I knew that wasn’t the only case, and once again a great item has appeared on eBay illustrate that piece of history.   Here’s a small card that someone saved in scrapbook, a memento from an effort to help get the MMB to the critical game against Cornell in 1911:

The effort was led by the students, spurred on by the Daily, and was successful in raising the funds for the band trip.  I wrote about the 1911 season in last year’s edition of Brian Cook’s Hail to the Victors and mentioned that apparently everyone wasn’t pleased with the repeated “begging” to help the band, and one Daily reader suggested a fee-based approach:

· It was typical in those days to pass the hat amongst the student body and alums to gather up money to send the band to a long road trip. A letter from “One-Opposed-to –Begging” offered a different tact: simply charge a dime admission to the Friday pep rally which would cover the expenses for the trip to Cornell.

The band traveled but didn’t help spur on Michigan’s offense.  Here’s the complete rundown of Cornell week from 1911 via HTTV 2011:

Week 6: vs. Cornell, at Ithaca, November 11, 1911

The Syracuse stung but Michigan had to turn its attention to first major roadtrip of the year – a visit to Ithaca to face “the red and white” of Cornell.

On Yost’s Mind: He completely shut down practice and rumors of line-up changes persisted through the week. While information was limited, word got out that the team focused on fundamentals: blocking and tackling drills. (It’s unknown whether they worked on the overhand forward pass).

The Night Editor wrote a piece called “All Out.” No, it wasn’t direct contradiction to Rich Rod’s famous command, but rather, it was a plea for students to give the team an organized send-off before the train ride to Ithaca. They did–hundreds of students came out in the rain before the train departed.

The Saturday edition noted “Betting odds 10 to 6 favor Varsity today” in the first game between Michigan and Cornell since 1894. (Michigan won 12-4 at the Detroit Athletic Club field). Apparently not much money was changing hands because “Cornell supporters demand big odds.”

The Game: Michigan’s offensive struggles continued and the injury problems hampered the squad. Cornell upset Yost and crew 6-0. The lone score came when they blocked a third quarter punt by Bottles and fell on the ball behind the U-M “chalk line”. The game was marred by penalties and fumbles.

The ever faithful Daily praised the effort of the “crippled” Wolverines. “We want to win games just as much as anything else but in our opinion the way the men played…far outreaches the fact that Cornell scored and we did not.” In 2011 this would have read: The Day the Offense Died.   Commence full on PANIC!

Off the field:

· Debate raged over the place of women at football games, in particular their role in cheering. Those days female students were relegated to a section in the south endzone of Ferry Field. Put bluntly by one writer, “the girls are ruining our cheering”. Later in the fall a letter signed “Mere Man” asked, “What’s the use of having 900 coeds if we have to sew on our own buttons?”

· It was typical in those days to pass the hat amongst the student body and alums to gather up money to send the band to a long road trip. A letter from “One-Opposed-to –Begging” offered a different tact: simply charge a dime admission to the Friday pep rally which would cover the expenses for the trip to Cornell.

· If you got in line to purchase advance tickets for the 1911 Penn Game you had better of set the alarm. According to one fan who “arose a trifle early” (at 4:30am) he was around 50th in line for tickets that went on sale at 8am.

Related:
* I’m excited that I’ll be back in HTTV for a fifth straight year, this time I’m writing about Harry Newman and the perfect season of 1932.   I think you’ll enjoy it and as always, HTTV is a must have. 

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Support this cause or someone from the 4 o’clock hour is going to get

Via WTKA media relations, here’s the schedule for Friday’s annual Mott Takeover event on WTKA 1050AM,

Here’s the official line-up – I like the additions of some national media members and you’ve got to like that Stevie Everitt (above) will be in the house:

7am – Lloyd Carr, Jay Feely
8am – Lloyd Carr, Brian Griese
9am –Dana Jacobson, Dhani Jones
10am – Marlin Jackson, Cato June, Tim Massaquoi
11am – Charles Woodson, Adam Schefter
Noon – Mike Hart, Greg Mattison, Al Borges
1pm –Scott Dreisbach, Adrian Arrington,  Gary Moeller, Jerry Hanlon, Jarrett Irons
2pm – Leon Hall, Morgan Trent, Ron Bellamy, Drew Henson
3pm –Mark Campbell, Jerame Tuman , Aaron Shea, Remy Hamilton
4pm – Steve Hutchinson, Steve Everitt, Jake Long at MDen
5pm – David Brandon, Brady Hoke at MDen

Last year they raised nearly $105,000 for the Charles Woodson Clinical Research Fund.   This year the Takeover will benefit the Coach Carr Mountaintop Experience Fund.  So—diial in early and often.  

Fans can of course listen in and this year you can watch the final two hours live from the M-Den on State Street.

Go Blue!

It’s basically an era by era look at the history of Michigan football, including articles, photos and other goodies as they appeared back in the day.  Readers of this site know I’m a fan of leveraging the Daily for my research and they did a great job putting it in book form.

For more details follow this link or click below:

Related:

• A Century Ago: 1910 Michigan Football through the Words of The Daily
• Cornhusker Hospitality in 1911
• The Willis Ward Protests (1934)

Is it the real deal?   Paging Dr. Sap!

Coincidentally this ties in two recent posts on these pages.  First off, the Michigan Bike helmet was the offspring of the research performed by Elwyn Gooding and the team from U-M.    And while we’re on the topic of Carter, AC is featured in one of Dr. Sap’s throwback NCAA Football covers.  Also featured is a gent I described as the most interesting man in the world:

Thanks to notes from his nephew and his son, we now know that this man is Jerry Wright, who worked at the Ann Arbor police department.   Mr. Wright passed away in ‘99 but he lives on in Michigan lore!

Update:  Great comments below on the analysis, and Dr. Sap sent over this collage of AC photos:

Update #2.   An anonymous former player weighs in:

Just as a side note the helmet may have well been Anthony’s but the claim that he wore it for three years is probably not accurate.  We were issued new game helmets every year and quite often our previous year’s game helmet became our practice helmet the following fall.  Unless Anthony asked for the same game helmet for some reason I don’t know that he would have had the same helmet for three years.  Plus there are no blemishes or scratches on the helmet that he would undoubtedly would have received even as a receiver.  And, if I recall, AC won a gold football or two during his years there.  It may very well be his helmet but probably a practice helmet.

What does this have to do with Michigan football?    A lot, it turns about.  (A lot more than M fans routinely beating themselves senseless in frustration near computer equipment during games).

According to the caption on the back of the pic, the gent smacking his own skull with a stick is Elwyn Gooding, a researcher at the University of Michigan.   Why he’s surrounded by enough computing power to launch and land an Apollo mission is unclear.

Gooding is testing a prototype of a safer fireman’s helmet but his research extended to gridiron headgear:

While the text is a tad foggy, the December 1973 article leads with this:

A group of University of Michigan medical researchers have developed a new football helmet that they think is more comfortable and more effective in preventing brain and spinal cord injuries than any helmet on the market.

Another hat tip to uni-guru Dr. Sap for passing along this link.  According to Helmut Hut, a worthy source on headgear, this new design made it onto the heads of The Victors shortly thereafter in the form of the Bike-branded helmet:

In the mid 1970s the Michigan athletic department along with local Ann Arbor scientists became involved in the development of a new inflatable type helmet commercially introduced as the Bike "Air Power" helmet (now sold as Schutt’s "Pro Air" helmet). Macgregor quit making helmets in 1974 (the Macgregor helmet line was subsequently purchased and reintroduced in the late 1970s by Bill Kelly). In the mid 1970s Michigan began wearing the new Bike helmets almost exclusively and still use a large percentage (versus Riddell) of the Schutt "Pro Air" helmets today.

I’m partial to Schutt, now more than ever.  So is Denard.

Gooding apparently survived the series of self-inflicted blows and went on to file a series of patents for safer gear for athletes, many tied to protecting the athlete in some form another.    Maybe one of these will save college and pro football.  Here are the drawings  for patent 4566137, “Inflatable baffled liner for protective headgear..” filed in 1984:

Own a piece of history – the 1973 wire photo of Gooding conducting the helmet research is available on eBay now for $21.00. 

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Certainly this won’t happen but if it did, rest assured I’d be ringside.  (And it’s not that I don’t like Rosenberg FWIW—he’s always been good to me.)

A man can dream, so if we can get these two together in the squared circle they’ll need an undercard.  Sticking with the media vs. media theme I have a few suggestions.   Remember we’re raising money for charity fergodsakes (you have a problem with that?) so this is for fun:

Sam Webb (GoBlueWolverine/Scout.com) 
vs.
Chris Balas (The Wolverine/Rivals.com)

OVERVIEW:  If you don’t know, ask somebody.   Naturally there’s an organic competitive tension between the two major U-M recruiting networks but call it a gut feeling, I’m guessing these guys won’t be sharing a Twosie anytime soon.   In our 2010 interview Webb made it clear there’s no love lost between their crews.  The message board minions would flock in droves to get a glimpse of this action, as long as their moms let them borrow the van.
EDGE:   Neither man is physically imposing but I have a hunch that Sam’s the type of guy who doesn’t quit until the job is done.  While Balas appears to be in good shape, Sam’s been spending a lot of time with Skip at Body Specs and crushing salads (hold the bacon bits) for lunch.  Webb by TKO.

(P.S. If this doesn’t work out Webb vs. Valenti would put many an ass in the seats.)

Frank Beckmann (WJR, U-M radio) 
vs. 
Mitch Albom (WJR, Detroit Free Press, Oprah Book Club)

OVERVIEW:  It must get a little awkward up in the golden tower of the Fisher Building when these two are in the house.  Their heated 2011 debate on Beckmann’s show was harsh and got weird & personal real quick.   Clearly these guys can’t stand each other.  Private jets would roll into Willow Run to see this one (and I’m not talking about the handful that Mitch keeps there).
EDGE:   While Albom is certainly better conditioned (assuming he stopped lighting cigars with $100 bills), Beckmann has a sizeable height and reach advantage as I know he’s a pretty big guy.  I just can’t see Mitch landing a blow on Frank’s sizeable dome.   Gotta give it to Beckmann as long as he can end it in the first couple rounds.

Bob ‘Wojo’ Wojnowski (Detroit News, 97.1 The Ticket) 
vs. 
Pat Caputo (Oakland Press/97.1 The Ticket)

OVERVIEW:  I wish I knew of some grudge between these two but we need a heavyweight brawl–this is about as close as we’re going to get.   Caputo is probably not wild that Wojo bumped him from his slot in the evenings on 97.1 so perhaps there’s something there.  If that doesn’t get them started, if we offered the winner a pack of Nutter Butters you can be sure Wojo would send some fists flying with bad intentions. 
EDGE:   I really don’t know either man but Wojo just seems too nice and heck, he turned 50 last year.  No one is exactly sure how old Caputo is and Pat strikes me as the type of guy who would fight dirty if backed into a corner.  Caputo in a TKO.

Bill ‘Huge’ Simonson (The Huge Show) 
vs. 
Jim Carty (Ann Arbor News (formerly)/New York Times)

OVERVIEW: Do you remember?  Yes, there was a spell a few years back when Huge was regularly teeing off on Carty on his radio show (which used to air live in Ann Arbor).   According to Carty it started after he declined to go on air with Huge because he didn’t care for the style of the show.  Despite an olive branch from Huge when Carty retired from regular journalism, I’m guessing each man still has a few things to get off their respective chests. 
EDGE:   Carty strikes me as a lawyer, not a fighter, and I’ve run into Huge a couple times—he’s a pretty big dude.  Sorry JC, Huge by KO.

Lauren (Fox Sports Detroit) 
vs. 
Allison (Fox Sports Detroit)

OVERVIEW:  Foxy boxing is a must on any charity boxing undercard so we’d have to pit the two Fox Sports Girls, Lauren (M hat) and Allison.  I’m going volunteer to referee this one just to keep it fair.
EDGE:  Even.  Probably makes sense to starting planning a rematch.

[Ed. Updates May 1 ]

• Funny, got a few pings from present and former media members, a couple noting that Balas is not just in good shape, he’s ripped.   To those guys – take a cold shower.  I still give Sam the edge.
• Mike Rothstein of ESPN didn’t make the undercard but it probably wouldn’t be too tough to find a fellow or two to step up the challenge.  Consider Rothstein vs. Mark Snyder (of the Freep) on standby.
• I paired Wojo and Caputo as heavyweights and it probably makes sense to add a couple lighter-weights.   How about a triple flyweight cage match between past and present mgo-correspondents Tom VanHaaren (ESPN), Ace Anbender (mgoblog) and Tim Sullivan (Rivals)?

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Lytle:

Terrible Tommy:

Ricky Leach:

Wangler to Carter (including an appearance from the most interesting man in the world in his suede jacket):

General Bo:

I’m guessing the seller had no idea and is wondering why as of Saturday afternoon it had 17 bids, the tops at $330.   It was a very nice season by Fritz Crisler’s crew, going 8-1, sharing the conference title and finally beating freaking Minnesota whom they hadn’t beaten since 1932.

Readers of this site might recall that this is a very rare find, so rare, in fact is that it was the final stub that local Jack Briegel needed to complete his collection of every game played at the Big House (dating back to ‘27).    Thanks to a gift of this stub in 2011 from fellow collector Ken Magee, Jack got that final piece of the puzzle.

It’s rare for a few reasons as I explained in an earlier post:

The ticket to that September 25 game actually lists Michigan State as the opponent.   But the Spartans did not field a team that season as it was common for teams to shut down their football squads that year due to obligations to the war effort.  Folks seemed to have better things to do that fall day as just over 14,000 bothered to show up, and apparently it wasn’t memorable enough for many fans to bother to hang onto their stubs.

Toast to Yost.   Speaking of stubs, reader Brian pointed out this ticket stub published in the Ann Arbor library archives.   It’s a ticket to the celebration for Fielding Yost in 1940, the event from which I’ve posted a few audio clips recently. 

I wonder if Jack or Ken have this one?

The entry associated with the above image states “..the event was held in the compact Waterman Gymnasium. It might have been held at the relatively new Yost Field House which created some controversy among faculty members when Yost named the building after himself.”   

Umm, except the Field House was built by and named after Yost in the 1920s, sooo…

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photo via Macaroni Tony

photo Paul Sancya (AP) via ESPN

So from the recent comments of Mary Sue Coleman and Dave Brandon, rest assured that the ‘92 and ‘93 banners will remain on the shelf at the BHL evermore. But DB opened the door to honoring the controversial quintet in some other way:

Are there (different) banners we could put up, though? Yeah, there are," he says. "I’d love to celebrate the Fab Five. Are there conditions on which that has to happen? For sure. But we’ve been very open and vocal about that, and there’s just nothing new on this subject.

Brandon’s conditions are tied to Chris Webber admitting to taking money from Ed Martin and apologizing in some form.   Don’t hold your breath.

Based on the calls to WTKA I’m guessing most of you would just like to see nothing happen and move on.   I get that.  I’m ok with leaving the banners at the BHL but I would like to see these guys honored in some form or another.  (I openly admit my huge bias—I was at U-M during the heyday of the Fab Five).

A suggestion—when the time is right, why not retire #5 as a ceremonial nod to the group and a not-so-subtle tribute to Jalen (who wore #5 and was the leader of the crew) for all he’s done in the community?   You could drop each guy’s name on the back and send it up to the rafters:

It would of course be splendid if the announcement were tied to some donation or foundation created by Webber (a la Griese-Hutchinson-Woodson) to benefit U-M.   And while were on the topic of smiles and rainbows, it’d be even splendider if we all got a free pizza out of the deal.

All this said, I don’t blame anyone for being entirely sick of all the jersey honoring/retiring/#1-ing/Legending talk.   Those who read this site know I write about this kind of thing now and again and even I’m growing weary. 

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Recently I posted a short audio clip of Fielding Yost from the 1940 nationwide radio tribute the man titled, ‘A Toast to Yost from Coast to Coast’.   Check it out if you missed it.   In that post I promised to share a few more clips, and thanks to the Bentley Historical Library for passing these along.

The man who introduced Yost to the crowd in attendance and the radio audience was none other than the great Willie Heston, the All American who came with Yost to Ann Arbor and by some (suspect) accounting, scored 110 touchdowns.  [The Bentley says 72, which might be still on the high side, but methinks that will be addressed at some point.]

Here are two clips of the great Willie and in the first we have a surprise.   Before offering up his tribute to his old coach, Heston acknowledges that current student athlete and national icon Tom Harmon in the audience.  Old 98 shares the mic & even has a little back and forth with Heston that is all in all pretty priceless.

The second clip has Heston delivering his testimonial to Yost.  Enjoy:

As an aside, while I’m sure you’ll be hard pressed to find another audio clip of the Harmon and Heston together, they did appear elsewhere…namely on this campaign pin for Heston [original 2008 post].   This is probably a decent representation of what each man looked like back in 1940:

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