• Jug 401: Did Yost really want the Little Brown Jug returned?

    In this short video, I take a look at the origin story involving Michigan's coach Fielding H. Yost asking for the return of the jug after the 1903 game. I also take a look at the alleged the response from Minnesota that he and Michigan would need "to WIN it back." This story is important to origin story of college football oldest rivalry trophy tradition, but is it really what happened? I examine some of the problems with and much more in this video.

  • The Poison Water Myth

    The next nugget of Jug Lore gets into why U-M bought the jug in the first place. Did Michigan and Fielding H. Yost actually fear that Minnesota might taint or poison the Wolverine water supply? Is that really why they bought the jug – to control the source of Willie Heston’s water? Let’s examine this: If you dig this videos, like/subscribe/share/comment. As always, get all of your Little Brown Jug Lore here…

  • Ending Early

    From the official game release: This is the first Michigan football game to end before all 60 minutes of regulation have been played. Well kind of.  And I’ll clarify in a minute. It’s certainly not the first Michigan football game to end before the planned allotted time.   Most notably two of the most famous games in college football history ended early: The 1902 Rose Bowl (the first bowl game ever played) ended with plenty of time on the clock because Yost, Heston and crew were putting a colossal smack down on Stanford.  From the Bentley: With eight minutes remaining in the game, Stanford captain Ralph Fisher approached the Wolverine bench and offered to concede; Michigan consented. While this game yielded the Little Brown Jug, the great 1903 Minnesota-Michigan battle between the Western powerhouses also ended early.  The common story is that after the Gophers scored a late TD to tie the game, the Minnesota fans stormed the field and the coaches agreed to call the game. (I’ve heard other claims that approaching weather was a factor in the decision, but haven’t seen much evidence to back that up).  The Sunday November 1, 1903 Minneapolis Tribune says the game ended with “but a few seconds left to play.”  The Detroit Free Press from that Sunday said two minutes remained, headline:  Detroit…