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…
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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…
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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…
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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
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2013 Schedule Poster Revealed
..includes a 3D option with the Legends (+ Harmon): Umm, is that a half-matte, half-not winged helmet? Recent Posts: The Mudbowl set for October 19, 2013 Hail, Hail to the Chief – Happy 100th Gerald Ford Michigan Gear Collectors – Need your Help! Marooons In Memoriam Chic Beats Men (1919) Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Michigan Gear Collectors – Need your Help!
Anyone out there have this style jacket in their collection? I assume we don’t need the actual coaching staff jacket, just this exact style (assume Nike-issued, mid- to late-80s). If you think you have it or know someone, let me know. Speaking of gear, all you uniform nerds (like me) should know the annual athletic department garage sale is coming up- Friday, July 19th. Details: The department garage sale of used apparel will be held on Friday, July 19, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at the U-M Indoor Track Building. Items for sale at the department garage sale will include football jerseys, T-shirts, hats, balls, jackets and other merchandise. Cash and credit cards will be accepted. The U-M Indoor Track Building is located just beyond the rightfield fence of Michigan’s baseball field. Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Marooons In Memoriam
From the front page of September 24, 1940 edition of the Michigan Daily, announcing the demise of the once-great University of Chicago football program: So why did one of the original members of the Big Ten, who brought us the heralded Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg (and Fritz Crisler, for that matter), ditch football? This issue of Sports Illustrated from 1954 put it nicely: The University of Chicago abandoned intercollegiate football in 1939 because the game hampered the university’s efforts to become the kind of institution it aspired to be. The university believed that it should devote itself to education, research and scholarship. Intercollegiate football has little to-do with any of these things and an institution that is to do well in them will have to concentrate upon them and rid itself of irrelevancies, no matter how attractive or profitable. Football has no place in the kind of institution Chicago aspires to be. It has been argued that Chicago is different. Perhaps it is and maybe it is just that difference that enabled the university to separate football from education. That’s sweet and all, but methinks the 85-0 beating at the hands of Tom Harmon’s Wolverines in 1939 had a hand in it as well. Here’s one of my favorite all-time photos featuring Tom Harmon cooling off on the sidelines during…
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Chic Beats Men (1919)
/shakes fist at mgovideo! Damn you for throwing down this unsolicited Tweet challenge to figure out what was going on in this clip: Michigan Football 1920s by mgovideo The think track on the investigation: * The title of the clip reads the 1920s so I assumed that was the timing or thereabouts. I have no idea why it leads with the German(?) text.* The field indeed looks to be Ferry Field (pretty sure) so this would predate the opening of the Big House in 1927.* Now…that player featured at the beginning…I was confident that is not a Michigan man: * The footage was good quality for the age, but it is short and didn’t help much to narrow down the score and significant players or plays. The German (?) title slide didn’t help much either.* So that leads up back to the gent above. A few teams that Michigan played from the era at home (and away for that manner) wore jerseys with that striped design on the front, most prominently Illinois, Navy and Ohio State. Red Grange in the early 1920s: * That limits the possibilities of the potential games this could be, but I still thought the best clue was that striped-clad fellow. If he was featured at the outset it must have been a prominent player. So…
