Michael Phelps’s Best Friend: Scotty Passink
Download | Duration: 00:03:04
October 10, 2008
This story does not involve any football players. Just two guys.
One of them is Michael Phelps. You’ve probably heard of him. He has 14 gold medals.
The other is Scotty Passink. You probably haven’t heard of him. He has cerebral palsy.
But these two have been close friends since Phelps moved to Ann Arbor four years ago.
When Scotty Passink was born, the doctors said he would never walk or talk. They told his parents to look for a place to put him.
But Scotty’s father, Pete, had captained the Michigan golf team. His mother worked as Bo Schembechler’s secretary. They are not soft. They were not going to give up.
Scotty’s surgeries started when he was two, and didn’t stop until his senior year in high school – 15 operations in all. The doctors broke his legs and reset them – twice -- just so he could walk. He doesn’t walk very fast -- – he goes through a pair of shoes every two or three months -- and he has a hell of a time climbing stairs. But he gets there.
When Scotty was six they put him in a special classroom. One day he came home and asked his mom, “Why doesn’t anybody talk?” His mom said, “This isn’t right,” and put him in a class with the other kids. He got teased and he got shoved, but he says, “It only made me tougher.”
When his grades faltered a few years later, Bo Schembechler hauled him into his office. “Sit down!” he said, then scared him straight. It worked. Despite all the sick days, Scotty earned his diploma on time – plus a signed photo from Schembechler that said: “To Scotty, The toughest guy I know.”
Scotty went to Washtenaw Community College, then transferred to Michigan, where he worked as a student manager for the football team. Now he works at the UM ticket office, where I recently heard Lloyd Carr offer him a cigar. “No thanks,” Scotty said. “Those things make me walk funny.”
His closest friends include Pat Owen, who was born with a club foot but became the captain of the Michigan wrestling team – and some guy named Michael Phelps.
“I don’t think Michael knows what I have, really,” Scotty says. “And I don’t think he cares about it. But, when I fall down, he’s right there to pick me up. Every time.”
When Phelps returned to Ann Arbor to be honored at the Michigan-Wisconsin football game, he called Scotty from the airport. “Meet me at the Brown Jug in thirty minutes.” That night, the all-time Olympic champion told Passink how much Scotty inspired him.
The next day Owen, Passink and Phelps watched the game on the Michigan sidelines. When the fans started counting down the seconds, a police officer warned the trio that Phelps would get mobbed, and Scotty could get trampled. Phelps turned to Scotty and said, “Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”
When the gun sounded, Owen and Phelps picked up their buddy, and carried him off the field. If you were lucky enough to witness that moment, you would have seen three guys running across the field and up the tunnel: a wrestler with a club foot, Scotty Passink, and the best athlete in the world.
And the toughest guy was in the middle.
Copyright © 2008, Michigan Radio
Thanks much for the comments on Jackie Robinson. As a kid who grew up in Brooklyn and followed the Dodgers in fanatic fashion, I loved Jackie and all he brought to the team and the game. In Brooklyn and at Ebbets Field he was generally not thought of as a Black man but rather as a gifted athlete with a determination to succeed seen in very few ballplayers. I think Brooklyn was the ideal place for him to accomplish all he did; we simply enjoyed his style of play and the winning ways he brought to our beloved Dodgers. By the way, he was helped along the way in that first year of 1947 by a former Detroit Tiger great Hank Greenberg. Hank was playing first base for the Pittsburg Pirates that year - his only year in the National League. During a game at Brooklyn he told Jackie who had hit his way onto first base that he understood all the hard knocks he was taking from some bigoted ballplayers because he, as a Jew, had received similar derogatory insults over in the American League over his career. He advised Jackie on handling this and Jackie was grateful. Greenberg, like Robinson, used his abilities and desire to succeed to silence the narrow minded around them. Once again, thanks for recoginzing this amazing man's contributions to the truly American way and all it has done for African Americans since.
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Dear Ed,
Thanks for your kind comments, and history lesson.
My dad grew up in Scarsdale, a Dodgers' fan surrounded by Yankees' backers, and the stories he tells gibe with yours.
If you've not already read it, I recommend Jane Leavy's excellent biography, titled simply Sandy Koufax, which, among other things, explores the less-examined issue of anti-Semitism in baseball. A great work about a fascinating man.
Again, thanks!
-John
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Thanks for sharing this audio
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