This Week In Michigan Football History, as played during the WTKA 1050AM 'Countdown to Kickoff' held November 28, 2020 before the Michigan-Penn State game. Michigan has three Heisman Trophy Winners (Tom Harmon, Desmond Howard and Charles Woodson). We consider former Michigan players that probably WOULD have won the Heisman has it been awarded prior to 1935 - including Willie Heston, Bennie Oosterbaan, and Harry Newman. And finally we look at Tom Harmon's brilliant career and in particular the 1940 season, concluding with his dominant performance against Ohio State.
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The Poison Water Myth
The next nugget of Jug Lore gets into why U-M bought the jug in the first place. Did Michigan and Fielding H. Yost actually fear that Minnesota might taint or poison the Wolverine water supply? Is that really why they bought the jug – to control the source of Willie Heston’s water? Let’s examine this: If you dig this videos, like/subscribe/share/comment. As always, get all of your Little Brown Jug Lore here…
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The Life and Career of Fielding H. Yost
A video of my complete guest lecture at U-M course EDUC 212: The History of Intercollegiate Athletics. The topic is the career of Fielding H. Yost. In Part I we cover his early life and coaching career before Michigan, and just into his first season in Ann Arbor. Part II gets into his coaching and AD career, and legacy.
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Finding Miss Daniels
An interesting nugget of Michigan football lore. It starts with a story Willie Heston told radio show host Bill Flemming on WUOM's 'Hello Alumni' show in 1951. Heston explains the influence of a California teacher and U-M alumna named "Miss Daniels" on his decision to attend and play football in Ann Arbor for Yost. Check it out:
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Where is Willie?! Kryk on Heston, Carter, Woodson
Super pissed. ESPN's CFB150 list snubbed a bunch of all-time greats. But Willie Heston? John Kryk explains how bad of a snub this really was.
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Top 25 Michigan Football Players of All-Time
One method is to compare players from the same era—and I get that—but that’s not what I went for here. With some input from a few Wolverine historians here’s a list of the top twenty-five Michigan football players of all-time.
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The Michigan All-Stars (1901)
I rarely post eBay newspaper artifacts but occasionally there are exceptional items out there. Check this out – a November 24, 1901 edition of The Sunday Inter Ocean featuring a few of Yost’s finest from his first Point-A-Minute squad: Left to right you’ve got Willie Heston, “Boss” Weeks, Curtis Redden, Hugh White, Neil Snow, Arthur Redner (not Kidner), Bruce Shorts (Not ‘Shots’ – but maybe that was his nickname in the local taverns). This would make a nice ornament on your Michigan man cave or within your Wolverines shrine.
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John Maulbetsch’s Diamond (1914)
From reader and memorabilia collector Mark Bomia: Over the last couple years I acquired the entire John Maulbetsch estate. Maully was an All-American halfback for Michigan in 1914 and member of the College HOF. Some of these items, like most of his scrapbooks, I’ve donated to Bentley Library. One of the coolest pieces I still possess is Maully’s 1914 All-American ring, given to him by the “Ann Arbor Boys” in December 1914 when he was selected by Walter Camp. It is a gold ring with a .7 carat diamond with a block M on one side and “AA” on the other. The band has a congratulating inscription. Let me know if this is something your readers may enjoy. I can send pics, if interested. Naturally, I wanted to see the pics – pretty sweet: Bomia later shared, “The ring is 14k gold with a .7 carat VSI, D color diamond. The inscription on the inner band states ‘To Maully Maulbetsch from the Ann Arbor Boys Dec 1914.’ I’ve also included a signed letter from Yost congratulating Maully on his AA selection..” Maulbetsch was one of the first national celebrities for Michigan football, and he was featured in a 2017 season episode of ‘This Week in Michigan Football History’: He grew up in Ann Arbor and actually started career at Adrian…
