Episode 60: 'The Michigan's' mighty comeback, featuring Jon Fish, BA '95

What this episode covers

The Michigan's mighty comeback Once in a great while, an athlete comes along and changes a sport forever. There’s Kenny Sailors, an American basketball player who “invented” the jump shot in the early 1940s. And what about Olympic gold medalist and high jumper Dick Fosbury who introduced the “Fosbury Flop” to his chosen sport? Well, Michigan fans have their own sports legend to celebrate in hockey’s Mike Legg. He's the Wolverine who galvanized the 1996 team to win the NCAA national championship after dazzling the crowd with his heart-stopping play, “the Michigan.” Fans surely recall the dramatic matchup with Minnesota at Michigan State when the Wolverines, projected to take the national title, were nearly ousted from contention by a Gophers squad that was outshooting them 13-3. Desperate to shift the momentum, Legg decided to pull an unorthodox move from his arsenal, taught to him by Western Michigan’s Bill Armstrong. During warmups prior to the game, Legg checked in with Coach Red Berenson and game officials. He explained the unusually creative move and asked whether it would be legal should he score. “Mike would bend down and use leverage on the blade of the stick to get the puck up on its edge and then scoop it up,” says Jon Fish, BA ’95, a producer at ESPN. He recently wrapped a 30-minute documentary on the move and the player who popularized it. “Then he’d use centrifugal force to keep the puck against the blade of the stick so he could flip it around and underneath the crossbar to tuck it in the net.” The officials gave Legg the green light. He pulled the move. To say the crowd went wild is an understatement. The momentum of that game took the Wolverines onto victory over Minnesota and then to Berenson’s first national championship in 32 years. And hockey players at every level of the sport began trying it themselves. "Everyone knew that a guy from Michigan pulled the move,” Fish says, explaining why such names as the “Do It” or the “High Rap” never caught on. Call it what you want, Fish says. The move, after nearly three decades, is transforming hockey before our eyes. Listen in, Michigan. Read more at michigantoday.umich.edu Read more at [email protected]