Michigan Quarterback Rick Leach

SEPTEMBER 6, 1976

The cover subject of our college football preview issue 20 years ago was Michigan's 19-year-old sophomore quarterback, Rick Leach. SI showed prescience in giving the youngster such treatment: That year Leach would lead Michigan to the first of three straight Rose Bowls, and in his four years at Ann Arbor he would set two NCAA records: most touchdowns running and passing (79) and most points responsible for (474), both since broken. Leach was drafted by the Denver Broncos of the NFL and the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, but he chose to pursue a career in baseball. That seemed wise: Leach, a Michigan native who had played centerfield brilliantly for the Wolverines, was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the first round in 1979, and he looked forward to playing close to home. But he would learn, as we all must, that our best-laid schemes often go awry.

Leach was not an instant sensation with the Tigers. He spent two seasons in the minors and another two bouncing between the bushes and the parent club. He finally stuck with Detroit in 1983, but he hit only .248 in 99 games as a part-timer. The Tigers dropped him in 1984, and he signed a minor league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays. He played his first full season in Toronto in '86 and had his best year, batting .309 in 110 games. Then the trouble began. In '87 Leach went AWOL from the Jays for several days. The absence was dismissed under the rubric of "personal problems"—but, in fact, he had begun using cocaine. I le signed with the Texas Rangers as a free agent in 1989, and the next year he signed with the San Francisco Giants.

Leach was immensely popular with Giants players and fans. He hit .293 in 78 games, but then he came a cropper: On Aug. 6, 1990. after failing a drug test, he was suspended for 60 days and ordered to undergo rehabilitation. Leach rejoined the Giants for spring training in 1991, but San Francisco, loaded with outfielders, released him. He was profoundly disappointed, but he said he had emerged from the ordeal of drug rehab "realizing how much I've really got going in my life."

Happily, Leach has gone on with that life. He works as an insurance agent in Farmington Hills. Mich., where he lives with his wife, Angela, and their three sons. Rick has, at 39, achieved blessed serenity. "I made a mistake," he says, "and I was held accountable for it. There really is nothing more to say."