Fab Five (University of Michigan)

The Fab Five photographed by the University of Michigan athletic department in 1992. From left to right: Ray Jackson, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King and Chris Webber.

The Fab Five was the 1991 University of Michigan men's basketball team recruiting class that many consider one of the greatest recruiting classes of all time.[1] The class consisted of Detroit natives Chris Webber (#4) and Jalen Rose (#5), Chicago native Juwan Howard (#25), and two recruits from Texas: Plano's Jimmy King (#24) and Austin's Ray Jackson (#21).[2] The Fab Five were the first team in NCAA history to compete in the championship game with all-freshman starters.[3]

Their trend-setting but controversial antics on the court garnered much media attention.[4] They are the subjects of The Fab Five, the highest-rated ESPN Films documentary ever produced,[5][6] one of the featured teams in two of the highest-rated NCAA Men's Basketball Championship games ever played in terms of households (although not viewers),[7][8] and a marketing juggernaut whose merchandise sales dwarfed even those of the national champion 1988–89 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team.[9]

Four of the five participated in the 1991 McDonald's All-American Game.[10] Four McDonald's All-Americans in a single recruiting class stood as an unbroken record until the 2013 McDonald's All-American Boys Game included six members of the entering class for the 2013–14 Kentucky Wildcats team.[11] Four of the five members went on to play in the NBA.

  1. ^ Neumann, Thomas (2011-03-11). "Michigan's Fab Five in their own words". ESPN. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
  2. ^ Wieberg, Steve (March 28, 2002). "Fab Five anniversary falls short of fondness". USA Today. Retrieved 2002-03-28.
  3. ^ Strauss, Ben; Gerstner, Joanne C. (2014-03-29). "Kentucky's Five Freshman Looking to Separate Themselves From Michigan's Fab Five". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-07.
  4. ^ "There's only one Fab Five Archived 2006-10-27 at the Wayback Machine", The Cavalier Daily November 12, 2002
  5. ^ "ESPN Films' The Fab Five Becomes ESPN's Highest Rated Documentary". TVbytheNumbers. 2011-03-16. Archived from the original on 2011-03-20. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
  6. ^ Weisman, Jon (2011-03-16). "'Fab Five' sets ratings record for ESPN". Variety. Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
  7. ^ "Remember when ... ?: What life was like when Bird and Magic changed the game". National Collegiate Athletic Association. 2012-10-16. Archived from the original on 2013-01-30. Retrieved 2012-10-22.
  8. ^ Everson, Darren (2011-03-17). "Who Needs Superteams?: This Tourney Has Iconic Names, Injury Wildcards—and Fewer Dominant Teams". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
  9. ^ "The Fab Five". 30 for 30. 2011-03-13. 120 minutes in. ESPN.
  10. ^ Flores, Ronnie (2012-03-22). "I'm Lovin' It: Great McDonald's moments". ESPN. Retrieved 2013-03-05.
  11. ^ "2013 McDonald's All-American Games Rosters Announced". SLAM Magazine. 2013-02-14. Retrieved 2013-02-14.