• The Uniform Changes Since Bo Era

    April 4, 2011 /

     The “All Whites” bring good luck as you can see (via Sports Illustrated) [Ed. See the full Uniform Timeline for more detail.  This post inspired the idea.] A little history on the the subtle (and a few not-so-subtle) tweaks to the Michigan uniform in the past four decades via historian and Wolverine uniform expert Steve Sapardanis.  This was basically off the top of his head (!) – so feel free to review and comment: 1969 – Bo removes the numbers from the SIDES of the helmets and adds award stickers (solid yellow football-shaped decals) 1974-1975 – White pants for road games.  Road unis changed to all white with thin blue and yellow stripes on the end of the jersey sleeves, and matched in same stripes down the outsides of the pants.  (Check out all whites in action in the ‘76 Orange Bowl). 1975 – UM changes the facemask color from gray to blue.  Decals get a little facelift – a snarling Wolverine head with laces is added 1976 – UM goes with YELLOW pants for both home AND away games.  M switches to BIKE helmets for the entire team (90% of the players make the switch – a few still wear MacGregor, Rawlings, or Riddell helmets).   A slight change to the helmet design – the middle-strip “tail” is removed and…

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  • BCS Bracketology (We Still Lose)

    April 3, 2011 /

    Darren “My Main Man” Everson dropped another interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal this weekend.   He took the top 64 college football teams ranked via the BCS formula (I’m assuming you can get the data extended out to 64 teams?) and dropped them into an NCAA tournament field.  (BCS #1 Auburn was dropped in the slot held by NCAA top seed Ohio State, and so on).  Then they played out the tournament seed by seed as it’s gone thus far.  Check it out: Even in hypothetical exercises crossing sports we can’t win.   Rich Rod’s 2010 team collides in an improbable match-up with, umm, Mississippi State.  We lost again.  Everson’s a Michigan grad so I’m guessing he chuckled at this one:  

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  • The House that Jack Built: The Ultimate Wolverine Den

    April 2, 2011 /

    There are a few places in Ann Arbor where you can view some of the finest Michigan football memorabilia in the land. If you can get inside, the museum at Schembechler Hall features helmets, jerseys and other relics from the early days of the program. Up on North Campus the wonderful archives at the U-M Bentley Historical Library contain an extensive array of documents, photos and news clippings covering the history of Michigan athletics. Neither collection is quite like what lifelong Ann Arbor resident Jack Briegel has at his home.

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  • American Pickers Coming This Way

    March 31, 2011 /

    Do you know these guys? That’s Mike Wolfe and his partner Frank Fritz, stars of History Channel’s American Pickers.   According to AnnArbor.com, the treasure hunting pair is coming to town looking for a good pick: Show producer Jeff Eggleston confirmed on Tuesday that the show will be coming to Michigan, but said the itinerary is not set. The show plans to shoot in the area sometime between April 12 and April 24, he said. So why do I care?  I love the show but more importantly, check out what’s on Eggleston’s list of items they are looking for on their visit: Michigan sports memorabilia: Unique pieces related to any of Michigan’s college or professional sports teams. I try to catch the holy trinity of memorabilia shows on Monday: Antiques Roadshow, Pawn Stars and American Pickers hoping that one day they’ll stumble upon an item related Michigan football and dial up yours truly to provide some expert input.   (I even stretched this wish to Detroit’s Hardcore Pawn as I told Hondo Carpenter the other day.) I reached out to the show’s research department to let them know I’m available if they find anything, and I suggested a couple places/people to talk to about their collections.  If you know of an awesome collection they should check out, email americanpickers [at] cineflix.com.

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  • Coach Mattison’s Ring (with Audio)

    March 30, 2011 /

    The media met with Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Mattison at midday today. My favorite portion was near the end, when someone cool asked him about why he wears his ‘M’ championship ring, then he talked about the Big Ten championship game & finally Angelique asked him about Denard. Clip: [display_podcast] _ * Photos from yesterday’s practice.   And speaking of photos, one guy that Mattison likes (but admits he’s got a ways to go) is Cam Gordon.  From yesterday’s practice:

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