On August 22,1946, Michigan lost its Grand Old Man—Fielding H. Yost. Here is a wire photo from Yost’s funeral procession. The photo depicts the casket and his pallbearers: J. Fred Lawton, the composer of ‘Varsity’. Legendary player and coach Bennie Oosterbaan. 1922 team captain Paul Goebel. 1925 team captain Robert Brown. Legendary M Swim coach Matt Mann Andrew Baker, Yost’s secretary For as many times as you’ve speculated that Yost was rolling over in his grave, now you’ve got an idea of what he’s rolling in. Curiously the gent who composed the photo caption spelled Bennie Oosterbaan’s first name correctly (with the “ie”, often butchered as Benny) but laid an egg hammering when it came to his last name (“Oosterbaum”). Bah. The caption of the wire photo reads “GRAND OLD MAN OF MICHIGAN FOOTBALL LAID TO REST”. I can’t summarize Yost’s impact on Michigan athletics in a single post and won’t really try to. While he was not a man without flaws, he leveraged his incredible success on the football field along with his business acumen to lead U-M to build an athletic campus (for men, for women, and in spirit, for the people of the State of Michigan) that was years ahead of its time, with iconic structures like Yost Field House, the U-M Golf Course, and of course…
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U-M Antiques Roadshow: A 1837 Michigan Seal?
On campus you can still find official University of Michigan seals dated 1837. But we know that U-M was founded in 1817, so what gives? Here's a high level look at the history of the founding date
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Happy Birthday Old 98
[Ed. Originally posted July 2010- reposting today on Old 98’s birthday] September 28, 1940, is a great day in Michigan football history. On his 21st birthday, to-be Heisman winner Tom Harmon helped the Wolverines roll up Cal on the road at Berkeley 41-0. The season opener also yielded one hilarious moment, when Bear fan Harold Brennan got fed up with Old 98’s exploits and tried to take matters into his own hands. Check out these wire photo reproductions of three of the stills from the famous incident that originally appeared in LIFE magazine: I’d probably hold off on bidding on these and instead enjoy a couple of the tributes to the incident out there on YouTube. First, the special edition YouTube of the battle including photos and quotes from the LIFE magazine feature on the incident:
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Jim Mandich of ‘69 on WTKA (audio)
[Ed 4/27/2011: Originally posted November 19, 2009 – bumping up this interview with Ira and Mandich because you should hear it.] Excellent interview this morning on WTKA 1050AM, as Michigan legend and current Miami, FL radio personality Jim Mandich dialed up Ira Weintraub to discuss Ohio State, 1969, the current team, Bo, Chad Henne and Jake Long on his Dolphins and much more. Gotta love that he’s flying up to the big game on Steve Ross’s luxuriously private jet. Definitely worth a listen: [display_podcast] . You can hear all of the WTKA podcasts here, anytime.
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We’re Getting Pink Saturday
No doubt you’ve seen NFL teams donning various forms of pink gear over the past couple weeks in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month. I confirmed with U-M Media Relations that Michigan will be joining them on Saturday, as coaches will be wearing sideline polos and hats laced with pink along with the breast cancer ribbon logo. (Hat tip to Craig Barker for alerting me to some sightings of pink M gear in town a few weeks back.) As I understand it, the shirts will be white with a pink ‘M’ logo. As far as the hat, my contact at the PR firm representing adidas sent this over and I believe this is it or close. Based on what I heard media relations, the ‘M’ logo on the hats might be pink for the game: Limited quantities of the pink gear will be available a M-Den stores and at the game. More details to come. For those attending Roger Waters’ performance of ‘The Wall’ at the Palace on October 24th, grab this gear so you can represent your Wolverines and blend in nicely with the crowd. I’m sure the Hawkeyes will appreciate Rich Rod and crew embracing the cause. For decades they’ve been pushing for teams visiting Kinnick Stadium to get into the pink:
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Coach Robinson’s Championship Ring (1990)
It looks like another Michigan championship ring up for auction, this time a 1990 Big Ten Championship Ring. Here’s a look: A few notes: Like most of these rings it’s 10K gold. It appears as though the stone is maize colored, the first time I can recalled seeing that. Reads “Big Ten Champions” around the stone. One side reads “Count On Me” which I take to be the team slogan that season, along with the score 35-3 below an alligator. That of course is a nod to the 1991 Gator Bowl when Gary Moeller’s men crushed Mississippi (Wolverine Historian YouTube). That’s the game the entire Michigan offensive line (Dean Dingman, Tom Dohring, Greg Skrepenak, Matt Elliott, Steve Everitt) was named the MVPs of the game. Steve Everitt told the Ole Miss guy across him, “YOU LIKE THAT, HUH??” a record 17 times that day. The other side features the player/coach name, a depiction of the Big House and their position/role on the team. This one belonged to a coach named “Robinson”. There wasn’t a major position coach on the team with that surname but the team photo does reveal a David Robinson, fourth from the right in the seventh row, probably supporting S&C or another group: So…this probably was this man’s ring. Having featured a bunch of rings on this…
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Welcome to Missourah
Before the season most expected Michigan to lose four to six games (me) this year so sitting at 5-1 at this point shouldn’t be shock. But when drilling down at each game, losses vs. UConn or Notre Dame or even at Indiana were stomachable. But if you insisted during preseason that one of those losses would be to MSU you’d get a little cringe from anyone, definitely from me. That hurt. Monday I wrote, "you could argue that the future of Michigan football is in the balance" on Saturday’s game. That was admittedly a tad strong but given the manner of the result, the scales just tilted against the future of Rich Rod in Ann Arbor. There’s plenty of opportunity, starting Saturday, to tip things back. This morning you’ve got a fanbase of M fans, as in Missourah, as in ‘show me’ this team can hang in the Big Ten. Sights and Sounds Check out my pregame photos here. I’ve been trying to post these just as the game starts so if you like this kind of thing, head here early in the first quarter during home games if you want to check them out. Includes former captains Mark Messner, Jim Conley, Denard and more. One of those pregame shots included the Screaming Eagle parachute drop which I think is…
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That’s Just Not Cool Man
