Just a few shots from pre-pre-pre-game. And for those out of town, the miserable day we had this morning turned perfect–sunny, a few clouds in the sky as of 5:30pm EDT. Shots: Rocket Ismail on the field, doing a video retrospective of the 1989 returns Rocket even the recreated his celebratory prayer in the North end zone The Beer Jarts Athletic Association unveiling the guest of honor at the pig roast. That’s Jan Rishoi on the right literally holding the pigskin. The event raised money for Breast Cancer research, well done. As promised, the authorities shut down Main Street at 5pm EDT sharp Denard warms up Jon Falk in the throwback gear near the locker room Troy Woolfolk with the dinged up right hand – but they say he’s ready to go Love this shot – about 45 minutes before kick-off Other Stuff: Heisman Caliber Accessories ESPN GameDay – Then and Now This Week in Michigan Football History – Remy Steals Powlus’ Thunder (audio) Pre-GameDay Desmond on Strike Night Moves – Michigan’s First Name Game (1944) Hoisting A Legend Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Heisman Caliber Accessories
Check out this close up of Desmond at the GameDay desk from this morning: First off, you’ve gotta love the custom cufflinks. The one on his right cuff appears to be a photo of one of his sons. (I assume the left features another son). Love that. Next, is the ring. My instincts tell me that that’s not a Michigan ring, rather, it’s a College Hall of Fame ring. We had this discussion a few years back when I discussed the band Dan Dierdorf donned on a 2008 CBS broadcast: Reader David, who seemed to be in the know, asserted that the ring I spotted was indeed Dierdorf’s CHOF ring: Actually he wears one ring on each hand. On his right hand is his College Football Hall of Fame ring and on the left hand is his Pro Football Hall of Fame ring. Both have blue stones, but the one in the picture (right hand) is his College Hall of Fame ring which has a larger blue stone. I doubt I’ll see Desmond buzzing around in the press box but if I do, I’ll get on that. As far as the pink pen, discuss amongst yourselves. Related: ESPN GameDay – Then and Now This Week in Michigan Football History – Remy Steals Powlus’ Thunder (audio) Pre-GameDay Desmond on Strike Night…
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ESPN GameDay – Then and Now
From deeeeepppp in the MVictors archives, check out this shot from East Lansing in 1997. After the game, my brother and I were able to hop up on ESPN GameDay stage, grab the microphones and get this this photo: If tried to that today I’d get tackled & bound Secret Service style or worse. It’s effectively like security at a rock concert. The media were restricted to a small platform behind the stage and they had a VIP tent in the back as well. I asked the media relations coordinator how many people ESPN has supporting the show. She told me around 70. Wow. Here’s a couple behind-the-scenes pics from this morning: I like this shot of Desmond taking a few notes: Some of the security on the perimeter: Related: This Week in Michigan Football History – Remy Steals Powlus’ Thunder (audio) Pre-GameDay (Desmond, Andrews, Herby photos) Desmond on Strike Night Moves – Michigan’s First Name Game (1944) Hoisting A Legend
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Remy Hamilton Shakes Notre Dame’s Thunder | This Week in Michigan Football History
For this week’s segment which will be broadcast during WTKA 1050AM’s KeyBank Countdown to Kick-off, we go back to September 10, 1994, and remember when Remy Hamilton stuck his foot in the Ron Powlus hype machine: (Yes, Ira included the mandatory To Hell With Notre Dame drop!). Here’s how it looked: You can check out all of the This Week…segments here. Go Blue!
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Pre-GameDay
A couple shots from a quick visit with the ESPN GameDay crew. They were on campus prepping today and took a few minutes to meet with the media. The man of the hour, Desmond Howard, seemed a tad bit tired but flash that smile a few times: He’s got a lot of family in town so he has no plans to tour the town with rest of the GameDay crew tonight. Herby and Erin Andrews answered a few questions as well: Erin looks surprised – she couldn’t believe how cool the local media was.
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Desmond on Strike
Photo: Brian Masck A nice interview with Desmond in the Daily. Of note: TMD: How much do you get approached about the Heisman pose you struck in 1991? Howard: Oh wow, you can’t measure it. It’s the No. 1 thing people ask when they see me. ‘Oh, wow, do the Heisman pose.’ It just bothers me. I don’t do it anymore because everywhere I go people ask me to do it. And if I do it, then it cheapens that moment. So I just refuse to do it now. And just leave it for those who experienced it in Ann Arbor. I get that. At some point you turn into a clown that does a funny trick. On retiring his number: TMD: Dave Brandon said the other day your number probably won’t be retired. Have you come to terms with that fact? Would you like for it to be retired? Howard: I think that what they do have in store (for Saturday), it’ll show you why we’re Michigan. It’s, ‘The Michigan Difference.’ So stay tuned. To be honest with you, there’s two sides. As a player, you feel as though retiring your number is the biggest honor. But when you do what I do, and you see guy’s numbers who are retired who haven’t accomplished half of what you’ve accomplished,…
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Night Moves: Michigan’s First Night Game (1944)
While Notre Dame will be Michigan’s guest for the first night game at the Big House, did you know it was Bo Schembechler’s 1982 Wolverines who played in the inaugural battle under the lights in South Bend? The Irish upset the 10th-ranked Wolverines 23-17 on that historic evening in front of 59,000 fans at Notre Dame Stadium. But that ’82 game wasn’t the first time the Wolverines played at night, as that tradition started nearly 70 years ago. On September 23, 1944, Fritz Crisler’s Wolverines traveled to Wisconsin to play The Hilltoppers of Marquette in a game that kicked off at 7 p.m. As part of the war effort, Michigan had several players on the roster as part of the Navy’s “V-12” training program. To enhance the supply of college-educated officers, the Navy rolled out V-12 in 131 U.S. schools. Those enrolled were considered active-duty personnel, required to adhere to strict military rules and discipline. One of those rules prevented any member to be away from the “base” (the campus, in this case) for more than 48 hours. To accommodate the 48-hour rule and to play a game on the road as far as Milwaukee, Fritz Crisler’s crew left Ann Arbor at around 1:30pm Friday afternoon and arrived at Marquette that evening. Crisler held a brief practice under the lights…
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Hoisting A Legend
Author Bill Roose was kind enough to send along an excerpt from his new book on Desmond Howard titled, “I Wore 21: The Legend of Desmond Howard”. The book is dropping this week around Ann Arbor and will be available at the game on Saturday. While we’ve all seen the famous photo of Desmond making ‘The Catch’, how about this shot from page 69 of I Wore 21 of Howard celebrating with the lineman and the madness over in the student section? Look at the faces of the guys running up to him: Side note: I’m probably in that photo somewhere, over to the left. It’s up there with Woodson’s 1997 interception in East Lansing as the greatest Michigan catch I’ve witnessed. Here’s a clip from chapter two, Grbac talking about the play: Quarterback Elvis Grbac is still amazed by what Howard did that day. “I threw the ball up and it was really incomplete, to tell you the truth,” Grbac said. “Then at about the 5-yard line, Des looks up and he goes into another gear and absolutely runs by the corner and there are not too many guys who can do that. “That was a catch that just propelled him through the entire season, because now once we got inside the 20-yard line, people were like, ‘OK, what’s…
