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Photo gallery: Michigan football team visits Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum

clayton-sayfieby: Clayton Sayfie07/22/22CSayf23
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Michigan Wolverines football is taking a trip around the state of Michigan (Photo by Clayton Sayfie / TheWolverine.com)

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Michigan Wolverines football team stopped at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids on the second day of its summer trip around the state. The week will continue with stops along the state’s west coast and more in the coming days.

The Wolverines listened to speakers discuss the former Michigan All-American center turned President of the United States, before exploring the exhibits, which included the Oval Office, Ford’s cabinet room and more. Michigan will continue on its trip over the next several days.

Here is a photo gallery from the Michigan team’s day in Grand Rapids.

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Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh tells Gerald R. Ford story

Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh then talked about his time spent with Ford on the Michigan golf course as a kid in the 1970s.

“President Ford, when I played, starting in ’82, he would visit once or twice a year practice,” Harbaugh said. “Him and Bo, he’d be out there on the practice field, whether it was a fall practice or sometimes he’d come in the spring. But he was around the program a lot when I was a player.

“And then one time, it was his last year of being president, I think, he played in the Michigan Open, the pro-am, with Bo. It was this big thing … and I went up to Bo as a 12-year-old kid. I had my speech all rehearsed, and I said, ‘Coach Schembechler, I know you’re going to be playing in the golf tournament with President Ford. Do you need a caddy?’ He said, ‘Let me think about that.’

“Three or four days later, he told my dad that I could be his caddy in that group. I was Bo Schembechler’s caddy, and I didn’t know what I was doing. I was walking across the lines [of the putts]. ‘Jim, you’re supposed to go get the pin.’ I had no idea what I was doing. Just a scared little boy at the time.

“The thing I remember, too, was that the secret service was everywhere. There were people in trees with machine guns. I called them Tommy guns. They had golf bags with machine guns.

“Gerald Ford was a true gentlemen, one of the finest presidents we’ve had.”

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