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

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’

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…

This is something I’ve been pining for since at least 2009, here’s proof via this mgo-guest post: Willis Ward:  The African-American end and U-M track star was Gerald Ford’s roommate for road games and a member of the ’32 and ’33 national championship squads.  This man’s story deserves a full documentary or movie, not a blurb on a blog post, and it’s safe to assume he gave some interesting remarks to the banquet crowd… Blue and Blue is done and it will debut soon.  I even contributed to it in a small way (or a big way if you count circumference of head with respect to screen size).  I’ve seen the full length version and it is very well done—you can get a copy now (with free shipping for MVictors readers).  Another feather in the cap of Buddy and Brian at the Emmy-nominated Stunt3 Multimedia.   The film is done in the Ken Burns-style—they tell the story while jumping between the key players & flashing vintage photos, clippings, letters and where available, film footage.   You get a feel from the trailer:   More later, but a few quick highlights.  First, I loved the shots of the actual wires and letters between Georgia Tech and Michigan, along with a few of the letters from U-M fans to Kipke and Yost chiming in…

There’s a difference this year in the Wolverines and I think it has a lot to do with having a guy at the helm focusing on this (from pregame Saturday): And this, from August: Still, do you see a championship-caliber team out there?  I don’t.  But I like what I’m seeing.  Even in the State game you could tell we were tackling better and each week guys seem to know what they’re supposed to do and do it. There’s enough talk of Rich Rod given the release of Three and Out last week, so I’ll save the comparisons but needless to say I like where things are heading.  This team won’t be in Indy this year but they’ll be in that game soon enough. Speaking of who’s ending up in Indy–I love talking about the tie-breakers and I broke it down in detail here.  This divisional alignment presents the opportunity in certain circumstances for wild redemption.  Consider that freaking Iowa controls their Rose Bowl destiny. Between us, Michigan ain’t winning out but here you go with some scenarios for the Legends division: Nebraska remaining games: (Northwestern, at Penn State, at Michigan, Iowa) Michigan State: (Minnesota, @ Iowa, Indiana, @ Northwestern) Michigan: (@ Iowa, @ Illinois, Nebraska, Ohio State) Nebraska controls their destiny – win out and Huskers go to Indy. …