Spearheaded by the request of Michigan’s president James B. Angell, officials from the schools representing the Western Conference (U-M, Chicago, Minnesota, Iowa, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana) met in Chicago in January 1906 to discuss major reforms. Their target? Michigan football and its coach Fielding H. Yost. Here's how it played out.
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True Dedication – Opening Michigan Stadium Sights & Sounds (1927)
A few sights and sounds from the Michigan Stadium dedication on October 22, 1927. Video footage, a theft(!), the MMB, enemy praise and much more.
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We Lost Bo
[Ed. Bumped up – I wrote this on MVictors just after I heard Bo passed away 10 years ago on November 17, 2006]NOVEMBER 17 – What an empty feeling here at noon on Friday before the biggest game that may ever be played against Ohio State and Michigan. I just heard on WTKA 1050 am that we lost the man that single-handedly restored Michigan Football to its rightful place. I had the pleasure to be in school for Bo’s final season. He is the heart and soul of modern Michigan football, and his legacy will be felt in Ann Arbor forever. I actually heard Bo talking live on WTKA this morning giving his thoughts on the game…he sounded a little rough. I remember thinking ‘Wow, Bo is getting old’. I understand he was in his car on the way to the taping. He collapsed at the TV station minutes later. For whatever reason, coincidence I assume, perhaps it was stressful on him, he collapsed again during the taping of his TV show. This is pretty shocking, and the timing of this is really crazy, and this turned this into a really sad day for college football. For those of you outside the football program. Yes, Bo Schembechler was still an active part of the team and the program. Look no…
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The Boot & The Blame
The media are now kicked out of practice for the rest of the season, maybe forever, thanks to someone who spilled the beans on what they saw during the 30 minute glimpse of practice afforded to the writers on Wednesdays. According to mgoblog: You know, I saw this Daily article detailing this new pitch play Michigan was working on, and I thought "that’s really cool, I wonder why more practice articles aren’t this specific": In a rotation that was repeated about four times, a quarterback and running back lined up to practice a simple outside pitch play. Though the play was basic, the pairings were different than usual. And then Michigan ran that pitch play to pretty good effect against Iowa and then Rodriguez closed practice for the rest of the year. Oh, that’s why. Brian also mentioned that “blogs” might have been mentioned, but don’t look at me, Homes. Unless…Rodriguez got wind of these little plays I showed diagramed on this site last week: If so, 1,000 apologies to RR, Angelique, Wojo and the rest. Related: Angelique talked about her understanding of the rules of what you can report from practices in the wake of the boot on WTKA radio.
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Hello, Angelique (WTKA audio)
The great Angelique Chengelis joined Ira and Sam today on WTKA’s Michigan Insider to talk concussions, Hawkeyes, substitutions, Denard, the media getting the boot from practice (and her understanding of “the rules”) and the Delaware State campus: [display_podcast] . Full podcast and all of the Insider podcasts here.
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Greg Paulus Rumors a Joke? No, Yes, No
The Free Press is now saying that word that Greg Paulus visited Michigan yesterday and is considering playing for Rich Rodriguez is a April Fools joke? On April 14th? Really funny. The original Freep headline read: ‘Ex-Duke Point Guard Paulus may play football at Michigan’. The new headline reads: ‘Greg Paulus’ Michigan football workout reported as April Fool’s Joke’ and includes this: Editor’s note: This story was originally published by Fox Sports as an April Fool’s joke. We apologize for the mistake. Hilarious. What’s odd about the Free Press retraction is that there’s no retraction on the FoxSports.com piece that broke the story, at least not yet. This rumor spread like wild fire, boiling all the way up to Dan Patrick’s tired radio show prompting a poll question: What a circus, man. Update (a few minutes after posting this): My nerves, now the Free Press is retracting the retraction, going back to the original heading with the following note: Editor’s note: We have talked with an editor at Foxsports.com and have learned this story is true as reported. Again, apologize for the mistake. Update #2, around 12:30pm: Freep has now pulled the retraction editorial note with this: Editor’s note: Story updated at 11:31 a.m. Already busted, homes. Related: Carty weighs in on this, including the eligibility rules. One more take…
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FOUR-see-eh, FOUR-sear, FOUR-see-er
Can someone clear up the pronunciation of Tate Forcier’s last name? I thought fans and media settled nicely on the French-ish “FOUR-see-eh”, which is backed up by the pronunciation guide listing for his brother Jason in the 2006 Weekly Releases: But then I heard the podcast of former AA News columnist Jim Carty (who probably takes such things seriously and must have bumped into brother Jason on his beat) who on WTKA Monday referred to Tate as “FOUR-sear”. Ben Holden did the same today on WTKA’s Big Show. Then I stumbled onto this on mgoblog, where Brian’s uber-assistant Tom VanHaaren recently was asked this question in the comments of a blog post. Clear as mud: User ‘MH20’: ..BTW, did you ask Tate off the record how his last name is pronounced? TomVH: Yea I actually did, and it didn’t settle anything. He said it’s either For-see-ay, or For-see-er. He said either pronunciation is fine. I think he says For-see-er though, FWIW. That’s how I’ve been pronouncing it when I read it to myself on here.
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$6.6M and a dope with a Calculator
John Heuser’s piece in the Ann Arbor News, discussing this week that Rich Rodriguez’s compensation tallied up to $6.6M, was thoroughly blasted in the blogosphere– see Brian Cook’s posts on mgoblog and AOL, and the gang at Wolverine Liberation Army. Heuser was defended by his former colleague Jim Carty on his blog. JC called it a “meaty little story” and after acknowledging Brian Cook’s greatness took a few shots across the virtual bow. If you read this site regularly you might recall my October 2008 interview with Dave Shand where he reveals the scuttlebutt that Michigan was going to pay the taxes on the buy-out: Shand:…So it cost Michigan, they say $2.5 million. But I’ve heard, through back sources, that Rich Rodriguez did not realize that the $2.5 million that Michigan is paying on his behalf is taxable, so Rodriquez is going to have to pay taxes on that. Plus there’s the million and a half out of his own pocket. That was indeed scuttlebutt at the time, but then a couple weeks later Rodriguez’s contract was FOIA’d and the terms of the buy-out were revealed. Those terms included the language on the tax neutralization [from my post on October 27, 2008]: Thanks to the contract being available via FOIA, we know that this is true (here’s the full contract),…
