Interviews

Published on August 12th, 2020 | by Percy Crawford

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Kansas State Great, Michael Bishop Opens Up About Recent Stroke, Amazing College Career, and His Desire to Win!

As a starting quarterback at the collegiate level, Michael Bishop finished his career with a 46-1 regular season record and second place finish as a 1998 Heisman Trophy candidate!

During the late 90’s college football had it’s share of electrifying quarterbacks. Guys like Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick were essentially human highlight reels. But Manhattan, Kansas was the home of possibly one of the most dangerous dual threat quarterbacks in college football history, Michael Bishop. Bishop was capable of completing 50-60-yard passes on a wire much like he was known for taking off on 50-60-yard scrolls to the endzone. He flourished under Coach Bill Snyder’s system to the tune of a 22-3 record as a starter in both regular season and Bowl Games. His time at Blinn Junior College was perfect, 24-0 over the course of 2-years including two National Championships. His senior year at K-State was capped off with Bishop winning the Davey O’Brien Award and a second-place finish to Ricky Williams for college football’s most prestigious trophy, The Heisman.

I recently caught up with Bishop to discuss his recent health scare, his career and much more!

You are still in amazing shape, only 44 years old… at the time I believe you were 43. Still active and working out on a regular basis, yet you suffered a stroke. Was that an eye opener to you in some form?

Michael Bishop: Well for me, I feel like I’m in great shape. Before then, I would get up in the morning and either ride my bike or walk for 3-miles. I felt like I was in great shape. It’s funny because when it happened, It just felt like a really bad headache which turned into me making it to my sister’s house. I was at a high school basketball game. I just didn’t feel good, so I said I was going to go home. But instead of me going home, nobody was at the house, so I ended up going to my sister’s house. For what reason, I don’t know. I guess it was faith. But I made a left instead of a right. Ended up at my sister house and everything just took place. I went from having a headache to feeling like I was going to pass out to vomiting and sweating. It just so happened that I have a 2-year old… he’s three now, but he was 2-years old at the time, my nephew just so happened was looking out the window and seen my truck pull up. He told my sister I was outside. So, she came outside and she seen everything. I had no control over anything at all. I couldn’t speak to say what I was feeling or anything. It was a very scary moment.

Because you appear to be healthy and in great shape, did the doctors give you a cause for this stroke.

Michael Bishop: When you’re an athlete, you feel like you’re invincible sometimes. This going to sound crazy, but sometimes you are invincible when you’re out there on the field. You train so hard and you condition your mind to be the best you’re going to be. I said this before, I didn’t have a game plan of being a stroke patient. A guy that spends 13-days in the hospital. I didn’t have a plan for none of that. It just made me more aware of what could be and what could happen, especially as a young African American man. I didn’t have high blood pressure; I don’t have diabetes. I don’t have anything like that. They were telling me that I was one of the strongest stroke patients they had ever seen. I try to take care of myself, but then I realized by visiting with neurosurgeons and doctors and everybody that was coming in, they basically told me, “You don’t look like you should be here.” And I said, “I don’t want to be here, but I’m here.” We kind of laughed about it and then they basically said, “Mr. Bishop, on a serious note, you had a stroke. You have a blood clot behind your left ear. And we’re going to get that clot out of there.” Having all those IV’s and having blood drawn every 4-hours was the scariest part for me. When I was in there, I started reading up on strokes. If it don’t affect you, you don’t pay attention to it. So, I started learning about myself and learning about Vitamin K. Which I had too much Vitamin K in my system. I was eating a lot of salads. That’s one of the things that they told me, “Your Vitamin K numbers are through the roof. You gotta stop eating so much green leafy type deals.” That was one of the main things stuck in my mind. They always say you can eat salad and grilled or baked chicken in excess. I wasn’t eating anything fried. Everything was grilled or baked, and I was eating right. Little did I know I was eating wrong at the same time.

I’m glad you are doing much better, Bishop. I wanted to touch on your playing days. And I wanted to start with Blinn Junior College. You went through that program without losing, Cam Newton went undefeated while there as well. What was it about that program that made for such successful football teams and in particular quarterbacks?

Michael Bishop: I’ll tell you, when I was there… a lot of people don’t know, but I got drafted by the Cleveland Indians in baseball as well. I was really leaning towards going into baseball. I wanted to go to UT [University of Texas]. I wanted to go to [Texas] A&M. All of the top schools were recruiting me, but once I found out they were going to switch me to receiver and some of them wanted me to play DB, I was like, “No, I’m not going to go and be behind the eight ball because you got guys that’s been playing those positions all their life. And you’re going to put me in a different position where, if you don’t like the way I cut, I don’t play.” But Blinn came in, and I’ll tell you, a lot of people don’t know about Coach Willie Fritz and Jeff Conway and that coaching staff. They’re actually at Tulane University right now. A lot of people don’t know about those guys.

When you’re recruiting kids, you gotta understand where that kid comes from, you gotta understand their background and what makes them go. A lot of coaches… if you take a kid and you’re talking to him and he doesn’t smile, a lot of coaches may think that’s attitude or feel like they can’t get a feel for him because he’s closed off and not talkative. But those guys, and I say this to the fullest, those guys came. When I found out that I wasn’t going to go through with the baseball deal, and that other schools wanted me to play DB or receiver… of course I could’ve gone anywhere and played that. They came and told me that they wanted me to play QB. They let me know the group of guys they had. They had some sophomores and they told me they needed a guy like me. They spent time to understand me, to understand my family, they understood the neighborhood I came from. They actually walked the streets and was just talking to people and trying to get a feel. You come in and you do that and you show a kid, hey, I might not be the same color as you, but I’m willing to find out and see what you’re about because you can trust me. Once I seen them do all of that, and of course when I got to Blinn and seen all the monsters that were there, I was like, “Oh my God.” That was my first time actually seeing players fully tattooed and I was like, “How old is he?” But they had been in that weight room and that was something that made me stand back and look. I was like, “You know what, if I can be built like that and you’re going to let me play quarterback, I’m coming here.”

Blinn overall, around the world a lot of people don’t speak too much about junior college. But when I was at Blinn, we were rocking and rolling. We didn’t lose a game. If we didn’t score 70-points, we were mad. Even though we won the game, we were mad at ourselves. But they held us to a high accountability. Everybody that put that uniform on respected everybody, classroom, professors, coaches. It was so funny because, if you were 30-seconds late walking in the classroom door, you’re up at 5:30 in the morning running. It was very structured. They had everything right, man. You had to be a fool to come to Blinn and get kicked off the football team. Because they had everything right. And it was lined up for people who needed structure, but the guys who already had structure, you got to see a whole different side of life on and off the field which is great for all of us. That’s why we stayed together and were able to win two National Championships back to back.

If you’ve never competed at the highest level in any form of athletic competition, you may not understand how difficult it is to consistently win. Your regular season record as a starting college quarterback at Blinn Junior College and Kansas State is 46-1. That’s impressive and definitely not easy.

Michael Bishop: You know the thing about it is, I tell people all the time, I was one of seven kids. You grow up… and I’m not even going to say the hood because… I know what the hood is, I’ve been there. I’ve seen people that come out of there, but we were fortunate. My mom was a schoolteacher and my dad worked at Pepsi. We had more than the average kids back then. But I was able to understand what it meant to be poor, what it meant to be hungry and I realized what it meant to be starving. I’m speaking from an athletic standpoint. When you have kids that’s got everything handed to them, or you go in there and say, “You’re my starter,” from day one, but they haven’t thrown a touchdown pass yet. I was able to get on that grind at 7-years old. To understand what it means to work. Back then, where I came from, it doesn’t matter if you were the starter last year. You gotta fight for that position that following year. And you can lose it in the spring. There’s always competition and for me, it brought out everything. You couldn’t take a day off. It’s unfortunate now. It’s so easy for kids to get scholarships now. A lot of kids get scholarships and they take days off, and the ones that don’t take days off sometimes get overlooked. Sometimes it can be a double-edged sword. But for me, that work ethic from my parents was set into me early. I knew what it was to grind, I knew what it was to be a dog, and I knew what it was to be a dog and still go and be a bigger dog. I understood that at an early age.

You had it all, bullet for an arm, speed, elusiveness, but you were also a strong runner and in the pocket. I was shocked when I recently read that you didn’t like to run. Talk us through your game and what you saw as your strengths.

Michael Bishop: When I was in high school, we had two running backs go over a thousand yards. All four of my years playing varsity actually. When I got to Blinn we had the same thing. We had stronger/faster running backs go over a thousand. I really wasn’t a runner. I could run it, but I didn’t have to. In high school I didn’t have to really do it and I didn’t have to do it at Blinn. But when I got to K-State, I remember my first time… we had an intersquad scrimmage, and I took off and had an 80-yard run untouched up the middle. And we had track guys that were on the football team as well. So, when I went untouched, I guess that opened up the floodgates because Coach Snyder was like, “Okay, he can run. He can really run.” And I was like, “I’m not really a runner, but if I gotta run, I’m going to run it.” But then, I was always strong. But when I was at K-State I realized, if you want me to run this ball 25-times a game, and throw it 25 to 35-times, then I need to be a lot stronger. I hit the weight room and bulked up a little bit. Every time I ran the ball, I ran it with the mentality of; I gotta hit you before you hit me. I play quarterback and I know your job is to take me out of the game, so I’m going to give you everything that I’ve got on this run and on each and every run to let just know that I’m just not the average QB. I’m going to run that thing hard. I think in the Big 12 I got a lot of respect for that because I ran over linebackers, DB’s, ran over some lineman. And the ones that got great shots on me, I popped right back up. I’m ready for the next play. Me having the strength and that killer instinct that I developed. If I gotta run it, I’m going to run it. If I gotta throw it, I’m going to throw it. If I gotta jump over you to get to the end zone, I’m going to do that. So, I think I got a lot of respect from my teammates once they knew what I was about. You got a lot of QB’s that are great, but under pressure they will throw it out of bounds, but I’m trying to get that first down even if I gotta use my legs.

It had been almost 30-years since K-State defeated Nebraska. Your senior year, you accomplished that. Is that up there for you in terms of your collegiate accomplishments?

Michael Bishop: I think it’s up there for the fans and for the people who had endured that beating for so long. For me… they beat me my first year at K-State. And they beat me 56-21. And I got banned from the media for the couple of weeks because I said, “I felt like my teammates quit on me.” At the time those guys that were juniors, seniors, and fifth year seniors, those guys had been through the beatin’ seasons. I was basically talking to those guys like, “You know what, I feel like ya’ll gave up when we walked in the stadium.” That was my first time in Lincoln. We walked through the crowd to get to the field. The crowd is cheering you on, some of them talk bad about you and some of them had signs, ‘Another Year Another Easy Win.’ I took all that win. This is not what it’s supposed to be like. This was my first loss… ever in college football. So, I’m taking it personal. I called out some guys who were leaders on the team like, “Where was your leadership at? When we played these other teams, you right there, you’re fired up, but I didn’t see no fire in you today!” I kept the fire for 4-quarters. I kept battling. When some of the guys from Nebraska spoke afterwards, they said that they liked me because I battled for 4-quarters. I never stopped or gave up. When they said that, I knew I had to say what I said to my teammates. But we were good after that. Beating Nebraska, the following year, like I said, that was for the fans, but for me, it was the next team on the schedule. I made a statement that the next year they were not going to get us, and we made a statement.

You are a super humble dude, man and I respect that, but I gotta pull you out of that mode and ask you, should you have won the Heisman Trophy over Ricky Williams in 1998?

Michael Bishop: I tell you what; me and Rick are good friends. Anytime K-State play UT we make sure we catch up to each other. I was in Austin, I think 2-years ago, and I was with Ricky and his mom and I told his mom and I said, “You know that Heisman is supposed to be at my house.” And she said, “It would have been difficult, I know they recruited you, and if you would’ve came, they would’ve put you at QB. It would have been difficult because ya’ll would’ve been fighting for the Heisman.” I told her, “With all due respect, it should be mine.” I told Rick… “Tell me why you think you should’ve won that Heisman?” He was like, “Man, we both had great careers and put up great numbers.” I said, “Rick, they told us it’s going to come down to who have the best game versus each other. My defense held you to 39-yards. I had almost 150 rushing and over 330 passing on ya’ll. So, if we stay true to that, the Heisman is mine.” He basically said, “They picked me so I’m going to hang on to it,” (laughing). But… coming from where I came from and going through all the things that I been through with the JUCO route, not losing a game and putting up great numbers, I think I did everything that I was supposed to do. I truly believe that when Doak Walker passed and Ricky changed that jersey number, I think that put him over the edge. I’m not taking anything away from him. He was a great running back and he did his thing, but I know what I did as well. I know what I did for both programs, I know what I did for college football. A lot of teams now may not want to give me credit, but Urban Meyer gave me credit about Wildcat offense. I wasn’t around, but I can run it. That year should’ve been the first co-Heisman Trophy winners (laughing). I was able to win the Davey O’Brien Award which is the top senior quarterback. I’ll take that, but I definitely wanted that Heisman.

How would Michael Bishop flourish in today’s wide-open spread offensive sets?

Michael Bishop: I can honestly say, in my mind and in my heart, I know for a fact that I would throw for 5-6,000 yards in a season and rush for over 1,500. I’m going to trust my skills and trust my teammates. But at the same time, I know I’m going to go get mine. You have offenses now that are so wide-open… some schools have a QB that can do that, but they aren’t doing it like I was doing it. And I think if I was in that situation now, I’m going to blow the top off that thing, man.

Before I let you go, I never knew you and Jamie Foxx were first cousins. You learn something new every day. Are you close with him?

Michael Bishop: We are related on my dad’s side. I have hung out with him a couple times, but the way they party, I don’t party. We chit-chat here and there. Last time we were together, I was in Toronto at the Film Festival. I caught him at a club there. We said, how are you doing, long time no see, and we keep it moving. We are actually two different characters.

I appreciate the time; it is an honor speaking to you. Is there anything you want to say before I let you go?

Michael Bishop: For me, I got hot with that stroke. I didn’t have a playbook to be ready for that. I’m still pushing every day. I’m a warrior, man so, I may be down for a minute, but I’m going to get right back up. Just for the kids out there with dreams and visions, man, you gotta hold on to it because can’t nobody do it like you do it for yourself. If you got a gift… and I said this before to some kids I was talking to the other day, they can fire you, they can cut you or do whatever they do, but one thing about it, if you got that gift, they can’t reach inside of you and take that gift. Take your gift, polish your gift, honor your gift, cherish your gift, and the sky is the limit. They giving out scholarships now, get it, hold on to it and be the best you can be.

 

 

 

 

 

 



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