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.
-
-
American Pickers Coming This Way
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.
-
Coach Mattison’s Ring (with Audio)
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:
-
Spring Practice ! (A Few Photos)
They broke this huddle with “Beat Ohio!” Yes, Urban Meyer was on hand checking out Coach Hoke and crew
-
What’s in My Bag? Michigan’s Lion Kim
Golf Digest has a cool regular feature called ‘What’s in My Bag’ where they run down what a pro carries in his golf bag each week. During a recent visit in March in the basement of the U-M Clubhouse, Lion Kim was kind enough to spend a few minutes running through the equipment he’s bringing to Augusta in April
-
College Football’s Centennial (1969)
The back recognizes Bo’s 1969 team highlighted by the great 24-12 victory of Ohio State. At first glance, it looks like a major screw-up as the centennial of Michigan football would be in 1979, a decade later (when they would really screw things up.)
-
Bacon on The Fab Five and Fishman’s Motion
John Bacon’s Blog is required reading each week & he recently posted a few thoughts on the Fab Five documentary and the legacy of the controversial quintet. Bacon broke the M-14 roll-over story a decade and a half ago (which sparked the investigation) and he ties that story to Fisher’s culpability: But I had to wonder: If the press could figure all this out in about 24 hours, why couldn’t Steve Fisher connect the dots right under his nose over several years? They say he wasn’t part of the payola plan, and that’s probably true. But you’d have to be willfully blind not to see its effects by 1996. When Fisher was fired, he said they’d built an elite program, which was true, and they’d “done it the right way,” which wasn’t – and by the time he was fired, he had to know it. Bacon added this: To this day, Fisher has never accepted any responsibility for what happened on his watch, and Chris Webber has never apologized for taking over a quarter-million dollars from a booster. There’s always interesting commentary on his site & Bacon usually joins in to respond. This time Bacs’ post elicited a comment Steve Fishman, the man who represented Webber in the federal criminal investigation: …there is one thing in the story that still…
-
We Won’t Get Screwed Again
Right there! via Yost Built (via mgoblog) Strange days. Beilein bested Izzo, the Vest is up Crap Creek sans paddle & we didn’t get screwed in the hockey playoffs. As the minutes turned to hours on the replay review, I was thinking the refs knew the puck probably crossed the line but couldn’t make a definitive call. I was at Fort Fun last year. Good on them for growing a collective pair, talking it out and making the right call. HAGOAL, Go Blue. If you ask any fanbase I’m guessing they’ll tell you their team is screwed by the refs more often than not. Wolverine fans have a little list of the most egregious in our heads and this is always at the top (another hat tip to my pal Steve Sap for passing it along): This is of course a wire photo of Charles White’s phantom touchdown against the Wolverines in the 1979 Rose Bowl. The back official is calling Michigan first down while numbnuts is signaling a USC touchdown. The LA Times described how that ref discussion played went: Referee Paul Kamanski cast the tiebreaking vote, saying that the line judge, Gilbert Marchman, was in charge of forward progress of the ball. Since the line judge was emphatic that the ball had broken the plane of the goal…
