Coach Harbaugh recently sent this tweet lauding a few great nicknames in M lore – and as you might guess most of them fall into the Bo era. With some help from Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis and a few of his contacts, a nickname Rosetta Stone of sorts on that tweet:
One of the great M Men who was quick to dish out nicknames was of course the great announcer Bob Ufer. Back in 2012 Sap ran down a healthy list of his nicknames and Ufer-isms that seems apropos:
Below are a few of the more famous nicknames from Bob “THE UFE” Ufer:
* Don Lund (Ufer’s color commentary man) – Lundo
* Jack Lane (Ufer’s stats man) – The Human Computer
* Tom Ufer – Old #3 son
* Bo Schembechler – Bo “George Patton” Schembechler, The General
* Woody Hayes – Dr. Strange Hayes
* Woody Hayes’s Buckeyes – Test Tubes
* Earle Bruce – “Darth Vader” Bruce
* Earle Bruce’s Buckeyes – Scarlet and Gray Stormtroopers
* Dan Devine – Dreary Old Dan Devine
* Michigan State – Jolly Green Giants
* Dennis Franklin – Dennis “The Menace” Franklin
* Ed Shuttlesworth – “Easy” Ed Shuttlesworth
* Mike Lantry – Super Toe
* Gil Chapman – The Jersey Jet
* Gordon Bell – The Whirling Dervish
* Rob Lytle – The Blonde Bullet, The Fremont Flash
* Rick Leach – Ricky “The Peach” Leach, The Flint Phenom, The Guts and Glue of the Maize and Blue
* Russell Davis – Russell “Hustle” Davis
* Harlan Huckleby – Harlan “Huckleberry Finn” Huckleby
* U-M’s 1978 Backfield – Huckleberry Finn deep and Tom Sawyer close
* Thomas Seabron – Old Sea Dog
* Mike Jolly – Butterknife, Bones
* Chris Godfrey – “Manster” (half Man, half Monster)
* Ron Simpkins – Boo Bear
* Curtis Greer – Curtis “Harvey Martin” Greer
* Roosevelt Smith – Roosevelt “Rosey” Smith
* Bryan Virgil – Bryan “Ozzie” Virgil
* Lawrence Reid – Lawrence “LP” Reid
* John Wangler – Johnny “Winging” Wangler
* Mel Owens – The Hulk
* Mike Trgovac – Tiger Vac
* Anthony Carter – Spider, Darter, Sparkplug, the Human Torpedo and of course just, “AC.”
* Robert Thompson – Robert “Bubba Baker” Thompson
* Butch Woolfolk – “My name is Butch, don’t call me Harold, Woolfolk!”
* Steve Smith – Smitty
Ufer-isms
And because you can’t have one without the other, here are a few common but classic phrases frequently uttered by ol’ Ufe:
* Referees – $100 an hour men
* Michigan Stadium – The Hole that Yost dug, Crisler paid for and Canham carpeted
* Michigan’s Tartan Turf – Canham’s Carpet
* Ohio Stadium – The Snakepit
* Ohio Stadium Crowd – 10,000 Michigan fans and 75,000 Truck Drivers
* The Little Brown Jug – The Finest Piece of Football Crockery in America
* Offensive Co-Ordinator Chuck Stobart’s Offense – Stobart’s Stallions
* Jerry Hanlon’s O-Line – Hanlon’s Hustlers
* Gary Moeller’s Offense – Moeller’s Marauders
* Bill McCartney’s Defense – McCartney’s Monsters
* Michigan Football – “Football is a religion and Saturday is the Holy Day of Obligation”
* The CBs of Michigan Football – “Crisler, Benny, Bump and Bo”
* Ali Haji-Shiekh – “the only Iranian I know who wears cowboy boots”
* Out of the endzone kickoffs – “Aluminum Beer Cans – Non-Returnable”
* “Closer than fuzz on a gnat’s eye “
* “Like a bat out of … you know where bats come from”
* “Pickin’ ‘em up and layin’ ‘em down”
* Two things you can always count on Ufer saying: football is a game of emotions, and games are always won or lost up front in the trenches.
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2 Comments
ddmich
Couple more of the Greatest Ufer’isms:
1969 – “It was November 22, 1969, The words were said, the prayers were read and every body cried. But when they closed the coffin, it was someone else inide. They came to bury Michigan, but Michigan wasn’t dead, and when the game was over it was someone else instead. 22 Michigan wolverines put on the gloves of gray, and as Revelli played the Victors, they lay Woody Hayes away”
and
1973- “they have the audacity, the unmitigated gall to tear down the coveted M Club banner that Michigan is going to run out from under. There isn’t a Michigan Man who wouldn’t like to go out and scalp those buckeyes right now”
and
“That whirling dervish Gordie Bell, he could spend 15 minutes in a phone booth, and he wouldn’t even touch the side”
and
“I hope you’re joining in from coast to coast. The coast of Lake Michigan to the coast of Lake Huron”
and
“Yes Sir Ree Sir football fans. Today in the hole that Yost dug, Crisler paid for, Canham carpeted and Bo Schembechler fills every cotton-pickin Fall Saturday afternoon there will be another great big Meeeeechigan Football victory!”
James E.
Wasn’t the Ohio Stadium crowd “10,000 OSU alumni and 75,000 truck drivers”? That’s how I remembered it.