For Saturday’s epic battle against the Spartans, we start briefly with a game in 1917 when the Spartans were the Aggies of M.A.C. We then fast forward to nearly a decade later to 2012 when four field goals got the job done, and on that day we honored Willis Ward – the African American star who was forced to sit out the 1934 Georgia Tech game.
This week we get into that incident and his friendship with ’34 MVP Jerry Ford. Audio:
Listen to the KeyBank Countdown to Kickoff live from Soaring Eagle Casino tomorrow starting at 8am, or on WTKA 1050AM or wtka.com.
script:
Good morning ! October 20th holds a special place in Wolverine lore, and includes two wins over our our rivals from East Lansing.
Back in 1917, after a decade long absence, Michigan REJOINED the Big Ten conference and traveled to East Lansing to face The AGGIES of Michigan Agricultural College. Our green friends from wouldn’t become known as The Spartans until around 1925 thanks to a campaign by the Lansing State Journal to come up with a better nickname.
On this day in 1917 Big Brother continued its dominance in the 27 to nothing victory.
We met State again in 2012. Four field goals, including one in the waning moments of the game was the difference in the 12-10 win. The Wolverines took Paul Bunyan out of the locker room back to Schembechler Hall – because Paul is a LOCKER ROOM trophy.
There were two historical footnotes to this game:
- First, this was also the NINE HUNDRETH win in program history, the first team to reach this number. So Go Blue
- Second, the university used this day to honor former track star and back Willis Ward.
Ward was honored due to an incident that culminated on this day in 1934. He was an African-American player on Harry Kipke’s squad that was scheduled to face Georgia Tech. Well before the game the southern school – with bigoted southern values – made it clear that they would not take the field if Ward suited up.
Word got out on campus and protests erupted. Many felt the game should be canceled if Ward was indeed benched.
In the end, the Michigan ended up sitting Ward and Tech agreed to bench one of their players.
But among the men who stood up for Ward was his friend and roadgame roommate, center and 1934 team MVP Gerald Ford. The would-be president threatened to not play in the game himself if Ward was benched. Ford ended up playing, and delivered a few extra shots on the Tech players for his friend.
Michigan won the game and Ford and Ward remained friends later in life, all the way up to President Ford’s days in the White House four decades later! #GOBLUE
