Bo Schembechler was a details man, and he knew what he was doing when he put two freshmen in a dorm room together in the summer of 1986. Vada Murray did not meet NCAA academic standards to play his first year. Warde Manuel was a stellar high school student. Bo figured Manuel could help Murray learn proper study habits.
It was a smart plan, but it hit a snag.
"That first semester," Manuel recalled Thursday, Murray "kicked my ass."
Murray, a former Michigan safety, died Wednesday after a battle with lung cancer. He was 43. He was not a smoker. He left behind his wife, Sarah, and three children, Deric, Kendall and Harper -- ages 12, 8 and 6.
It is the worst kind of unfair. But this is not about how Murray died. It's about how he lived. It's about a man who arrived at the University of Michigan in 1986 and was told he didn't belong -- and who proved, for the next 25 years, that he did. From starting safety to Ann Arbor police officer, Murray epitomized the values Schembechler tried to teach...
Vada Murray