This week on the uber-premium Mastro auctions site some incredible items surfaced including another jersey from one of Harry Kipke's great Depression Era teams. This time it's a 1931 uniform purported to have belonged to end Norm Daniels. Check it out,
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Doc’s not just the Nickname (1920)
Celtics coach Doc Rivers had a great line this past season- when asked to comment on the health of one of his players he shot back, “You know Doc’s a nickname, correct?” Laughter ensued and Boston went on to win the NBA championship. Doc of course is a popular nickname amongst athletes for whatever reason, and just like Rivers, typically these guys don’t hold a doctorate or a professional medical license. The next installment of eBay Watch takes a look at a Michigan Man who was far from typical. Up for bid is a 1920ish baseball card featuring John Leonard ‘Doc’ Lavan, who attended Michigan from 1908-1911 and went on to have a nice major league career [from nationmaster.com]: Lavan played in 1,163 major league games, of which 1,126 were at the shortstop position. In 11 seasons, Lavan had a lifetime batting average of .245 with 954 hits, 377 RBIs, 338 runs scored, and 186 extra base hits. He had his best season as a batter in 1920 when he hit .289 with 32 extra base hits and 63 RBIs. You can see his career statistics here. Here’s the full auction, as of writing this post the card was still trying to fetch an opening bid. As for the nickname Doc, you guessed it, Lavan was an actual doctor. His…
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Bo’s Helmet Stickers
Despite being nearly a decade and a half since the winged helmet was adorned with these appendages, the topic of the helmet stickers, decals, or “achievement awards” still comes up on occasion. Despite some claims that Woody Hayes started the tradition in Columbus, this is not so. Bo Schembechler actually launched this tradition in the mid-1960s at Miami of Ohio. He used little hatchets. He continued the tradition at Michigan when he joined the Wolverines. Here’s a look at Don Moorhead‘s “Riddell TK-2 impregnated sunflower gold-colored shell” helmet compliments of umichfootball.com: Nice pass Don, here’s another lemon for you Moeller continued the tradition but Lloyd nixed it. Why did they stop? No, I don’t think it was “Just to keep a clean look” as asked by mgoblog user Casa Grande. It’s also not true that Carr thought the decals were “lame” as I’ve seen on a message board or two. More likely is that Carr dropped the stickers to take the emphasis off of individual achievement and onto the team concept. Related: No, I’m not going into an investigation on who originally owned this helmet. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Garland Rivers. Also Related: Looks like the Buckeye Blog ‘Eleven Warriors‘ has pimped my eBay Watch idea. It’ll be a regular feature on the site. He did give proper credit…
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Making the Buckeyes Sick in 1907
Check out this century-old postcard depicting the faces of each member of Fielding Yost's 1907 Michigan football squad. The original owner scribbled this note on the front, "10/25/07 These are the boys who will make O.S.U. look sick on Saturday."
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Tom Harmon Goes for Schlitz Gusto
I love this ad from LIFE Magazine in the days leading up to the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics featuring Michigan Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon. Old 98 is featured as an NBC broadcaster who likes his Schlitz beer with a little extra gusto.
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eBay Watch: Righteous Docs
I mentioned last time that the memorabilia auction action has picked up a bit. There’s been so many one-of-a-kind items lately that I feel an obligation to get them out there. Here you go, apologies for the dump: 1. Bo and Woody’s Notes. An incredible item. The seller claims the following: In 1969, the University of Wisconsin requested that all Big 10 coaches send to them a sampling of plays and words of wisdom that they kept in the athletic department for 35 years. They auctioned off all of it a few years ago and I was given chance to pick up 2 of the items.. Here’s a look at what Bo submitted: his eleven thoughts on “Basic Offensive Thinking”: Woody Hayes diagrammed a few plays which are also included in the auction. Again, from the description: The Ohio State University coach Woody Hayes diagram of 4 plays a Trap, 14 pass, 14 sweep and 98 Jet Pass(all hand diagramed by Woody). He also has notes on here like “”QB Look deep as you come out” Funny thing is that he chose 2 passes which was 2 more than he would be willing to run. Here’s a link to the auction. It was bid up to just under $1,000 but did not meet the seller’s reserve. 2. Game Contract between…
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Woody Hayes’s message to you Poindexters
I’m mostly interested in Michigan-related memorabilia but of late there have been a few Buckeye beauties. Check this out. Up for bid on eBay is a collection of old letters from the great Woody Hayes. Here’s my favorite: It’s a missive crafted by Dr. Strangehayes himself with a recipe for success in this tough world: I LOVE THIS! With all respect for the late Buckeye legend and Bo’s mentor, old Woody was a true beauty. For students at Ohio State Woody’s advice might be spot on: don’t rest on the laurels of a degree from Columbus. If you love this as much as I do, here’s a pdf copy that’ll print nicely.
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Michigan Football Vault – Book Style
Last year I started putting a bunch of old images of cool Michigan memorabilia in what I called the ‘Memorabilia Vault’. Author Jerry Green was tapped to pull together the book version and they’ve done a real nice job with ‘University of Michigan Football Vault‘, available at Amazon. The detailed scrapbook narrative contains never before published photographs, artwork and memorabilia drawn from UM’s extensive campus archives. Tucked into dozens of sleeves and pockets, fans will find reproductions of old game programs, historic tickets, and numerous postcards and photos. These fascinating replicas include the building permit for Michigan Stadium, a letter from high school recruit Gerald Ford to Harry Kipke, and a souvenir program and scorecard from an 1894 game against Cornell. You can actually pull these replicas out of the book and hold them. It’s very cool. As described, they actually reproduced some well known (ticket stubs, programs) memorabilia, and some not so well known stuff like this budget for the trip to the 1947 Rose Bowl, click to enlarge: It’s very cool – highly recommended. The replica memorabilia is worth the price alone, and the photos in the book are outstanding. All in all, very well done.
