Update:  With all the fans now in the house, Madej is saying “close to 50,000”.   I’d saying 40,000-ish, maybe more. Per media relations director Bruce Madej, the first person in line this morning for the locker room tour was in line at 3:30am.   Madej is says he thinks this is largest crowd he’s ever seen, going back to 1978 and is convinced that this is bigger than the crowd in 1998. He’s not clear where the 40,000 number came from, which has been tossed around as the number of fans in ’98, but he’s convinced there’s more here today.

This year’s Meyer Morton Award, which has been given out since 1925, went to Stevie Brown.   It signifies the player that has shown the most progress in Spring drills. Past winners include Jamie Morris, Stan & Braylon Edwards, Desmond Howard, Jim Harbaugh, and in 1932, future president Gerald Ford.  The PA announcer advised is designated for Michigan seniors, but traditionally this was not the case.  Take Ford for instance, he was a senior and MVP in 1934 yet received the award two seasons prior. I wrote about this last year after the Saline spring game [see ‘On the Meyer Morton’: This is the oldest individual award given by the football program and its winners include the late Gerald Ford. I actually found this pic of Ford with the award (1932) when researching a post after his death: You may have picked up this mention on the great mgoblog within Brian’s spring practice post today: Will Johnson won kind of a weird award for a fifth-year senior and returning starter to pick up. Brian’s right. It’s a little weird for a 5th year senior to be getting this award. I’m still digging for the reference, but I’m 90% sure I read somewhere that this honored was originally reserved for underclassman. Take Ford for instance. The late president won the honor in…

Well, they made it fun.  No pies in faces or anything like that but I think fans really enjoyed the Alumni game that just concluded.  The ‘Blue’, a 1 point favorite going in, prevailed by converting a touchdown on the final play of the game: The Game winner! Had the pass fell incomplete, the game would have ended in 26-26 tie (Maize would have scored two points for stopping the Blue on downs).  Larry Foote was all over the field, making a nice interception.  Ricky Leach got in for a couple plays, throwing a pick.  Coach Jerry Hanlon yanked him immediately.  More photos: Beckmann with Leach Ron Bellamy, overachieving Impressive crowd, 20,000? Touchdown Larry Foote with Beckmann Ugly at times Rich Rod leading the Victors Ref James Hall Devin Gardner

The opening line on the Michigan Alumni flag football game was “Leach’s team” –2.5.  No offense to Rick, but the M legend outside the tunnel.  He looks great, but when he bent over to hoist an 7 year-old kid up for a photo, he let out a giant grunt.   That’s got to mean something, like a horse crapping in the paddock.  In all seriousness, Leach signed a bunch of autographs and chatted it up with fans who were clearly stoked to see the legend: Guest poster Lew speculated on what the alumni players would wear.  Looks like they are donning tees with Fab 5-esque white baggy adidas shorts.

Early bird gets the worm.  A few photos from the tour of the Michigan football locker room in progress, ending at 10am.  It’s a beautiful day and I’m guessing you are going to see a pretty good crowd today.   At around 8:15 the line for the tour wraps out of the stadium gate, east around Crisler up to Stadium and back up half way to Main Street.  The guys inside managing the crowd are barking at folks to keep moving, and they should.  Enjoy a few photos (click to enlarge), especially those of you with good intentions but just couldn’t get out of the sack.   

I’ll be out there all day, hopefully I’ll have some photos and takes uploaded as it happens, certainly from the morning activities. The official schedule of happenings from mgoblue.com: SATURDAY, APRIL 11 • Locker Room Tours, 8-10 a.m.  [UPDATE 4/11: Photos from the tour] • Michigan Stadium Gates Open, 9:30 a.m. • Alumni Football Game, 10 a.m. [UPDATE 4/11:  Alumni Game Photos] Live Video | Team Rosters • Michigan Takes the Field, Noon [UPDATE 4/11:  Rolling Updates]

You love these lists, you hate these lists, but since this one mentions Fielding H. Yost it landed safely in my feed reader.  ESPN’s Page 2’s writer David Schoenfield assessed the “the greatest perfect seasons across all sports”, and here’s where Yost’s quintessential Point-a-Minute team of 1901 was slotted: 28. 1901 Michigan football (11-0) Under the legendary Fielding Yost, Michigan outscored its opponents 555-0, including a 49-0 thrashing of Stanford in the first Rose Bowl, to win the mythical national championship. (Back then, sportswriters referred to it as the “voluminous altercation over the determination of the unequaled college football champion in all the country.” Harvard went 12-0 that year and argued it was the national champion. See, college football hasn’t changed in 107 years; in fact, if Michigan and Harvard played today, we wouldn’t know who would win. Be prepared for defeat, Michigan, be prepared. No, I’m not going to react other than to say I’m happy they at least recognized something that happened before 1981.  Speaking of lists, I’m going to leave this silly list ranking Big Ten coaches alone where it belongs.

Perhaps you’ve already viewed the video of quarterback David Cone’s rap, with former Michigan receiver Toney Clemons producing, on mgoblog here.  Here’s  a tightened-down, .mp3 version compliments of DC, Mr. Dave and D Cone for your ringtones, iPods, and parking lot mixtapes: [display_podcast]