Most people know the basics (or if you read this site, about everything you’d ever want to know) about the story of the Little Brown Jug. To recap, back in 1903, Michigan and Minnesota’s powerful teams played in Minneapolis to a fiercely fought 6-6 tie. After the game, the Wolverines left behind a five-gallon stoneware water jug, purchased at a local store before the game. Minnesota equipment manager Oscar Munson found it the following day or two and brought it to Director of Athletics L.J. Cooke. In remembrance of their mighty tie they decided to give the jug its first paint job, scribing, “Michigan Jug – ‘Captured’ by Oscar, October 31, 1903,” on one side. On the opposite face they spelled out, SCORE, “Minnesota 6, Michigan 6,” making the Minnesota “6” three times larger than the Wolverines’ score. Six years later Cooke and Michigan coach Fielding Yost agreed to play for the righteous crockery, something they’ve done 92 times now (if you count that 1903 game). While playing for the jug is of course one of the deepest and most replicated college football traditions, painting the jug actually is a practice that started before the teams even agreed to play for the pottery. After Cooke and Munson’s initial handicraft, the scores of the game have been painted on sometime after…
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Sugar Bowl 2012 – Behind the Scenes
A few random notes, pics and takes in the aftermath of a solid trip to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. A few quick hitters: >> Hospitality. File under you probably don’t care, but I’ll say it. The media was treated first class by the Sugar Bowl folks. Beyond being ridiculously courteous, they provided excellent communication, was quick with the transcription of the press conferences, offered good food/coffee/drinks, workspace, logistics, etc. They offered a couple of nice gifts as well—a Sugar Bowl jacket and luggage tags. It was very cool to be a part of it all. They also arranged for a 30 foot Po Boy (above). >> Dome View. The press box in the Dome is all the way at the top, here’s a fairly accurate look at the view from up top: They did have video monitors rolling everywhere, along with a screen of live stat updates. The ESPN feed appeared to be about 6-7 seconds behind the live-action. >> Fans. I was surprised by the number of Virginia Tech fans that showed up for the game. I thought Wolverine fans would overwhelm the joint but that didn’t happen. There was still more Maize and Blue out there but to me, it was only a slight majority. One thing I noticed wandering around town—Michigan definitely had more students just…
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Molk Postgame in the Big Easy Chair
Above that’s center David Molk, who was chilling out in the aftermath of the big win. He clearly didn’t want to take that Michigan jersey off for the final time quite yet. Molk: “I was fine before we got here. As pregame went through, one thing led to another and something happened.” On whether it was his call not to go versus the coaches/trainers: Molk: “I was waiting for feeling. Once I got that…it’s humanly impossibly for me to sit and watch football when I’m dressed up. So I figured it out, taped it up…and went at it.” Chris Balas asked if he was “fighting for his life” on the field: Molk: “I don’t know if I was fighting for my life. I still had one leg. Come on, I squat a ton [laughs] so one leg’s good enough.” On the idea of getting a championship ring: Molk: “We actually talked about. We weren’t even positive we’d get a ring after this game. It used to always be a Big Ten championship or nothing. You know, we didn’t win a Big Ten championship but at the same time, it’s a BCS bowl game. Something to remember you’d want to show to your grandkids and your grandkids’ grandkids. It’d be something to carry on.” Brandy drops in: Jim Brandstatter stopped by…
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Sugar Bowl 2012 | Michigan Postgame Photos– It’s Great, To Be, A Michigan Wolverine!
Great stuff. First off the MVP: Junior Megatron Hemingway after stepping from the podium Hoke waiting for the replay decision on the Virginia Tech overtime touchdown Mobbing Gibbons after the kick Koger and Odoms on stage Devin Gardner and Denard Robinson delivering their complex array of 5s Maize meets Blue confetti. Maroon and Orange confetti lining bird cages tomorrow. Molk looks at the Michigan fans while being fitted for his Pour some Sugar T-shirt RVB checks the fans Hoke preps for ESPN postgame. They made him switch sides of the desk for whatever reason. Mattison postgame Warrior Molk is about to take off the Michigan jersey for the last time – but not quite yet. Asked why he jumped into the game after the first series despite the pain, said he was “just doing what a Michigan Man is supposed to do.”
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Sugar Bowl Postgame: Hoke, Denard, Junior Hemingway
Photo via MVictors. Transcript Via Sugar Bowl media relations: Allstate Sugar Bowl Michigan Post-Game Press Conference Head Coach Brady Hoke Quarterback Denard Robinson Wide Receiver and MVP Junior Hemingway Place Kicker Brendan Gibbons THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the official postgame press conference for the 2012 Allstate Sugar Bowl. We’ll begin with Michigan head coach Brady Hoke. We’ve been joined by Denard Robinson, Junior Hemingway, and Brendan Gibbons. At this time I’m going to turn it over to Coach Hoke, a few thoughts on the game, and we’ll open the floor for questions. COACH HOKE: You know, thank you. It was a great college football game. Two teams who played extremely hard, two teams that played for each other. I think Virginia Tech and Coach Beamer, they did an excellent job, when you look at how they defended us a little bit and then offensively and then you look at the Michigan Wolverines and how our guys stayed together, complemented each other. We talked about playing 60 minutes of Michigan football. We played about 63 and a half, I think. So I’m just real proud, real proud of our seniors, real proud of how they took this football team last January and molded it and did a tremendous job. And we always have a tremendous legacy…
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Sugar Bowl Pregame Photos
A few from pregame live from the Super Dome! “They didn’t even check my ID! I love New Orleans!!” Denard doing the LMFAO Party Anthem shuffle (trust me) A tribute to DenardX?
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TWIMFbH– A Rosy Conclusion to 1988
Happy New Year, and happy game day! Here’s the final installment of This Week in Michigan Football History, this time a look back the season of 1988 and more specifically, the Rose Bowl played on January 2, 1989. After a rocky start, things got rosy real fast as Michigan busted through the Big Ten scheduled and landed once again in Pasadena to face Heisman Trophy runner-up Rodney Peete and the USC Trojans. As always, you can listen to it out before the KeyBank Countdown to Kick-off on WTKA 1050AM later today, or click play now: [display_podcast] You can hear all of the This Week… clips here. Follow MVictors on Twitter. Beat Hokies!
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Is Michigan Back? Hoke: “Michigan Never Left” (Full Sugar Bowl presser)
It’s a first class operation here in New Orleans. Follow me on Twitter for coverage tomorrow. Here’s a couple photos from today’s press conference and the full transcript. Beamer and Hoke sharing a chuckle, looking sharp: Here’s a look at the Sugar Bowl trophy: Full transcript from the press conference today: THE MODERATOR: We’ll go ahead and get started with coach Brady Hoke, Michigan head coach. Coach, just a few thoughts on how your preparations have gone for the game, and we’ll open the floor for questions. COACH HOKE: Well, first, on behalf of the University of Michigan and Team 132, our kids, the staff, trainers, the marching band, everybody, we can’t tell you how thrilled we are to be here and how much we appreciate the great hospitality the city of New Orleans has given us and the Bowl committee, the Sugar Bowl committee, and all their people and their efforts. It’s been great. I want to thank Tulane and the opportunity to use their facilities. They were tremendous, and really as a team I think we’ve had good preparations starting back in Ann Arbor, navigating finals and all those things that are a part of it. And then coming down here, I think our team has really done well. I think we’ve gone out every day and…
