Thanks to a tip from loyal reader James Joseph, check out this pile of Michigan and college-football related material (programs, media guides, books and more) currently up for bid on eBay. Better yet—the proceeds from the auction go directly to support the Cancer Kicker himself—the great Phil Brabbs. Editorial: Dude, I know it’s to cure cancer, but selling your copies of Natural Enemies and Bo’s Lasting Lessons? Those books are sacred! Here’s the full lot of items:
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Mud Bowl Moved to November 6
Per a source at SAE, due to a student break during Homecoming (October 16), the annual Mud Bowl game will be played November 6. Bummer. Not only is it three weeks later (and colder), this game should be played on Homecoming weekend. Related: SAE Mud Bowl 2009: Recap & Photos Kids Having Fun: Mud Bowls and Protests
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Desmond joins Sklar Brothers on Rome (08-27 audio)
’94 Michigan grads Randy and Jason Sklar guest-hosted Jim Rome’s radio show Friday and as they do, brought a little Michigan feel to the show. In the second hour they were joined by Desmond: [display_podcast] They discussed the timing of the Ohio State-Michigan game, the BCS in general, Reggie Bush giving his Heisman Trophy back and NCAA violations, on the upcoming season, his sleeper team in the Big Ten (Wisconsin), and the outlook for Michigan and Rich Rodriquez (needs 8 or 9 wins, or seven with Ohio State), "no doubt in my mind they will score points." Howard also joked about Bill Martin disappearing earlier than originally expected. Love the outro music.
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"Mr. Brandon Expects to be Fully Compensated"
I got a chuckle out of this, from WTKA 1050AM yesterday. Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports is apparently an old friend of AnnArbor.com’s Mike Rothstein. When word got out that Rothstein dinged the luxury sled belonging to new athletic director Dave Brandon, Passan pounced on his old pal: [display_podcast] I hope Passan dropped something like, “Mr. Rothstein, you do know that Mr. Brandon is a very powerful man, right?”
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Beanie Bowl Media
Michigan held its ‘Beanie Bowl’, a full team scrimmage in the Big House including band, PA announcer and the whole deal. A few videos released: Stonum took the opening kick-off back. Good and bad I guess, right? Line drive kick, taken at the 10 and no one touched him: Also (via a tweet from Victors_Valiant), here’s Frank Beckmann talking on the Huge Show during the scrimmage, you can hear the PA announcer and the band in the background. Frank "Blue Skies" Beckmann.
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eBay Watch: Hand Him the Hustler Award (1990+)
While Wolverine fans tend to toss any great individual performance that occurred during a loss in the circular file, there are a few that stand out. One of those is tailback Jon Vaughn’s 201-yard rushing performance in Gary Moeller’s coaching debut, a thrilling 28-24 loss in South Bend in 1990. Thanks to eBay, we now also know that Vaughn had a little more than game film and the occasional ache/pain to remember that great effort. Evidently Vaughn was the game’s ‘Offensive Hustler’: Yes, apparently Coach Mo not only dealt out helmet stickers, he also handed out Little League second place trophies for individual efforts. Per the auction description: Very rare one of a kind John [sic] Vaughn offensive hustler award for the game on sep 15 1990 vs the notre dame fighting irish. The trophy stand approx 14 inches high. The trophy does have some wear in areas. Please note that this trophy does not specifically mention his name. However i just recently purchased a memoribilia [sic] grouping from John [sic] Vaughn. Vaughn earned more prestigious honors at the end of the season, particular co-Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year. Against Moeller’s advice, Vaughn bolted to the NFL after the season and had a short career in the bigs. Other Hustlers eBay Here’s a couple other guys who deserved…
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Did Irving K. Pond Score First?
Richard Retyi of U-M media relations posted a nice story recently on mgoblue.com, talking about the first touchdown in Michigan football history, widely attributed to a gent named Irving K. Pond. From the piece: The team photo features 13 handsome gentlemen with team captain Dave N. DeTar standing in the back row with his mates. The team did not have a head coach until 1891. Hand written notes on the back of the team picture read: “All except Collins H. Johnson were in Chicago for the game with Racine College on May 30, 1879. Petit was substitute and did not get into the game. Touchdown by Pond. Field goal by DeTar.“ Pond described the feat in his autobiography: My touchdown was made towards the end of the first half and involved a long distance run to where the ball must be grounded directly behind and between the goal posts … To Avoid being tackled I was forced to mount the bleachers and run eastward along them until I was opposite the goal when I stopped suddenly and — fearing that a touchdown in the bleachers would not count– jumped over the heads of my pursuers to the ground.” You’ve got a few sources claiming that Pond scored the first Michigan touchdown that’s certainly the accepted history. The ‘DeTar’ who made…
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Rodriguez on the Competition (08-25 audio)
mgoTim’s presser notes from yesterday. On the quarterback competition, here’s a clip where he explains how tight the competition really is (even tighter than last year when he played three in the opener). He hoped he’d have the reps split 60-40 by now, wasn’t able to do it. [display_podcast] He also scoffed at the notion that he needs to settle on one guy and fans won’t know until kick-off of the UConn game (does that mean we’re taking the ball?). I’m taking RichRod’s lead and declaring I’m done worrying about the quarterback situation. Tate rebounded, Devin’s much better than he looked in the spring and Denard seems to be the leader and the team favorite. I don’t think we’re going to get anything else. The big question for me - How does Denard fare in the pocket when pressured? We’ll find out September 4.
