Michigan alumnus and West Bloomfield native Dana Jacobson is one of the co-hosts of ESPN’s daily morning sports variety show, “First Take.”

AnnArbor.com caught up with her at the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy Golf Outing on Monday to talk about her best memories at Michigan Stadium, Rose's efforts in the city of Detroit and "people watching" downtown, among other things.

Q: What’s your favorite thing to do when you visit Ann Arbor?

Dana Jacobson: Well, I made my first stop yesterday at Pizza House because I had to have a chipati. That is my go-to first stop usually, which I get a lot of heat for because I have the Brown Jug contingent of my friends that get on me for not going to Brown Jug. But I got in yesterday, I had my chipati, I walked around and I forget how quiet it gets in the summer. I walked around the Diag, I had Stucchi’s last night, checked out Main Street, my usual haunts. I ran by the stadium this morning.

Q: What’s your best memory of Michigan Stadium as a student?

DJ: I wouldn’t say it’s the best, but it was phenomenal. My first game as a student was a Notre Dame loss, but it was Bo’s last year (1989) and just, I remember walking in, and I don’t think I ever appreciated it as a kid when I went as a kid when I was brought there. When I went as a student, and walked into that stadium and just saw the mass and what it looked like, just knowing that that was my school, as a freshman, I don’t know if it’s my best. But it’s certainly the one that stands out most.

Q: What’s your best game-related memory at Michigan Stadium?

DJ: The best game I’ve definitely ever seen was the Michigan State triple overtime. That was the most incredible, coming back… My brother left, I remember I had gotten my brother a ticket, I was sitting with a couple of my friends, he was living in Columbus, Ohio, at the time. He’s the traitor of my family, Michigan undergrad, Ohio State grad school, got his PhD from there. He left with like 10 minutes to go. He was like, ‘I’m gonna go, I’m gonna drive down to Columbus.’ So as (Michigan’s) coming back, he’s listening to it on the radio and he keeps texting and I’m like, 'I’m not answering his texts, because he was clearly the jinx and now we’re coming back and we’re going to win this thing.' ... I just never remember hearing that stadium so loud and it was three-fourths empty because people had left.

Q: How’s the golf game?

ESPN personality Dana Jacobson said if she finishes a round of golf, it's considered a good round.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

DJ: The golf game’s bad. I haven’t picked up a club in several months, so I don’t know how the golf game is. We did a chipping contest on the air and I was horrendous. I watched the video and I did not follow though on a single swing. I am a bad golfer who knows I’m not great. I can hit it off the tee. I can hit the ball, but I do not pretend to be good and that makes me better.

Q: What’s an OK round for you?

DJ: If I finish it’s an OK round. As long as I finish and have fun. My thing is, when I come out to something like this, I walk up to my group and I’m like, ‘I’m not going to be good. I’ll get you one or two shots off the tee, but we’re going to have fun’ and I’ve never left and not accomplished that.

Q: With so many charity alumni charity events, how do you pick and choose which ones to go to?

DJ: I was invited (laughing). If I’m invited, I’ll come back. I was out for Griese, Hutchinson, Woodson -- which I love, I’ve done it for a couple of years. It got rained out, sadly. And this one, Jalen and I obviously have gotten closer, being at ESPN. I’m so proud of what he’s done and what he’s doing in Detroit. I may be a suburban kid, but I still consider myself a Michigan, Detroit native and what he’s doing to try to make education a priority, I just think it’s incredibly important and I’m proud that he’s taken that upon himself. When I got the call, I didn’t even talk to anybody. I just got the dates and I called (ESPN) and got them off and was like, 'Whatever you need, I’ll be there.’ ”

Q: Since coming into Ann Arbor, you’ve been tweeting about people watching. Where’s the best people watching spot in Ann Arbor?

DJ: I was at Conor O’Neil’s last night and it was pretty good. I was sitting outside. Anywhere sitting outside here is fun to people watch. Sitting at Conor O’Neil’s last night it’s just the variety of people that you see.

Q: What was the most ‘Ann Arbor’ thing you saw while people watching?

DJ: I’m proud of this and it’s because I spend a lot of my time in New York. I hope this sounds right. One of the guys on the street was asking for money and people actually say something to them. Whether it’s ‘No sorry,’ or giving them money, I saw somebody giving one of the guys money and somebody else say sorry. In New York, sadly, and maybe it's because there’s so many, people walk by and it’s just like ignoring that this person exists. I think that’s the humanity in Ann Arbor and it’s not saying that New York doesn’t have that, it’s an individual thing, but it sort of reminded me of Ann Arbor.

I guess the most “Ann Arbor” thing I saw was kids on skateboards, older people yelling at them, younger people enjoying it. The places change but the people don’t. It’s funny. You’ll see somebody that’s clearly a college student, then a couple that’s lived here for 30 years.

Q: Being from the suburbs and having attended college in Ann Arbor, how much do you identify with the city of Detroit and Jalen’s efforts to help the school system?

DJ: It’s funny. Anybody who’s not from here, if you said ‘I’m from West Bloomfield or Bloomfield Hills’ they don’t necessarily know, that’s why you say Detroit. Then people like Jalen will say, ‘You’re not from Detroit.’ And I’m like ‘I know, I know, I know,’ But I still grew up here. Most of my friends’ parents grew up in Detroit. I still remember coming back for the Super Bowl and being so proud and happy that it had life and vitality to it again. And trying to explain to people that when I grew up, you didn’t walk from the Ren-Cen to Greektown. You would never make that walk. Being able to see people out like that was incredible and it’s just sad because it’s a city that has so much history, in my opinion, and it’s like no one in the country cares that it’s in economic turmoil and that’s sad to me. It’s a major U.S. city we just watch fall. If this was New York, if this was Philadelphia, if this was Chicago, would people be OK with it? And I don’t know that they would be. And that’s sad to me. And I’m glad that somebody like Jalen is staying here and doing something about that.

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at petercunningham@annarbor.com or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.