The mad dash for dollars coming out the federal government stimulus pledge is well under way. The website stimluswatch.org has collected all of the requests for federal grant money to be considered (being on the list doesn’t mean it was approved). Did you think all of the requests were for bridges and electric cars? Think again. Check out this entry after a quick search on “football”, submitted by Jones, HS in Orlando, Florida: The funds requested? $6,500,000. Now, I’m not saying this isn’t a viable use of federal funds, but I can see a few folks getting a chuckle that the students have to suffer through playing games inside the Citrus “Bowel”, the site of Michigan’s glorious victory over Tim Tebow and the Gators in January 2008.

No, it’s not the name of a Canadian law firm, it’s a little audio from last night’s Red Berenson Show live from The Arena on WTKA. In the final segment of the night Andy Evans and John Bacon toss the microphone over to Coach Red who relived a few old tales with his former idol, opponent, teammate, and roommate: the great Gordie Howe. A few notes: A funny moment, Andy Evans is reading from a prepared notecard promoting Gordie Howe’s appearance before the Ferris State game on 2/28.  The card described Howe as Red Wing great, etc.  Evans stopped mid-sentence, suggesting that anyone listening to a hockey show probably understands who Gordie Howe is.  Well done AE. Red noted that they may coerce Howe to do an honorary puck drop before the Ferris State game – solid! Bacon served up a couple stories (many are retold in Blue Ice) and Red took it from there.   Bacon also reminded Berenson that he cut Gordie’s son Murray.  Red countered this by noting his son didn’t make the Michigan team either. Berenson talked about the first game he saw Howe play in the NHL (at the Olympia) against Rocket Richard and the Canadiens, and discussed some of the events when Howe and the Wings scrimmaged the Wolverines back in the day, and what…

The MVictors guest post on mgoblog last week touched on two key firsts in Michigan football history: the inaugural game held in 1879 against Racine College, and the first touchdown scored in the Big House by Kip Taylor in 1927. While on vacation I started digging into John U. Bacon’s Blue Ice, the story of Michigan hockey. Naturally he discusses the roots of the hockey program including its first game, held January 12, 1923 against Wisconsin: Although Coach [Joseph] Barss had only five days to select and prepare his team before the inaugural content, “the individual play was sensational,” wrote a nameless reporter who, it must be said, knew so little about the game that he called the puck a ball.  “Michigan counted the first point,” he wrote, “when [Eddie] Kahn, by clever work, rushed the ball through the Badger defense for a goal.” So we learned the date of that first varsity game and that Eddie Kahn netted the first goal.  In later pages Blue Ice talks through Kahn’s amazing life as a groundbreaking brain surgeon. Like the first football game, this game went down to the wire: But in the second period Wisconsin evened the score at 1-1.  The Badgers made it stick throughout the third period and the first five-minute overtime.  In the second overtime, the report…

It’s always (well, usually) nice to get a link from another blog or website to a story you post.   I recently posted a slightly more detailed version of eBay Watch as a guest on mgoblog [see eBay Watch: Michigan Football Turns 100].  It received a few links outside the M blogosphere, including a few worth mentioning: mgoblue.com– Yes, the official athletics site enjoyed the post on the centennial and included a link in its thrice weekly M Notebook enewsletter yesterday.  Very cool.  Am I a sell-out now? The Ann Arbor Chronicle—   The breakthrough A2 News site also linked to the story, and included a nice summary. Also, a little different take on the “Chrysler” vs. “Crisler” blunder might make it into next month’s Ann Arbor Observer, so look out for that. Programming Note: Like Brian of mgblog, I am off on vacation for a few days and return next week.  (We’re both in Ibiza at a blogging/techno festival).

Take a look at this illustration from a 1932 newspaper featuring future Michigan head coach Fritz Crisler: Crisler is depicted giving an overhaul to “last year’s model” of a Princeton Tiger, trying to repaint the frightened kitty in the likeness of a ferocious feline.    The disheveled subject was a fitting representation of the 1931 Princeton squad who finished 1-7.   Fritz was brought in to fix the mess and he quickly did just that.   Over the next six seasons, he went 35-9-5, claiming national titles in 1933 and ’35.   The run ended when Fielding Yost lured him away from New Jersey to replace Harry Kipke in Ann Arbor. An early visit to Ann ArborIn the upcoming season, probably weeks after this cartoon was published, Crisler actually visited the town where he’d cement his legacy.   On October 29, 1932, Kipke, Harry Newman, and crew defeated the Tigers 14-7 in front of 26,000 homecoming fans.   Perhaps Crisler liked the digs.   The Victors would go on to take the national championship that season and the next. For those reading closely, you noticed that Princeton also claims the national title in 1933.  The most widely accepted method of determining the champ was the Dickinson Formula [more on this here].  Michigan earned the most points in ’33 and was awarded the Knute Rockne Trophy.  Despite…