Thomas Wilcher - College

College

Wilcher was recruited to the University of Michigan by Thomas E. Moss, Sr., the former Deputy Chief of Police for the Detroit Police Department. In 1986, he won the NCAA indoor 55 meter hurdles Championship, and he placed fifth in the NCAA outdoor 110 m hurdles with a time of 13.57, earning both indoor and outdoor track & field All-American honors. He had also placed third in the outdoor 110m hurdles in 1985 earning All-American honors. In 1987, he was the outdoor Big Ten Conference 110 meter hurdles champion and earned first team All-Big Ten honors. Wilcher holds numerous Michigan Wolverines records in the high hurdles including both the team indoor 60 meters (converted), team outdoor 110 meters, and Michigan indoor track building records. Wilcher's personal best and team record time of 13.52 seconds in the 110 meter hurdles came at the 1985 Penn Relays where he was also the event champion. He was the Big Ten winter sports athlete of the week in January 1986 for his hurdling performance.

In February 1985, Wilcher was involved in an altercation stemming from an intramural basketball game. Thomas Wilcher incurred penalties of 72 hours of public service deferred sentence, US$429 court costs and restitution in Ann Arbor District Court.

Wilcher, who wore #27 as a 6-foot (1.8 m) 185-pound (84 kg; 13.2 st) Wolverine, redshirted as a true freshman in 1982 and played sparringly in his second and third seasons. He earned varsity letters in football as a redshirt junior and redshirt senior for coach Bo Schembechler. He totaled 758 yards (693 m) rushing and eight touchdowns as a tailback in the same backfield as Jamie Morris. However, he never caught a pass. In his final season, he totaled 397 rushing yards and six touchdowns. That year, he was a member of the 1986 Big Ten Conference football champions who went on to the 1987 Rose Bowl, but accumulated no statistics in the Rose Bowl. He accumulated statistics in eleven of the thirteen games played and started twice. He had also started one game in 1985. In his best games, he rushed for 104 yards (95 m) and a touchdown on 16 carries in a 34–3 win against the South Carolina Gamecocks football team on September 21, 1985, and he rushed for two touchdowns and 74 yards (68 m) in Morris' absence in a 34–17 win against the Wisconsin Badgers football team on October 4, 1986. His touchdowns were the first two in what became Schembechler's 200th victory. On September 27, 1986, his seven-yard (6 m) touchdown run cemented a homecoming victory against the Florida State Seminoles football team by putting the team up 20–10 with 1:27 remaining.

After graduating, Wilcher competed for the University of Chicago Track Club while training for the United States Olympic Trials for the 1988 Summer Olympic Games. On May 8, 1988 he won the Jesse Owens Classic with a 110-meter high hurdles time of 13.70. At the Olympic Trials on July 23, 1988 at Indiana University Track and Field Stadium, his second-round heat included Arthur Blake, Jack Pierce, and Greg Foster who placed first, second and third respectively as well as Tony Dees.