Greatness can sometimes come wrapped in strange packages. That may explain how Desmond Howard almost became a basketball player.
And, who knows, he might have been a great basketball player, too. But you don't win the Heisman Trophy for playing basketball.The Heisman goes to the nation's outstanding college football player, and Howard is a virtual cinch to claim the award Saturday night. The Michigan split end already has won the Walter Camp and Maxwell awards.
But it might never have happened if Howard's father, J.D., hadn't been quick to spot an obvious talent. Howard was interested mainly in basketball when he enrolled at Cleveland's St. Joseph's High School.
"Desmond was a good basketball player," J.D. Howard recalled. "That's why he wanted to go to St. Joseph's. But after he scored five touchdowns in his first football game, I said, `Maybe we better rethink this thing."'
But the young Howard's time on the basketball court wasn't completely wasted. It was on the basketball team that he became friends with a tall, raw-boned kid named Elvis Grbac.
In the 11th grade, after some prodding by his pal, Grbac tried out for the football team. His inexperience showed, but they let him play quarterback where his main function was to hand the ball off to Howard, a dynamite tailback in those days.
"We lived in different parts of town," Grbac said. "We aren't that close socially, but we've had this friendship right from the start because of sports."
When the college recruiters began swooping down on Howard, he made it clear he wasn't going anyplace without Grbac. Ohio State was willing. So was Michigan.
"At the time I was being recruited, Ohio State had just fired Earle Bruce and was bringing in John Cooper," Howard said. "I didn't want to be part of a rebuilding program. I wanted to be part of a program that was already established so I could go to a Rose Bowl.
"I think my decision has definitely worked in my favor thus far."
Indeed. The fourth-ranked Wolverines (10-1) will play No. 2 Washington (11-0) in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day.
Howard and Grbac, both of whom have a season of eligibility remaining, have so far combined for 31 touchdown passes, an NCAA record for one duo. They have combined for 19 touchdown passes this season, tying the NCAA single-season record set in 1989 by Andre Ware and Manny Hazard of Houston.
Howard also set an NCAA record by catching at least one touchdown pass in 10 consecutive regular season games.
The 5-foot-11, 176-pound Howard scored 23 touchdowns and finished with 1,749 all-purpose yards this season. His 138 points in 1991 are a Michigan record, topping the previous mark of 117 by Tom Harmon in 1940. Harmon, of course, was the only Wolverine to win a Heisman, until now.
"Desmond has probably been as good as anybody put in that position," Michigan coach Gary Moeller said. "And he's had a good supporting cast. That guy throwing the ball to him isn't shabby."
Several of Howard's catches will be talked about for years. The diving catch in the end zone to seal a victory against Notre Dame was probably the most dramatic.
But his signature piece came in the final regular season game against arch-rival Ohio State, the team that lost out on Howard.
In the second quarter, Howard hauled in a punt and returned it 93 yards for a touchdown to put Michigan ahead 24-3. It was the longest punt return in school history, and maybe one that will be remembered until another Wolverine wins a Heisman.
As he reached the back of the end zone, Howard struck the familiar pose of the player on the Heisman Trophy.
It was the first time anyone could remember the normally quiet Howard doing anything so out of character. It was something the Wolverines don't normally indulge in.
"I kind of rolled my eyes at that," guard Matt Elliott said.
But Moeller had never been able to get angry with Howard.
"What he did this year was a storybook type of thing," Moeller said. "He's just a great young man and we're all happy for him."