Ex-Harvard TE gets 2nd chance after illness as Michigan walk-on

Second chances are never guaranteed in life, and for Michael Hirsch, a second chance to play college football seemed improbable at best.

Thanks to Michigan, Hirsch will now be getting the second chance he hoped for.

Hirsch, a former tight end for Harvard, was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called Wegener's granulomatosis during spring of his sophomore year. Hirsch told his story Friday in an appearance on "The Rich Eisen Show," describing his journey from diagnosis to walk-on fullback.

"What felt like a cold was suddenly spitting up blood," Hirsch said, according to Courtney Martinez of NCAA.com. "My immune system was defunct and it started to attack itself. So I started taking chemo to start to fight the disease."

Hisrch graduated from Harvard in 2014 after spending the previous three seasons as the team's manager while fighting his condition into remission. The idea of playing college football never left his mind, even though he'd landed a job on Wall Street working for Citigroup.

"It was going really well but outside of work, I felt like I needed something else going on. So one day I woke up and wrote down, 'What would be your biggest dream?'" Hirsch said. "I grew up a huge Michigan fan and that was my lifelong dream. So I wrote down 'play for Michigan' and I started to get to work."

After training rigorously and studying for the GMAT in his free time, Hirsch learned that the NCAA had granted him two years of eligibility. He then enrolled in graduate school at Michigan.

"I remember I was waiting on pins and needles to hear back from them. When Coach (Jim) Harbaugh called, that was one of the better days of my life," Hirsch said.

Harbaugh's happy to see Hirsch get his long-dreamed-of opportunity.

"I felt great about the NCAA granting him those two years. Now Michael will be able to use all of his football-playing eligibility to go to the Ross School of Business," Harbaugh said.