Michigan running back coach Mike Hart being carted off the field following a medical emergency on Saturday during the IU game.
In my 50 some years being around athletes and officiating baseball and basketball, I have seen my share of injuries and medical emergencies on the athletic field. Medical emergencies are always the scariest because you don’t have a clue as to what is going on.
When a medical emergency happens, everything stops. The game no longer means anything. The game is suddenly put into perspective. This is what happened when Michigan running back coach Mike Hart went down with a medical emergency on Michigan’s sideline during the first half of Michigan’s football game with Indiana on Saturday. The concern in the voices of the announcers, the stunned look on the Michigan players and coaching staff, and Michigan’s two main running backs Blake Corum and Donavan Edwards in tears told the story. They were more concerned about their coach than the game as they watched their coach being attended to and then being wheeled off on a stretcher knowing he was going to be put in an ambulance and sent to Indiana University Hospital. See my Video of the Day.
For the remainder of the half, Michigan played like their heads were elsewhere, which they were. Michigan was lucky to be entering half time with a 10-10 tie. Indiana had a touchdown wiped out on a penalty, otherwise IU would have been leading 14-10.
It wasn’t until halftime when the players learned that their coach was going to be OK, that they began to refocus on the game. They came out in the second half and dominated on both offense and defense. They played their best half of the season. When it was over, all they could talk about was their concern and love for Coach Hart.
Mike Hart is the all-time leading rusher at Michigan. His legacy was further enhanced after he was hired by Harbaugh prior to the start of last season to be the running backs coach and Michigan made it to the FBS playoffs. Hart was also loved at IU, and it showed on Saturday. Prior to coming to Michigan, Hart spent four years as the running back coach at IU. While Hart was being treated on the field, the IU coaching staff, and the IU players were reacting the same as Michigan. Suddenly, the game didn’t matter. A friend to nearly everyone on the field was down and everyone was concerned.
Shawn Windsor in his article in the Free Press on Sunday said it best.
You can’t get 50,000 people to agree on much these days if anything at all. Then a former —and beloved — Michigan football running back collapsed on the sideline Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium and 50,000 people went silent.
They agreed, without discussion or debate or rancor, to show respect, yes, but also to show solidarity about what matters in life. It’s a phrase we toss around liberally these days yet don’t witness its live-action reality often enough.
Not that anyone needed Mike Hart to fall to the ground in the second quarter of a nationally televised college football game against Indiana to remind any of us that we have more in common than we don’t.
But Hart did. And a stadium stuffed with people with infinitely varied views on life showed the kind of grace that we take for granted but shouldn’t.
Michigan star running back Blake Corum had this to say following the game when asked how he felt seeing Coach Hart being attended to on the sidelines. “It’s one of those things you obviously never want to see, It was hard to see just because of the relationship I have for Coach Hart, the love I have for him … I don’t know how to answer your question right now.
As of Monday, Hart has been released from the hospital and has returned home to Ann Arbor. He released this statement.
“I would like to thank everyone for their support, messages, and prayers. I am truly grateful for the trainers and paramedics, the doctors and nurses at IU Hospital, Michigan’s team doctors, coaching staff, players and Coach Harbaugh. I would also like to thank IU’s football staff and team doctors. I will never forget everyone’s kindness and generosity. My wife and I are thankful to be surrounded by such incredible people. Health-wise, I am back in Ann Arbor and things are trending in a positive direction. I look forward to rejoining our team soon.”
In the meantime, former longtime Michigan running back coach (including coaching Mike Hart during his years at U of M) has been named the interim running back coach until Hart returns.
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On Saturday, the Cleveland Guardians and the Tampa Bay Ray’s were engaged in a classic baseball game. The score after 14 innings was 0-0. The Guardians won in the 15h with a walk-off home run by Oscar Gonzalez. Ironically, the homerun was hit off Corey Kluber, a former Cy Young award winner when he pitched for Cleveland.
Unlike the regular season, extra inning games in the playoffs and World Series do not start off each inning with a runner on second. Thus, this game went much longer than any regular season game. The game lasted over five hours.
During the season the longest extra inning game was 13 innings, which happened just twice. See my Question of the Day.
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Elections Matter. Pray for peace and tolerance. What are you doing to stop the violence and mass killings?
Quote of the Day: “I watch television twice each week. Once to watch the Spartans and once to watch the Lions. I am a fricking moron.” Ray from Center City Gym in Petoskey to me as I walked into the gym this morning.
Orchid of the Day: The IU and Michigan medical staff who attended to Mike Hart on the sidelines on Saturday.
Onion of the Day: The Lions.
Question of the Day: Should Major League Baseball implement the same rules for extra innings in the playoffs and World Series as they have in the regular season?
Video/Image of the Day: