• Tom Harmon vs. Ohio State (Bentley)

    Terrible Tommy Nabs His Heisman | This Week in Michigan Football History

    This Week In Michigan Football History, as played during the WTKA 1050AM 'Countdown to Kickoff' held November 28, 2020 before the Michigan-Penn State game. Michigan has three Heisman Trophy Winners (Tom Harmon, Desmond Howard and Charles Woodson). We consider former Michigan players that probably WOULD have won the Heisman has it been awarded prior to 1935 - including Willie Heston, Bennie Oosterbaan, and Harry Newman. And finally we look at Tom Harmon's brilliant career and in particular the 1940 season, concluding with his dominant performance against Ohio State.

  • The Life and Career of Fielding H. Yost

    A video of my complete guest lecture at U-M course EDUC 212: The History of Intercollegiate Athletics. The topic is the career of Fielding H. Yost. In Part I we cover his early life and coaching career before Michigan, and just into his first season in Ann Arbor. Part II gets into his coaching and AD career, and legacy.

  • Finding Miss Daniels

    An interesting nugget of Michigan football lore. It starts with a story Willie Heston told radio show host Bill Flemming on WUOM's 'Hello Alumni' show in 1951. Heston explains the influence of a California teacher and U-M alumna named "Miss Daniels" on his decision to attend and play football in Ann Arbor for Yost. Check it out:

  • Speedy Willie & 1904

    ICYMI – Late last week mgoblog posted an exclusive excerpt of Stagg vs. Yost, the brilliant new book by John Kryk.   An excerpt of the mgo-excerpt, which focuses on Willie Heston and his exploits in 1904: In Michigan’s third game, a 95-0 obliteration of vastly overmatched Kalamazoo College in just 40 minutes of play, Heston might have rushed for more single-game yards than any running back before or since, at any level of college football. “As usual, Willie Heston’s performance was the headliner of the matinee,” the Michigan Daily reported. “A review of the game shows that the captain advanced the ball during the afternoon 515 yards — considerably more than a quarter mile.” Heston continually broke away on long gains and scored six of Michigan’s 16 touchdowns, four on runs of 65, 70, 85 and 65 yards. How fast was Heston? The fastest man in the world in 1904 just happened to be a fellow UM student — Archie Hahn. At the Summer Games in St. Louis that year, the “Milwaukee Meteor” became the first man to win the Olympic sprint double: gold medals in both the 100 and 200 meters. Back then there was a 60-meter dash too, and Hahn won a third gold in that race. Two years later, Hahn won the Olympic 100 metres again. In…