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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Brian Williams Teases You
Apparently, NBC News anchor Brian Williams took aim at this town and your Wolverines during his commencement address to graduating Buckeyes last week. One Ann Arborite wasn’t happy about it and his letter was published in the Sunday News: Memo to Karl: While your passionate defense of our team and city is admirable, I think you need to lighten up on Williams. Switch things around and you’d be laughing away at the Buckeye jokes. You can view a video of the address here, the speech is lackluster as were the jokes aimed at Michigan. Williams said the Ann Arbor jabs were supplied by Tom Brokaw and another friend in the business. I wouldn’t have taken credit for the jokes either. So he gets a pass on that one. If you want to take shots at Williams I’d start with:* His comments about bloggers whom he feels are “on an equal footing with someone in a bathroom with a modem.” Is that bad? Maybe Cook and company will add Williams to their no-holds-barred quiz bowl challenge.* His George Hamiltonesque penchant for tanning, including the bizarre white raccoon-like goggle lines around his peepers: * His profession. Does anyone watch network news anymore?:
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eBay Watch: The 1954 Bust
There’s a bevy of legendary former coaches and players descending on Ann Arbor for the 2008 Griese/Hutchinson Champions for Children’s Hearts Celebrity Golf Tournament (Sunday) as well as the Swing to Cure Diabetes (Monday) both at the M Course. This provides a nice opportunity to take a look at another item in the eBay Watch series, this time a signed program from the 1954 post-season football Bust autographed by the team and many of the greatest names in Michigan football history. Check it out: Coach Bennie Oosterbaan’s ’54 Wolverines finished just 6-3, certainly nothing too special but there were some notable wins. Anchored by All Big Ten quarterback Ron Kramer and All American tackle Art Walker, Michigan upset #4 Iowa and #8 Minnesota at home but fell 21-7 in the season finale to Woody Hayes and his #1 Buckeyes. The AP slotted the Wolverines at #15 in the final poll and Dr. StrangeHayes and the Bucks ended up sharing the national title after downing Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl. The 1954 season holds a special place in Buckeye lore. Obviously the national championship cements this distinction but this is in essence the year Woody Hayes deflected his critics and became a legend. I could go on about the ’54 version of ‘The Game’ but since my team lost, I…
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Harry Kipke and the Fall of 1934
In April 2008, an eBay auction popped up featuring a 1934 Michigan student ticket book. It actually had tear-away coupons for each event inside, most of which remained unused that season. According to the conditions written jacket, the tickets were to be used for athletic events in general but for football “reserved seating” in particular. As a U-M student in the early nineties, I recall we were required to use the coupon books and I thought this was primarily a means to stem the sale of individual games. Apparently, this wasn’t just a recent phenomenon as there was definitely an attempt by the University to crack down on anyone using these tickets beyond the rightful owner. The student was required to sign off on a set of conditions and the fine print within the ticket jacket included a strong warning: “If presented for admission by any person other than the owner the book will be forfeited, taken up at the time of improper presentation and full admission collected.” The owner of these student tickets certainly realized that there would be some challenges on the field in the upcoming season. Kipke lost three All-Americans (Charles Bernard, Francis Wistert, and Ted Petoskey) and a host of other key players. Sound familiar? The 1934 season is probably most recognizable for the presence of…
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Coach Rod Responds to Tressel (audio)
Coach Rodriguez responded (again) to the accusations that he violated the unspoken gentleman’s agreement between Big Ten coaches. Jim Tressel fanned the smoldering coals the bit last week by basically saying the Big 10 is composed of 10 gentleman and Rodriguez. From the Free Press today, Coach Rich Rodriguez appeared on Doug Karsch’s ‘Michigan Sports Weekly’ 97.1FM/1270AM yesterday: “Huh … well, maybe I’m not a gentleman,” Rodriguez said. “I never heard of that (gentlemen’s agreement). In that regard, I would be guilty as charged. I know as soon as I took the job, there was a commitment to the University of Michigan who changed his commit and went to another Big Ten school. I didn’t blame the coach for doing that. Until the guy signs, he’s out there, particularly if he visits. “If the young man is committed to your school, yet he’s still visiting other schools, he’s not truly committed; he’s just very, very interested. You have to understand the difference in that. I’ve been doing this a long time, (and) I never heard of such a thing. I don’t get caught up in all the he said, she said. One thing I’ve had to learn to develop, thick skin over the years as head coach. I’m proud of the way we recruit. We certainly aren’t going to break…
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1933 and the Dickinson Formula
Michigan’s 1932 and 1933 national titles were determined by the most widely recognized method at the time: the Dickinson System. Illinois economics professor Frank Dickinson developed a formula used to rank college teams based upon the quality of their results factoring for the strength of their opponent. The formula was pretty simple. Each game outcome (win, loss or tie) earned a score based on the quality of the opponent. The total of points for a season was then divided by the number of games to arrive at a common rating metric. Dickinson added a factor to adjust for games that involved teams from different parts of the country, which contained a heavy “Middlewest” bias: “differential points” would be factored in for an “intersectional game”, with ratings of 0.00 for East schools, higher points for “Middlewest” (+4.77) and Southwest (+1.36), negatives for the South (-2.59), the Big Six (2.60) and the Pacific Coast (-2.71). The strength of your opponent was a huge factor in the Dickinson system. A loss against a ‘first division’ team earned you 15 points, while a win against a ‘second division’ team earned you just 20. Michigan actually earned more points for tying Minnesota than did Princeton for pummeling Amherst 45-0. I mention the Tigers as they were the only unbeaten, untied team but only received sparse…
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Tressel Rips Rodriguez
Per a blog posted on cleveland.com, the online home for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and a sister site to MLive. Coach Jim Tressel was taking a few questions during an Alzheimer’s benefit, check out the exchange: “Is there a gentleman’s agreement between Big Ten coaches that once a player verbally commits to a school, the other coaches are supposedly hands off?” This was Tressel’s answer, after about a one-second pause. “I guess only between the gentlemen.” This of course was in response to the stink raised by Joe Tiller after losing a ‘committed’ recruit in the 11th hour to Michigan. The author suggests that if there are “Michigan fans who wish to interpret the following as “Tressel rips Rodriguez,” well, I can’t stop you.” No, you can’t stop the truth man and that was a rip. So what are we to do with this? Instead of breaking this down into small little pieces I’ll simply draw upon the classic movie Caddyshack and share this exchange from inside the halls of Bushwood CC, as Rodney Dangerfield tries to steal a dance with the wife of his adversary: Al Czervik: You’re a lot of woman, you know? You wanna make 14 dollars the hard way? Judge Smails: You! You! You’re no gentleman! Al Czervik: I’m no doorknob either, alright?
