Of all the memorable football locker rooms Super Bowl-winning linebacker Ron Ferrari has been a part of, none produced a memory quite like this one:
“It was September 13, 1980, Mike White’s first season as head coach of Illinois. We had just beaten Michigan State to go 2-0 after beating Northwestern the week before.
“The locker room was loud, celebratory and Mike couldn’t have been more happy for us. He jumped up on either a chair and proceeded to thank us profusely.
"As he was getting very emotional, he accidentally fell off the back of the chair. Some players barely caught him before he hit the ground.
“We laughed so hard. Then he quickly jumped back up and finished with us.
“It was really just the beginning of a wonderful run with Mike.”
