I love this ad from LIFE Magazine in the days leading up to the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics featuring Michigan Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon. Old 98 is featured as an NBC broadcaster who likes his Schlitz beer with a little extra gusto.
-
-
Charles Woodson’s Wine
Found this on mgoblue.com today (there’s also an older piece from the Free Press). During his days in Oakland, Heisman trophy winner Charles Woodson apparently befriended someone at wine maker Robert Mondavi not too long ago and was inspired to deliver his own vintage. He calls it TwentyFour: Do you want to try it? Here’s the details on a tasting coming up: ….the Michigan debut of TwentyFour will take place with a wine tasting on Friday (July 18) at the Chop House in Ann Arbor. The event will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. with tickets available for $75 per person. A portion of the evening’s proceeds will benefit the Mott’s Children’s Hospital and Woodson will donate $10 from each bottle sold to the hospital. I was getting sick of everyone’s definition of a Michigan Renaissance man starting and ending with Dhani Jones and his bowties. This is pretty cool – good for Chuck. What’s not so cool? One of Michigan’s greatest football players of all time feeling ok about this sweater, yikes: Update: A few folks indicate the wine is very good: a little Woody with a Chucky aftertaste. You can see more photos and learn more about Woodson’s wine at Twentyfourwine.com, official site.
-
Tom Harmon says ‘Vote Willie Heston’
Someone dug up some type of campaign pin touting Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon and his club's support for "Heston for Judge".
-
Chuck Woodson: Enter Michigan’s Valhalla
Yes, if you crush Ohio State, win the Heisman and then the national championship you’ve secured your place in Michigan football lore. But to no one’s criticism he left school early to pursue the NFL and that took something away from his standing amongst Michigan’s all-time greats. Now we learn that Woodson decided set up a scholarship for students needing financial assistance. Providing these scholarships puts #2 back up a notch in my book. What’s $150,000 to a guy who’s had a long career in the NFL? A lot. How many other guys have stepped up? To care enough to set this up is a huge move and just like Jalen, he’s showing the traits of a true role model.
-
Ultimate Michigan Football Highlight? You Decide
You like me have likely been suffering through ESPN’s tournament for the greatest sports highlight of all time (which inexplicably contains an entry with no actual footage and may have never actually happened: Babe Ruth’s called shot). I typically hate these things unless there’s some Michigan-related element to it (see Legg’s goal winning the ESPY). To make a bit interesting I rolled my head through the greatest highlights in Michigan football in the past 40 years or so. Several came to mind and I’m certainly missing some of your favorites. My favorite? See the pic that leads this story. I was in the upper deck in Spartan Stadium on the same side of the field and saw the whole thing. My head almost exploded when I realized what I had just watched. Here’s a poll and get your takes and feel free to add your own entry: {democracy} Here’s what I could find on the YouTube. Thankfully I witnessed each of these in person except for the great Wangler to Carter game winner and of course the Harmon ditty:
-
eBay Watch: Terrelle Pryor’s Sweatband just $349.99
Stumbled upon this on SI.com’s Fan Nation, looks like a wristband worn and signed by your hero Terrelle Pryor is being sold on eBay right now for a cool $349.99. (Maybe the seller will use those funds for a new camera). According to the seller, Ohio State is out of the running for TP….it’s down to Oregon and Michigan. Great! The auction reads: Up for bid in this auction is a Game Used Wristband signed by Terrelle Pryor the #1 ranked high school football player and #10 ranked basketball player in the country. Pryor also put “9/14/07” on the wristband whch is the date of the game he used it in. Terrelle plays for the Jeanette Jayhawks in PA. Pryor is going to MICHIGAN or Oregon next year and hopes to play football and basketball. You will get the Game Used Wristband that is pictured. The Game Used Wristband is signed in Blue sharpie. Not exactly Mean Joe Greene’s jersey! Well, who knows? If TP comes to Michigan and wins the Heisman, that wristband would be worth at least $10, don’t you agree? Speaking of Heisman, Michigan youtube Yoda “WolverineHistorian” just put down his latest joint, and nice montage of Woodson and Howard’s Heisman seasons with some excellent footage (I particularly enjoyed the endzone shots):
-
Mark Harmon Faces Michigan, MSU
With the rumors that have Ryan Mallett and quarterbacks coach Scott Loeffler heading to UCLA, it’s a good time to look at the next item in the eBay watch series. Many of you know that Michigan legend Tom Harmon is the father of actor Mark Harmon and that the younger Harmon played quarterback at UCLA. What you may not know is that Mark’s Bruins actually faced his old man’s team in the early seventies and they both returned to Michigan the following year to battle the Spartans. Here are the programs for each game that were recently auctioned on eBay: There were a couple of storylines leading into the Wolverines trip to Los Angeles in 1972. The week prior UCLA started their brutal schedule with a huge win over #1 Nebraska, snapping the Huskers’ 32-game winning streak. It was Harmon’s first game for the Bruins, and a wishbone offense was installed to suit the new quarterback. Mark was named the MVP of the game and finished with 71 rushing yards. A headline in Sports Illustrated that week declared, “YOUNG HARMON MAKES HIS MARK: From Out of Hollywood Comes the Saga of Mark Harmon, Handsome, Articulate, the Son of Old No. 98”. Geez SI, take a cold shower. The other storyline for the game was of course the son playing his legendary…
-
SI’s College Football Best, by Jersey Number
The end of the year always brings all kinds of all-time lists, be it the greatest teams, best players, most worthy Heisman candidates, and so on. SI.com took a little different approach: it has assembled of the greatest college football players of all time by uniform number. Here’s an article explaining the process and some of the challenges. This list excludes a few Michigan legends at the turn of the century like Germany Schultz and Willie Heston as these guys didn’t wear numbers but we’ll just have to accept this and move on. The list provided the name of the top player at each number, a runner-up, and then listed some names deserving honorable mention. Here’s a quick breakdown of where Michigan players landed. Michigan Players assigned as Best to ever wear their number:#1 – Anthony Carter#47 – Bennie Oosterbaan#49 – Bob Chappuis#98 – Tom Harmon Runners up:#2 – Chuck Woodson (Deion Sanders)#6 – Harry Kipke (Robbie Bosco)#21 – Desmond Howard (Barry Sanders)#40 – Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch (Hopalong Cassidy). Note that Hirsch is listed as playing for Wisconsin but he of course played 2 seasons for the Wolverines. Honorable mention:#1 – Derrick Alexander, Braylon Edwards, David Terrell (M pretty much owns the category)#4 – Jimmy Harbaugh#6 – Tyrone Wheatley#7 – Ricky Leach#9 – Dennis Franklin#27 – Benny Friedman#40 –…
