• On Honoring Michigan Legends

    I’ve had a few days to think about the newly unveiled ‘Michigan Football Legend’ program.  Bottom line–I really like it.  My whole thing about the history of U-M is whatever gets people talking about former players, coaches, seasons, or games is a 99% of the time a good thing.  (Glen Rice).   The BTN Icons series, for example, had everyone talking about Harmon and of course this was a big couple weeks for Desmond. Another thing we learned is that it’s clear Michigan will not be retiring any new numbers and on Sunday, Angelique caught up with Dave Brandon who told her this: Brandon intends to offer the families of the players whose numbers have been retired — Tom Harmon, Bennie Oosterbaan, the Wistert brothers, Ron Kramer and Gerald Ford — to have those numbers re-established but with the "Michigan Football Legend" patch associated with those players. I’m hoping the families of the guys who have already have had their numbers retired agree to join this program.  The fact is no one really talks a whole lot about Kramer, the Wisterts and even Oosterbaan (unless of course we’re talking about retiring a jersey). And I’m with Brian, it’d be cool to see someone wearing #98 on the field and have a tricked out Harmon locker.  Someone get Mr. Shoop on the…

  • Heisman Caliber Accessories

    Check out this close up of Desmond at the GameDay desk from this morning: First off, you’ve gotta love the custom cufflinks.  The one on his right cuff appears to be a photo of one of his sons.  (I assume the left features another son).  Love that. Next, is the ring.  My instincts tell me that that’s not a Michigan ring, rather, it’s a College Hall of Fame ring.  We had this discussion a few years back when I discussed the band Dan Dierdorf donned on a 2008 CBS broadcast: Reader David, who seemed to be in the know, asserted that the ring I spotted was indeed Dierdorf’s CHOF ring: Actually he wears one ring on each hand. On his right hand is his College Football Hall of Fame ring and on the left hand is his Pro Football Hall of Fame ring. Both have blue stones, but the one in the picture (right hand) is his College Hall of Fame ring which has a larger blue stone. I doubt I’ll see Desmond buzzing around in the press box but if I do, I’ll get on that. As far as the pink pen, discuss amongst yourselves. Related: ESPN GameDay – Then and Now This Week in Michigan Football History – Remy Steals Powlus’ Thunder (audio) Pre-GameDay Desmond on Strike Night…

  • Pre-GameDay

    A couple shots from a quick visit with the ESPN GameDay crew.  They were on campus prepping today and took a few minutes to meet with the media. The man of the hour, Desmond Howard, seemed a tad bit tired but flash that smile a few times: He’s got a lot of family in town so he has no plans to tour the town with rest of the GameDay crew tonight. Herby and Erin Andrews answered a few questions as well: Erin looks surprised – she couldn’t believe how cool the local media was.

  • Hoisting A Legend

    Author Bill Roose was kind enough to send along an excerpt from his new book on Desmond Howard titled, “I Wore 21: The Legend of Desmond Howard”.  The book is dropping this week around Ann Arbor and will be available at the game on Saturday. While we’ve all seen the famous photo of Desmond making ‘The Catch’, how about this shot from page 69 of I Wore 21 of Howard celebrating with the lineman and the madness over in the student section?  Look at the faces of the guys running up to him: Side note: I’m probably in that photo somewhere, over to the left.  It’s up there with Woodson’s 1997 interception in East Lansing as the greatest Michigan catch I’ve witnessed. Here’s a clip from chapter two, Grbac talking about the play: Quarterback Elvis Grbac is still amazed by what Howard did that day. “I threw the ball up and it was really incomplete, to tell you the truth,” Grbac said. “Then at about the 5-yard line, Des looks up and he goes into another gear and absolutely runs by the corner and there are not too many guys who can do that. “That was a catch that just propelled him through the entire season, because now once we got inside the 20-yard line, people were like, ‘OK, what’s…

  • Desmond joins Sklar Brothers on Rome (08-27 audio)

    ’94 Michigan grads Randy and Jason Sklar guest-hosted Jim Rome’s radio show Friday and as they do, brought a little Michigan feel to the show.  In the second hour they were joined by Desmond: [display_podcast] They discussed the timing of the Ohio State-Michigan game, the BCS in general, Reggie Bush giving his Heisman Trophy back and NCAA violations, on the upcoming season, his sleeper team in the Big Ten (Wisconsin), and the outlook for Michigan and Rich Rodriquez (needs 8 or 9 wins, or seven with Ohio State), "no doubt in my mind they will score points."  Howard also joked about Bill Martin disappearing earlier than originally expected. Love the outro music.