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Hockey prepared U-M's James Ross III for football

CHICAGO – Seeing James Ross III barreling down on a ballcarrier must be an imposing sight for the running back.

Seeing that on ice? Multiply that fear a few times.

Ross, a senior Michigan linebacker and one of the team's biggest hitters, could have chosen a different sports path given the way he started: In hockey, at eight years old, near his home on Detroit's west side.

"My dad really wanted to get me going when I was younger," Ross said Friday at the Big Ten media days in Chicago. "He found this hockey rink in Detroit, (Adams Butzel Park).