Student-Athlete Alumni Spotlight: Mike Brenan
July 23, 2003
Hurricane Headquarters
Coral Gables, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) — – Mike Brenan
Class of 1960
Three Goals: College, Baseball and Stock Broking
By: Tracy Gale
Although growing up in Lake Worth surrounded by rabid Gator fans, Mike Brenan always knew he would be a Hurricane.
“I had been a big ‘Cane fan since I was little. In the late 1940s and early 1950s Miami had some great football teams. One year they went undefeated. I knew where I was going to college.”
Mike was a four-sport star in high school and competed against standout competition, including Dick Howser and lifelong friend Burt Reynolds. After a two-year stint in the Marine Corps Mike was recruited by Hall-of-Fame first baseman and then-UM baseball coach Jimmie Foxx.
“The decision was a no-brainer. My GI Bill benefits were $110 a month. For $50 I bought a 1948 Mercury convertible. It was orange with green vinyl interior, and it had white-walled tires. Then I drove straight down to UM!”
When asked if this car ever got him into trouble-after all it would be hard to deny it was you in such a flashy convertible-Mike says no.
“Our first day on campus all of the coaches met with us over in the Beaumont Building (now the Cosford Cinema), he recalled. “At the time it was the only auditorium classroom on campus and the only air-conditioned building at UM. They got us in there, all of the athletes together, and told us the rules. They told us the dress code and what was expected of us: you couldn’t cut one class or miss one practice.
‘I remember [head football coach] Andy Gustafson saying, ‘miss one or the other and you’ll be given a Hershey Bar and a pair of roller skates to speed your exit off this campus.’ It was one strike and you were out. Those were the rules and we followed them. You have to remember, we had guys playing baseball or football who were in their late 20s; they had been to war. We were all pretty responsible. We were there to get our education and play some ball. But education was definitely first.”
Playing centerfield and leading off the batting order, Mike has a lot of memories of playing for the Hurricanes.
“First off was the smell. Behind right field was a sewage pipe and the drainage off of that…man, did we ever suffer on windy days! The smell would just knock you out! Our right fielder had it the worst. He always used to say he wished he could run as fast as me, so he could play centerfield instead of right! The outfield fence was a short, barbed wire fence. Part of your responsibility of being on the varsity was you had to go out and pick up the rocks and debris on the field before a game. In the clubhouse we had these little half lockers, and a nail stuck in the wall where you could hang up your glove. Our uniforms-they were 100% wool-were washed with all of the other teams’ uniforms. But we didn’t care. What did we know? Most of us were coming out of the army. We thought everything we had at UM was great!”
Nowadays the Hurricane baseball team plays approximately 60 games per season. But in the late 1950s the schedule was more like 25 games per season, and there were no glamour trips to play top schools in California or Hawaii.
“Our big trip was to Deland to play Stetson,” Mike remembers, “or maybe the most exciting place we went to was Jacksonville.”
Whatever the travel schedule or the number of games played, one thing remains constant for all ‘Canes, whether you played in the ’50s or the ’90s: completely hating the University of Florida.
“We hated the Gators to death, they were our big rivals. In 1958 we were playing them here and the score was tied 8-8, bottom of the 11th. I hit a single and then stole second. Eddie Contreras came up to the plate and stroked one into the outfield. I came around from second and the Gator catcher was blocking the plate. His name was Bobby Barnes and he also was a starting linebacker for Florida.
“You know that All-Star game collision at home plate they always show on TV, between Pete Rose and Ray Fosse? Well that was Bobby Barnes and me: he blocked the plate and I rammed into him, and he dropped the ball. We won in the bottom of the 11th and ended up sweeping the Gators that season. [Head baseball coach] Whitey Campbell was ecstatic.”
Besides playing ball Mike was active in the SAE fraternity, which is where he lived as an undergraduate. He is also a proud member of the ‘M’ club, vividly remembering the “hell of initiation…that was a tough day, even for a former Marine.” During the summers he went up to Chattanooga, Tennessee and played semi-pro baseball.
“I earned some real decent money for a student back then. We just played ball every day and lived in the local fraternity house, which cost me $7/week.”
Mike wanted to come to UM for baseball but also for academics. He majored in international business.
“Whenever I come on campus I’m always amazed at how beautiful it is, UM looks like a resort. When I came here we had all of these shacks! The ground between buildings was rocky, and girls wouldn’t take classes at night because of all of the black snakes and land crabs. You wouldn’t see any girls out on campus after dark because of all of the snakes.”
Mike graduated from UM in January of 1960. There was no major league baseball draft then, but a scout from the Washington Senators (now the Minnesota Twins) signed him after seeing him play. He was supposed to start in the Senators minor league system that spring, but a horrific car accident ending his playing days. Instead, the Senators sent him to AA ball in North Carolina – as the business manager for their Charlotte affiliate. After seven years working in baseball, Mike went for the final of his three goals: to be a successful stockbroker. He moved to New York City to get his master’s degree from the New York Institute of Finance.
“I was in the graduate program with all of these Harvard and Wharton School of Business graduates. When they heard I got my degree from the University of Miami they would snicker or make ‘Suntan U’ remarks. They could laugh all they want-I worked harder than they did and finished tops in the program. That’s what UM gives you: the attitude to be successful.”
Mike spent 35 years as a stockbroker, starting out on Wall Street and then moving to Atlanta, before returning home to South Florida. After a very successful career he retired from Morgan Stanley on September 4, 2001.
“I had plans to be in New York the following week. I was going up to Morgan Stanley’s corporate headquarters at the World Trade Center to say ‘goodbye’ to the people I had worked with for so long.”
The headquarters were on the 93rd floor of the World Trade Center, and Mike’s appointment was at 9:15am. But he decided to postpone the trip because of an opportunity to visit the Atlantis Resort in Paradise Island.
“I postponed my goodbyes because of a great opportunity to see this resort. I really needed a couple of days of vacation. For whatever reason this came along and made me cancel my meeting in the World Trade Center, I thank God every day.”
Mike retired from stock broking in 2001 but co-founded an investment management business, FCB Advisory Services. He also mediates stock fraud cases for the New York Stock Exchange. Mike spends his summers in Costa Rica but is back in Miami in time for football season. He enjoys going to UM baseball games and being a mentor at the School of Business.
“They assign three or four students a year to me, and I meet with each student once a month. They are all finance majors who have career goals in the stock market. I have been doing this for a few years now and really like it.”
He also speaks each year to graduating seniors.
“I explain the realities of how tough it is to be a successful stockbroker: the 12- and 13-hour days and how they better not expect to take vacations for the first oh, 20 years of their career.”
In recognition of his time and contributions, the business school hosted a ‘Mike Brenan Day’ in 2001. Former teammates Eddie Contreras and Ed Harrison attended the luncheon, as did head baseball Coach Jim Morris.
Mike’s love for UM is reflected in his Living Trust, which stipulates money for an endowed baseball scholarship, as well as scholarships for the SAE fraternity and the business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi.
“I worked really hard all my life and now I am enjoying the results of that hard work. Yes, I am definitely still working-I was completely ‘retired’ for only two days! But now I have time to mentor, to travel a bit. It’s a great life for someone who grew up dirt poor in Lake Worth, Florida!”
