Given the nice offseason bashing back and forth between Ann Arbor and College Station over the voting for the EA Sports College Football cover, a repost of our last offseason incident involving those Aggies. We won that one despite Bum Bright’s righteous wallet. TWIMFBH starts with a discussion on the 1977 Texas A&M vs. Michigan game and ends with more significant challenge from the Aggies, namely their attempt to woo Bo Schembechler to College Station. You can hear all of the This Week… clips here. Related:Don’t forget about Dr. Sap’s epic throwback EA CFB covers like this one:
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Current Affairs
1. Picks. Bigger? Left. Better? Right. (Burke shot by Melanie Maxwell HT: mgoblog) Woodson’s snag really got the Heisman train rolling, and the Ohio State punt return probably sealed it. Wonder what affect Burke’s pick has done for his POY chances. 2. Gardner’s return. photo: Kelley Kuehne @ 2013 Outback Bowl HUGE. The University of Michigan Athletic Department announced today (Tuesday, March 5) that quarterback Devin Gardner has been granted a medical hardship for the 2010 season and will have two seasons of eligibility remaining. Quietly this was the biggest question mark out there during the offseason—there was just nothing really to write about. I think there was an general feeling in the media that the NCAA would indeed approve this, but it was still a question. 3. Jerry Montgomery. I got to know the Montgomerys a little bit and they will be missed in town. I don’t know the circumstances but I always found it a little unique that Jerry always seemed to have either Mattison or Hoke (or both during pregame) right over his shoulder: I’m guessing Oklahoma offered a clearer leadership role. I know he felt strongly about his Iowa roots (as he should), and I’m sure that tie was a big emphasis for Stoops when he closed the deal. Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Hot Tub Time Machine – Bob Bergeron (1984)
Michigan kicker Bob Bergeron's game-winning kick against Iowa in 1983 earned him some fame, including a spread in the 1984 Sports Illustrated college preview.
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Heeeyy, Hoooo
From postgame Michigan-Michigan State at Crisler twenty years ago this week, March 7, 1993: I’m back there somewhere in a painter’s cap with flaps. Since Michigan had nary a 3-pointer, here are three takes: Izzo blundered by calling the timeout on that fast break with under ten seconds to go. At worst they had a high percentage shot coming out of that break, at best of course a bucket and/or a foul. While I’d love to see these teams play again, I’d give State the slight edge right now to go further in the NCAA tournament. Burke was outstanding of course, but he needs to either keep his feet on the ground or get his arse off the floor and get back on defense after some of his drives. OK another: the refs sucked—both ways. They should just let instant Facebook polls decide calls. Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Cheap Tickets for the Ride (1950)
Up on eBay right now, a couple items related to the 1950 season. First, a nicely presented booklet promoting season tickets for the upcoming year, Bennie Oosterbaan’s third at the helm of the Wolverines: Unfortunately for those who shelled out a whopping $21.60 for season tickets, the 1950 campaign was most memorable for the games played away from Ann Arbor. That started with the October 14 battle vs. #1 Army played at Yankee Stadium, then the Snow Bowl vs. #8 Ohio State in the regular season finale on November 25 in Columbus, and finally the Rose Bowl against #5 Cal in Pasadena. Speaking of the Snow Bowl, another item up on eBay right now claims to be an original 4×5 photo negative from the game: I’m not sure why someone would forge the pic, but the shot of #49 looks almost cartoonish when viewed up close. The auction of the photo starts at $9.99, and the 1950 season ticket info booklet is going for $8.00. Related: While they’re going to be a tad more than they cost in 1950, you can get your 2013 Michigan hoops and football tickets here. Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Getting Huge
I was out of town last week and noticed today that Bill Simonson’s “The Huge Show” is occupying the 3-6PM slot once again on WTKA 1050AM. I believe Huge last filled this time on WTKA was back in 2008 before he was moved to a tape-delayed segment from 6-8pm. AnnArbor.com chatted with PD Ira Weintraub about the change this weekend. The reason for the change per Ira: “Budget cuts,” explained WTKA Program Director Ira Weintraub on Friday. “It was based on decisions made elsewhere and decisions made locally.” Ira told me they still plan to preempt the show with their popular afternoon special events like Signing Day and Grill Wars, which is good. “We’ve definitely had people that wanted to hear from Marcus [Ray] and Jeff [DeFran] and from Ben [Holden] and The Beatniks.” Ira added, “We’re trying to do a few things to bring back some of the staples that were on in the afternoon.” According to Ira it came down to who to syndicate in the afternoon slot between CBS radio host Doug Gottlieb and Huge. “I chose the regional coverage over the national coverage because we have national coverage for the previous 5 hours [John Feinstein 10-12, Jim Rome 12-3) and when it’s over we have a lot more national coverage.” Ira added that given Simonson is…
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History on Display
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend any of the rededication activities at Crisler this weekend but I was involved on the periphery. I assisted in editing some of the bios of those enshrined within the Michigan Hall of Honor, one of the features on the large interactive screens available in the spacious lobby of the tricked-out Crisler Center. Here I am looking over the tribute to Old 98: The boards are pretty cool and I hope #1000SSS shares this content throughout the athletic campus (at the Big House & in the renovated Schembechler Hall for starters). Naturally it was a process to get all the bios edited and photos uploaded et cetera, and naturally there was (and certainly still is) a typo or misplaced photo here and there. I also assisted with some error checking over the past couple weeks and was there when we spotted this priceless gem:Poor Fritz. At another (perhaps the last?) great event celebrating Michigan athletics tradition in 1979, Fritz was invited but certainly was far from thrilled when he gazed at the fourth line on the tickets to the event: Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Bucks Unlimited
Via a piece on local tipping at area restaurants in AnnArbor.com, something good resulted the “unfortunate defeat” of Sucks Unlimited in 2007: “When Oregon football fans were here, another bartender and I waited on a group the whole weekend. They were over-tipping everyone ridiculously—buying a beer for $5, paying with a $50 bill and telling me to keep the change. The Friday before the game, one gentleman in particular wanted to buy us out of Jagermeister (which isn’t possible, I assure you). He bought 100 shots to pass out, which cost him roughly $500, then tipped $200 and gave me another $500 to let him stand on the bar while he passed them out. We split that $500 among our door staff and kitchen staff. “The next day, after the Wolverines’ unfortunate defeat, the same Oregon fans spent most of the rest of their evening at our bar. The same man from the night before ran up a rather large bar tab with me and tipped $1,000. That hasn’t happened to me since, but I don’t expect it to. If Oregon ever plays Michigan again though, no matter where I am, I will come out of retirement to wait on them.” Not to discredit the general generousness of the Duck faithful, but I’m guessing there were special circumstances in play. …
