Jim Skrocki was a small kid from a small school.

But it took him just one day to know he was going to fit in nicely in Roy Kramer’s fast-rising football program at Central Michigan University.

“We were sitting in a theater with about 100 guys, and Roy walks up to the microphone and yells ‘You’ve gotta hit!’ All of the guys jumped,” Skrocki said. “We probably lost about 20 guys after that speech. I was sitting in this room with a bunch of Class A players, players who were All-State. But I said to myself ‘I’m going to make it.’

“Roy didn’t care how big you were. If you were lean and mean, if you could hit somebody, if you could block somebody, you could get a spot on his team. And that’s what I did.”

The rough and rugged aspects of football were right in Skrocki’s wheelhouse, serving him

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