Why Melvin Bratton & Alonzo Highsmith Decided To Stay Home And Make Miami A Champion
Melvin Bratton, one of the greatest all time Miami Hurricanes running backs, explained why he and friend Alonzo Highsmith decided to stay home at Miami and turn the Hurricanes into a champion.
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00:00Alonzo Highsmith and myself, we had took several trips.
00:04I went to Ohio State, Michigan, Pitt.
00:07Texas A&M sent a little private jet, a PJ,
00:11and I took, well, Tommy Schroeder,
00:14the safety was supposed to come to Miami with myself
00:16out of my high school, he was a five star as well.
00:19We took Tolbert Bain with us on the Texas A&M trip.
00:23And so I was supposed to go to Southern Cal,
00:25University of Southern Cal, visit the last one,
00:27but I was tired of flying,
00:28because back then we had to do all our trips
00:30in like January, like that.
00:31So every weekend I was on the road and I was like,
00:34I'm tired, I can't go away to West Coast.
00:36I only realized I was going to California
00:37to see the girls and the Hollywood chicks,
00:40you know what I'm saying, like that, the hot chicks.
00:42You know, I want to compare it to South Beach, you know.
00:44South Beach wasn't popular back then, by the way.
00:47It was a lot of older Jewish.
00:49Yeah, yeah, it was old people, yeah.
00:51Yeah, it was old people, yeah,
00:52and they walk around there, so.
00:54Yeah, but anyway, so Alonzo had took
00:57Ohio State and Michigan,
00:59and he had a couple of the schools.
01:01So one night, late night, we were sitting there,
01:02it was getting down to signing day.
01:04I think it was my birthday, February the 2nd,
01:06I think, or the 3rd.
01:07And we were on the phone, holding the phone,
01:09I said, bro, we became close friends in high school
01:12when he played at Columbus, they played against us.
01:14He kicked our ass twice too, by the way, at Columbus.
01:18So we were on the phone, I said, bro,
01:20I said, what are you thinking?
01:22He said, no, bro, what you thinking?
01:23I'm like, we going back and forth, like two women,
01:25like, what do you think, what do you think?
01:26I'm like, I said, bro, you know what?
01:28I said, F this.
01:31I said, let's, I'm sick of this Ohio State crap.
01:34I'm sick of this freaking Michigan, go to Michigan.
01:36Don't go to Ohio State, go to Ohio State.
01:38If you go to Michigan, you'll be da-da-da.
01:40I was like, what are these dudes talking about?
01:43I mean, they were just, the rivalry stuff was like crazy.
01:45He was beating it.
01:46They didn't care about nothing else,
01:47but don't go to that school, so those two.
01:50And Michigan actually was my lead
01:52at going, before I took the visit.
01:55And Jim Mandich, you know what I'm saying, God bless him.
01:58Jim Mandich was, you know, on the radio and he was stoked.
02:01He thought, you know what I'm saying,
02:03I was going to be a Wolverine.
02:04And that's where I went with Bo Simbecker, who was a coach.
02:08Bro, the weekend I went there,
02:11I had this Miami Vice fake ass jacket,
02:13the little platinum pleather jacket.
02:16I had on dress shoes with church socks and some thin slacks.
02:20And I slid all over the whole entire school.
02:24I told Bo Simbecker and those people,
02:26I said, I'm not walking out this door.
02:29I said, any meetings that you guys have,
02:31y'all come to this hotel.
02:32They had a, they got a hotel on campus.
02:34I said, bro, look at this, a blizzard came.
02:38There was a wrong time.
02:39And here's a Dade County boy, has no gear.
02:42All the other dudes had bomber jackets
02:44and Timberland boots and all that.
02:45I'm sitting there looking at them like,
02:47y'all really go through this?
02:49And they were like, hey man, it's normal.
02:51Like, not for me.
02:53So that turned me right there.
02:54That turned me, sent me back South Florida.
02:56But Alonzo and I, like I said, we was on a call
02:58and we kept going back and forth, back and forth.
03:00And I said, bro, let's just stay here
03:02and change the culture in Miami.
03:04We didn't know what the hell we were speaking ourself into,
03:06but we told him, we said, look,
03:07let's make this a powerhouse.
03:09Let's turn this in.
03:10We're going to win championships after championships
03:12and do that.
03:13And he was like, man, I'm on board.
03:14He said, you sure?
03:15I said, yeah.