Recently fired WTKA morning host Dave Shand addressed a few questions via email today. I’ll comment later but I wanted to get these out there: MVictors: Did you have any indication at all (prior to last week) that there were a group of folks looking for you to be fired? Shand: No indications anything was wrong. The show was going great. MVictors: Any guess what comments struck the nerve? I heard you go hard at the deans of the U-M schools a week or so ago. And you called out one by name. Do you think this had anything to do with it? Shand: Three things were brought up in the meeting with Ryan Curtis our special promotions director and Brian Cowen, our program director. 1. My ex wife in an associate athletic director at Michigan. Bill Martin thought talking about our divorce on the air was disrespectful. 2. I criticized [named omitted] the Dean of Kinesiology for being incompetent. I taught Sports Law there for 6 years. She never even knew who I was or what I taught. And there are only 12 people teaching. This [was said] was in the context of what makes Michigan great. It’s not the leadership or the deans but the great teachers and students. 3. The last thing was when I made fun…
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Shand Quoted Again
Finally some more from Shand on the firing, since he gave his first statement on the matter to MVictors.com on Saturday. Dave reached out to daveshandfans.com yesterday and provided another quote, and a little more detail. daveshandfans.com also provided some commentary, but here’s Shand’s quote: “Thanks for all your support. It has been a fun ride. Apparently the Michigan athletic department and some older alum and ann arborites did not appreciate my brand of humor and threatened the station. Nothing I could do.” Nice work. We still have a bunch of questions.
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Open Season!
Why’s everybody picking on the Blue? Have you noticed all the Michigan sports bashing in recent weeks? Here are few examples that I’ve seen, some of which I’ve already discussed: – ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd’s rant, ripping Lloyd Carr and the Michigan program in general. In sum, Cowherd trashes Michigan over the past 5 years and in particular, Michigan’s development of players. He points to recent NFL drafts and the lack of big time draftees. – ESPN.com’s Pat Forde, declaring Florida’s starting five as the true “Fab Five“. He starts out saying that the Florida crew is “Better. Cleaner (one would hope). Tighter…And much more accomplished.” (This despite that these guys aren’t freshman or sophomores, or even from the same recruiting class). There are also references to Thad Motta’s recruiting class as the ‘Thad Five’. One thing is for sure, 15 years after these guys took the court their place in college basketball lore is solid, despite the NCAA violations. – Collegefootballnews.com taking big shots at the Michigan football team, going as far as to reach back into time and challenge the 1997 national championship based upon recent bowl performances. – How about Tom Izzo knocking the overall athletic department and its handling of basketball program? – Then add in Jay Bilas telling anyone who would listen that Michigan isn’t…
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The Wolverine Pack and 1926
Given the mood of most Michigan fans right now, it may be refreshing to take a look back at better days. Check out this graphic taken from the October 23, 1926 issue of the San Diego Sun which several members of the 1926 Wolverines.
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Rose Bowl Bollocks
Quick thoughts: – Ugly loss, Morgan Trent was worked over all day and night. – Booty looked very good and the receivers for USC were too much. – – You expect to see a couple drops; I don’t think they had any. – In relation to the pressure on Lloyd Carr, Musburger and Herbstreit must have mentioned “the bloggers” 4 or 5 times during the fourth quarter. Musburger (in-)correctly noted that Bill Martin has a great relationship with Lloyd Carr. That said, Coach Carr isn’t under any kind of pressure from the University, I guarantee you that. And no pressure is coming from this blog. – This hurts quite a bit. Looking back to this time last year, Michigan was coming off one of the worst years in recent history and rebounded to be in the conversation for the BCS title game up until today. A win would have been huge but it doesn’t take away what Michigan accomplished the rest of the season.
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Gerald Ford, Michigan Man
We all learned this morning that President Ford died yesterday at the age of 93. Many know of his ties to the University of Michigan and of course to some of the great Michigan football teams of the 1930s led by Harry Kipke. The above photo was taken from the 1934 team photo, Ford was starting center on that squad.
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NCAA Bans Michigan Hoops from Postseason
Scholarships taken for 4 years; Players banned from U. ANN ARBOR MICHIGAN MAY 15, 2003 A couple quick takes on this mess: 1. Regarding the post-season ban for next year. There are a lot of good arguments on both sides as to whether this is fair or not. My take is that it is not that big of a deal. First of all, who is to say M will even qualify for the tournament? I think the chances are pretty decent, but this is not a Final Four team. I believe that the coaches and players are kind of disappointed, but the experience of playing college hoops is not solely based upon a week or two post-season tournament. There are months of games and travel (Hawaii, Puerto Rico, etc.) and camaraderie involved: the NCAA tournament is more important to the fans and the media than it is to the team. 2. On Whether M should appeal the ban. Why not? The appeal will probably get shot down but the penalty will not get any worse. To prove that the school is solely looking after the interest of the current players, Michigan should offer to give back any funds earned from post season play. 3. On Chris Webber. Bad Karma. The day the sanctions were announced his knee was injured and…
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University of Michigan Raises Season Ticket Prices
Bill Martin hints at “required donation” for 2004 SALINE, MI MARCH 30, 2003 Football season ticket renewals were sent out last week. As expected, ticket prices were raised again, this time between $1-$5, depending on the seat location and on the opponent. The Wolverines AD has continued the policy of charging a higher amount for the better games. In 2003 there are two “premium” games on the schedule: Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Ohio State Buckeyes. It makes you wonder if the other schools feel slighted as not being designated as a premium opponent. Hmm. Athletic director Bill Martin basically guaranteed that Michigan will institute some type of seat license or required donation program in 2004, to make up for having only 6 home games on the schedule. But I have a feeling once this fee is in place, it is here to stay. Speaking of fees….the other change this year is the ability to renew season tickets online. I was pretty happy when I saw this feature, especially given the prospect of avoiding the $6 handling fee that is charged to renewals that are mailed in. My glee was quickly dashed when I went online to see that not only was the $6 fee still there, it was jacked up 50% to $9. In an email, the M ticket…
