I think it might have been Indiana State, but I'm saying that from memory. I'm not sure if it was Russell sending tape to JJ or Hubbard Alexander just learning about him from his extensive contacts in Chicago. Don't forget, Chicago was a regular recruiting hub for UM back in the '80's. That was because of Axe. He also had good contacts in Memphis, which is why we had a run of players from Memphis for a while.
But I don't know for sure how Russell came to UM's attention. I remember recruiting the Chicago area was very tough. Notre Dame was very popular with the Catholic schools. In the 1980's, I recall talking to some Miami alums from the Chicago suburbs. They were Catholics and they told me how popular ND was with the suburban Catholics, not even athletes. It was a very popular school. Of course, with the many Catholic schools playing the best football at the time, ND was very attractive to a lot of the top players. (One that consistently pops into my mind was Chris Zorich, NT for the late '90's Irish. A small Bobby Garcia gave him a hard time in that '89 game.)
In JJ's first year I believe, we had our eyes on some really good players in the Chicago area. We had them all lined up, ready to sign with UM. I believe they were Frank Hartley, a TE. I also think Mel Agee was a DL. (I'm not sure if Moe Gardner was on that list, I think not). Back then, you could not contact a recruit until 9 am on signing day. Coaches would go to meet the recruits personally and have them sign. I heard that when Hubbard walked into the front door at the home of one of the guys he expected to sign (which one I don't know), precisely at 9 am, already sitting inside was Bob Karmelowicz, then the DL coach for Illinois. He already had the prospect, probably Agee, signing.
As you might remember, Bob Karmelowicz was later our DL coach on the '89 team (Orgeron was under him). A friend of mine, a big UM fan, said when Bob was recruiting at UM, he would not have bags of cash with him like he did at Illinois.
Later, when Bob was at UM, I mentioned something about that recruitment where he beat UM, he would only say, "Whew, that was a rough recruiting battle."
This is some good recruiting history, as imperfect and short on facts, as you will get. This will never get written down in a history book. As in so many areas, so much is lost to time. And some things never get committed to paper.
