Ed. Steve Sapardanis aka “Dr. Sap” is back with his decals. This week I added the Editor’s Pick & added a bit to the Fan Award. Here are the picks from Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6 and Week 7 and Week 8. Context: Back when Bo was coaching the Michigan Football team, he awarded decals for individual as well as TEAM accomplishments. He also selected Champions each week. Not only were the obvious categories (offense, defense, special teams) selected, but Bo also made it a point to recognize the not so obvious ones – Scout Team Champions and Team Hustlers – each week. Take it away, Sap: OFFENSE DEVIN GARDNER – If you’re like me, earlier this year you watched the UM Spring Game and paid close attention to DG. To me, he showed back in April that the game had slowed down for him and he was much more comfortable in the pocket making plays. Maybe all that film study paid off. He must have also been watching the tapes of Jim Harbaugh – especially his rainbow TD pass to Ken Higgins against Indiana in 1986. Gardner’s TD pass to Dileo was much the same, except DG threw his on a ROPE – WOW!!! His performance evoked three words from me: Poise,…
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Gopher Pregame Photos
More Little Brown Jug shots here. Below find many more from a great day in Minneapolis: The Armory – where most reliable accounts claim the jug was found in 1903, and where it hung from ‘03-‘09 in the office of Minnesota AD Doc Cooke: Best B Dubs on the planet. It sits in the shadow of TCF Stadium and Williams Arena inside a converted old fire station. If you get too deep into the extreme Blazin’ wings sauce (or the booze), they can hose you down. Speaking of Williams Arena – I snuck in for a look and that place is sweet. Beer outside a college football stadium? Yawn. Beer inside a college football? Now we dance! To get to the beer you have to wander over to the beer/food garden behind the (east?) end zone. I’m not sure it’s the best view of the game, but I think it’s a choice place to sit next time you visit. Despite the empty seats the Gophers still definitely sold out. “What, take off our hats? Are you out of your mind?” Minnesota flashes their league championships on a ring on the stadium. I like it. More on 1904 later. Rawls and Norfleet feeling it pregame to Snapbacks and Tattoos. Denard seemingly ready…
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Jug Secured!
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Denard’s Arm and Beer
Two critical updates: Denard’s protection for the Golfer’s Elbow: Confirming they have beer here and you can drink it:
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Happy Birthday–Coach Hoke!
Born on this day, November 3, 1958
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Getting to Minneapolis
I’m heading out to Minneapolis tonight and it’ll be my first time there for a game. Check back in for updates Saturday and Sunday. Looking forward to it of course and I’ll have a camera or two in tow. Elsewhere: * Hello, Angelique: Don’t miss the Angel’s epic tale of artist Jil Gordon and yours truly and our relationship with The Little Brown Jug in the Detroit News today. They even borrowed, with permission of course, my photo of Ms. Gordon from last year: Jil is also a friend of mine and even an MVictors sponsor – check out trueblue365.com STAT! * Hamming it up. Check out The Blockham’s caption contest involving a bevy of U-M media middleweights. Craig of HSR’s entry: * New Sponsor. Flagstar Bank recently announced their extensive relationship with U-M. I’m happy to say they’ve also now got a relationship with this site, thus the new spot on the sidebar.
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TWIMFbH: Avenging Ithaca and Forming the League (1894)
This Week we take a peek at Team 15 back in 1894 at the pair of battles against Cornell- one played in New York and the other back in Detroit at the DAC field. It’s a pre-Yost, pre-Jug, pre-The Victors and heck, even pre-Big Ten look at Michigan Football history: [display_podcast] As always, listen to the WTKA’s Countdown to Kick-off four hours before kickoff on 1050AM or on iHeartRadio. You can catch all of the This Week in Michigan Football History clips here.
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Electrifying Game
We know the October 31, 1903 game Michigan played at Northrop Field in Minnesota spawned the Little Brown Jug rivalry. It was also the hottest ticket in town. The accepted attendance is an even 20,000, although Northrop Field only sat 8,000 in its 33 row grandstand. That doesn’t include the short stands in the end zone but that doesn’t explain how an extra 12,000 got their peepers on the famous 6-6 tie. Thanks to this shot the folks at Minnesota media relations forwarded over to me tonight, you get a sense for the lengths folks went to see this one: I think I need that on my office wall. Righteous Stub So we know approximately 20,000 witnessed the famous clash and we do know that the gross receipts for the game were precisely $30,933.50 (with the Wolverines netting a $13K cut). Assuming the ducats, based on others from that year, were probably about two bucks, it’s fair to assume Doc Cooke’s athletic department produced somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 tickets. This leads to one missing piece of Jug Lore—I’ve never seen a ticket stub to the 1903 Minnesota-Michigan game. I polled a couple of the most famous U-M memorabilia collectors. Jack Briegel, who owns a ticket to every game played in Michigan Stadium and many more emailed me confirming that…