Richard "Dick" Kempthorn made his mark on the field for the Michigan Wolverines, as a member of the 1947 and 1948 national champions, and as the team's Most Valuable Player during the 1949 campaign.
He also made his mark on future teams when, one night in 1966, he took a 17-year-old high-school senior out for dinner at the fanciest steakhouse in Canton, Ohio.
That kid was Dan Dierdorf.
"And we just talked about the University of Michigan," Dierdorf recalled this week in a conversation with The Detroit News.
"He was just being really honest about what the university had done for him.