• Golden Forty Seven

    Saturday night I had dinner with some friends at the Sheraton in Ann Arbor.  In the bar I spotted a group of folks donning black and gold #47 jerseys and was puzzled.  Was it a group of Oosterbaan family members?   I’m thinking Bennie O’s godson Bennie McCready would have given me a heads up if that were the case, right Bennie?.   Maybe it was Jake Ryan’s crew?  Again I was thinking probably not, and if so, why would they wear throwback-ish jerseys?   So I walked over. It turns out they were wearing the #47 in honor of Dr. Gerald Drake, a former Michigan State football player from the late 1930s.  Oh, and the kicker: the 95-year old Dr. Drake was there with them!  Photo inset are the Drakes: Chuck, Molly, Gerald, Donna, Dan & Doug. Naturally I hustled over & chatted with him.  What a great man.  I asked him how he ended up playing football at State.  “My dad played football at [M.A.C.] in the class of aught three,” Drake told me.   “It wasn’t intercollegiate football; it was class team football.  They beat each other up without headgear on the banks of the Red Cedar.” He shared that he was a fullback at East Lansing High School and also ran track.  Freshmen back then didn’t play on the varsity…