The new Schembechler Hall Towsley Family Museum is quite a sight – definitely check it out next time you have the means. A virtual tour from 2019 if you prefer it:
The best stuff (to me) is the memorabilia, the vast majority of it is on loan from the personal collection of Ken Magee. A couple of items of note. Ticket to the 1898 Chicago game that inspired Louis Elbel to compose ‘The Victors’:
They also have a press “ribbon” to The Victors game in the display case.
This made my jaw drop – a custom-engraved badge presented to the U-M team from the epic 1909 Penn game (held in Philadelphia), when the crew of the U.S.S. Michigan came to the game and helped rally Michigan to an epic victory:
Elsewhere – one downside is that despite being a (very) spacious facility, they decided (at least for now) to not include the Little Brown Jug— not even the replica that has been on display in the museum for years. That said, consider forgiven for including this note inside the display dedicated to the LBJ rivalry:
That’s probably not very interesting or significant to most fans, but I was thrilled when I saw it. The myth of Yost asking for the jug’s return really came to light as a part of the Little Brown Jug Lore series on these pages, and specifically in Chapter 8: The (True) Origins of The Little Brown Jug Rivalry.
3 Comments
Teddy
They need to display our bowl trophies by all the bowl game programs. The old Towsley museum had all of them, now all I saw was the AP trophy and the old B1G trophies. I was specifically looking for the Bluebonnet Bowl trophy and did not see it. Does it even exist? I know Nebraska has it on display (along with all their bowl trophies) at their museum (http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=100&ATCLID=204929501 20 second mark).
BTW-There should always be room for the Little Brown Jug!
medals
Typo in the LBJ sign (the first quotation mark in “build a fine tradition” quote . . . .)!
Teddy
I uploaded some photos from my trip to SH
https://www.flickr.com/photos/123947732@N08/
My only criticism is that they did not have Bowl trophies (not even the most recent Sugar Bowl) on display. I know there was lack of space but I would rather have had the LBJ/Trophies than a huge TV with the Michigan Stadium display.
PS-The Bo statue is remarkable, Brett Grill did a great job.