Michigan football: Dan Dierdorf, Jim Brandstatter pass the torch in emotional farewell

LIVONIA, Mich. — Michigan broadcasters and legends Jim Brandstatter and Dan Dierdorf called their last game together in U-M’s Orange Bowl loss to Georgia in January. They officially passed the torch to new play-by-play man Doug Karsch and his partner, former Michigan All-American Jon Jansen, in an emotional farewell dinner at Laurel Manor in Livonia Thursday night.

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More than 300 people, including some of Michigan football’s best, were on hand to say their good-byes to the duo. The two worked Michigan games together for eight years after Dierdorf’s 2013 retirement from CBS, where he was one of the network’s top analysts.

Video tributes included Greg Gumbel, who called Dierdorf a giant in the sport and in broadcasting but noted he was an even better person and friend.

“There wasn’t a day that went by with Dan that I didn’t learn something about the game of football,” he said.

There were kind words from the late, great broadcaster Dick Enberg, a heartfelt video “good-bye” from Detroit Tigers broadcasters Matt Shepard and Dan Dickerson, the latter acknowledging Brandstatter was a huge influence when the two did some Michigan football games together in Dickerson’s earlier days. The night also featured also videos from the early days of the iconic “Michigan Replay” with Brandstatter and former coach Bo Schembechler.

Former Dierdorf and Brandstatter teammates Reggie McKenzie, a Michigan and NFL legend, Dick Caldarazzo, Jim Betts and others were on hand to share their stories in person.

But some of the best memories came from Brandstatter and Dierdorf’s replacements. Karsch, the Michigan sideline reporter for the duo, recalled their first broadcast.

“Dan had come back, Frank Beckmann had retired, and Jim was moving from color commentator to play by play. The first thing Jim did was welcome in our old friend Dan Dierdorf, who was back at Michigan,” Karsch recalled. “Dan said, ‘well, Jim, I don’t envy you. You have to follow in the footsteps of a legend, Frank Beckmann. It’s a very difficult, job. I think you’ll be up to it. But it’s a very, very tough task following in the footsteps of a legend.”

He paused.

“I, on the other hand, have the easiest job ever, as I am following you,'” Karsch added, eliciting a huge laugh from the Laurel Manor crowd. “And so it began.

“Eight years, it was like that all the time. It was fun, and going out with a win over Ohio State was the best.”

Dierdorf admitted he wouldn’t have come out of retirement for anything but Michigan. As he got older, he admitted, he often wondered to himself why his love for his alma mater was so strong, and if it wasn’t a bit over the top. But it never changed, he said — still hasn’t today — and he finished with how proud he was to be a “Michigan man.”

And that’s what makes the transition to Jansen so a propos. Jansen is in exactly the same mold — a Michigan legend, NFL standout with unbelievable pride in the program. HIs goal when he retired from a 12-year career, most of it with the Washington Redskins where he was a captain and voted one of the franchise’s all-time greats, was to get back to Michigan in some capacity.

When someone approached him not long ago and asked him how it felt to be one of the voices of Michigan football, he recalled, he got “goosebumps.”

One story he told put it in perspective. Dierdorf happened to be calling Jansen’s first game with the Redskins, and when he walked on the field in the pregame, Jansen approached him to introduce himself. He was shocked to know that Dierdorf not only knew who he was, but had also followed his career.

The two talked for several minutes about Michigan, mainly, before Jansen took the field for his first game. When it ended, Jansen said, he called his father not long after.

“I told my dad, ‘Guess what? I met Dan Dierdorf,'” Jansen recalled.

It wasn’t the thrill of the first game or how he played that day, but meeting a fellow Michigan tackle and legend that meant the most.

Years later, Dierdorf — an ordained minister — laughed and hung up on Jansen when he asked him to perform the ceremony at his wedding. He called him back a few minutes later, however, and agreed to do it when he found out Jansen was dead serious.

The two, cut from the same cloth, became good friends. And because of that, of course, Jansen jokingly volunteered Dierdorf (and Brandstatter, also an ordained minister), for weddings or any other special occasion since they were now retired and had “nothing better to do.”

Head coach Jim Harbaugh started the ceremony by presenting Dierdorf and Brandstatter with official Michigan helmets with helmet stickers featuring every one of U-M’s 976 wins. Athletic director Warde Manuel sent them off with lifetime press box passes, including parking passes (a big hit for the duo), and an emotional thank you.

But the sense was that the true gift to them was simply being involved in the program they loved. That would be the lasting memory from a special night for Michigan football.