By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com
Last Sunday, as the Cincinnati Bengals faced off with the LA Rams in their first Super Bowl appearance in 33 years, Illini grads Mike and Michelle Martin couldn't help but think of their late son, Marcus. Mike, after an illustrious football career at Illinois, played for seven seasons with the Bengals. Years ago, Mike promised his son, Marcus, that they'd see the Super Bowl in person if their team ever made it to the big game.
So, at a Chicago tavern two weeks ago, after watching his former squad upset the Kansas City Chiefs in the American Football Conference Championship Game, Mike was determined to keep his word. Unfortunately, Marcus, who died from a pulmonary embolism at the age of 25, would only be at Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium in spirit.
Sports and football, in particular, have played a big part of the Martin family. Michelle, a product of Chicago's Whitney Young High School, has been around sports most of her life. She served as a member of the Fighting Illini cheer squad during her undergraduate days at the University of Illinois.
"I was a cheerleader from elementary school through high school," she said. "When I got to Illinois (as a freshman in 1980), I really wanted to join the squad, but I had never done any partner stunts. I met up with Johnny Barnes, who I think was one of the first black Illini cheerleaders, and he worked with me. Thinking back on it now, it was crazy because we didn't have any spotters. Johnny helped me learn some of the basic lifts that I would have to do in order to be able to try out."
Michelle earned a spot on the Illini squad for the 1981-82 season but injured her knee by falling off the top of the pyramid before she could make it to the first football game.
"That's when I knew Mike Martin really loved me because he made it to our practice facility before the ambulance did," she said. "I tore my ACL and couldn't tumble or jump or do pyramids, but at least I could cheer."
Mike remembers seeing his future wife, "that gorgeous girl", at Illinois' Snyder Hall. He cultivated the relationship in a political science class that they both attended, proposed on Christmas Day 1985, and were married in June of 1986. Michelle then moved to Cincinnati where Mike was in his fourth season as a Bengals' receiver.
Martin got noticed by the Bengals after his sensational senior year in 1982 when he led the Illini with a record 77 catches for 1,068 yards. If not for an Illini coaching change in 1980, Mike may have never gotten the chance to display his pass-catching talents. The fun began on the very first play in the season opener against Northwestern, Coach Mike White's rookie season.
"Just before the offense took the field, Coach said 'Hey fellas, on this first play, let's just go deep'. It was an incomplete pass, but the (Memorial Stadium) crowd went crazy. And whenever there was a game when the opponent played bump and run, I would look at Tony Eason and just smile. Tony knew that it was time to get the ball to Mike. I relished the opportunity when a guy would try to play me man-to-man."
Mike fondly remembers Illinois' 1980 game at Ohio State when quarterback Dave Wilson threw for an NCAA-record 621 yards.
"I just watched that game the other day on YouTube," Martin said. "At halftime, when we hadn't been able to run the ball much in the first half, Mike said 'Hey fellas, how do you feel about throwing it every down?' Man, the whole locker room just erupted! So, we threw the ball almost every time in the second half—we had a couple of draws in there to keep the defense honest—but they couldn't stop us."
What happened after the clock ran out will always stick with Martin.
"Never, ever, have I left the field being the opposing team … lose the game … and get a standing ovation," he said. "I led the team in yards with seven or eight catches for a hundred and something yards (147 to be exact). That was a fabulous, fabulous day … not only for the spectators, but also for the team."
Martin operated several nightclubs in Cincinnati after his NFL career concluded in 1989 but was drawn back into football to resurrect the program at Taft High. A Bengals favorite, Martin became a popular guest on Cincinnati's 50,000-watt WLW Radio and on television as well.
In 2014, he and the family moved to Chicagoland to be closer to daughter Morgan, a 2009 University of Illinois broadcast journalism grad. Like her mother, Morgan was a member of the Illini cheer squad. Illinois recruited her as a track and field athlete from metro Cincinnati's Walnut Hills High School, but since she was engrossed in cheer and dance since a very young age, she instead chose to perform on the sidelines. Morgan's tryout with the Illini squad is often told when her family gathers.
"The weekend of cheerleading tryouts was also Mom's Weekend at the U of I," Morgan said, "so Mom and I literally had nowhere to stay. We wound up sleeping in our car. So it's a favorite story … my Mom taking me to tryouts, her legacy there, and then me making the team."
The fact that Morgan was a member of the Illini cheer team when Illinois' football squad went to the Rose Bowl in 2008 made her experience extra special.
"Being able to travel there with the team was such an exciting time," she said. "And then with my Dad being a former member of the Illini, my entire family got to be with me. Me being on the field at the Rose Bowl made it a full-circle family moment."
Morgan, who lived in L.A. for a few years, now owns a fitness and nutrition studio on 95th Street in Chicago called The LAB (Live and Believe). The business's mission is to "create a happy place for the community to live their best lives by getting results through nutrition, fitness and transformation".
"Even though it's a very different line of work from broadcast journalism, a lot of what I try to do is tell the stories of the people who are transformed through our space," she said. "I started on my own journey, and that led me to slowly but surely help other people. I'm pleased to say that, through our efforts, hundreds of people have lost thousands of inches and pounds."
Younger brother Marcus's tragic passing was a major impetus in developing Morgan's company and bringing the Martin family together in Chicago.
"Six years later, we've built this business together," she said.
In 2016, the Marcus Martin Foundation was established.
"We provide college scholarships for high school kids as well as teach fundamental football skills to the youth in the three cities where he lived—Cincinnati, DC and Chicago," Mike said. "Marcus wanted to make sure that other young people learned the fundamentals of the game, because that's how he got started."
And although Sunday's result wasn't what the Martin family has hoped for, they knew Marcus would have been proud.
"Marcus was a homer," Mike said. "He kept telling me, 'Dad, one of these days, they're going to get to the Super Bowl.' And when the Bengals won the AFC Championship the emotions just took me over. All I kept saying was, 'Marcus, your boys did it. We're going to the Super Bowl.'
So, Michelle and Mike took a part of him to the Super Bowl.
