• Brian McDonald of Rivalry Trophy | MVictors History Show

    Recorded at Fraser's Pub in Ann Arbor, an interview with Brian McDonald, a co-founder and co-owner of Rivalry Trophy - the maker of Big Ten replica trophies. In Part I we discussed the origins of the company, his research on the Paul Bunyan Trophy, how they solved the licensing question. In Part II we get into more of their trophies, and discuss the nature of B1G fandom in general:

  • Brett Grill: The Artist the Bo Schembechler Statue

    A few quick hitters on the Bo Schembechler statue.  I spoke to the artist, Brett Grill, a few hours before the unveiling tonight – a few nuggets: Grill was identified by a art consultant that the athletic dept hired, and selected after a review of 3-4 other candidates. The only guidelines for the design were that Bo would be wearing an ‘M’ hat and no headset (on his head that is). He created 20-30 models, with different ideas on the pose, etc.  He eventually created a scale model of the design selected. He interviewed family, friends and former players (including Jim Brandstatter & Fritz Seyferth) to understand as much about Bo as he could. His parents are Michigan alums – before the project his knowledge of Bo centered around watching him on TV as a child.  Before the project Bo was more of a caricature (the guy Grill recalled yelling on the sidelines). Statue is 7 1/2 feet tall, made of bronze. He used actual Bo era artifacts for the project – including the headset and the Rose Bowl watch. One challenge was getting the contours of the jacket correct—he actually used a vintage jacket found on eBay to help get it right. Grill is an associate professor at the University of Missouri. Follow MVictors on Twitter

  • One Upping the Jug Brotherhood

    The Brotherhood of Jugsmen—those who have built replicas of the coveted Little Brown Jug— is becoming long and distinguished.  By my count we’re at 7.  And as an aside I know someone else sent me some photos last year but I lost track. If you feel worthy of membership by all means, send me your story and some photos.  I know there are a few Minnesota fans out that that are rocking replicas in their boat houses—let’s see ‘em.  Here’s the current list: Eric Mierzwiak – 2009 post, Not Available in Stores Mark Foster – 2010 post, His Own Little Brown Jug (v2) Dennis Dail – 2011 post, Jug Club +1 Brian Snider – 2011 post The Jug Brotherhood +++ Daniel and his wedding crew – 2011 post, The Eleven Jugsmen T.C. Thorton – 2012 post Joining the Brotherhood of Jugsmen Jil Gordon – Editor’s discretion. She paints the jug fergodsakes. One of the earliest members of Local 1903 is Mark Foster and over the years he’s gradually stepped up his game.   Since creating a replica in 2010, Foster built a custom case for the jug and went onto to create subsequent replica jugs.   That brings us to reason for this post: Over the past year he decided to take this passion to the next level—building a replica of the…