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In the past couple years I’ve featured posts on Fielding Yost busting the Galloping Ghost and highlighted a program from the 1953 Football Bust which featured autographs from a few of the Yost’s finest players. 

Thanks to reader Craig B., this edition of eBay Watch takes a look at a statue bust of the old coach as presented in a wire photo:

Along with the note, Craig asked an excellent question:

So, what we know from this is that there was a bust of Yost in Yost Field House, but I have never, in my life, seen it.  Do we know where it is today?  Can we get it put back into Yost?  Am I just missing it somewhere?  Anyway, I shall eagerly await any potential news you have on this, in post or reply form.  Thanks much!

The photo is dated October 27, 1927 and if I had to guess at the blurry plaque below the bust, it reads “Fielding H. Yost – illegible – University of Michigan – then I think it might say, ‘University of Michigan Club of Chicago’ – 1927:

As Craig points out, the auction description hints that this statue might have been associated with Yost Field House but given the date of the photo itself, it may have been presented to Yost at or around the Michigan Stadium dedication game which occurred just five days prior on October 22, 1927. 

While Fielding Yost was certainly responsible for the building of Michigan Stadium (this is wonderfully chronicled in Robert M. Soderstrom’s ‘The Big House’ book), he already had a building bearing his name—the Field House sitting on the horizon northeast of the stadium.  Folks found other ways to honor the ‘Old Man’ in the wake of the stadium dedication, perhaps this bust was one of the prizes bestowed upon him.  According to The Big House, a group of donors chipped him and bought him a beautiful eight cylinder Packard car, and she was a real beaut: (M photostore):

According to Soderstrom, Yost “was most moved by a gift of 26 silver goblets, each one presented by a member of the 26 Michigan teams he coached.”  Wow.

But the question remains – what happened with with this statue?  Is somewhere on campus or with Yost’s family?  I emailed Greg Kinney at the wonderful Bentley Library and hopefully he has some ideas.

The auction ended recently and no one bid the $9.99 starting price for the photo.

[Ed.  Craig B. points out post-post that the back of the photos reads ‘1947’, which would put the stadium dedication so…I could be something offered up after Yost died the year prior, who knows?]

Related:
eBay Watch: Big House Dedication (1927)
The Big House: Fielding H. Yost and the Building of Michigan Stadium (from Amazon)

Next up on eBay Watch is a great photo of three icons in Michigan football lore: The Wistert Brothers, Albert (“Ox”), Francis (“Whitey”) and Alvin (“Moose”):

The three brothers are seated as then head football coach Bennie Oosterbaan drops in for a visit.  

These men, including Oosterbaan, represent four of the seven men who’ve had their football numbers retired by U-M.  Each of the Wisterts wore #11 and Oosterbaan #47.  All these men are enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.  

Francis or “Whitey” started off the Wistert tradition, playing for Michigan from 1931-1933 on Harry Kipke’s championship teams.  Remarkably he had no background with football before coming to Michigan but worked his way onto the team and starred for the ‘33 national championship squad.

Albert or “Ox” arrived on campus several years later in 1940 and became an All-American in 1942.  He went onto a stellar NFL career for the Eagles where he was a frequent All-Pro selection.

Alvin or “Moose” had a bizarre path to Ann Arbor.  He’s actually four years younger than Ox, but arrived in Ann Arbor four years later.  From his biography on the College Football HOF site:

He was a high school dropout and spent six years with the Marine Corps during World War II before entering college. Because of his lack of high school credits, Wistert was required to pass a battery of skill tests, which he did with ease. Not wishing to live in the shadow of his two famous brothers, Alvin enrolled at Boston University and lettered as a 30-year-old freshman football player. He transferred to Michigan, played three years at tackle, was All-America in 1948 and 1949, and team captain in 1949. Michigan won the Big 10 championship all three years. He stood 6-3, weighed 223 pounds. At age 33 in 1949, he became the oldest player ever named All-America.

Want to own this piece of football history?  Bidding starts at $9.99 for the auction that concludes January 17.

Elsewhere:  While this isn’t a jersey that belonged to the Wisterts, they probably played with the gent who once wore this authentic Wolverine uniform dating to somewhere in the 1930s or 1940s that was just put up for auction:

The seller’s asking a cool $5,000 for it so good luck explaining to the old lady!

Via U-M Media Relations, photo credit the University of Michigan Athletic Department.  Assume this was snapped on the day of the 1973 team photo.  Thankfully Bo dissuaded him from changing his name to Brandon OchoCinco:

As noted here, eBay’s been flooded lately with sellers unloading some incredible old wire photos and I’ll continue to highlight a few of the beauties on eBay Watch.   

Here’s a pic currently for sale from the turn of the last century at the inaugural Rose Bowl and more specifically, from the actual “Floral” Parade prior to the game.  Funny, it looks like Willie Heston and crew are decked in their game uniforms and presumably taking the wagon directly from the parade route to the game!:

Someone jotted a few statistics on the shot including the final score of the game (Michigan 49, Stanford 0 – rounding out U-M’s perfect season in which it pounded opponents 550-0).  It’s noted that the attendance for the “East-West Game” was 8,000 (the Bentley Library doesn’t list the attendance) with total gate receipts at $6000.  Box seats went for $2.00 with General Admission at $.50.  Tickets to the 2010 Rose Bowl are $155 at face value.

Fortunately that’s not the only shot Fielding Yost’s fine team from that trip to California.

A photog also caught the crew on a trolley, republished in the book Tradition: Bo Schembechler’s Michigan Memories:

The auction of the Rose Bowl parade shot ends December 29, bidding starting at $9.99.

Related:
Rah-Rah-Rah Rose Bowl Rout (1901)
1901 Season Football Pass (1901)

A few of the sights and sounds from the pregame Saturday. 

Beastly Jake Long returns to the Big House for the game:

CNN Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta represented.  He was only asked 39 times if he had a prescription for the Wolverines’ woes:

A look at the Ohio State throwback uniform and the Buckeye stare drill:

This Buckeye band member got tuckered out in the middle of the script Ohio and decided to take a knee on the Michigan sideline:

1969 team take the field, you can also see a video here:

Zoltan and parents:

Team getting ready to come out, check out Brandon Minor in streets on the left (with towel covering some type of brace on his shoulder):

Sweetness Melanie Collins of the Big Ten Network swung by our tailgate (hosted by Kristen and Todd Mitchell) to get some footage for their Big Ten Cookout show:

You’ve no doubt seen quite a few pics and videos of the M Club banner.  Here’s kind of a unique perspective from right past the banner.  I actually felt a strong breeze as they rushed by:

Recent Posts

• Ohio State Game Notes
• Hit CTRL-Z
• Ohio State – Pregame (Photos)
• 1969 Wolverines Take the field
• Fare Thee Well

Coach Gary Moeller was at Schembechler Hall this afternoon.  Don’t know the circumstances for the visit, but the no doubt the he had a few words for the coaches and team about Ohio State.  Moeller is a Buckeye grad and captained Woody Hayes’s squad in 1963. 

Moeller went 3-1-1 against Ohio State.

Looks pretty good, don’t you think?

So I went over to the Columbus’ 97.1 The Fan website to find the audio of Rich Rodriguez’s call today, and stumbled on this.  Jamie Morris, Michigan football legend, WTKA Sunday radio host and most importantly an official within the U-M athletic department spoke to the Columbus host (Bruce Hooley…Chris Spielman was away) about the upcoming Ohio State game, but also answered a few questions about Rodriguez and Jim Harbaugh.

My frustration with Morris on WTKA is that he’s been such a company man towing the company line on WTKA, that it’s prevented him from offering actual opinions.  But give this is listen as Morris gets candid.

I don’t know if this is just Jamie measuring his words, but he didn’t exactly serve up a wild endorsement of Rodriguez and admitted that Harbaugh would be welcomed back to U-M if he were the Michigan football coach at some point beyond RR’s tenure.  It’s not so much what he said, but that Morris never says anything remotely beyond the company line.

Give this a listen, it gets interesting about 3 minutes in:

 

 Jamie Morris on Columbus Radio: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

.

Notes/Quotes:

• For starters, he referred to Harbaugh as “Jimmy” instead of “traitor”.
• Hooley asked for a general sense of the radio caller support for Rodriguez.  Morris: “I think we’re at a 50/50 split now…”
• When asked about whether he’d support anybody as coach (as a Michigan man), and whether he supports this Michigan coach.   Morris pauses and says, “I believe in Michigan.”  He added, “I’m in favor of him.  I believe in Rich Rodriguez and I believe in Michigan.  So I’m lining up behind him and I’m going to go with him and I’m going to believe in him and I’m looking for a big Michigan victory.”
• Morris is asked about whether the former players support Rodriguez.  Morris: “You know what? The guys respect the position.  A lot of guys that I played with, the guys I talk to..they played for Bo Schembechler so they respect that position.”
• Then there was this:

Hooley: “Do you think if Michigan loses the game Saturday, do you see any way Rich is not there next year?” 

Morris: “[long pause] You know that’s tough.  You know what?  I think what people want is Michigan football.  They want hard fought plays.  They want a team that goes out there and that performs at the highest level and give everything they got, win or lose.  And then you just let the chips fall where they may.”

Hooley: “Do you think that’s what they’re getting now?”

Morris: “Well…[pause]…not all the time Bruce.  I don’t think so but I’ll tell you what..”

Hooley: “It’s hard to say that when they are 1-6 in the Big Ten I’m sure.”

Morris: “Right.  It’s tough.  But you know what?  Are they getting better?  Yes.  Do I see them getting better?  Yes.  But I’m not your typical fan.  I’m not the guy that’s going to be watching for the long plays and everything.  I’m watching the guys up front; I’m seeing what they’re doing.   I know what we have and I know what these guys are capable of doing.”

• Hooley then asks about Harbaugh.  He starts by asking Morris if Harbaugh’s comments (about athletics and academics at Michigan) would be “a stumbling block that Jim Harbaugh could not get over to become Michigan’s next head coach?”

Morris:  “Jim Harbaugh is the head football coach for Stanford.  If we were to go a different direction and Jim Harbaugh becomes the Michigan coach, he’d be a welcome addition.  But right now, it’s Rich Rodriguez.  It’s Rich Rodriguez right now and that’s who we’re behind.  So, if you want to talk about Jim Harbaugh, I think Jim Harbaugh’s doing a wonderful job at Stanford and like you say, he’s beat USC two out of the three years he’s been there, which is great.  Makes great for the resume.  But until Rich Rodriguez is fired, or he resigns or whatever, I’m not going to talk about Jim Harbaugh being in the Michigan family as the head football coach, but he was a great quarterback here.”

Hooley:  “If Rich was fired, would Harbaugh be a popular choice?”

Morris: “Oh, without a doubt.  Sure.  He’d be dynamic, he’d do the things like you said…Jim’s a go-getter.  But like I said, Jim Harbaugh’s worried about making it to the Rose Bowl from the Pac 10 side.”

Interesting comments from J-Mo.  The biggest thing that got me, maybe shocked me, was hesitation and in the end, non-response when asked about the possibility of RR not returning.  If nothing else, it looks his feud with Harbaugh (Morris in 2007 “He used to have a contact here at the Athletic Department, but obviously he doesn’t anymore.”) is over.

Regular readers of this site know one of my favorite decades of Michigan football is the 1930s, having covered different seasons and events in eBay Watch and in the Little Brown Jug Lore series from those years.

If I had to pick one year as my favorite during the stretch it’s definitely 1934 which is ironic, as it’s arguably the worst season in Michigan football history.   I argued this point here and here, but in a nutshell consider that Harry Kipke’s team, coming off back-to-back national championships, finished 1-7, was shut out in five of the eight games, and scored a mere 21 points.  Fugly.

Despite the futility on the gridiron, the season is packed of historical treasures of major significance both on and off the field.  The next edition of eBay Watch features the auction of a program from the Ohio State-Michigan held on November 17, 1934, exactly 75 years ago today in Columbus:

The program features several photos of players, including a collage of the Michigan team including team MVP Gerald Ford:

The top of the photo features Willis Ward, the African American end who was at the center of a fierce controversy that played out before the Georgia Tech game a few weeks earlier that season.  For those not familiar, The Jackets made it known well before the game that they wouldn’t take the field in Ann Arbor if Ward played, spawning intense protests on campus in Ann Arbor. 

Eventually Michigan caved, sitting Ward after a deal was struck with Tech that required the Jackets to sit a player as well.  (It’s not lost on me that the 1934 OSU program features two white dudes shaking hands.)  The 9-2 game was the Wolverines’ lone win of the miserable season but came with a historical price.   These incidents resonated with would-be President Ford, a friend of Ward’s, who wrote a 1999 New York Times Op-Ed piece defending Michigan’s affirmative action policies:

“Do we really want to risk turning back the clock to an ear when the Willis Wards were isolated and penalized for the color of their skin, their economic standing or national ancestry?”

President George W. Bush also mentioned the Ward incident in Ford’s eulogy. 

The 1934 Program also features a photo of one of the most famous athletes in the world, a burgeoning freshman track star at Ohio State named Jesse Owens:

Owens of course knows a little something about race and discrimination.  He’ll forever be remembered for kicking Hitler squarely in the bucknuts at the Berlin Olympics a couple years later.  While certainly on a smaller stage, Owens did some serious damage in Ann Arbor on Ferry Field in 1935 and the Bentley Library details his exploits:

Ferry Field has been the site of many great individual performances in Big Ten track championships, none more remarkable than Jesse Owens’ efforts in 1935. Within a period of two hours, the Ohio State sophomore set world records in the 220 yard dash – :20.2, the broad jump – 26 ft. 8 1/4 in., the 220 yard low hurdles – :22.6 and tied the world record in the 100 yard dash – :09.4 seconds. A plaque at the southeast corner of Ferry Field commemorates Owens’ incomparable performance.

That’s rubbing it in, man.

The year 1934 also marked the start of a Buckeye tradition that lingers today like a foul odor: the issuing of gold pants charms to players.   Their timing was impeccable.  The Sweatervest’s website explains the deal:

Schmidt founded the "Pants Club", which still exists today as reward for a win over the Wolverines. Since 1934, each player and coach receives a miniature pair of gold pants for each victory over Michigan. The charms contain the recipient’s initials as well as the year and score of "The Game".

Not only can you pick up a copy of this historic program, you can even own your own pair of Buckeye gold pants, which some OSU alum decided to hock on eBay right now:

This prize commemorate OSU’s 2007 and the seller even gives the initials of the original owner (D.H.) which are placed on each pair.   That’d narrow things down to ‘07 senior De’Angelo Haslam, freshman Dan Herron or yikes, assistant coach Darrell Hazell.   Didn’t mean that much, obviously.

The auction of the 1934 OSU-Michigan program ends November 19 and the auction of the gold pants closes November 20th.

Related:
* Follow eBayWatch on Twitter  A new tool.  I’ll blast about quick links to notable auctions.
* Harry Kipke and the Fall of 1934
* The Willis Ward Protests

I’ve that had a little more access to the football team this season.  I’ve made it to my share of press conferences, a few practices (before we were booted) and even on the field & press box for a couple games.   It’s a nice privilege, but while the performance on the field the past several weeks has been beyond tough, watching all this crap go down behind the scenes all season has been brutal.   Blabbering about it on these pages isn’t really a ball either as I’d rather blabber about old ticket stubs and the like.

Nonetheless, a couple thoughts about the Detroit News report that football failed to keep the practice logs that would (help) demonstrate the team’s compliance with NCAA practice regulations:

-> Since U-M’s audit and findings came out well ahead of the Free Press practicegate story, is it safe to assume that a Deepthroat inside either leaked the report or more likely, nudged Rosenberg and crew to dig around on this topic?  Viva la conspiracy!

-> Next, I’m not sure who I’m mad at here.  It bugs me that this was allowed to go on as long as it did.  "All other varsity sports submitted their CARA forms timely,” according to the July 24 letter sent to Rodriguez.  The football program probably has the most complicated record keeping in this regard, right?  Football is the biggest asset in the athletic department and arguably at the school itself, with the most to lose in an investigation, right?

So we hire a new coach and coaching staff to the run program and what, Judy Van Horn and the compliance team didn’t meet with the new staff to review expectations as far as record keeping?   Doubt that.  This recording keeping doesn’t seem to be a lightly regarded task for the coaching staffs.  Each team keeps records and according to Dave Shand, the hockey team can show you their sheets going back to the early 80s:

If you go to Red [Berenson] and ask, he’ll show you his sheets going back to 1984: every workout, every day, how many hours, mandatory and supervised, all complying with NCAA regulations.  It was documented and accounted for.

Sure, they are just one tool of monitoring compliance but are clearly critical (“Athletics should emphasize to the football program the importance of submitting CARA forms timely to ensure compliance with NCAA limits on athletically related activities.”)

So assuming this was covered with Rodriguez and crew, why didn’t U-M compliance crack down?  The policy according to the memo:

The Compliance Services Office (CSO) requires these forms to be submitted monthly, although some leniency is allowed for teams of significant size.

At the time of the May 2009 review, the football team didn’t submit a single form the 2008 season or the 2009 winter/spring work-outs.  I don’t think “leniency” is means never.  This doesn’t excuse the coaching staff for ignoring the policy and I don’t mean to suggest that they are children.  But either Rodriguez and crew are complete and total a-holes and told Van Horn and crew to stick it, or someone at U-M was asleep at the whistle.  The football team had plenty to worry about after last season.  Isn’t much of this on the university for not cracking the whip?  After a few months went by formless, shouldn’t have someone reminded RR and crew of the policy and said, “Hey y’all, this ain’t West Virginia.”  Leaders and best, et cetera, et cetera.

-> I guess I’m also a little bothered that no one mentioned this internal investigation until now.  I’m trying to play in my head how this would have sounded in the days after the Freep story broke, but wouldn’t it have been a better tact to mention of this internal audit (warts and all) back then, instead of having it surface, inevitably, later on?  I think this was mismanaged.  Try this on for size:

“We know the rules, we comply with the rules.  Heck, our internal compliance department is probably tougher on us than the NCAA would ever be.  They told us in May that we need to keep tighter reports and we’ve done a better job ever since.  Judy’s tough!”  
                                                     – fake U-M official giving a fake speech in August

-> Tossing this out there, but don’t you wonder if failing to keep records may keep everyone out of hot water?  I guess the worst case, which would trigger a serious violation, is if the NCAA found doctored sheets or logs with forged or coerced signatures from student athletes.  The football staff apparently submitted reports for the spring ‘09 that were very late, and maybe those are suspicious, but a complete lack of documentation from the ‘08 season may require U-M’s internal folks and the NCAA to use the other evidence (interviews of players and coaches?) to determine if any rules were fractured.  Slick.

To this day, the most read post on these pages remains the breakdown of the Conboy-Tropp-Kampfer mauling from January’s Michigan-Michigan State game.

Spartan Andrew Conboy was kicked off the team and left school, opting to take his chances within the Canadiens organization.  It looks like he’s currently playing with the Hamilton Bulldogs.

Corey Tropp was also kicked off the MSU team but earned his way back onto Rick Comley’s squad, and will return to Yost tonight. Wolverine Steve Kampfer is of course still skating for coach Berenson.

Should be an interesting night tonight.  Here’s a look back, first at Red’s comments from January on the weekly coaches’ show at The Arena just after the incident:

 

 Red from January 09: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

And here are those stills that I took from Section 22:

Conboy and Tropp zero in on Kampfer

Conboy gives Kampfer the old clothesline from behind

…and takes Kampfer down.

Tropp cocks his stick, but actually pulls back a bit

Then Tropp gets a look…

…and then takes a swing..

…and connects. Michigan immediately dispatches the team doctor

To Conboy’s credit, he appears to shove Corey Tropp with his right arm…

..and then pushes him away with his left

I sit across from the heart of the Yost student section and it wasn’t hard to make out one particular young mind on Friday night: the dude dressed as a chicken screaming into a megaphone.  

Turns out that crazy chicken was Andy Reid, sports editor of the Daily.  He made an encore appearance Saturday night but things didn’t go as planned:

Saturday night, I got kicked out. Not cool, dude.

Amidst an entire student section doing the same thing [the vulgar C-YA chant], an usher grabbed my elbow and told me it was time to leave, unless I wanted to be led out of the stadium in handcuffs.

I will admit that I stood out from the other Children of Yost. I may or may not have had a megaphone. And I may or may not have been, ahem, dressed up — if you went to the game, you might have seen a six-foot chicken standing against the glass in section 18.

But that’s even more reason to not kick me out. How is the team supposed to focus and be motivated without a yellow, fuzzy chicken standing behind the glass?

Reid suggests other things could be done to curb the nasty chant (which is delivered when opposing players are sent to the penalty box) including a message from Red Berenson.  Well IIRC, Berenson’s already asked the students to kill the chant and they do it anyway.

I think they should stop doing the C-YA because it’s tired and stale, and there are more than a few young kids at games.  I can also tell you, sitting on the other side of the ice, that you can’t make out a single word that is said anyway.  Seriously, I’m thankful Reid published the actual words to the chant so I could learn what they were saying.

The chicken will return from the State game this week and for what it’s worth, I’d take 30 chickens over these guys.

————————

Related: eBay Watch: Billy Sauer’s Mask (2007)

This week’s look at the AP college football poll vote. 

After reviewing each of the voters’ rankings here’s a few things that stuck out:

• Top Slots: For the third straight week, every voter has either Florida, Texas or USC in their top 3.  The exception once again Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News.  He had USC in Week 9 (who then lost the following week), then he put Oregon in USC’s slot at #2 in Week 10 (who of course lost yesterday).  He now has Cincinnati at #2 and put Florida at #4.   Milner gets the hate mail award this week, no doubt getting some from Gator fans.
• Overslept:  Last week ESPN/ABC’s Kirk Herbstreit didn’t get his ballot in due to some logistical issues.  This week Alex Abrams, a writer from Arkansas, failed to get his ballot in.  [Ed 11/08 9PM – I found this tweet from Abrams - “Also, Pollspeak tweeted that by AP Top 25 ballot was missing today. But because of recent change, Robbie Neiswanger has taken over my vote.”  I’ll include Neiswanger next week.]
• Top 10/Region - Here’s the national vote, spliced by the region of the voters (Central is effectively Big 12 country, mostly dudes from Texas):

• Big Ten by Region –Here’s how the Big Ten (and Notre Dame) was rated, by region.  The lone vote for Notre Dame (?) came from Glenn Guilbeau of Louisiana, who Weis and company #23.  Maybe we can convince Glenn to give the Wolverines a look next week?  Folks out West really crushed the Big Ten, slotting the Buckeyes at #13 on average.

• Angelique.  Here’s how The Angel of the Big House put her vote the past three weeks.  Her opinion of the Big Ten teams is pretty interesting as she was obviously impressed with Ohio State’s win, taking them all the way up to #7 which was the highest placement the Bucks had by any of the 59 voters.  Conversely, she dropped the Hawkeyes all the way to #21 after their brutal loss to Northwestern which was the lowest anyone slotted Ferentz’s crew amongst the media.  Sidenote:  I interview Angelique last week about the AP poll process, etc., and I’ll publish that later this week.  Here’s her ballots:

The U-M Media Relations department circulated this after the game.  I’m not publishing it because I have some beef with the calls or think they had a major impact on the game.  I haven’t seen the replay of the lateral yet but assume they made the correct call, and it looked like Michigan got a huge break on the fumbled punt that was negated by the bad interference call.  I’m not sure who’s asking the questions–

Following are the quotes from Todd Geerlings, the Referee from today’s Michigan-Purdue Game.

What was the interpretation on the fourth down review with the forward lateral? What was it that the replay official saw?

TODD GEERLINGS: “The replay official saw that the ball, when it left his hand to the point where it touched the receiver’s hand, was clearly forward from the 13 to the 12 yard line. That’s why we had an illegal forward pass from the spot of that pass.”

Who called for the review?

GEERLINGS: “The booth called for the review and I announced that on the field prior to. The coaches on the field were trying to but Purdue did not have a challenge left so they couldn’t have. They were trying to but just as I got the buzz on the pager, I just turned to Purdue and said ‘We got it’ but I think people thought they had challenged it. They were trying to, but they did not.”

If they had been able to challenge it…

GEERLINGS: “They could not have challenged it. They had a challenge earlier in the game, which they used, and they did not have a challenge remaining, so they could not have challenged it.”

If they had the challenge, once they had challenged it, everything would be open for review, correct? Or would have it changed what would have been reviewed?

GEERLINGS: “It would have not changed anything if they challenged it or the booth buzzed it. We looked at the same things and what we found was that the ball was clearly forward from the time it left the passer’s hand to touching the hand of the receiver.”

What did you see on the play?

GEERLINGS: “My role is rolling with the quarterback. I was behind by maybe five or six yards. I knew it was very close but I could not tell if it was forward or backward because I was five yards upfield from that. The head linesman was right there and said ‘Hey, it’s very, very close.’ But he was coming up to get progress and was slightly behind and didn’t have a perfect look at it. He did not have enough information on the field to rule it forward.”

With the punt return muff call earlier (by Hemingway)…

GEERLINGS: “It’s a judgment call, deemed to have interfered with.”

Related:  Rodriguez postgame in press conference, including the Danny Hope confrontation.

According to my deep cover, bunkered moles at the athletic department, this sweet item has been relisted on the auction to support the Pat Maloy Scholarship.  A frame and signed ‘M’ flag containing the signatures of an amazing array of Michigan football greats.  From the auction description:

You will never find a greater piece of Michigan football memorabilia anywhere. This is a two foot tall by three foot wide Michigan flag autographed by 46 of the greatest players to ever don the Maize & Blue in Michigan Stadium. The flag is professionally matted and framed with UV protectant plexiglass. The flag is autographed by all of the following former Michigan stars:
Charles Woodson. Jake Long, Ron Kramer, Anthony Carter, Jim Harbaugh,  Anthony "A-Train" Thomas, Larry Foote, Victor Hobson, Elvis Grbac, Will Johnson, Morgan Trent, Tim Jamison, Aaron Shea, Rick Leach, Don Dufek Sr., Don Dufek Jr., Ali Haji Shiekh, Bill Dufek, Harlan Huckleby, Stan Edwards, Steve Morrison, Adam Kraus, Derek Walker, Chris Floyd, Clint Copenhaver, Ron Simpkins, Glen Steele, Mark Messner, Jamie Morris, Bob Chappius, Greg McMurtry, John Wangler, Marcus Ray. Billy Taylor, Reggie McKenzie, Buster Stanley, Jim Brandstatter, Scott Dreisbach, Mark Campbell, Rondell Biggs, Carl Diggs, James Hall, Doug Skene, Ron Bellamy, Andre Weathers and Eric Mayes. Bid high and often and good luck.

Item is hanging in Moe Sport Shops on until the end of the auction if you wish to see it in person.

Bid on it here!

Related:
* A nice complement, how about your very own Michigan Football lockers, pulled out of Schembechler Hall to make way for the renovation?