
Fisher was many things and made his mistakes at U-M, but to most who knew him he was a down to earth human being. That’s the first memory Beilein has of him, and it’s also the lasting one.
“One of my first Nike trips I was ever on, I was the coach at Canisius. It must have been the early 1990s, and I go on the Nike trip and there he is,” Beilein said. “I was like, ‘Wow, they won the national championship, and he’s got tremendous teams.’ We actually struck up a relationship by the pool. He probably doesn’t remember it.
“I was just sort of talking, and he was so nice to me. Ever since we sort of stayed in touch when we’d see each other on the road. He always remembered my name.”
Beilein is the big reason why Fisher is returning as part of the 30th anniversary celebration of the Wolverines’ 1989 championship team this weekend. He said last year they were working on getting the coach back, and Fisher will be one of 200 basketball alums in town this weekend to celebrate U-M’s lone national title.
About 90 percent of the team is returning — Rumeal Robinson and Demetrius Calip are two who for sure won’t, Robinson due to a prior commitment and Calip because of health issues — and the atmosphere is expected to be raucous.
It will be the first time Fisher’s been in the building since he was removed in the late 1990s, part of the fallout from the Ed Martin situation.
His bitter ending didn’t prevent him from reaching out when he learned Beilein landed the Michigan Job.
“I think we spoke within months, if not weeks after I got the job,” Beilein said. “He was so complimentary. I’m so excited he’s coming back. It’s just a great thing for him to be with that team. We’re going to have a big dinner for him and that team.
"When you’ve coached as long as he and I have, you have special moments with your team and then 30 years after your teams, you realize that’s why you coached. You see these men grown up now to be so successful and it puts it all together, the reasons, the purposeful life we try and lead.”
For Beilein, ending up at Michigan almost seemed like destiny. He was at the Seattle Kingdome in 1989 to witness U-M’s title wen Fisher was at the helm.
“It was tremendous. [My wife] Kathleen was with me, and I remember us walking away saying, ‘that is the best fight song we have ever heard in our lives.’ We sort of rooted for them," he said. "We used to get all four of the kids a different jersey from the Final Four, and there’s actually a picture of [son] Patrick with the Michigan jersey on after 1989. We did agree, that’s the fight song.
But it wasn’t, ‘I want to coach there some day,’” he admitted.
“That just sort of happened,” he said with a grin.
It’s worked out extremely well for both sides, and there’s still the hope that there will be even more great memories created, starting with Sunday's game against Michigan State.
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