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.