Michigan Stadium was officially dedicated 91 years ago this week on October 22, 1927. Our friends from Columbus were the guests–a form of reciprocation for Michigan being the guest for the Ohio Stadium dedication back in 1922.
On this day Bennie Oosterbaan captained the crew that rolled to a 21-0 victory over the Buckeyes. Halfback Louis Gilbert, whose name was cool both cool and notably compromises the names of the leads in Revenge of the Nerds, scored all 3 TDs on tosses from the captain.
We’re fortunate to have a few excellent sources of information on this game to provide a time-machine edition of Sights & Sounds:
Extra capacity. First, the Bentley Library has an outstanding summary of the dedication. Just a taste:
Unlike the rainy weather which kept the crowd for the opening game against Ohio Wesleyan well below capacity, conditions on dedication day were near perfect. Temporary wooden bleachers (that would, in fact, remain in place until 1949) had been erected around the top of the stadium to provide an additional 10,000 seats in anticipation of a capacity crowd.
As I understand it, the temporary stands were actually pieces of the old Ferry Field stands, fashioned up and over the outside of the original structure. Here’s a look:
Talking about MMB Practice. The Bentley Historical Library republished the Detroit Free Press article on the big day, click here to read the whole thing. It included a nugget on the MMB drum major who apparently practiced the traditional mace toss — inside the stadium — before the game:
It is said that once the Michigan drum major missed when he flung his stick over the cross bar and put in the following week in practice behind locked gates. Anyhow, if it was the same drum major, he was perfect today
I got a chuckle out of this – here were my words after the 2018 opener vs Western Michigan:
It happens occasionally, but after new drum major Kelly Bertoni did a perfect backbend, she short-tossed the mace. It doinked the cross bar and thumped to the turf. Instant analysis>> you can practice the backbend in your apartment, the diag, at Rick’s (a real crowd pleaser that gets you free drinks if I’m tending bar)…but it’s tough to find a place to simulate the mace toss over the goal posts in front of 100,000 folks.
It’s “Bennie” but whatever. The Cleveland Plain Dealer has done a great job digitizing certain stories in their archives, actually transcribing them in full and posting them online. Here’s the enemy paper’s praise for the great Bennie Oosterbaan for their story following the 1927 game:
Capt. Benny tackled like a demon. He made more tackles than the entire Ohio team. He led the interference most brilliantly. He blocked most skillfully. He passed like a Friedman and he took passes, well, like an Oosterbaan.
Seeing it. How did it look out there? The great WolverineHistorian posted this beauty. I love watching the fans walk in on the grass, basically where Crisler and the blue/champions lot sit today:
Meh. I posted this separately here, but the folks from the OSU student newspaper The Lantern were underwhelmed (no bitterness I’m sure) with the structure:
Definitely Someone From Ohio. Via the Michigan Daily, someone made off with one of the 12 pennants flying on the east side of the stadium:
I scanned the Bentley image archives and was able to zoom in and spot the 12 pennants on the east side:
You can also see them in the video footage as fans are still entering the stadium. Upon further review, I suspect the perp it was a man wearing a hat.
As far as the pennants there are 12 up there so the theft happened at some point after kickoff. It looks like the flags represented Michigan and other teams, as we have flying on the rim of the stadium today. I assume back then these included the squads in the B1G conference and Michigan of course – who are the other two?
Beware BnB. Worst idea ever. That is, up until we decided to put the halo up around Michigan Stadium. In the early 1920s, Yost saw that Wisconsin had a live badger mascot so he wanted one (or in typical Yost fashion, two) in Ann Arbor. One thing led to another: trappers were engaged, money was exchanged, yada-yada-yada…and you got Biff and Bennie. These living wolverines were nasty-ass beasts that just aren’t built for captivity. Nonetheless, they built a Tasmanian Devil-style sturdy cage that required 8 brave souls to carry out onto the pitch:
No Dr. Sap’s Decals for this one :)
