A short edition of eBay Watch, this installment featuring this beautiful American made Chevy 4×4 with a limited edition paint job: Thanks to Matthew for forwarding this link. Right now this chick magnet has no bids with a starting price of $999.99. Here’s the full auction. My only beef? I would have insisted on the winged helmet design at least on the front of this sled, but I’m a romantic. If you hurry, you can test out this beauty at one of the biggest tailgating venues on the planet, the NASCAR race down tomorrow down at Michigan International Speedway just 40 or so miles from Ann Arbor. And speaking of the Sprint Cup series, did you know that current points leader Kyle Busch is a Michigan football fan? I did; I remember the piece they ran on ESPN or somewhere showing his tour of the Big House last year. Busch describes how it started in USA Today this week: Although he is from Las Vegas, young Busch is a big University of Michigan football fan. U of M is about 40 minutes away from MIS in Ann Arbor, Mich. “My brother (Kurt) moved up to Michigan years ago to run in the Craftsman Truck series and he went to a Michigan game,” Kyle recalled. “He bought me a Michigan sweatshirt…
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Band….Take the Field!
A very well done video of the Michigan Marching Band, with more camera angles than you can shake a baton at so dig it:
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M Practice Facility Construction Photos
There’s many changes going on around the athletic campus, with much of the focus for obvious reasons on the Michigan Stadium renovation. MLive.com‘s doing a nice job of publishing frequent updates on the project, here a nice photo from last week: Just down the road another major project is going on that hasn’t got much attention: the new football practice facility. Those in Ann Arbor know of this because you can’t miss it. The frame of the enormous structure, which is built on the site of the old outdoor practice field and the varsity soccer pitch, now dominates the skyline along State Street and it towers over Schembechler Hall. For those out of town I thought you might enjoy of few shots, click to see enlarge: Here’s a few details on the $26.1 million project from mgoblue.com: The new football facility, approximately 104,000 gross square feet to be built on an existing outdoor practice field, is expected to include a full-size football field, lobby, restrooms and storage space. Approximately 3,000 gross square feet of space in Schembechler Hall will be renovated as part of the project. Whoa! That’s a lot of gross square feet (I think). I don’t think the soccer pitch was a big loss. I used to occasionally walk by that thing after football games and always felt…
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Open Call for Stadium Help
The athletic department bought a quarter page ad in today’s Ann Arbor News announcing “Football Stadium Team Members Needed”. They did the same last year if you recall. I’ve heard the stadium has stepped up its demands on ushers, extending the time period they’re asked to be onsite and working (both before and after the games). This may have caused a few folks to bag it in the last couple years thus the need for more help. They also might need a few folks to guide people around the construction. If you are interested in tearing tickets and escorting pickled fans out of the stadium you are asked to gather at the Junge Family Center on Saturday June 7 at 9am. For more info you can dial 734.647.9760. I couldn’t find more info on mgoblue.com, but I did find this interesting poll: Yes, people hitting mgoblue.com tend to lean Maize and Blue. I love that Kentucky got some votes. Why don’t they just ask, ‘Which school has the best helmet in college football?” UPDATE: Found it, more from mgoblue.com.
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Stadium Renovation Schedule at risk?
Two stories related to the Stadium project have made it onto the front page of the Ann Arbor News this week. Today the News reported that some of the concerns over the construction noise were dying down, going as far as to publish a noise readings and on MLive.com, some actual “noise” from the stadium for your iPod: That fine, but I was a bit more concerned in this piece that headlined the Tuesday May 6 Ann Arbor News. The gist is that the University backed off its attempt to close a lane on Main Street to facilitate the renovation project. The thing that caught my eye was a quote midway through the story. The U-M spokeswoman Kelly Cunningham said that the lane closure wouldn’t jeopardize the near-term plan to have the stadium in shape for football this fall, but admitted that the plans to complete the gig by 2010 might be up in the air. Judge for yourself: U-M had planned to have the rest of the work finished in the fall of 2010. Cunningham said U-M is reassessing its construction schedule. “At this point, we’re looking at the construction schedule, exploring options, as to when and how the project can be completed,” she said. University officials had previously characterized the lane closure as crucial to their construction timetable…
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From now on, You’ll be Fritz
Great, great stuff from the bountiful Sports Illustrated Vault. I found this beauty via the excellent Winged Helmet message board posted by uber user BlueCheeseHead. It’s a lengthy piece on Fritz Crisler first published in February 1964 titled “The Man Who Changed Football“. Definitely check it out. It presents the former Michigan coach and AD’s influence on college football rule changes but it also provides a few nice nuggets. Among them: Specifically how he got the nickname Fritz: Coach [Amos Alonzo] Stagg fastened the nickname of ‘Fritz’ on him after he had fumbled three times in a row. Stagg made the sarcastic point that there was a violinist, a great artist, who spelled his name Kreisler. He said he was naming Crisler Fritz because he bore absolutely no resemblance to Fritz Kreisler, the artist. On his strategy to defend “the sleeper”….where the offense hides a player near the sidelines, hoping the defense doesn’t notice: “We would put a bugler up on top of the press box with instructions to watch for that sleeper, and when he spotted one to blast out reveille with all the fervor and wind that was in him. It worked, but we could only use him at home games. There was a limit on the number of men we could take on a trip. One time…
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Stadium area Residents Fed up with site Noise
The lead story in today’s Ann Arbor News [see Battle brews over Big House noise] it looks like the Stadium renovation project is starting to wear on the local residents. Here’s a few key items raised in the piece: – As a university project, the renovation isn’t governed by local laws. Typically construction can take place Monday-Saturday 7am to 9pm. The stadium construction runs seven days a week from 6am to 10pm in order to meet the goal of completion before the 2010 season. – The city administrator is arguing that noise that carries beyond the bounds of the stadium should be governed by city law. – The Ann Arbor City council will take up the matter on April 7th. Takes: – Ann Arbor is a liberal town, people are vocal and I guess I’d like the process to run out a little bit so we don’t find out that a couple residents are the only ones complaining. – Many if not most homeowners live near some type of noise, be it a highway or major road, train tracks, airport, whatever, and most of us have to deal with some form of construction noise from time to time. I can understand folks getting a little concerned about three years straight of construction. All this said, I’m guessing it’ll be tough…
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New Stadium Construction Photos
On MGOBLUE.com now.