MVictors.com

A quick edition of eBay Watch highlights another great wire photo, this time from the late 1930s featuring my dream girl.  It’s the Tournament of Roses Queen Barbara Dougall posing with her crown holding a team photo of none other than Fielding Yost’s first and perhaps finest team, the 1901 squad that started the Point-A-Minute reign of terror at the turn of the 20th Century.  Check it out:

Babs, you’re my kind of gal!

Digging around a bit in the Google News Archives, it appears as though the large 1901 team photo was donated by a  “E.H. Rathburn, Michigan Alumnus”.  Well done.

Michigan didn’t participate in the 1939 Rose Bowl (USC beat Duke 7-3) so I’m not positive why Dougall choose to flash this great photo.   A guess?  It looks like this was the 25th time they held a football game as part of the Tournament of Roses, and someone had the idea to take a nostalgic look back at the first Rose Bowl game and its champion, namely Yost’s perfectly dominant Wolverines.

Act fast, the auction ends soon and the photo is listed for $9.99.

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Related:
eBay Watch: 1901 Season Football Pass
eBay Watch: Rah-Rah-Rah Rose Bowl Rout
eBay Watch: Some Vintage Rose Bowl Cheer (1902)

ESPN blogger Adam Rittenberg’s been running down some of the Big Ten’s finest football gameday traditions, you might have read his breakdown of your Wolverines posted on Monday.   While I hope there’s nothing new in Rittenberg’s piece for any readers of this site, any pub for Michigan’s greatest asset on ESPN is all right with me. 

From the guy who dedicated a seven post series (and more to come) to the Little Brown Jug in a season when we didn’t play Minnesota, I need to call a couple fouls on Rittenberg’s post.  Naturally.

First, call it a misdemeanor but the name of our fight song is of course ‘The Victors’, not ‘Hail To the Victors’.  A common error no doubt, but if you are tasked with running down a list such as this methinks you should get that right.

But another item struck more of a nerve and it was the mention of a certain digit in the Big House official capacity.  A-Ritts wrote:

Seat for Fritz Crisler: For every home game, Michigan reserves one seat in the stadium for former head coach and athletics director Fritz Crisler. The tradition was started by legendary former coach Fielding Yost. All Michigan Stadium capacity figures have ended with 1, to honor Crisler. The seat’s location is not revealed.

First off the following line is just wrong: “The tradition was started by legendary former coach Fielding Yost”.   I’m not sure where Adam got that but perhaps it was from <gulp>, the Michigan Stadium Wikipedia page which states:

There is one "extra seat" in Michigan Stadium "reserved" by former head coach Fielding Yost for the then athletic director Fritz Crisler

“The then” Wikipedia page is wrong. 

Michigan actually introduced the ‘1’ to the official attendance in 1956, over a decade after Yost died.  When Yost was alive Crisler was indeed the athletic director (starting in ‘41) but the suggestion that a legendary figure like Yost would, in his later years, go out of his way to honor the relatively new-to-campus Crisler just doesn’t make sense.  It’d be like Michael Jordan suggesting the NBA retire #23 to honor LeBron James.  But this is moot anyhow because as mentioned Yost was gone a decade before the “1” came into existence.

For messing up this nugget of Michigan football history I hereby sentence Rittenberg to 1 month probation and ask that he memorize the lyrics to The Victors. 

I’ve been guilty of spreading bad info on traditions/history in the past and I ran into this all the time while researching the history of the Little Brown Jug.  I’m certain that much of LBJ lore was merely crafted by journalists (perhaps nudged by zealous coaches/managers) who spiced up the tale over the years and some of it has survived today.  (Guess what?  Yost never wrote/wired/called Minnesota demanding the jug be returned after the 1903 game.  Likewise there was no reply that Michigan would have to “win it back”.   A day or so before the 1909 game Minnesota’s AD summoned over Yost and they decided to play for the jug.  Boring?  Sorry, but that’s what really happened.)

The link to the Wikipedia source to the mention of Yost’s involvement in the history of the “1” is gone, but now of course they’ve got a source from ESPN.com backing up that claim.   Ugh.

Anyway, as far as the seat actually honoring Crisler, this is the accepted history today I don’t knock Rittenberg for stating that.  But I’ve never been fully convinced that the “1” is absolutely, positively intended to honor him.  There’s no doubt Crisler was behind or at least heavily involved in the “1” concept.  He did serve as athletic director for the renovation project that yielded the distinguished digit (again, in the mid-1950s).   According to a trusted source, the U-M Bentley Library:

According to a newspaper article quoting an Athletic Department staff member, "Fritz wanted to end up with a figure of 100,001, but he came up with a thousand seats too many. But he still got that 001 at the end." This began a tradition of ending all Michigan Stadium capacity numbers with the digit 1. The final seat was later said to be reserved in honor of Fritz Crisler.

So the Bentley kind of loosely states that the “1” was to honor Crisler.  The official site (mgoblue.com) states it as fact:

10. Finally, one fact that remains unknown about Michigan Stadium is the location of Fritz Crisler’s seat – the one "extra" seat that is indicated at the end of the stadium’s capacity. The tradition began in 1956 in honor of the long-time athletic director.

But check out this wonderful 1964 Sports Illustrated piece on Crisler that delved into the topic of the sacred seat.  Keep in mind this was almost a decade after the tradition started:

One question that all Crisler’s guests ask him is, "How did you arrive at a seating capacity of 101,001? Was it pure coincidence? Was there a reason for the additional seat?"

Crisler smiles at the question. "Let us put it this way. It makes a great conversation piece at cocktail parties."

That extra seat had no significance of any kind? It was not any special seat in any special spot?

"It has its spot," said Crisler. "And I am the only man who knows where that spot is."

And he would not tell?

Fritz Crisler leaned back against a goal post and gazed around the stadium and down the snow-covered field. He smiled and shook his head.  It was his secret. But anyone is entitled to guess, and one guess might be that somewhere in that vast stadium there is this one seat, and perhaps it is never sold. Perhaps it is reserved, now and forever, for someone who taught Fritz Crisler a way of coaching football and a way of life. For the Old Man, Amos Alonzo Stagg.

I don’t know.  If I had to guess, I suppose Crisler reserved a seat for himself but I’ve just never seen this confirmed by he or anyone else.  Perhaps Crisler admitted this in his later years and I missed it.   But doesn’t it make you wonder, would a seated AD actually do something to honor himself?  Sure, they named Yost Field House during Yost’s coaching tenure but the groundswell for that seemed to be from folks other than Yost himself. 

On these pages I once tossed out there that Crisler might have actually reserved two seats—> 101,000 and 101,000 for he and his mentor, Amos Alonzo Stagg.  Where?  How about these two bizarre seats that were nestled up against the press box (Section 22, Row 85, Seats 7&8)?, here occupied by a lil’ cheerleader:

Did it Die?
So while we know this tradition of the “1” was hatched from a renovation nearly thirty years after the Big House was dedicated in 1927, you have to wonder if it’ll now die with the latest renovation.  I’m sure those two seats you see above were ripped out as part of the recent press box demolition.

The revised capacity figures haven’t been specific as expressed here from the FAQ on the official U-M stadium renovation website:

Q21: What will the new capacity be once the project is completed?
The current seating capacity of the stadium is 107,501. The expansion will add 80+ suites and 3,000+ club seats. Though widening seats and aisles and adding seating for mobility impaired fans will result in the loss of some seats, the stadium capacity is projected to exceed 108,000 when the project is completed.

I reached out to Associate ADs Joe Parker and Bruce Madej to comment on whether this tradition will continue.  Hope to have more on this soon.

Word is out that in a couple weeks uber popular sports radio host Jim Rome will be making a rare visit to affiliate station 1130AM WDFN.   On March 19th, Rome will do his show from the WDFN studios in Farmington Hills then bolt over to Northville Downs to meet listeners, advertisers, a few celebs and media titans.

This won’t be Rome’s first visit to Motown.  I know he stopped in for Super XL and local fans might recall one of his (now defunct) ‘Tour Stops’, held at the Palace back in 2003:

Rome working the crowd at The Palace in 2003

I dropped into the Tour Stop event with my wife (bad idea).  I’ll always remember when Ernie Harwell came out on stage, the interview and the rabid fan reaction, and all that….but I also recall that Rome spent a good portion of the show apologizing for dropping an f-bomb before Ernie came on and felt horrible after he realized the old legend probably heard it.

The March 19 event should make for an interesting afternoon given that the beer flows cheaply and in bucket-sized cups at the Downs & the first round of the NCAA tournament will be in full swing.   Toss in Rome along with a few thousand 25-45 year-olds lead by ‘Emilio Textavez’ and you can bet it’s going to get rowdy. 

Rome airs weekdays noon-3 on WDFN 1130AM and I understand the station will be giving away some opportunities to meet Rome at the Northville event.  More details to come.

A big thanks to Marty Bodnar and the M ticket office for hearing my plea & for doing the right thing—> taking care of the hockey season ticket holders as part of The Big Chill game at the Big House next year.   Light blue’s for you:

Looks like they’ve reserved quite a few ducats for former players and if this thing is to scale, apparently they’re expecting every living dude who has strapped on the skates for the Maize and Blue to show. 

Speaking of tickets, plenty available for this weekend’s first round battle in the CCHA tournament and it’s do or die.  What are you waiting for?  Grip your tickets, get over to Yost.  Students are gone so make sure you’re there.

A quick follow-up on my post from this weekend on Harry Kipke and some of the troubles he ran into in the late 1930s.   The muckety mucks on campus accused Kipke of running with some foul characters, namely Henry Ford’s henchman and enforcer, Harry Bennett. 

Bennett lived just down the street on Geddes and reader John F. sent me this link with several nice photos of the castle, including the bizarre tunnel that lead to the his pets lions and tigers.  Enjoy, photos via retro: kimmer: blog:

The post also has more details on the inside:

Down in the basement, HFHA members found a bar and billiard room styled after an English Pub, an area where Bennett often conducted “Ford “ business. Another room is reminiscent of an underworld catacomb. Most unique, a tiled Roman bath carefully hidden beyond a sliding cabinet. For those members who dared, an exciting, yet somewhat claustrophobic, experience, was a stroll through the seemingly endless, and unlit, under ground tunnel. This ran from the hidden bath to the outbuilding that house Bennett’s infamous lion and tiger dens. A branch of this tunnel leads to an extremely tight spiral staircase, which ascends to the top of the home’s guntower.

Here’s a peek at that tunnel:

I’ve published a few posts on these pages on probably my favorite decade of Michigan football: the 1930s.   During this period Michigan football experienced back-to-back national championships followed by arguably the worst season in the history of the program.   The era included the presence of a future U.S. president, a scandal with The Little Brown Jug, and a controversy over the participation of a black player that set the campus ablaze.

The man who presided over this period was coach Harry Kipke, the All-American player under Fielding Yost in the 1920s who earned 9 varsity letters in Ann Arbor.   I love to note that Kipke was renown for his punting prowess on the gridiron.  His finest performance was probably when he helped spoil the dedication of Ohio Stadium in Columbus when he sent eleven balls into the air including nine balls that sailed out of bounds inside the Buckeye 8 yard line.  Writer Walter Camp wasted no time calling Kipke the greatest punter ever after the performance.

This edition of eBay Watch leads off with a wire photo from January 1936 of a shirtless Kipke, then head football coach of the Wolverines, aboard the ‘Flo’, the sailboat he named after his wife:

And another:

While Kipke’s coaching career roared early on (he claimed four straight conference championships and in 1932 and 1933, national titles), he didn’t have much wind in his sails in the winter of ‘36.   In 1934 the Wolverines sunk to a new low, going just 1-7 and only slightly recovered in 1935 finishing 4-4 with shutout losses to Illinois, Minnesota and Ohio State to end the season.

Kipke certainly had some equity in the bank with Michigan fans due to the titles and from his playing days and obviously didn’t mind having the media aboard the Flo that winter to snap some photos.  But you’ve got to wonder if modern M fans would have taken kindly to their struggling coach basking on a boat after a couple tough seasons.  Heck, Bill Martin will probably never live down the Barnacle Bill episode during the coaching search.

Unfortunately for Kipke things just got worse later that year as his Blue finished 1-7 in 1936 and 4-4 in 1937.  Soon after the ‘37 campaign he was fired and eventually replaced by Princeton coach and to-be M legend Fritz Crisler.

On the face, you’d think Kipke would have had more of a chance to right the ship, especially given the titles he brought to Ann Arbor, but the sacking was far from solely performance-based.  The board in control of athletics issued to Kipke the following five reasons for his dismissal, and they were published in the December 12, 1937 Chicago Tribune:

1.  That he engaged in the practice of subsidizing athletes.
2.  He failed to organize his coaching staf.  [yes, one f.]
3.  He was incompetent.
4.  The board objected to his private associates.
5.  He tolerated summer football practice.

Yikes.  Here’s a brief look at a few of the spiciest of the charges:

• Subsidizing players.  Yes, it appears as though Michigan promised the classic nice “jobs” to incoming freshman.  According to a university report players were basically guaranteed a wage at certain jobs whether they showed up or not.  The local employer was “instructed to bill another Ann Arbor firm for the time the freshman collected for not working” [Chicago Tribune, 11/11/37].  The whole thing unraveled when a bogus “employer” wasn’t reimbursed in a timely manner and complained. 
• Those “Private Associates”.  This was aimed squarely at Kipke’s pal Mr. Harry Bennett, henchman/head of security at Ford.  Henry Ford sent his problems to Bennett and they disappeared.  Or were buried up north.  Think Joe Pesci in Casino, or perhaps Winston Wolf from Pulp Fiction…in fact Bennett looks quite a bit like Mr. Wolf and Pesci, no?:

 Bennett on the left, with mucho resemblance to the Wolf and Pesci

Search and you’ll find anecdotes about Bennett on the web, a favorite of mine:

When a Detroit child was kidnaped, Ford, who had a great love for all children, told Bennett to get the child back.  Before he could do anything, the father paid a $20,000 ransom and the child was returned. Some hoodlum acquaintances of Bennett got the money back by torturing the kidnaper.  The kidnaper went to Bennett’s home, shot him in the side and fled.  Bennett asked the police not to prosecute. But, he adds offhandedly: "The gunman was later shot and killed on a Detroit street—in some gang feud, I suppose."

For the many rumored and not-so rumored shenanigans and thuggery led by Bennett, who lived in Ann Arbor in his “castle” along with his pet lions, it was known that he often hired football players to help carry out his dirty work and he was buds with Kipke.  Naturally the faculty and administration on campus turned their noses at such people.

• Summer Practice.  Not sure if Kipke employed quality control guys, but it was alleged that most of the team held cushy summer jobs at Ford and whilst there, even worked on their skills, from the Tribune 12/12/1937:
  

  Kipke allowed fifteen Michigan football players to practice three and four times a week throughout the last summer while employed at the Ford Motor company.  The players were said to have worked in the service department under Harry Bennett, Ford personnel director.  On practice afternoons, it was reported, they were driven in a truck from their posts about the plant to a remote place on Ford property along the Detroit river shore for practice.

  Conference rules at the time didn’t allow practice to start until September. 

Aftermath.  Despite the controversy surrounding his departure, Kipke was still a popular guy amongst the Maize and Blue faithful and served on the board of regents from 1940-47.  He also continued his love of the seas by joining the Navy in 1942 and even served as president of the Coca-Cola bottling company in Chicago.

The photos of Kipke are available for $9.99 on eBay right now.

Related:
Yost’s Warning to you Drunks (1933)
1933 and the Dickinson Formula
1933 MSC Ticket Application
Harry Kipke and the Fall of 1934
Smoke ‘em if you Got ‘em (1935-ish)

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany dialed up Colin Cowherd’s radio show on ESPN this morning to talk about expansion, the Big Ten Network, conference revenues and a bit on Notre Dame.  He knocked the recent reports about Texas and Pittsburgh joining the conference, and said the strategy would be carved out over the next few months.

Not sure if it was off the table, but sadly Cowherd didn’t ask him about the NCAA allegations.  Audio:

 

 Delany on Cowherd: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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So as I mentioned earlier the crux of the trouble with the NCAA comes down to how they decide to treat the ‘quality control’ personnel who allegedly oversaw certain drills during the offseason.  This is mentioned in the first paragraph on the Notice of Allegations (NOA) and lists these folks as: Adam Braithwaite, Dan Hott, Josh Ison, Bob McClain, Eric Smith and Bryan Wright.

In that same paragraph, the NOA refers to these guys as “quality control staff members (noncoaching sport-specific staff members who were not counted as countable coaches)..”  But later the report refers to Herron as a “graduate assistant football coach”.

Beyond the oversight concerns, it goes further to alleged that Alex Herron essentially lied to the NCAA investigators.  From page 7 of the NOA:

It is alleged that Alex Herron, graduate assistant football coach, failed to deport himself in accordance with the generally recognized high standards of honesty and sportsmanship normally associated with the conduct and administration of intercollegiate athletics for providing false and misleading information…

It goes on to state that Herron denied his presence at certain summer workouts/7-on-7 drills but the NCAA states “in fact” he was indeed “sometimes” present at these activities.

The NCAA also asked for for U-M to provide a bunch of materials and responses to the allegations starting with sections of various media guides.   For instance, they ask for pages 97-121 of the 2009 spring football media guide which is the ‘Football Staff’ section.  (By the way, why they are asking for this I’m not sure, because they clearly already have it, otherwise how would they know the specific page numbers?).  Anyway, I assume what they want to know is listed starting on page 112 which is the “Graduate Assistant and Quality Control” staff section. 

In the 2009 Spring Media guide, Herron title is “Offensive Graduate Assistant Coach”, Braithwaite and Hott titles are “Defensive Quality Control”, Ison “Special Teams Quality Control”, Smith and Wright are “Offensive Quality Control”.

We know that Braithwaite was recently promoted as safeties coach but he’s not the only one who has a new title for 2010.  Today on mgoblue.com under ‘Coaches’, Herron, Wright and Ison are defined as “Staff Interns”:

So…I’ll take from this that Michigan’s strategy will be to acknowledge that these guys were present during the summer sessions, but argue that in their role on the team they were a far cry from being actual coaches. 

I’m not sure if RR hiring Braithwaite will help or hurt matters.   Perhaps Michigan will argue that they are demonstrating the separation between QC and real staff with the Braithwaite “hire”.   The NCAA might counter by asking someone to explain where Braithwaite got the experience to be named to a big time football coaching staff, if he wasn’t really involved in coaching under Rodriguez.

Last August I asked former Michigan hockey player and assistant coach Dave Shand about the allegations and from his point of view it’s really not debatable:

“I saw the statements about the guys that were present, the Quality Control guys.  They’re coaches. How can you be a quality control guy and not know anything about the game? The differentiation is silly.  It’s really not a gray area.”

The other thing Shand warned against is trying to cover up the truth and being less than truthful, adding “the cover-up is always worse than the crime.”  Thankfully I don’t see any cover-up here but Herron’s alleged misrepresentation certainly doesn’t help. 

So what does all this mean?  I have no idea.  The letter attached to the Notice of Allegations states that “all of the alleged violations set forth in the document attached to this letter are considered to be potential major violations of NCAA legislation..”, and I don’t know if that’s standard language when submitted NOAs or whether that is saying that the NCAA views the allegations as major violations until the school makes the case otherwise.

I think Michigan will have a tough time arguing that the QC guys are a far reach from the “real” coaching staff, but perhaps they can argue that point far enough along to fall into the realm of secondary violations.  If they can’t, get ready for some of this:

President Mary Sue Coleman looking on while Rodriguez answers a question.  I know it looks like she’s giving him the ol’ stink eye but I don’t think that was the intent.  I don’t think. (MVictors photo)

Audio from today’s press conference discuss the Notice of Allegations delivered yesterday morning to the University.   Includes statements from Mary Sue Coleman, incoming AD Dave Brandon, RichRod and the Q&A session that followed.   More stuff later, here’s the audio* :

 

 NCAA presser: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Initial reaction is that some of the stuff is silly (Over on some Sundays by less than an hour, over in one instance by 20 minutes), but there’s some concern on the NCAA validating the Freep finding that Quality Control staff monitored some activities.   The NCAA findings used the word “coached” although found it was related to “skill-development” and “activities to improve technique and develop fundamental football-related skills.”  That’s a concern, and it was the first item found mentioned in the report.

A couple more photos for you, first MSC leading off:

And then here’s Dave Brandon, who basically ran the entire show (despite not technically being employed yet by U-M).   He handled the thing like the absolute media pro that he is.  Heck, the dude could have slipped in a pitch for the luxury suites and I don’t think anyone would have noticed (they’d be busy scrambling for their checkbooks):

*Sorry if it’s a bit scratchy, it wasn’t the normal set-up.  The meeting was held inside the Regents’ conference room in the Fleming Building on campus.

There’s certainly many ties to U-M at the Olympics once again this year.  Jack Johnson is on the ice, cameras are constantly cutting to Michael Phelps in the stands, and the male portion of the U-M student ice dancing teams even were shown flashing an ‘All In’ towel in a photo shown on NBC last night. 

While I’m not sure if Fielding Yost ever made it to an Olympic winter games, I had to repost this photo of the West Virginian working on his curling skills in 1940:

Michigan’s Grand Old Man looks a bit like he misses the gridiron.

As an aside, I’ve noticed a few folks on the Twitter note they are getting sucked into the curling.  I was on a plane this weekend with a choice of many shows/movies/tv channels and went with the USA vs. Great Britain curling match.  I couldn’t look away. 

I also dig watching the short track and I give mucho props to Ohno, but I have one concern: What’s really the difference between the 1000 and 1500 meter short track events?  To me, they just cut to the chase a tad quicker in the 1000 meter, right?   Are they really separate disciplines worthy of separate medals?

Wallpaper via jackjohnson3.com – JJ official site

Heard locally on WDFN 1130AM in Detroit, Jim Rome had a solid visitor today.  In the wake of the epic win for USA hockey over Canada, former U-M defenseman Jack Johnson rapped with Rome this afternoon for a few words on the win and much more.   He did a nice job.  No Michigan mentions but he did note that he knew a lot of the USA players from the Ann Arbor development program.  Audio (I missed the first 30 seconds or so):

 

 Jack Johnson on Jim Rome mp3: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Via AnnArbor.com, Rich Rodriguez:

Folks, don’t forget about the 1st Annual Victors Rally to be held Sunday at the Michigan Theater.  Word on the street is that they are efforting Lloyd Carr which would be cool.  Need details?  Details:

When: Sunday, February 21, 2010, 1:00 – 3:30 p.m.

Where: Michigan Theater

• 603 East Liberty St.
• Ann Arbor, MI

What: Football Film Highlights, Throughout the Years

• Guest Speakers
• Autographs & Pictures with Players
• Pep Band
• Souvenirs
• Maybe a Surprise (or two)?

Who: Master of Ceremonies: Rick Leach

• Other Speakers to include Coach Rich Rodriguez, Former Players, Former & Current Coaches … and Interested Parties …and Greg from MVictors [ok, I added that]

Why: A chance to show appreciation for the Wolverines, AND the fans.

Why II: Like our great country, the greatest college football program is going through some uncharacteristically tough times. Both will come back … and come back strong as ever!

Why III: It is about what truly matters. It is about the kids who love to play the game, work hard and try their best to win … for themselves, and for all of the fans. It is not about politics!

How to Attend: Tickets for the event are available through www.ticketweb.com or at the door. Very affordable ticket pricing has been set so that all can enjoy a nice maize & blue afternoon:

Adults: $5.00

Children (12 & under): Free

Students (with ID): $2.00

INFORMATION: Visit the Michigan Theater website: www.michtheater.org

One of the great benefits of the U-M Bentley Library is the high quality athletics photos that they’ve preserved. I frequently pop into the year-by-year football summaries posted online which feature a team photos and information about each season.

One gent who’s prominent in the team pictures, at least for the first 40 years of the last century, is of course Michigan’s legendary coach and Director of Athletics Fielding Yost.   Last season I thought it might be cool to take a look at the photos over the years and it eventually led to what you’ve got below, a collection of Yost’s face from each team photo he’s appeared in.  Here you go:

When it started coming together it hit me that while it’s kind of cool to see the different photos (and smile/smirks) over the years, it’s also a little depressing to watch him grow old over a two minute clip.  Watch the years fly back and next thing you know you’re humming Cat’s in the Cradle or 100 Years and I considered going Benjamin Button with the photos but held steady.

I don’t know how long this was the practice, but I know for a long stretch they actually took the team photo at the end of the season. Today of course the photo is snapped at media day before the season starts.  How do we know this?  For starters, the team often holds a football that says ‘Champions’ or something like that in the shots.  I also know from other projects that the team also used to select their captains for the next season at the time of the photo shoot (and this occasionally backfired).

One thing I noticed is that Old Yost sometimes didn’t show up for the photo but this tended to be after lean seasons, especially after Michigan dropped the finale or a few games during the campaign.  This isn’t to completely indict Yost—he also wasn’t present in the 1918 photo when Michigan claimed its fifth national championship. 

The Old Man likes his pins as well, you’ll notice he had a favorite tie pin for several years, and if you can spot it, from about 1920 old he sported a cool block M lapel pin. 

I also noticed Yost seemed to have a different smile is his later years – almost more of a content man, like a grandfather proudly smiling watching his family, even in 1934!  That’s not hard to understand as in the late 20s and 30s the AD was no doubt enjoying the fruits of building Michigan’s world class athletic campus for the men and women in Ann Arbor.