Creating A Buzz (1917)

Digging through the Michigan Daily archives yielded an interesting find, and certainly news to me. According to multiple accounts in the U-M student fishwrap, your Wolverines issued a special midseason uniform change for the October 20, 1917 game against Michigan Agricultural College (M.A.C, of course later MSU):

New, yellow striped jerseys will make their appearance on the Michigan footballers tomorrow

Michigan Daily, Friday October 19, 1917

This was confirmed in the game recap from a special edition of the Daily on Saturday:

The Wolverine eleven was the first to appear on the field. They stepped out in their new jerseys of blue with gold stripes at 2:35 o’clock and tried a few passes.

Michigan Daily “Football Extra”, Saturday October 20, 1917

Photos back then are not only scarce but also often hard to pinpoint a date. And when you are talking about uniforms, it’s a moving target as much of the equipment was reused particularly by freshman and reserve players for years. That said, thanks to the U-M Bentley Library image bank I think I found a shot of the special unis:

This clearly looks like a more impromptu team gathering vs. the formal studio or field team photos taken back then. It also reads “1917 Varsity Squad” in script on the photo. The Bentley title includes, “the Team that licked the Aggies last year,” indicating to me that this came from a 1918 program. I’m guessing it was taken in the aftermath of the M.A.C. game given everyone appears fully suited up.

I updated the early Uniform Timeline with this note and shot out a tweet. An early reaction from a follower was the same as mine:

Of course, he’s referring to the much-maligned 2011 roadies that were hurriedly unveiled after pregame warm-ups at the Michigan State game in East Lansing, stripes and all:

While there were many great moments in 2011, this was not one of them. The Spartans doubled up the Wolverines 28-14 and the bumblebees were never heard from again. Until today I guess.

There are several instances way back in history where Michigan featured different forms of stripes on their jerseys, but the notion of a special issue for this M.A.C. game is certainly notable.

By the way, things went much better with the special striped unis in 1917 as you can glean from the headline:

More from the Uniform Timeline here.