Glenn “Bo” Schembechler wasn’t the only major change to hit Ann Arbor in 1969. New athletic director Don Canham decided to introduce artificial turf inside the Big House. Here’s a great photo of Dan Dierdorf and Bo inspecting a sample of the righteous carpet up on eBay now: Apparently Dierdorf was skeptical of the safety of natural grass, having suffered a knee injury in 1968 (from the notes on the wire photo): I’m not sure what they hoped to accomplish with their little empty shoe test, but oh well. It’s pretty clear that Canham was not only dead set on the innovation, but he was also pretty proud of it. The new coach would seemingly be the obvious choice to don the cover of the game program, but Bo was present. In fact, no person is present at the front of the program for Bo’s first game at the helm—here’s a look at the Vanderbilt game program (also on eBay now), showing off Canham’s carpet: The bid on the Bo/Dierdorf photo is currently at $27.28. The Vandy program is going for $59.99.
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TWIMFbH – Shiny New Big House Welcomes Navy (1927)
This week we head back to 1927, a very special season in Michigan football history. On this day 84 seasons ago first year coach “Tad” Wieman led the 5-1 Wolverines into battle against the Midshipmen of Navy. The significance of the season wasn’t necessary about who played in the games but rather where. In 1927 Michigan Stadium was opened for business and on November 12 Navy would be the fourth team to visit the million dollar super-structure. As always, you can listen to it out before the KeyBank Countdown to Kick-off on WTKA 1050AM tomorrow, or click play now: [display_podcast] _ You can hear all of the This Week… clips here. Related: 1926 – Any Stadium Bonds out there? – Bonds to fund Michigan Stadium 1927 – Big House Dedication – Ticket stubs, Stadium history 1927 – Yost’s Bust -Head statue of F.H. Yost 1927 – Yost’s Shiny New Packard – Beautiful car given to Yost by alums 1927 – Freshly Minted Big House – Postcard – Great pic of ’27 Stadium Bonus: Construction photos taken by Harold Sherman: 1927 Dedication day (Ohio State) pregame in color via ready Larry:
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Memo to Penn State: Forfeit Saturday
twitpic Via Tom VanHaaren Obviously there are so many thoughts here as this disaster unfolds. One is the complete lack leadership at Penn State in handling this mess properly. But there’s still an opportunity to do the thing seemingly everyone involved in this mess had failed to do—move beyond protecting the sanctity of the football program and do the right thing. Forfeit Saturday’s game. [Update: Umm, so me and my buddy Drew are going ride a tandem bike to the next home game. He posted this right after I posted the above: Drew Sharp: Penn State should forfeit Saturday’s game] Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Dr. Sap’s Decals–Iowa
Denard Robinson: 4 decals – 5-yard TD pass to Fitzgerald Toussaint in 1st QTR; 20-yard run in 2nd QTR; 21-yard run in 3rd QTR; 7-yard TD pass to Kevin Koger in 4th QTR Ryan Van Bergen: 2 decals for TFL on 4th Down Stop in 1st QTR and 2nd QTR TFL Mike Martin: 2 decals for 2 TFL Blake Countess: 2 decals for 2 PBU’s Defense: 1 decal for every member of unit for 1st QTR 4th Down stop Fitzgerald Toussaint: 1 decal for 5-yard TD catch in 1st QTR Kevin Koger: 1 decal for 7-yard TD catch in 4th QTR Mark Huyge: 1 decal for fumbled snap recovery in 2nd QTR Will Heininger: 1 decal for 3rd QTR QB sack Craig Roh: 1 decal for 3rd QTR QB Sack Vincent Smith: 1 decal for catching Denard wounded duck to set up 3rd QTR FG Brendan Gibbons: 1 decal for 32-yard FG in 3rd QTR Desmond Morgan: 1 decal for 3rd QTR PBU Martavious Odoms: 1 decal for 28-yard kickoff return in 4th QTR Jake Ryan: 1 decal for 4th QTR TFL Junior "Megatron-Completed-the-process-but-didn’t-get-credit-for-it" Hemingway: 1 decal for TD catch that wasn’t called! Will post updated season tallies next week.
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Crash Winged Helmet–Iowa 24, Michigan 16
I should have known that when Blake strapped on the winged helmet last Tuesday on Workaholics, things would end badly on Saturday: Go ahead and grab your crash helmet and dial the “here we go again?” gauge up a notch. This isn’t a championship caliber team (you already knew that) but clearly all of these conference teams are beatable. My line lately to people who ask before the game is this—Denard’s going to get six to eight opportunities to really hurt the opponent with his arm. He’s got to cash in on two, maybe three. He didn’t Saturday and I’m getting more and more frustrated. Despite Brian’s speculation, I’m sure they travelled to Iowa City and East Lansing with Borges’ head completely in tact but I don’t get the insistence to put Denard behind center. Speaking of Denard, something not there with his wheels. Michael Spath tweeted that’s he’s become a “cutter”, as opposed to just beating people to the edge. I’ve noticed this too and since Michigan State I just haven’t seen that extra burst. Is he hurt? Is he trying to tailor his running style because of what the coaches are telling him? Dunno, but if Denard can only get to third gear this is going to send me like Blake into the garage. Bullets: Yes, Michigan got…
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Mick McCabe on Three and Out
Earlier this week Free Press writer Mick McCabe joined “the dean” of Lansing sports Tim Staudt and talked about John U. Bacon’s new book, Three and Out. He’s got a lot of opinions for a book he admitted he didn’t read (“I don’t read fiction”). [display_podcast] Hat tip to Papa D
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Three and Out Debuts at #6
Certainly you had to wonder how John U. Bacon’s Three and Out would perform commercially. It’s required reading for the hardcores of course, but would it extend beyond that circle? Well, Bacs revealed on WTKA Friday that his book would debut at #6 on the New York Times non-fiction list. Sure enough: Sorry Herman, Ellen and Madoff—you got served. Young Harmon can’t believe it. Hop in–the water is warm. Order Three and Out today. Related: The Clans React to John U. Bacon’s ‘Three and Out’
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TWIMFbH: Crisler Gets it Back on Track with Winged Helmets and Super Sophs (1938)
Last week we talked about when Fritz Crisler and his Princeton Tigers faced Harry Kipke and his eventual 1932 national championship squad. Flash forward to this week in Michigan football history in 1938, and the two men are involved once again. Kipke is now the disgraced coach who couldn’t score a point against the Buckeye in four seasons and was at the helm when illegal practices and fake jobs for players were abound. Michigan inserted the straight-laced, no-nonsense Fritz Crisler to fix it all. Ironically, it was the boring, business-like Crisler who introduced to Ann Arbor arguably the most recognizable element of any football uniform anywhere—the winged helmet. Here’s this edition of TWIMFbH, as Crisler, his super sophs and those winged helmets faced Penn in the sixth game of the 1938 season. As always, you can listen to it out before the KeyBank Countdown to Kick-off on WTKA 1050AM tomorrow, or click play now: [display_podcast] You can hear all of the This Week… clips here. Related: 1932 –“I thought Crisler was a Violin Player” 1934 – Harry Kipke and the Fall of 1934 1937 – Fritz’s Secret Practice 1938 – Harmon and Old Number..Six? 1938 – Debut of Crisler’s Winged Helmet 1944 – Michigan’s Debut as a Nocturnal Eleven 1945 – Army Program from Yankee Stadium 1947 – 1948 Rose…
