First of all, damn. Since I've known Abdul, I always knew he was destined for greatness. During trips with the team I would always try to muster up intellectual conversations with him and he would slowly and patiently explain to me the gravity of certain escalating world conflicts. I sat there and listened. It was like listening to an audiobook encyclopedia. You would have thought that he was a foreign policy wonk. He was. That just wasn't his main interest.
Abdul is currently in between years of medical school at Michigan, and Rhodes scholar honors at Oxford. Did I mention he was smart? He has already spent time in Peru through "Project Suyana" that helps to fight mortality in pregnancy-- and this was all after his career as a solid starting defensemen on the lacrosse team. Abdul was known for his physical presence as well as his intensity. You always knew when Abdul was coming on a slide (I'm lucky that I was never on the other end of them!)
So Congrats to "Pabst"- what a tremendous honor!
If you want to see Abdul, here is him giving the U of M commencement speech (note Bill Clinton's praise at the end):
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