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More than two years after he left California for Michigan, a young man trying to make a name for himself in a far-off football world, Justin Fargas returns to the Rose Bowl today just happy to be standing on his own two feet.

Funny how the word “amputation” changes the context of one’s life.

Fargas was one of the nation’s most heralded high school running backs in 1998, he and DeShaun Foster perhaps the class of that class.

Fargas starred at Notre Dame High in the San Fernando Valley, Foster at Orange County’s Tustin High.

Foster ended up at UCLA and stole the freshman headlines in 1998, while Fargas headed to Ann Arbor and, on Nov. 14 of that year, disappeared into the Wisconsin defensive front.

What sounded like a tree branch cracking was actually Fargas’ right leg.

For a kid once clocked at 10.55 seconds in the 100 meters, it was like the end of a comic book dream.

“I’ll never forget that,” Fargas said in August, standing in the end zone at Michigan Stadium. “It was excruciating pain. A lot of things run through your mind when you know your leg is broken. Taking away a leg is like taking away Superman’s cape. I can’t run without my leg.”

Forgive Michigan’s No. 34 if, on entry to the Rose Bowl for today’s game against UCLA, he stops to smell the roses.

This was the date Fargas had circled on the calendar, the game Coach Lloyd Carr talked about in recruitment, the dream matchup against UCLA’s Foster.

“It’s going to be special, to go home, play in front of my family and friends, the people around me in high school,” Fargas said. “It’s a little bit of a rivalry with some of the guys I was being recruited with, but it’s just going to be fun to go home.”

Fargas is not yet the back he was.

He’ll serve today in relief of Michigan starter Anthony Thomas.

In two games, Fargas has gained 77 yards in 14 carries.

But after enduring three surgeries and nearly two years of rehabilitation, Fargas is taking this comeback one step at a time.

“To hear I even could have lost my leg, or lost my foot at least, I think about how lucky I am to be standing, to be running, to be wearing a uniform,” Fargas said. “To be able to play football for Michigan again, that’s something special.”

Fargas’ break was one for the medical journals, doctors comparing it to an injury incurred in a major car wreck or someone falling from a two-story building.

Michigan trainer Paul Schmidt said Fargas’ comeback is the most incredible he has witnessed in 17 years at the school.

“This was the longest recovery from the worst injury I’ve ever seen,” Schmidt told the Detroit News.

Fargas broke his right tibia and fibula bones. Thankfully, the amputation talk subsided when it was learned the artery below Fargas’ knee was not ruptured.

Doctors inserted two titanium rods and 12 screws to fortify the leg. Fargas hoped to return to football in 1999, but four months after his initial injury, doctors had to break and recast Fargas’ leg because it was not healing properly.

“The hardest part was knowing I had to have a second surgery, after I thought I was healing and that everything was going well,” Fargas said.

In July 1999, a third surgery was required to break scar tissue that had formed on his toe.

The rods and screws are still embedded in Fargas’ leg and he says they’ll remain there for the duration of his career.

Twenty-two months had passed from the time Fargas was injured to his Sept. 2 return this season against Bowling Green.

Fargas bowled for 70 yards in eight carries.

“It’s been like a lifetime,” he said. “After being on crutches for six months, and not walking, and losing muscle in the foot and losing muscle in the leg, you have to learn how to function. Things you take for granted every day, just taking a step, or getting out of a car, you have to learn to do that stuff again.”

Fargas said there were times he wanted to give up.

“The toughest part is just sticking it out, not throwing in the towel and saying, ‘Well, I can at least walk now, that’s good enough.’ ”

Fargas says if he has lost a step, it’s a step most people only dreamed about having.

“I’m not worried about my speed,” he said. “As a freshman I was really fast, but that’s not my complete game. I’m a football player. I can do more things than just run.”

It would be unfair to bill today’s game as Fargas vs. Foster.

Foster, a junior, is UCLA’s lead tailback while Fargas, a redshirt sophomore, will spot Thomas this year with the hope to take on a starring role in 2001.

Carr can only imagine what might have been.

“When he and DeShaun Foster came out of high school, they were considered the two best running backs on the West Coast,” Carr said this week. “The decision Justin made to come here was a tough decision because it meant he was leaving everything that he had grown up with.

“And then, of course, there was the injury.”

Fargas knows people are eager to compare the backs of Southern California’s sterling 1998 class.

Fargas, a three-year starter at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, rushed for 6,352 yards and 77 touchdowns. Foster, in his senior year, turned in one of the most amazing seasons in California prep history, rushing for 3,398 yards and a state-record 54 rushing touchdowns.

“There were a lot of great backs that year,” Fargas said. “Mike McNair [Santa Ana Mater Dei]. DeShaun Foster. Sultan McCullough [Pasadena Muir]. But that’s old high school stuff.

“Of course, people are wondering what the other guys are doing; there’s always going to be hype with people outside of football.

“I just want to go home and win the game. You don’t want to go back to L.A. and lose.

“It’s not a personal thing. It’s Michigan vs. UCLA. That’s it.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

TODAY’S OTHER TOP GAMES

No. 6 FLORIDA at No. 11 TENNESSEE

12:30 p.m., Channel 2

Remember when quarterbacks in this game were household names? Today, it’s Volunteers’ A.J. Suggs vs. Gators’ Rex Grossman.

No. 9 WASHINGTON at COLORADO

12:30 p.m., No TV

The Rick Neuheisel-Gary Barnett rivalry continues, with a

hostile crowd in Boulder, Colo., awaiting return of the Husky coach.

No. 13 PURDUE at No. 21 NOTRE DAME

10 a.m., Channel 4

Beating the Irish at home

should be more of a Brees

for the Boilermakers now that Nebraska has softened them

up.

No. 4 WISCONSIN at CINCINNATI

11 a.m., No TV

Badgers don’t figure to

discount the Bearcats.

Cincinnati beat Rose Bowl-bound Wisconsin, 17-12, last

season.

No. 5 TEXAS at STANFORD

7:15 p.m., Fox Sports Net

The Cardinal, embarrassed deep in the heart of Texas last season, tries to find some heart after an embarrassing loss to San Jose State.

CALIFORNIA at No. 19 ILLINOIS

9 a.m., ESPN

The Illini has quietly made itself comfortable in the Top 25 in its fourth season under Ron Turner. Golden Bear Coach Tom Holmoe is on the hot seat in his fourth season.

Stop and Go

Michigan’s Justin Fargas was injured in November 1998 and missed all of last season. His statistics:

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Att. Yards TD 1998 77 277 1 1999 Redshirted 2000 Bowling Green 8 70 0 Rice 6 7 0 Total 14 77 0

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