This site has profiled a few different Michigan championship rings that have ended up on eBay. Long time readers may recall: 1986 Rose Bowl Ring: This prompted a few follow-up posts, the first speculating on the original owner and then another, after a teammate confirmed my sleuthing. 1977 Championship Ring: Not as pretty as the others, but painful to see. 1980 Rose Bowl ring: Probably the wildest story, a ring alleged to a salesman sample bearing the name ‘McCartney’ on the side prompts a note from former Michigan and Colorado coach Bill McCartney’s wife Lyndi, asking that the ring be returned to her husband. Funny, when I was posting about these other rings it crossed my mind that this day could happen but hoped it never would. It did: Ah yes, the 1998 Rose Bowl, what a week, what a game. [Sidenote: I arrived in Los Angeles a couple of days before the game. I saw Morris Day and the Time at the House of Blues on 12/30, then I joined Run DMC at the Viper Room to ring in the New Year. I still have the T-shirt from the show, it was incredible]. As with the 1986 ring, the seller has offered a clue as to the original owner, but not much. From the auction description: “..this is a…
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Coaching Legends in Atlantic City (1957)
This edition of eBay Watch takes a look at a special pint glass. Like I’ve found with many of these memorabilia auctions the description doesn’t quite make sense and certainly doesn’t do the item justice: Up for bid we are listing 9 vintage football glasses all in mint condition. This one is Herbert ” Fritz ” Crisler from the University of Michigan 1957. The top of the glass reads Atlantic City National Football Clinic. The back lists the Clinic staff members. It measures 5-3/4″ tall. Great piece for the collector. Paypal preferred or money order only. Yes, it’s an old pint glass for a football clinic with famous Michigan coach and athletic director Fritz Crisler on it. That got my attention. But on the back of the glass it lists the rest of the staff for the event and it’s remarkable. Here’s a photo of the piece which recently sold on eBay for $15: Check out some of the legends that attended the conference in the city where the sand turns to gold from March 11-14, 1957: The top of the list of coaches is the great Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant, who at the time was still the head man at Texas A&M. 1957 was his final season for the Aggies as his “momma called” him back to Alabama where he…
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Michigan Football’s Worst Season Ever? 1934.
Well, quite a few in the media are pounding the most-losses-in-129-years drum. That’s true of course but Rich Rodriguez’s 2008 debut will not be the worst season in Michigan football history. The percentage of games in the loss column is certainly among the worst but consider that Michigan didn’t consistently play more than eight games for the first 62 years of its existence. If we’re going to toss around the 129 years number, the worst season record-wise belongs to the 1881 team that played and lost three games, scoring just four points to 28 for our opponents (Harvard, Yale and Princeton). But since there wasn’t a coach or a conference or any known photos of the 1881 team, we’ll have to look a little further down the line for a comparable loser. Harry Kipke’s 1934 outfit is probably the definitive low point for Michigan football [see my post ‘The Fall of 1934‘ for more on this season]. The Gerald Ford-led team went 1-7, scored just twenty-one points while being shut out in five of the games. Kipke’s 1936 team also went 1-7 but played just five league games and scored a few more points than Ford and company. What’s remarkable about the 1934 skid was that Kipke’s teams had lost just a single game in the previous four seasons, winning…
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Stubs from Michigan football games
A big-volume seller on the auction site is dumping a bunch of vintage Michigan football ticket stubs. The offering is pretty impressive. What’s not impressive is the seller’s understanding of the significance of some of these items. Witness the (YAWN) description of the ho-hum silly little ticket stub from the insignificant 1969 Michigan-Ohio State game, you might have heard of it: Up for auction is a November 22nd 1969 ticket stub from the college football game that featured Ohio State University vs the University of Michigan. The ticket stub measures 2 1/4″ by 4″ and is in nice overall condition, as pictured. Yep, that’s when the game was played. Fortunately for these fools, the most significant game in the Michigan modern era won’t escape the eye of Michigan memorabilia hawks and it’ll fetch a nifty price, despite the poor marketing. Here’s an image of the stub, probably not in the best condition but nobody stuck their stubs in lanyards back then: 1969 OSU-Michigan Stub Here’s a few more of what’s for sale, you can click the image to view the full auction: 1937 MSU-Michigan Stub, full auction 1929 OSU-Michigan Stub, full auction 1927 Navy-Michigan Stub, full auction 1930 Minnesota-Michigan Stub, full auction
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Scouting the Iowa Hawkeyes (2006)
A couple of weeks ago on eBay, a seller offered up what was described to be a folder belonging to a Michigan coach. The photos were blurry, but the description claimed it belonged to someone on the Wolverine staff and held diagrams, notes, plays, and whatnot related to the game against the Iowa Hawkeyes held October 21, 2006 in Ann Arbor. Michigan won the game 20-6 thanks to a solid defensive effort and a strong game from Henne and Hart. If you read Brian Cook’s Hail to the Victors 2008 before the season, you got a little insight into the Carr coaching staff with the wonderful article titled ‘Rock Star’ by author Craig Ross. Ross wiggled his way into a quarterbacks’ meeting led by former QB coach Scot Loeffler, here’s a snippet: Loeffler: “What are the boys doing to us? Chad Hen-ne. (It eventually becomes clear that “the boys” means “the defense.”)Henne: “They are skying us and we are in chili with a dino.”Loeffler: “Rock Star!!!!” Ross later described his head as all this was happening: My head was spinning. I was trying to write notes as quickly as I could and still pay some attention, trying to learn something from what was going on. I was lost. It was hopeless. It felt a bit, perhaps exactly, like Ross after…
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Woody Hayes says, “Don’t give this to Bo!”
The next edition of eBay Watch once again looks over at Mastro Auctions for another cool item, this time an autographed copy of Woody Hayes’ 1969 tome, ‘Hot Line to Victory‘. It’s just one item in a collection of old programs and other goodies, but this is the standout item to me. Here’s the full auction. There are many autographed copies of Hot Line out there, but this one has a special note inside: If you can’t make it out it reads: To Gene RyanFrom John W. Printer [not sure what that means] Be sure not to pass any of this information on to Bo!Regards,Woody Hayes I wish I knew who Gene Ryan is and whether he truly had some ties to Bo Schembechler, but either way this is pretty cool. Michael Rosenberg talked a bit about Hot Line to Victory in his great book, War As They Knew It. In it he Rosenberg describes Woody’s tome as a “football textbook” and added, “the book was intended for the general public–Hayes wanted to share strategy and tactics with anybody who would listen.” While we don’t know who Gene Ryan is (yet), we do know that Woody’s comments not surprisingly were in jest. Obviously, Bo could have grabbed a copy off the shelf himself, but Woody made it easy. According to…
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Hail the Schedule Bot! (1930)
I've used the phrase 'one-of-a-kind' to describe the items in eBay Watch before but I'm guessing that you're looking at the lone walking wooden Michigan football schedule man in the universe. Just a guess.
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Tom Harmon and Old Number..Six?
aring his famous.....number 6? No, of course, Harmon donned the old 98 during his playing days at Michigan so this makes this photo a bit special.
