Nearly 45 years after he first stepped foot on the Michigan campus, Steve Strinko is returning to Ann Arbor. Strinko won't be wrapping up ball-carriers or intimidating quarterbacks like he used to for the Maize and Blue -- he has more important business to take care of on this trip to the Big House. Steve Strinko is going to become a graduate of the University of Michigan.
Strinko’s graduation day will complete a journey that would have never commenced in Ann Arbor if Woody Hayes had something to say about it.
Ohio State’s legendary coach hosted Strinko and his mother and father to watch Super Bowl V during Strinko’s senior year of high school. He desperately wanted the Ohio-grown blue-chipper to stay home for college, but even a delicious home-cooked meal by Woody’s wife, Ann, wasn’t enough to keep Strinko in the Buckeye state.
“Ann cooked a wonderful dinner, and it was one of those incredible afternoons that gives you an idea of who Woody was,” Strinko recalls.
But the Super Bowl watch wasn’t enough to convince Strinko to stay home. That school “up North” beckoned.
“Michigan wanted me to play linebacker, and Bo was great during the whole recruiting process,” Strinko says. “Woody for four years never called me by name – he always said ‘the SOB linebacker up there.”
Strinko hasn’t regretted his decision for a day, as few Wolverines better encapsulated the Bo Schembechler era at Michigan than Strinko. The nails-tough middle linebacker concluded a standout career in 1974 by earning team MVP (what is now known as the Glen “Bo” Schembechler award) on a Wolverine outfit that won 10 games and tied for the Big Ten Championship with Ohio State.
Most Second Team All-Americans earn their accolades with two good legs; Strinko seized his with only one. He partially tore his ACL in the fourth game of the season against Stanford, but the team doctor told him he had two choices: season-ending surgery or he could attempt to play through the year with heavy medical treatment. Strinko, not willing to sacrifice a chance to win a National Championship, chose the latter.
Strinko’s dominating performance in the middle of the Michigan defense earned him a number of honors, including spots on a pair of All-Star teams. Unfortunately, his experience on one of these teams (in Hawaii at the Hula Bowl) ended up significantly hurting his NFL draft stock.
“I simply could not run with the triple tape job the trainer put on my knee,” Strinko said about his physical limitations in that game. “I found myself having the worst game of my career.”
Strinko would leave Michigan with coursework outstanding if he wished to finish his degree, but he was looking ahead to playing football at the next level. The Detroit Lions selected Strinko in the ninth round, but surgery to repair his torn ACL kept Strinko on the Physically Unable to Play (PUP) list for the entirety of his rookie season. Three weeks into training camp a year later, the Lions placed Strinko on waivers after his knee was determined to be a degenerative joint. Quite suddenly, Strinko’s football career was over.
The forty years since have included many personal and business successes for Strinko, but injuries suffered in the NFL and at Michigan have caused problems over the years. He was finally granted 100% disability in 2007, but has been forced to battle pain and anxiety disorders as a result of those injuries. For much of his adult life, Strinko has found himself in and out of addiction.
Strinko has been in recovery from addiction since August 4th, 2011. He says it doesn’t seem like that long ago, but knows his life will be forever changed from his year in a residential treatment facility.
“My journey has been filled with a lot of heartache and a lot of pain, some losses,” Strinko says. “But I find each day I wake up I am more and more grateful today than any day. If there’s one single factor that I can attribute to my recovery, its gratitude.”
Strinko is now trying to help other athletes who may find themselves in a position similar to the one he was in – with health problems resulting from participation in NCAA sports but with no financial means to pay for necessary treatment. He founded FAN, Inc. (Foundation for Athletes in Need), but is now focusing his efforts on the Michigan Alumni Football Network, which is built to serve the ongoing needs of Michigan football alumnus.
“Right now I’m going to serve mainly as a consultant to Michigan, but so many athletes have exasperated injuries that are directly related to their participation in NCAA sports – even 10 or 15 years down the road,” Strinko says. “Right now there’s just nothing out there for them – as far as the NCAA is concerned, when you are done, you are done.”
While Strinko has been working to improve benefits for former college athletes, he’s also taken the necessary steps to make this trip back to Ann Arbor and earn his degree from Michigan. Four decades after taking his last University of Michigan class, Strinko resumed his studies online in the fall of 2014. He’s now logged enough credit hours to graduate with a Bachelor of General Studies Degree.
"This thing is going to be really, really special for me," Strinko says. "To know that somehow, after 41 years, I was able to pull it together...and to have my family there, and so proud of me. It's amazing."
“And the opportunity to be in a Rent Like A Champion house is an answer to prayer because we are all going to be there together under one roof, spending two wonderful days creating an event and memory that I’ll never forget.”
