Last month during the band-is-not-going-to-Dallas crisis, I mentioned that there was a precedent (1910, for example) for Michigan fans passing the hat to help send the marching band on road trips.   I knew that wasn’t the only case, and once again a great item has appeared on eBay to illustrate that piece of history.   Here’s a small card that someone saved in a scrapbook, a memento from an effort to help get the MMB to the critical game against Cornell in 1911: The effort was led by the students, spurred on by the Daily, and was successful in raising the funds for the band trip.  I wrote about the 1911 season in last year’s edition of Brian Cook’s Hail to the Victors and mentioned that apparently everyone wasn’t pleased with the repeated “begging” to help the band, and one Daily reader suggested a fee-based approach: · It was typical in those days to pass the hat amongst the student body and alums to gather up money to send the band to a long road trip. A letter from “One-Opposed-to –Begging” offered a different tact: simply charge a dime admission to the Friday pep rally which would cover the expenses for the trip to Cornell. The band traveled but didn’t help spur on Michigan’s offense.  Here’s the complete rundown of Cornell…

Support this cause or someone from the 4 o’clock hour is going to get Via WTKA media relations, here’s the schedule for Friday’s annual Mott Takeover event on WTKA 1050AM, Here’s the official line-up – I like the additions of some national media members and you’ve got to like that Stevie Everitt (above) will be in the house: 7am – Lloyd Carr, Jay Feely 8am – Lloyd Carr, Brian Griese 9am –Dana Jacobson, Dhani Jones 10am – Marlin Jackson, Cato June, Tim Massaquoi 11am – Charles Woodson, Adam Schefter Noon – Mike Hart, Greg Mattison, Al Borges 1pm –Scott Dreisbach, Adrian Arrington,  Gary Moeller, Jerry Hanlon, Jarrett Irons 2pm – Leon Hall, Morgan Trent, Ron Bellamy, Drew Henson 3pm –Mark Campbell, Jerame Tuman , Aaron Shea, Remy Hamilton 4pm – Steve Hutchinson, Steve Everitt, Jake Long at MDen 5pm – David Brandon, Brady Hoke at MDen Last year they raised nearly $105,000 for the Charles Woodson Clinical Research Fund.   This year the Takeover will benefit the Coach Carr Mountaintop Experience Fund.  So—diial in early and often.   Fans can of course listen in and this year you can watch the final two hours live from the M-Den on State Street. Go Blue!

A plug for the book pulled together by the students over at The Michigan Daily, coming out this summer.  I got to peruse a beta copy and even offered a couple small suggestions (umm, and maybe slightly inspired the concept?).   It’s definitely worth picking up.  It’s basically an era by era look at the history of Michigan football, including articles, photos and other goodies as they appeared back in the day.  Readers of this site know I’m a fan of leveraging the Daily for my research and they did a great job putting it in book form. For more details follow this link or click below:   Related: A Century Ago: 1910 Michigan Football through the Words of The Daily Cornhusker Hospitality in 1911 The Willis Ward Protests (1934)

This auction came and went on eBay, with buyers perhaps scared off by the nearly $4,000 asking price.  The seller claims, backed up by a letter of authenticity, that this is a Bike helmet that once belonged to the great Anthony Carter: Is it the real deal?   Paging Dr. Sap! Coincidentally this ties in two recent posts on these pages.  First off, the Michigan Bike helmet was the offspring of the research performed by Elwyn Gooding and the team from U-M.    And while we’re on the topic of Carter, AC is featured in one of Dr. Sap’s throwback NCAA Football covers.  Also featured is a gent I described as the most interesting man in the world: Thanks to notes from his nephew and his son, we now know that this man is Jerry Wright, who worked at the Ann Arbor police department.   Mr. Wright passed away in ‘99 but he lives on in Michigan lore! Update:  Great comments below on the analysis, and Dr. Sap sent over this collage of AC photos: Update #2.   An anonymous former player weighs in: Just as a side note the helmet may have well been Anthony’s but the claim that he wore it for three years is probably not accurate.  We were issued new game helmets every year and quite often our previous year’s…

Thanks to some great spotting by Dr. Sap, check out this brilliant wire photo from 1973 currently up on eBay: What does this have to do with Michigan football?    A lot, it turns about.  (A lot more than M fans routinely beating themselves senseless in frustration near computer equipment during games). According to the caption on the back of the pic, the gent smacking his own skull with a stick is Elwyn Gooding, a researcher at the University of Michigan.   Why he’s surrounded by enough computing power to launch and land an Apollo mission is unclear. Gooding is testing a prototype of a safer fireman’s helmet but his research extended to gridiron headgear: While the text is a tad foggy, the December 1973 article leads with this: A group of University of Michigan medical researchers have developed a new football helmet that they think is more comfortable and more effective in preventing brain and spinal cord injuries than any helmet on the market. Another hat tip to uni-guru Dr. Sap for passing along this link.  According to Helmut Hut, a worthy source on headgear, this new design made it onto the heads of The Victors shortly thereafter in the form of the Bike-branded helmet: In the mid 1970s the Michigan athletic department along with local Ann Arbor scientists became involved…

This morning on WTKA’s Michigan Insider Ira and Sam mentioned that Free Press writer Michael Rosenberg is leaving the paper to take a full-time gig at Sports Illustrated.  After resetting his concerns about the quality of Rosey’s work, in particular the practice-gate story,  Ira took it a step further and challenged Rosey to a charity boxing match.   Certainly, this won’t happen but if it did, rest assured I’d be ringside.  (And it’s not that I don’t like Rosenberg FWIW—he’s always been good to me.) A man can dream, so if we can get these two together in the squared circle they’ll need an undercard.  Sticking with the media vs. media theme I have a few suggestions.   Remember we’re raising money for charity fergodsakes (do you have a problem with that?) so this is for fun: Sam Webb (GoBlueWolverine/Scout.com)  vs. Chris Balas (The Wolverine/Rivals.com) OVERVIEW:  If you don’t know, ask somebody.   Naturally, there’s an organic competitive tension between the two major U-M recruiting networks but call it a gut feeling, I’m guessing these guys won’t be sharing a Twosie anytime soon.   In our 2010 interview Webb made it clear there’s no love lost between their crews.  The message board minions would flock in droves to get a glimpse of this action, as long as their moms let them borrow the van.…