9601300662
DETROIT FREE PRESS
960926
Thursday, September 26, 1996
METRO FINAL
1D
Photo JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/Detroit Free Press;Photo MARY SCHROEDER/Detroit Free Press
U-M punter Paul Peristeris takes the snap, and when he kicks
the ball, launches the American Dream again.
At his restaurant, Tommy Peristeris nourishes his customers as
he did son Paul's ambition.
MITCH ALBOM Free Press Sports Writer
Copyright (c) 1996, Detroit Free Press
FATHER AND SON, BOUND BY PERSISTENCE, A DREAM
He came to this country in the trunk of a car, in the middle of the night,
sneaking across the border, whispering, "Are we there yet?" When they popped
the latch, the first thing he saw was snow, everywhere. Where he came from,
it did not snow.
"So this is America," he told himself.
He spent the next few weeks looking for a wife. He knew he couldn't stay here
without citizenship, so he went to Greek parties, he met everyone's sister
and cousin, but no one wanted to marry him, because he had no work. Back in
Greece, he'd owned a bakery. But he traded it for a plane ticket to North
America. The whole bakery? For a plane ticket?
"I was 20 years old," he says now, in his thick accent. "What do I know?"
One night he met a young woman whom he recognized from work in the old
country. Must be fate, he figured. They were married three weeks later. Not
long after, they had a child.
This is the story of the American Dream, handed off like a football from
father to son. Tommy Peristeris -- his real first name is Athanasios -- came
to this continent with $100 in his pocket. He lived in a rented room and ate
milk and bread every day for a month. He offered to work for free just to get
in the door. Finally, a Coney Island restaurant hired him: $1.50 per hour.
He worked seven days a week. And in time, with help, he opened a restaurant of
his own, in Greektown. It served pastitsio and mousaka and stuffed grape
leaves and lamb chops. Tommy kept it open until 4 or 5 in the morning. Didn't
matter. If there was one more person who wanted a meal, he stuck around. The
restaurant was The Parthenon, named after the temple in Athens, where Tommy
had gone to live, after his father punished him for losing a flock of sheep.
'The sheep story' again
Paul Peristeris -- his real first name is Apostolos -- has heard "the sheep
story" his whole life. When he was a little boy in Dearborn, kicking a soccer
ball with his father, he heard it. When he was a teenager, kicking a football
in high school, he heard it.
"Dad was told to take the flock of sheep into the mountains and deliver it to
another town. Late at night, he thought he heard a bear. He got scared and ran
away. When he came home, his father said, 'Where are the sheep?' My dad
said, 'I left them in the mountains.' His father said, 'You better go back and
get them.' But they were gone. His father was really mad."
Tommy, only 13, left home after that. He would tell Paul that story to show
him that all problems are relative. So you can understand why, when it came
time to choose a college, Paul Peristeris turned down scholarships at smaller
schools to try to make his dream, to be a punter at Michigan.
He walked on. And he waited.
Freshman year, no action. Sophomore year, no action. Junior year, no action.
He was sweating through practices, coming home with a sore leg, giving up four
or five hours a day, and still he wasn't playing. He called his father,
thinking about quitting. His father reminded him of the bread and milk nights
when he came to this country, when he didn't know how to make a phone call.
"Now, looka me," he said. "I got my own business."
So the kid persisted. And last year, during the Illinois game, coach Lloyd
Carr finally turned to Paul and said, "Next one, you kick."
It was late in the game. Michigan was far ahead. Paul ran out, his heart in
his throat, and took the snap. On TV, the announcers didn't even notice the
punting change, so they just said, "Nate DeLong tries for the coffin corner."
Several hundred miles away, Tommy Peristeris popped out of his chair and
yelled at the TV set. That wasn't Nate DeLong, he said. DeLong kicked with his
left foot. This kid was kicking right. "That's my boy!"
The ball was snapped, Paul's kick sailed high and true, and another
immigrant's son had made good in America.
The scholarship has arrived
Today, the young Peristeris is
Michigan's starting punter. Several coaches have called him the most improved
player on the team. He is a fifth-year senior, and this is his last semester
at Michigan -- before he heads to law school -- but the university is finally
picking up the tab. Peristeris, an Academic All-America, was given a football
scholarship late last year.
"I called my father at the restaurant after Coach told me," Paul says.
What did he say?
"He said he knew I could do it."
Tommy goes to all the games now. He was in Colorado when Paul hit a 56-yarder
and Michigan won. "I was so happy, I go to nightclub, don't come home till 5
in morning," Tommy says.
In all the years Paul was trying to make it, Tommy entertained famous coaches
at his New Parthenon and Big Daddy's Parthenon restaurants -- including some
of the Michigan staff. He thought about asking, "Can you help my son?" But he
didn't think it was right.
Instead, the kid helped himself. It is the tale of the immigrant tapestry,
from Ellis Island in the 1800s to a marriage between two Greek strangers who
are still married today, 26 years later.
"Only in America," Tommy says. His son just smiles. He has promised to buy his
teammates dinner after the season, and he knows a pretty good place.
THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED ARTICLE.
FOOTBALL; COLLEGE; U-M; TOMMY PERISTERIS; PAUL PERISTERIS