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ESPN highlights Michael Hirsh, ‘Wolverine of Wall Street’ on GameDay
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The segment has become has much a part of College GameDay as “You had One Job,” and Lee Corso’s headgear pick.
It’s Gene Wojciechowski’s weekly tear-jerking or inspirational college football story. This week, it featured former Michigan fullback Michael Hirsch.
The story highlighted Hirsch’s desire to don the maize and blue and to touch the famous “Go Blue” banner someday.
Hirsch never received a phone call from Michigan as a high school player, meaning he’d have to play his college ball elsewhere. He decided to enroll at Harvard, where he was a member of the football and track team while attending one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
While at Harvard, Hirsch encountered a rare autoimmune disease called Wegener’s Granulomatosis. There is no true cure for the disease, but Hirsch caught the symptoms early enough, visited a medical clinic and underwent chemotherapy treatment to overcome the potentially deadly disease.
After he was in remission, Hirsch — who was also employed on Wall Street — decided to pursue his goal to play for the maize and blue again. And eventually, he received that call from Jim Harbaugh.
He touched the banner, played in a game and caught a pass for the University of Michigan’s football team.
If you missed the segment, you can watch it in full on ESPN’s website.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB