Eastern Michigan Athletics
Last Dance for Eastern Michigan: Introduction
3/22/2021 12:02:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Men's Basketball Sweet 16 Series told by T.C. Cameron
When Greg Steiner asked me to write on Eastern Michigan's 1990-91 men's basketball team, I couldn't say yes fast enough. Truly, it's an honor, because this team was the most memorable part of a year like no other in EMU's 171-year history.
A confluence of culture change was occurring. Modern pop became less commercial and more socially aware, joining the emergent rap and hip-hop genre. R.E.M. and the Smiths, meet N.W.A. Lenny Kravitz, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Depeche Mode, along with Bell Biv Devoe. LL Cool J, Ice Cube, and Ice-T were rappers, not actors. New Jack City told the story of how drug abuse devastated our cities. We watched In Living Color and The Simpsons … wait … I'm told The Simpsons is still a thing.
The USSR crumbled. Boris Yeltsin became an equal with Mikhail Gorbachev. Yugoslavia broke up, Germany reunited. Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years of imprisonment.
In the early 1990s, EMU was infamous for a large and rowdy party scene. We crowded into the Fish House, River Rain, Eastern Village, or The Iliad. We filled pubs named the Wooden Nickel, Theo's, Cross Street, and the Spaghetti Bender.
"Give Pease a chance" meant saving mothballed Pease Auditorium from demolition. The bombing of Baghdad began live on CNN, as over 60 students and a handful of staff left campus and activated into duty for the Gulf War. The kiosk next to Pray-Harrold became a daily rally point, re-painted each day to match the night's protest or unity march, EMU's first political activism since the Vietnam War.
Additionally, the Board of Regents voted to discontinue the Huron nickname and logo Jan. 30, 1991.
But amid this intense backdrop, Coach Ben Braun's Hurons thundered to the Mid-American Conference title. Can you imagine two 10-game winning streaks, or twice not losing a game for more than a month, in the same season? It happened in 1990-91. We won the MAC tournament in Detroit — think last year's Quick Lane Bowl for a long weekend — and reached the Sweet 16.
To borrow from MTV Raps, "Yo! We had a squad!" We were long, athletic, fun to watch and able to score from anywhere on the floor. They were a great source of point-to pride for everyone connected to EMU, but for students, they truly were part of us, making it a bit more sweet.
To the last of the Hurons: enjoy this well-deserved bow.
— T.C. Cameron is the author of Miracle Maples (2019) and Navy Football: Return to Glory (2017). A 1995 graduate of EMU, he's lived in Annapolis, MD since 2009. Follow him on Twitter: @ByTCCameron.
