Yes, another top flight Michigan-based recruit went with Rich Rod and crew as Austin White committed today.  You don’t go to this site for recruiting updates I’m guessing so check out more on mgoblog or Varsity Blue or your premium site of choice. My preference on premium site?  Why not Sam Webb’s GoBlueWolverine?  Webb was all over this recruitment, in fact it looks like he broke the story.  I know a couple days ago when talking about the “state” of recruiting between MSU and Michigan, the WTKA morning show host encouraged fans to “just wait and see” what White would do, hinting that he kinda felt White was feeling Blue. It continues a string of great leads from Webb.  Sam broke the news that Michigan stopped pursuing Greg Paulus for still unknown reasons.   Webb also was clearly on the inside of Will Campbell’s decision, telling everyone to chill out when Campbell played games with the recruitniks telling the Wolverines were off his list just a day or so before announcing his choice. Then this happened: Maybe Webb and GoBlueWolverine will hook up with MVictors to inject some righteous history into the magazine and website?  We’ll see. Here’s the audio of the interview with White from WTKA 1050AM in studio with his parents this morning (how’s that for being an insider?),…

Prior to the season word got out that the season would be Fielding Yost’s last at the helm of the Wolverines.   Beat writers weren’t convinced, even up to the final game of the season.  Earlier in October, the Chicago Tribune ran a column titled, YOST’S RETIREMENT ALL BUNK, AS USUAL: Apparently, the reports of old Yost calling it quits were a bit of a theme, enough so to go with the snickering headline.  Perhaps headlines like this one in the New York Times all the way back to 1907 explain: Despite the skepticism, Yost really did hang them up at the conclusion of the 1923 schedule.  The players made sure they sent ‘Hurry Up’ out on a high, running the eight-game table while outscoring opponents 150-12.  The Wolverines were recognized as national champions, sharing the honor with Illinois.   After the season Yost threw on a fine suit and posed for the team photo next to captain Harry Kipke, who would go on to coach the great Michigan teams of the early 1930s: After watching Illinois’ Red Grange legendary six-touchdown performance against his Meechigan, Yost decided to return to the sideline for the rematch in 1925.  As described in Bruce Madej’s book Champions of the West, “For 12 months, Yost schemed how to bridle Illinois’ Galloping Ghost. He replaced Michigan’s unsuccessful…

Esteemed writer, professor, radio host and raconteur John U. Bacon joined 1050AM WTKA this morning with Andy Evans and discussed the upcoming football schedule. The conversation started reviewing the schedule, Evans asked Bacs for his take on the most intriguing games of the upcoming season outside of Ohio State.   Bacon’s take: First Notre Dame, not only for what it means for the rest of the schedule for both teams, but also for the impact on the future of the coaches especially coach Weis. After that Michigan State, and Bacon shares his thoughts on the Spartans and the state of the rivalry, and on Rich Rodriguez’s relative silence related to MSU. The audio; football talks at about 2 minutes: [display_podcast] Related: * Read John U. Bacon, me, Brian Cook, Craig Ross and others in Hail to the Victors 2009!

Last week were the ticket renewals; this week a nice note from Chris Summers, signed by the team.   Two key messages were found therein: 1. A Plea to Renew.  Sensitive to the economic conditions, included was encouragement from Summers to re-up this season, who acknowledged the situation out there: “We realize that in this economy many of you may be experiencing some stress financially.” 2. Getting Stronger.  Summers highlighted some activity from this spring: “We have just completed a very demanding voluntary off-season workout program.  I can safely say that all of our returning players have improved their strength…” The note was a nice touch.  Hockey fans are a dedicated bunch, but you’ve got to have a bunch of ticketholders out there facing difficult times and don’t view tickets as a must have.  Toss in the rise of the basketball team and a few fans might choose to take their dollars to Crisler. 

Check out highlights from last season’s Michigan-Minnesota tilt, the 91st time the teams played for the Little Brown Jug. YouTuber “akarpo” put this beauty out there in crisp HD:

That’s right.  Navigate to MVictors.com on your iPhone or iPod Touch and you’ll be presented with the tight iPhone style sheet by default.  (It might work on Blackberry Storm but I carry a Bold like a real man). You can even save it to your desktop with my snappy LB Jug icon.  Content is stripped down to the posts:

Looks like at least a few folks at the athletic department agreed with my analysis on the score of the 1909 game against Syracuse.  Back in March, I discovered (while researching a piece for Brian Cook’s HTTV 2009) that it appeared as though the official score of the October 30, 1909 tilt should have given Michigan forty-four points in the contest.  The Michigan Daily noted that the scorekeeper inadvertently failed to tally one of the Wolverines’ extra points. I just checked the Bentley Library record for the season and it’s been changed with a footnote: As silly as this seems, I love it.  It looks like the great archivist at the Bentley, Greg Kinney, took the research a bit further digging into the “Dope Books” and Michigan Alumnus.  Thanks to Kinney for following up on this.    It means much to yours truly. Here’s the entire original post, reprinted, explaining my take on the matter: I’ve made a couple trips over to the Bentley Library researching a story on the 1909 season. I’ll probably have more on that later. But in between digging through the Michigan Daily archives, letters and contracts from the athletic department, and of course the online records, I uncovered a little oddity concerning the ‘09 season. According to the Bentley web page for the 1909 season, and this link…

Check out this authentic jersey and pants from 1952: The seller claims the jersey belonged to center Wayne Melchiori came to Ann Arbor from Stambaugh, Michigan, a town just east of the Wisconsin border in the Upper Peninsula.  He went on to be a legendary high school football coach in nearby Ironwood and won quite a few honors: He also was Tri-State football coach of the year, Michigan-Wisconsin Conference Coach of the year three times, U.P. Football coach of the year twice, U.P. Athletic Director of the year, State of Michigan Area Athletic Director of the year, and a charter member induction to the Michigan High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame and the U.P. Sports Hall of Fame. The 1952 slate was an up and down one for coach Bennie Oosterbaan and crew, opening with a 27-13 loss to former M assistant Biggie Munn and his #1 ranked Michigan State Spartans.  The team then dropped a game at Stanford before winning five of their final seven games. I actually had a chance to catch up with Melchiori, who lives today up in Ironwood where he became a high school coaching legend. Melchiori told me that longtime equipment manager Henry ‘Hank’ Hatch used to make the jerseys himself.  “He would pick the numbers out and sew them on, right there…