Staff Writer
To a casual observer it is just a group of old guys sitting around a table at the back of a nondescript tavern near the edge of town. Next to walls decorated with sports memorabilia and beer signs, they sip coffee, water or milk. And with voices often gravelly with age, they talk.
The conversation often turns to University of Michigan sports. One day the recently released book “Three and Out,” by John U. Bacon, was a topic of discussion and debate. The book provides an inside look at the much-maligned three-year reign of Rich Rodriguez as Michigan’s head football coach, and a critical assessment of the U-M sports establishment.
The group discussed who was really to blame for Michigan’s football woes, a conversation rendered less painful by this season’s successes. They lamented on how “the whole department fell apart after Bo left.”
The lunch group at Banfield’s East includes (clockwise from left) Rod Grambeau, Tom Johnston, Bill Stegeth, Dale Leslie and Tom Conlon. (Bob Conradi/The Washtenaw Voice)
United by service to their country, by devotion to the University of Michigan, by love of sport, by careers in communications, they now they sit, talk sports and reminisce over a weekly lunch at Banfield’s East on Packard Road.
They often choose the cup of soup and half-sandwich special. Bill orders what he calls a “Jenny Special” after the waitress. It is peanut butter, bacon, lettuce and honey on rye. For desert, they talk more sports. They have upheld this tradition for more than 25 years.
The group began in the mid-1980s as four men associated with U-M began a regular lunch gathering at Café Marie near north campus. They met to console a friend who had lost his job with the Alumni Association.
Over time more men joined, especially sports fans and sports broadcasters. Because one of them had a problem with the smoking ban at Café Marie, they began meeting at Banfield’s.
The only man from the original four is Bill Stegeth, 92, whose health and nimble mind belie his years.
He recalled what comedian George Burns said on his 90th birthday: “I can do pretty much the same things I did when I was 22, which tells you how pathetic I was when I was 22.”
But Stegeth is not the only member who is looking at age 90 in his rearview mirror.
This group has done a lot of living. Three served in the military during WWII. Others served during the Korean or Vietnam conflicts. At least four have authored books and four have been involved in the broadcast industry.
A few have been leading Ann Arbor businessmen. Among them, Bud Stein, 91, was co-owner of the venerable Stein and Goetz Sporting Goods Store, now home to The M-Den. Stein’s store was once the go-to place in Ann Arbor for sports news and banter.
Travel agency innovator Tom Conlin, 78, founded and directed Conlin Travel, an agency that has served Ann Arbor travelers since 1959. Conlin’s business has long had close ties with U-M sports.
Others have been administrators or faculty in the local universities. Rod Grambeau, 91, headed intramural and recreational sports at U-M. John Fountain, 80, was a vice president at Eastern Michigan University.
Then there is the broadcast connection. Ann Arbor radio was a place of innovation and an incubator for broadcasters who went on to greater fame. Some of those early pioneers now meet at Banfield’s.
The group talked of the old days when basketball games were played at Yost Field House, now called Yost Ice Arena. Tom Johnston, 81, recalled that it had a dirt floor and students used to run on a cinder track around the basketball court even during games. Broadcasters sat up near the rafters where bats were often seen flying.
Johnston covered basketball and football, working for several local stations including, WAAM, WPAG, WHRV and Channel 50 TV. He spoke of reporting every U-M basketball game in which National Collegiate Hall of Famer Cazzie Russell played. He was also the first to host a Monday morning coach’s show, beginning with football coach “Bump” Elliott.
When one of the group expressed admiration for Johnston’s incisive off-the-cuff sports commentary, cigar in hand and “without a stitch of notes,” Johnston simply replied, “I was a fan.”
Asked about a well-known voice of “Meechigan” football, Johnston said, “I knew Bob Ufer better than Bob Ufer knew Bob Ufer.”
His fascinating broadcasting recollections could easily fill a book. In fact he would like to write one.
Of course Johnston’s friends have heard all these stories before but they don’t seem to mind hearing them again. Indeed, they would be glad to repeat the stories themselves.
Dale Leslie, 63, worked in radio for 14 years before joining Leslie Office Supply Inc., a 36-year business started by his father.
Bill Stegeth, began working in radio as a teenager in Escanaba. He worked for WUOM during its earliest days, starting out reading the evening news. He also did play-by-play sports broadcasting and was color commentator with Bill Flemming who later became a popular ABC sportscaster.
Stegeth told a story about the FCC’s initial refusal to certify WUOM with those call letters because they believed it was too hard to pronounce.
He earned a PhD at U-M, writing his dissertation about early Michigan radio, and taught speech and broadcasting at U-M. One of his students during this time was Hazen Schumacher, who went on to host the nationally popular NPR radio show, “Jazz Revisited.”
After more than a decade of teaching, Stegeth began a long career with the U-M Alumni Association.
He described how he became the first director of Camp Michigania, a family camp established for Michigan alumni in Boyne City. It was an 11th-hour appointment after the intended director backed out.
John Fountain is another radio personality in the lunch group. After several years reporting U-M games, he became the voice of EMU athletics for the next 44 years. He was recently awarded the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association (DSBA) Ernie Harwell Lifetime Achievement Award for his radio work with U-M and EMU.
Understandably, the conversation at Banfield’s often turns to recollections of earlier days: great Michigan football plays, the glory of radio, career moves, published works and memorable travels by members of the group.
Leslie recalled a memorable play in the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry. It was in 1960, an era that MSU usually dominated.
“Little Denny Fitzgerald from Ann Arbor St. Thomas High School, a walk on, took the ball on the kick off at the 1 yard line and ran straight down the east sideline. I mean, he didn’t dodge. He didn’t stiff-arm. He didn’t do anything,” Leslie said. “He just ran as fast as he could. He got some blocks along the way of course and he ran all the way for a touchdown! It was unbelievable! And there’s only been one Michigan player to match that, Tyrone Wheatley.”
Remote broadcasting was new when these men were on radio. “Satellite changed our whole world,” Johnston said. “Before that, we had to carry the stuff in and plug it into the wall and make sure our phone lines were alright.”
“We had to be our own engineers more often than not,” Stegeth added.
Occasionally military service comes up in conversation. Stegeth flew B-24 bombers during WWII and Stein served on a PT boat off New Guinea.
There is also talk of family. Stegeth has a daughter living in Oman and Leslie has a son in the Navy who serves on an aircraft carrier deployed in the Persian Gulf region. Messages from these loved ones are always big news.
But the discussion seldom ventures far from U-M sports. A friendly competition to predict the score of upcoming Wolverine football games is a regular feature. Since it is rare for any of these men to predict that the Wolverines lose, the winner is determined by point spread and total points scored. To a casual observer it is just a boring group of old guys sitting around a table in a nondescript tavern near the edge of town. But don’t believe it.
In their lifetimes this group has had a profound influence on our community. And in their golden years, through their supportive friendship, they have a profound influence on each other.
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