Iconic Michigan football radio voice Bob Ufer left a legacy with his radio calls, but before he took the mic he was a tracker star for the Maize and Blue. He enrolled as a freshman in 1939 and graduated in 1943. Along the way, he set eight Michigan records and the world indoor record in the 440 which stood for a half-decade. Up on eBay now is a shot of “the bespectacled strider” breaking the tape at the March 1944 Big Ten Championships in Chicago, actually a year after he was graduated. (Eligibility rules were relaxed a bit due to World War II): Hardly a week goes by without Ufer’s voice showing up on the airwaves of WTKA, and his legacy is felt elsewhere through the Ufer Foundation and the Bob Ufer Quarterback club. Coincidentally Monday is the club’s annual award ceremony and the great ‘64 team captain Jim Conley will be receiving the Bennie Oosterbaan Award for service, dedication, and leadership.
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Show me Your Signed Jugs
Ahh yes, the recent flurry of jug discussion here has prompted yet another reader to send along his Little Brown Jug: Home Edition, and this one’s a beauty as well. Thanks to reader Dennis who passed along these photos. This was a gift he gave to his dad. Not only is it a marvelous replica, it’s signed by a bevy of Michigan coaches (Bump, Mo, Lloyd, Bo, Rich Rod) each of whom have walked off the gridiron with the coveted crock during their tenure: Dennis is looking to have Coach Hoke sign it as well. My suggestion: wait until he earns it! So go ahead and update the list of things that will survive the Apocalypse: cockroaches, Lions fans, airplane black boxes, Little Brown Jug replicas. Elsewhere: * It’s not as slick as any of the three replicas I’ve featured on these pages, but you can get a 1950s-version painted Little Brown Jug on eBay right now. * Better yet, how about a lineup card from the 1909 Minnesota-Michigan game: the first battle for the jug? I’m guessing the seller, who’s asking $300, knew he had something there.
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Jim Mandich of ‘69 on WTKA (audio)
[Ed 4/27/2011: Originally posted November 19, 2009 – bumping up this interview with Ira and Mandich because you should hear it.] Excellent interview this morning on WTKA 1050AM, as Michigan legend and current Miami, FL radio personality Jim Mandich dialed up Ira Weintraub to discuss Ohio State, 1969, the current team, Bo, Chad Henne and Jake Long on his Dolphins and much more. Gotta love that he’s flying up to the big game on Steve Ross’s luxuriously private jet. Definitely worth a listen: [display_podcast] . You can hear all of the WTKA podcasts here, anytime.
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Captain Mandich
U-M Bentley Library Farewell #88 (If you haven’t, give a listen to this 2009 interview before the Ohio State game)
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Season Ticket Renewals: Ohio & Permanent Seat Cushions
Often a happy day for many Michigan fans, my football season ticket renewal arrived in the mail today. Of note: * The first paragraph closes with this sentence: “In addition, we host Minnesota in the battle for the Little Brown Jug and the regular season culminates with ‘The Game’ against Ohio.” Beat Ohio. They are made of vinyl and measure 17” wide, 9.5” deep, and two inches high—which is a tad loftier than your run-of-the-mill seat cushion. Purists will cringe. While they don’t have the ugly chairback, it does change the aesthetics of the stadium when the place isn’t full. I noticed this at Spartan Stadium and elsewhere – you first see the smattering of chairbacks, then the rest of the stadium. I definitely recommend bringing a seat cushion—it makes the game more comfortable, that extra height over the person in front of you makes a difference, and it “saves” your spot during the never-ending battle to hold your butt’s turf inside the cramped rows. $32 is a tad steep.
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Getting Pantsed
One nugget in the Ohio State/Tressel tattoogate Notice of Allegations [full version] released today concerns the Ohio State gold pants - the little charm OSU players get if they beat Michigan.
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Can you Spot the Ringer? (1899)
Listed on eBay as a 1936 wire pic featuring the great Point-A-Minute back Willie Heston, it’s actually an 1899 team photo of the team from San Jose State: Someone went through a little process of elimination to identify Heston: It’s the first time I’ve seen Heston photographed in his pre-Wolverine days. Arguably the finest back in Michigan history, it’s true that he didn’t start his collegiate days as a Wolverine. He played two seasons in San Jose before following Yost to Ann Arbor. Yost discovered Heston on his short coaching stint in California 1899, where apparently he coached anyone with a pigskin in the gym. As I understand it, Yost not only coached the collegians at Stanford but also helped out on Heston’s San Jose squad, at local Lowell High school and taught the Stanford freshman team as well. Heston wasn’t the only fellow that seemed to have caught Yost’s eye out on the west coast. He also convinced San Jose prep star George Gregory to come to Ann Arbor and some claimed Yost offered Gregory cash, as much as $1500, to come to Michigan. His old boss, Stanford President David Jordan, was the primary accuser and it apparently played out for nearly a decade. Check out this entertaining news clipping from many years later, January 3, 1908, in fact,…
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‘Michigan From the Heart’ Radio (04-22 WTKA audio)
A few fellas from the hoops team up at Mott recently If you missed my RADIO BLITZ this morning, I joined the great Lucy Ann Lance on 1290 WLBY just after 8am, and then popped into the studio with Sam and Ira on the Michigan Insider for a segment around 8:30am. The topic? Primarily the Mott ‘Michigan From the Heart’ program which (among other things) arranges for the hospital visits by U-M athletes to the kids and their families at Mott. I spoke about the origins of the program back in 1991, and about my recent visit to the hospital to watch the student athletes in action with the kids. Did you know the program has it roots back in 1991? Did you know that Desmond (Magic) Howard had a role in its founding? Did you know it’s a 100% volunteer-run non-profit organization? Do you know the Michigan hoops and in particular the Fab Five was heavily involved at the beginning (and many of the guys are still today)? Do you know how you can ensure this program continues for decades to come? Here’s the WTKA segment – check it out: [display_podcast] More: * For info on the Sunday June 5, 2011 Michigan From the Heart Golf Outing at the U-M Golf Course, go to their dedicated website here. *…
