2011 | MVictors.com

Rejecting Texas A&M

08. March 2013 · Comments Off · Categories: 2011 · Tags: 1981, bluebonnet bowl, Bo Schembechler, bum bright, college station, Denard vs. Swope, EA Sports, offer, texas A&M

Given the nice offseason bashing back and forth between Ann Arbor and College Station over the voting for the EA Sports College Football cover, a repost of our last offseason incident involving those Aggies. We won that one despite Bum Bright’s righteous wallet.

Oh, and vote for Denard here with your various Facebook accounts.

[Originally posted September 30, 2011:]

TWIMFBH starts with a discussion on the 1977 Texas A&M vs. Michigan game and ends with more significant challenge from the Aggies, namely their attempt to woo Bo Schembechler to College Station.

Check it out before the KeyBank Countdown to Kick-off on WTKA 1050AM tomorrow, or click play now:

This Week in Michigan Football History - Week 5 - 1977 - Texas A&M Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You can hear all of the This Week… clips here.

Related:
Don’t forget about Dr. Sap’s epic throwback EA CFB covers like this one:

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Santa Delivers

25. December 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: 2011 · Tags: 1947 pasadena, go blue!, santa vists michigan football

Here’s Santa himself paying the Michigan football team a visit in Pasadena back on Christmas Day in 1947:

Fullback Jack Weisenberger receives a gift from Kris Kringle and one can only assume the old man handed over USC’s offensive and defensive playbook. A few days Fritz Crisler’s magical crew stomped the Trojans 49-0 to seal the national championship. Wiesenberger scored three touchdowns!

Merry Christmas and Go Blue!

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Throwing Down on Thanksgiving

22. November 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: 2011 · Tags: 1896, 1898, Louis Elbel, michigan football, michigan-chicago thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Did you know that Michigan football used play on Thanksgiving day? Indeed—your beloved Wolverines met Amos Alonzo Stagg’s Chicago met on this holiday on several instances back in the 1890s including a couple historically significant battles:

1896— The undefeated Michigan squad met up with Stagg’s Maroons in the Windy City in a unique venue. As far as I can tell it was the first football game played indoors, yes, inside the Chicago Coliseum. Chicago squeaked by 7-6 in the first year of B1G conference play. Get this–they even invoked “electric lights” when it became dark inside the facility late in the game. Want more? Check out my This Week in Michigan Football History piece from last year.

1898—What else can you say? Once again undefeated heading into the finale, Michigan’s 12-11 victory in 1898 was played on Thanksgiving 114 years ago this Saturday. U-M student Louis Elbel was so inspired by the Wolverines’ win, which capped a perfect season, he composed ‘The Victors’ in the aftermath.

Postscript: Michigan was undoubtedly the Champions of the West in 1898, but looking back does Michigan have a right to claim the title of national champion? It’s seems silly discussing this 114 years later but there is recent precedent for such action. In 2004 Southern Cal looked back at its history and claimed the 1939 national championship. And in August this year, our Little Brown Jug rival Minnesota announced that it claimed a share of the 1904 national championship. While Harvard and Princeton each take credit for the 1898 crown based on different measurements – Does Michigan, who went undefeated and outscored opponents 205 to 26, have an argument to join them? Ok, it’s silly. But fun to talk about.

In the meantime…

~~Beet Ohio~~, err, Beat Ohio!

How It Started: Minnesota Madmen 6, Michigan Machine 6

29. October 2012 · 7 comments · Categories: 2011 · Tags: 1903, Little Brown Jug, michigan, minnesota, willie heston

One headline in the November 1, 1903 Sunday edition of the Minneapolis Tribune declared, “VICTORY, THOUGH THE SCORE IS TIED." Further down toward the fold it blared, “YOST AND MICHIGAN PRACTICALLY BEATEN.”

It was that fierce battle, played Saturday October 31, 1903, that spawned the greatest of the college football rivalry trophies. At the direction of coach Fielding Yost, Michigan’s student manager Tommy Roberts purchased a five gallon jug that was left behind in the aftermath of this epic clash that served as first, a Gopher souvenir, and later as the trophy that’s been presented to the winner since 1909.

The Tribune described Yost’s Michigan team, winners of 29 straight heading into that game, this way:

Her lineman were giants on the attack, and were adamant on defense. Her backs were great battering rams, with the speed of the wind, guided by an intelligence in play almost superhuman.

Her team work was near perfection, and the eleven representatives of the maize and blue were like some powerful machine, continuously in motion.

That line is a nod to Yost’s revolutionary tendency to speed up the pace of play, earning him the famous tag ‘Hurry Up’.

Now, we know the game ended in a 6-6 tie when the teams exchanged touchdowns, then worth 5 points each, in the second half. Michigan took the lead when the great Wolverine back Willie Heston found the end zone first midway through the half. The Gophers tied the score in the final minutes of the game and added the extra point to secure the tie. Depending on who you read, the game was either called with “a few seconds” remaining on the clock (Tribune), or two minutes left to go (Detroit Free Press). Afterwards thousands of Gopher fans stormed the field to celebrate the game-tying tally.

Naturally the Tribune saved a few good lines for the hometown victors tie-ers:

When [All-American tackle Fred] Schacht made his two gains of four yards each, the of the maize and blue went to pieces. They could not stand it.

Michigan was fighting against eleven madmen, and the madmen won.

Century old Chart
You’ve got to love this—the Tribune even included a diagrammed play chart from the 1903 game on the front page. Click to supersize it, it’s pretty cool after you figure out the key:

What happened next is of course the stuff of Little Brown Jug Lore, and you can get your fill here:

Chapter 1: What Really Happened in the 1930s
Chapter 2: Spinning Myths
Chapter 3: Getting it Right
Chapter 4: 2013: A Space Quandary
Chapter 5: Red Wing Roots
Chapter 6: Is the Greatest Trophy in College Sports a Fake?
Chapter 7: Open Questions
Chapter 8: Doc Cooke and the Real Origins of the Rivalry
Chapter 9: Gophers Here, Gophers There – When Michigan played Minnesota Twice
Chapter 10: How It Started: Minnesota Madmen 6, Michigan Machine 6
Chapter 11: A Righteous Sip, and Why Michigan Bought the Jug
Chapter 12: Making It Official—Jil Gordon & Painting the Little Brown Jug

[Ed. 10/29/12 - This was originally posted September 26, 2011...reposting for Jug week on the strength of the drive chart alone.]

Cornhusker Hospitality in 1911

24. October 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: 2011

[Ed. 10/24/2012 - Originally Posted November 17, 2011 - a relevant re-post as Michigan returns to Lincoln this week]

Via Hail to the Victors 2011, a look at when Michigan traveled to Lincoln back for the finale of the 1911 season. The concept is a look at the 1911 season via the pages of the Michigan Daily, so the quotes and information is straight from those pages. Thanks to the Bentley for housing the best copies of the Daily on the planet:

Week 8 vs. Nebraska, in Lincoln, November 25, 1911

With the great Penn win in the bank, Michigan looked ahead to the trip to face Nebraska.

On Yost’s Mind: Certainly Yost’s thoughts were on returning to Lincoln where he was head coach of the Cornhuskers in 1898. He led the team to an 8-3 record but moved on to Kansas following that season, then headed further west to coach at Stanford and San Jose State before ending up in Ann Arbor in 1901. In 1905 Yost crushed the Huskers 31-0 in Ann Arbor, near the conclusion of his the five year Point-A-Minute reign of terror.

Early in the week The Daily reported that Nebraska would treat the Michigan team and band to “a hearty reception” in Lincoln and they requested copies of all Michigan favorite songs (which were gathered up and sent on Monday the week of the game). The “trip out west” would take a couple days and the team headed to Chicago on Thursday and arrived in Lincoln Friday morning.

The Game: The Nebraska governor delivered an “exhibition kick-off” before the game, I assume a form of the old baseball honorary first pitch—something that I’d love to see return. (Imagine a mildly pickled Mike Wallace lining up and giving it a boot).

Michigan’s captain Conklin “saved the day” for the Wolverines, scoring U-M’s only touchdown by converting a blocked punt in the third quarter. After an exchange of punts, Nebraska tied the score and the game ended in a 6-6 deadlock.

The Daily added its maize-and-blue spin on the event reporting, “Outweighed, outlucked, and often outplayed, the Wolverines gave an exhibition of gameness and hard fighting that has never been seen in the west and won even the plaudits of the most loyal Cornhusker.”

In a generous extension of courtesy, the Nebraska folks invited the entire Michigan contingent: we’re talking faculty, alumni and students, to their Cornhuskers banquet. “We were treated royally,” reported one attendee.

Off the Field:

It was reported that Nebraska also considered using “moving pictures” to cover the Michigan game as a means to advertise their school to folks around the country. I’m not sure this was ever done or if a copy exists.
A prevalent undercurrent during Michigan’s time as an independent involved the goings on in the Western conference and whether the Wolverines might return or if other schools might follow Michigan and break ties. In 1911 Minnesota signaled that they might be interested in getting the Wolverines back on the schedule, and the Daily speculated on the potential domino effect: “If Minnesota has offered a contract, the minute that Michigan accepts [Chicago’s] Stagg and his conference go up in a cloud of inglorious smoke.”
Western alumni groups tried to push for a Thanksgiving game at Colorado after the Nebraska game. The idea was Michigan simply wouldn’t come home from Lincoln—they’d just travel to Denver. The administration squashed the idea.
On the train ride home from Lincoln, Captain Conklin went through the process of determining who on the team earned an ‘M’ letter, apparently a duty left to the captain each season. Those not earning the coveted M were issued a not-so-coveted ‘R’ as in “reserve” (and lady Repellent). On Tuesday of the following week, the team assembled for its annual postseason meeting and “Bottles” Thomson was selected at captain of the 1912 squad. The team also gathered for the team photowhich features captain Conklin cradling a painted ball that reads, “Michigan 11, Penn 9”.With another football season gone and several months until Yost and crew returned to Whitmore Lake for summer camp, a Daily writer informed the students of the obvious: “the dull season of athletics has hit the university.”
Word.

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Mud Bowl 2012: November 10th

09. October 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: 2011

[Ed. Just a reminder friends: No Mud Bowl this weekend, it will be November 10th.]

Mark your calendars and pack your ear muffs. The annual SAE Mud Bowl is officially slated for Saturday November 10th starting at 9am. The event will once again benefit Mott Children’s Hospital.

Northwestern is in town later in the day, kickoff time still TBD.

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Yost Gets a Dog to Get Shorty’s Goat (1910)

17. September 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: 2011 · Tags: 1910, bulldog, mike, notre dame, shorty longman, team photo, Yost

[Ed. Originally posted July 31, 2011. I'm reposting for Notre Dame week. This is one of my favs.]

Yost was such a beauty.

Up on eBay right now is a 1910 panoramic postcard featuring the Wolverine football squad that season. In the realm of postcards this is a choice collectible—and the seller is asking $600 for it.

While we’ve seen various postcards featuring squads from this era, what caught my eye is the special addition to the gathering–the white bulldog mascot at Yost’s feet (inset left).

I slung the photo over to my pal John Kryk (Natural Enemies) who, after a laugh no doubt, wrote me back suggesting ol’ Yost probably put the pooch in the photo to counter the antics of then Notre Dame coach Shorty Longman and his bulldog mascot “Mike”.

Longman was a player on Yost’s point-a-minute squads but even after he took the coaching reins in South Bend, Shorty kept his permanent home in Ann Arbor. In 1909 the Irish defeated Michigan 11-3 in Ann Arbor for their first win in the series. As Kryk wrote in Natural Enemies, apparently after that historic game Shorty outfitted “Mike” with a little jacket that advertised the 11-3 score and was known to parade him around town. Ugh.

Michigan and Notre Dame were scheduled for a rematch in 1910 but the game was abruptly cancelled due to a contention over the eligibility of two of the Irish players. [Ed. Kryk broke down the whole thing here in an excellent guest post.]

While we don’t know for sure when (in 1910) this photo was taken, it’s safe to say that one way or another Yost included the conspicuous canine as a response to Longman’s “Mike”. And speaking of postcards, here Shorty’s best friend featured in a 1909 Notre Dame postcard:

So…either Yost captured Mike for the team photo, or more likely he rustled up a Mike lookalike and had his tailor work up the cute little jacket. My only regret—we can’t confirm that FHY put a big fat ‘bite me’ on the dog’s jacket. If I had to guess, it would have read something like, “Michigan – 1909 Champions of the West” as a stick in the eye to Notre Dame’s similar claim.