• Fab Five First Pitch – September 20th

    The Detroit Tigers are teaming up with U-M’s Pat Maloy Cancer Scholarship this September.  The promo is called ‘Wolverines in the D’ for the Tiger’s game on Friday Sept 20 against the Twins.   $25 gets you an upper deck seat and a “Wolverines in the D” t-shirt.   The Tigers will then donate $5 of each ticket package sold back to the Maloy Scholarship. All the details and online ordering info is on the Tigers site here.   Notable: The U-M Men’s Glee club will perform the National Anthem.Very notable: Fab Fivers Jimmy King and Jalen Rose are throwing out the first pitches.  I need someone to be there with photos and scouting report. Again, details here.  The Pat Maloy Scholarship was created by former students of University of Michigan professor Bernard “Pat” Maloy who passed away in 2001 after a courageous battle with esophageal cancer. The scholarship is a four year scholarship awarded to an incoming freshman with financial need who has battled cancer or whose direct family members have been stricken with cancer. H/T to Neil C. for passing this along

  • Walk-Offs (Michigan Game Winning Kicks)

    If you missed it, more nice work by WolverineHistorian—freshly updated below.  But first several notes: Longtime Michigan fans know that back in the day U-M had a very tough time connecting on game-winning or game-sealing kicks.  Dr. Sap and I recently took a roadtrip down to Oxford (more on that later) where we listened to several old classic games..a few of which involve painstaking missed kicks that would have altered the course of U-M football history. And speaking of those misses, it’s one of the reason Bob Bergeron’s kick against Iowa 30 years ago this season was such a freaking big deal.  From my interview in this year’s edition of HTTV Bergeron noted that fact saying, “So fortunately for me I was one of the first to make a game winning kick for a Michigan football team.  We had a lot of troubles with special teams over the years…”  I’ll never stop reminding people that I caught Gibbons’ brunette girls kick off the Superdome net [6:49] in New Orleans.  Trust me..or come to my house where I still have it queued up on the DVR in HD. Enjoy:   Follow MVictors on Twitter

  • Brady Hoke Press Conference (B1G Media Days)

    file THE MODERATOR:  We’re joined by Brady Hoke.COACH HOKE:  First off, I know we’re all excited that you’re all here and you took the opportunity to travel up here and it’s really an honor and a privilege to represent the University of Michigan and the team 134.We’ve got 12 days until fall camp, look forward to it.  We’ve had some good things throughout the summer and since we got back from the game with South Carolina a year ago.  Not a year ago, but in January.We’re a young team.  We’ve got to replace some guys who have been very important to Michigan football.  But with that youth comes a lot of competition, and that competition is always good.And the expectations, though, never change.  And that’s to win Big Ten championships.A year ago we were 8 and 5, and that’s unacceptable.  It’s unacceptable at Michigan.  It’s unacceptable for us.And in those five losses, we had 18 turnovers.  So it tells you a little something that we need to be a little more diligent in taking care of the football.  We need to be a little more diligent in making better decisions.  And those are things that we’ve talked about and we’ve had through spring ball, had a good spring.I like our football team.  I usually don’t say that.  I said it…

  • Big Jonny Falk joins WTKA (7-23 audio)

    If you missed it, you missed it.  Legendary U-M equipment manager Jon Falk, who will retire after the season, joined Sam and Ira this morning and talked about…everything.   Worth your time: [display_podcast] Find all of the WTKA podcasts here. Follow MVictors on Twitter

  • Big Jon Falk to Retire following Season

    Bummer.  A guy who has always been great to me personally and a critical part of my Little Brown Jug research.   One of my favorite photos, here’s Falk smiling as he’s grabbing the key for the case holding the jug at Minnesota last year:  Via U-M Media Relations: Equipment Manager Jon Falk Announces Retirement Following 2013 Football Season ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Longtime University of Michigan equipment manager Jon Falk announced Monday (July 22) his retirement effective at the conclusion of the 2013 football season. Falk will complete 40 years of service to Michigan Athletics and the U-M football program. “I remember the day that Bo Schembechler interviewed me and said that working at the University of Michigan would present great opportunities for my career,” said Falk. “He offered me the position but I decided that staying home to care for my mom and grandmother was more important. My mom woke up at 4 a.m. and came to me with tears in her eyes and said, ‘Jon, you are going to Michigan. Bo and the University of Michigan are going to take care of you and this will be a great career move.’ As I reflect on my nearly 40 years at Michigan, I have been fortunate to work with some great coaches, administrators and thousands of players. After talking…

  • Fan vs. eBay Guys | Garage Sale 2013

    [Ed.  Reader and M fan Mark Behnke attended the athletic department Garage Sale on Friday and this weekend offered to share his experience and even scored a few quotes from Dave Brandon via email.  The buzz I’ve heard is that this was one of the lighter sales in both quantity and range of goods. For instance I heard, “It was great if you wear XXXL”…but apparently, as you can see below, there were at least a few damn good items to be had.] Sadly no, this misfit winged helmet was not available for sale on Friday Guest Post By Mark Behnke Having never attended the garage sale I decided to take in the experience on Friday.  Wanting to take in the whole experience, I decided to go down the afternoon before and “camp out” in line.  Before I get into the story, I must admit that I am a Michigan memorabilia collector & it is a hobby for my family as well.  I learned there are two main types of collectors: those who do it for the enjoyment, and those who then turn around and try to make a buck selling said memorabilia.  I have heard the second type commonly referred to as the “eBay guys.”   When I pulled into the parking lot outside of the Indoor Track Building I…

  • Photobombing into The Jug Brotherhood

    There are a couple ways to find your self into the Jug Brotherhood.  The conventional path is to create a high quality replica Little Brown Jug and to send your pics of the effort over to me.   The other means is via editor’s discretion (see Jil Gordon, the artist who paints the score on the jug).  Today I’m proud to introduce two new members of Local 1903 who took different paths to breath the rarefied air of Jug Valhalla. Tom Kemp emailed last month and made his case for immortality.  No, he didn’t create his own replica crock…he actually bought one from current brother Brian Snider.   Recall that Snider made a few different jugs and he ended up offering a couple for sale.  Now let’s be clear–> you can’t buy love and you can’t buy your way into this premium club.   No sir.  But if you put the jug on your desk and have it sit prominently behind you in a corporate video announcing your company’s partnership with Samsung…you are IN: And P.S., the replica Paul Bunyan Trophy doesn’t hurt your case either. Brian Igoe took the more conventional path by painstakingly creating his own jug.  He emailed me a while ago with his photos so his membership is a bit overdue:        Beautiful work man..and nice nice…

  • The Mudbowl set for October 19, 2013

     Mark your calendars because the annual SAE MudBowl will fall on October 19th this year & kick-off is set for 10:30AM.  Note that the 19th is Indiana week so the game does not fall on Homecoming again this year.   I’m fairly confident the new NCAA “targeting” rule for 2013 won’t apply in this game. The Mudbowl also created a Twitter account but there are no tweets yet—so I’m not sure if it’s for actual game info or if someone is going to blast out snarky barbs as if they were the actual geological depression (or “kettle hole”) at South U. and Washtenaw. Elsewhere: Beilein signs extension through 2018-19 Follow MVictors on Twitter