Taking His Talents to New York
By Steve Stein
Joey George is ready to tackle the investment banking world. After joining the University of Michigan football team as a preferred walk-on in 2018 and working his way up to becoming a valued special teams player this past season, George will head to New York City after he graduates in May.
The 21-year-old will be an investment banking analyst with RBC Capital Markets after having a virtual internship with the company last summer, bringing to fruition his nearly lifelong passion for business and finance.
George is confident his transition from the world of football to the world of investment banking will be seamless. “That’s because there are parallels between the two,” he said. “There are pressures you need to deal with and overcome, and you need to communicate with people with different perspectives.”
George juggled both worlds during his internship. On a typical workday, he’d do his football workout from 6:30-8 a.m., then begin his internship duties for RBC Capital Markets at 9 a.m., “and I worked as late as needed,” he said. “It was a transition going from one to the other, but a good transition. It was good for life balance.”
George has had to balance football and academics at U-M for four years. The rigors of being in a big-time college football program have been matched by the rigors of being a student in U-M’s prestigious Ross School of Business.
George has succeeded on the football field -- he’s a two-time letter-winner -- and he’ll continue to achieve success in academics when the two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree graduates from U-M this spring with a degree in business administration.
It’ll be a different looking George who goes to New York City. “I weigh about 280, 285 pounds right now because of football,” he said. “I don’t need to be that heavy anymore, especially for a 6-footer. So I’m going to cut to about 240, 245 pounds.”
George was a standout football player at Walled Lake Western High School. He started for three years on the offensive line for the Warriors, playing mostly at center, with 118 pancake blocks in 32 career games. He was a Division 1-2 honorable mention All-State choice as a senior.
A classroom standout in high school, he was named to the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association “Dream Team” Academic All-State Team as a senior.
George could have gone to a small college and played a lot more football than he did at U-M, but he’s happy with his decision to head to Ann Arbor, especially for the football experience and academics. “It was a no-brainer decision for me to go to U-M for many reasons,” he said.
One of the reasons was he was able to attend university for a year with his older brother Jonathan, 24, a Michigan graduate with a double major in biomolecular science and political science. Jonathan just completed his first semester at the Harvard Law School after a year at the Vanderbilt Law School.
Family factored into another reason Joey went to U-M. “U-M is only about 35 minutes from home (Walled Lake). I know my mom has liked that,” Joey said.
Indeed, she has. Ban George and Joey’s father, Paul George, went to every U-M home football game the past four years. They also were at the Big Ten championship game vs. Iowa in Indianapolis on December 4 and the NCAA semifinal game vs. Georgia in Miami on New Year’s Eve.
U-M beat Iowa in its first Big Ten championship game appearance but lost to eventual national champion Georgia in the semifinals in its first playoff game. “Watching my son play football for U-M was a humbling and exhilarating experience as a parent because Joey was relentless when it came to football,” Ban said. “He worked so hard, and he never gave up. It was wonderful to see him get what he wanted.”
While Ban obviously is proud of what her son was able to do on the football field at U-M, she’s equally as proud of his work in the classroom in Ann Arbor. “It’s not easy to be a student-athlete at U-M,” she said. “It’s incredible what Joey has accomplished there in four years.”
Education is extremely important in the George family, Ban said. “So is hard work. We’ve instilled in our three children (Jacob, 18, is a freshman at Michigan State University) the values of hard work and the rewards of hard work,” she said.
Ban certainly has benefitted from education and hard work. An immigrant from Iraq who came to the U.S. in 1992, she had three jobs while going to college and now is the director of pharmacy for the 103 Kroger stores in Michigan. Paul George is a retired business owner.
Joey George played a few snaps on the defensive line for U-M this past season in addition to his consistent work on the Wolverines’ kickoff return team. It was a senior season to remember.
“The camaraderie and brotherhood were fantastic,” he said. “It was exciting to go into the football building every day with your friends and teammates, who all had a common goal.
“People outside our team didn’t believe in us. But we knew we had all we needed to succeed right in our building.”