• Talking Team One, Game One (WTKA audio)

    As always it was pleasure to check into the WTKA 1050AM studio this morning to chat with Ira and Sam.  Today we discussed a little bit about the birthday of “Team 1”, the squad defeated Racine College 1-0 at White Stockings Park in Chicago on this day back in 1879. [display_podcast] And a bit of news out of this morning:  Yes indeed I will return in 2013 for my 4th year doing ‘This Week in Michigan Football History’ aka #TWIMFbH as part of the WTKA football pregame show…and I can’t wait.   Why Fraser’s Pub isn’t sponsoring this I’m uncertain. You can listen to all of the WTKA podcasts here. Follow MVictors on Twitter

  • Team One, Game One

    [Ed.  In honor of the anniversary of Team One Game One – a repost from last year.] Happy May 30th, the day Michigan football was born.   The month of May you say?  Indeed. Team 1 took the field on this day 133 ago against Racine in game played at White Stockings Park in Chicago. Fittingly May 30, 1879 is also marks the birth of, depending on your perspective, Wolverine fans getting SCREWED BY or whining about the officials.   From a recap of the game as published in the Michigan Chronicle the following day: Despite the blind referee, by all accepted accounts Michigan prevailed 1-0 over Racine.   To this day sources differ, however, on who scored the first touchdown and how it was scored.  The feat is commonly attributed to Irving K. Pond and that will probably never change.  In his autobiography Pond describes his heroic dash to the end zone and you’ve gotta love it: My touchdown was made towards the end of the first half and involved a long distance run to where the ball must be grounded directly behind and between the goal posts … To Avoid being tackled I was forced to mount the bleachers and run eastward along them until I was opposite the goal when I stopped suddenly and — fearing that a touchdown…