Alumni Q&A: Tyrone Wheatley
12/31/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
Dec. 31, 2015
Tyrone Wheatley
At Michigan, former running back and All-America hurdler and current U-M Football running backs coach Tyrone Wheatley was a multi-sport star. He became one of U-M's most distinguished athletes, earning four varsity letters in football (1991-94) and three in track and field (1993-95). Out of the U-M backfield, he collected Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year honors in 1992 and Rose Bowl MVP honors at the conclusion of that same season after a 235-yard performance helped seal a 38-31 victory for the Maize and Blue over the University of Washington. In fact, his 88-yard touchdown run remains the longest play in Rose Bowl Game history for the Maize and Blue. He went on to have a successful 10-year NFL career with the New York Giants and Oakland Raiders, before he turned to coaching, first at the pro level and now back at Michigan.
Though football has always been present in Wheatley's life, his first love was running track. He won the Big Ten's outdoor 110-meter hurdles title in 1994, and his top times in the 100-meter dash (10.46) and 110-meter hurdles (13.77) still rank among U-M's top-10 all-time. More than 20 years removed from his Rose Bowl MVP performance, Wheatley will be inducted in to the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame on New Year's Day. Though he will not be present at the ceremony due to U-M's matchup with Florida in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl, the honor is still very special for Wheatley. He stopped to chat with MGoBlue.com to discuss this prestigious recognition, returning to Ann Arbor and what the sport of track and field did for him, both as an athlete and as a person.
Q. What does it say about your career and the special teams you played on that you are being inducted into this prestigious Hall of Fame?
A. It's an incredible honor, and it's a special honor, but I see it as a team honor. My offensive line blocked incredibly for me on that day, and the receivers who led the convoy into the end zone on several runs were spectacular themselves. It's more of a team honor than an individual accolade.
Q. What is your fondest memory of your two trips to Pasadena?
A. Of all my years in Pasadena, my fondest memory will always be going to Sea World. It was my first time ever going, and I got a chance to rub Shamoo. It was scary, but it was cool.
Q. What makes the sport of track and field so special to you, especially as a contrast to football?
A. As football is the ultimate team game, track really is just you. Those lines (in your lane) are there for a reason -- you have to stay within those lines, and ultimately, you're competing versus yourself. Although there are people in other lanes, you're running against yourself and the clock. The work that you put in leading up to the meet is so important. How good is your technique? Can you hit the right marks at the right time of the year?
That's what I love about track. There is no one else to blame. If you come out of the blocks wrong, that's on you, so you have the opportunity to go back and look and make corrections so that the next time you come out you get it right. To me, that was the great thing about track.
Q. You had a short career overlap with current reigning Big Ten Cross Country Coach of the Year and track and field assistant coach Kevin Sullivan, who is one of if not the most decorated athlete in any sport in U-M history. What do you remember about him, and what does it say about Michigan that you were able to compete with and against world-class athletes in multiple sports as a Wolverine?
A. When you talk about Kevin Sullivan, you're talking about one of the most decorated athletes at Michigan, in any sport. He had incredible range -- he could score for us anywhere from the quarter-mile to the half-mile or two-mile race. Then on the football side of things, watching Desmond Howard, Derrick Alexander, Elvis Grbac and guys like that allows you to see that you're surrounded by great athletes on both sides. It was really incredible, and they basically helped me through my time at Michigan.
Watching Kevin work the way he did pushed you through the days when you were feeling a little down or a little sore. When you want to take a little bit off, you look at Kevin and what he's doing, and you can't. Then it's the same on the football side. You're down a little bit; you're tired; you want to take a rep off, but you can't because you look at guys like Desmond and Derrick Alexander and see how they're working, and you know what you should be doing to make yourself and the team better. When you put those two (influences) together and combine them, it makes you really elevate and raise your game.
My football teammates were good ball players, no question, but they were also good students in the classroom as well, and they held you accountable. They'd always tell you, "We need you." So you knew you couldn't come up short in the classroom or on the track or football field. To me, it was kind of a necessary evil to push me through school.
Q. What were some of the benefits for you of being a multi-sport athlete? How do you think it shaped your athleticism and habits?
A. For me, playing multiple sports was great because it created a break for you, and you had a chance to break the monotony. You get a chance to see different people and experience different coaching in a different setting. With all the running I did for football, I thought I was in great shape until it came time to run for track. It was a different world.
And it was the same in the summer; I thought I was in great shape from track and then it came time to get ready for football, and that is a different animal, too. There isn't the same risk of over-usage because you're not necessarily using the same muscles over and over again. Just because you're running in track and running while playing football doesn't make it all the same. It's a different kind of running with different technique and different aspects that go into it, like weight lifting. It's not mundane, and you aren't doing the same thing over and over so you don't fall victim to the over-usage of your muscles. For me, it was a way to get away mentally, and by the time it was time to switch seasons, I was fresh and mentally ready to go.
Q. What do you think of the plans for the new facility for the track and field programs?
A. The new facility that's coming along is long overdue, and it's really going to really help. It's going to bring everything to the future where it should be. There is a misconception of it being difficult to run fast in the cold -- (at Michigan), we have proven that wrong, over and over. This facility will help showcase our athletes and also the athletes in the Big Ten as a whole.
Q. You chose to come back and live in Ann Arbor, and to bring your family with you, so this place must be special to you. What makes the city special to you?
A. The city is special because in Ann Arbor, the University is the hub. Everything encompasses and surrounds it, so you get a mixture of student life and city life. Talk about a melting pot; this is a real, true melting pot at the University of Michigan. There are so many cultures and races represented. Growing up in Michigan, people feel the need to go to other places to try and find those things, but the reality is you don't have to go far. It's all right here. Food, culture, great sports -- not only our football team or the athletes on the track, but you can come out and see our hockey team, or our volleyball team, and they are excellent as well. This was a place where I could get so much out of just a 10-minute walk.
Communications Contact: Chad Shepard
