I did some house cleaning recently on the eBay Watch Index, the year-by-year tally of all the eBay Watch posts from these pages from over the years.   The list now spans over 150 entries and given the excellent lists floating around on the web as we await kickoff of the season, I thought it’d be a good time to run down my favorites to date. Counting down from 10: 10.  Michigan Baseball Visits Japan (1932) (posted December 15, 2008) I don’t feature common items like tickets or programs very often in this series, but this was one special stub.  It’s a torn ticket from one of the games the Michigan baseball team played in Japan in 1932.  How this ended up preserved and in an a US auction I have no idea.  An MVictors reader was kind enough to translate shortly after I posted it: From an excellent summary published in Michigan Today in 1998, it all started with baseball teams from Japan doing a college tour in the US years earlier, with many of the stops in Ann Arbor from 1911 to 1925. Then in 1929, Michigan coach Ray Fisher got an invite from the Meiji University inviting the maize and blue to visit Japan as “ambassadors of good will.” Fielding Yost and the board of athletics approved the…

Brian over at the U-M Bentley Library was thumbing through the Fritz Crisler-era archives and found this gem and was kind enough pass it along.  Huge hat tip to Brian. It’s pretty standard fare these days for football coaches to make players sign some sort of pledge prior to the season.   Well, Brian found a 1939 version filled out by Old 98, who apparently spent the summer back home in Gary between his sophomore and junior seasons.   Here’s a look: Crisler wanted to know if they were enrolled in classes and if any were scheduled a) after 3:30pm, or b) Saturday mornings.   Harmon hadn’t enrolled yet. Then there’s this.   Obviously smoking was more common in 1939 (around 66% of men under 40 smoked according to big Tim’s project) and I’m not sure how well folks understood the impact the heaters have on athletic performance.  Clearly Crisler had a clue and apparently Harmon enjoyed the cool flavor of his smokes: In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell writes, “”It’s not that smoking is cool. It’s that smokers are cool.”  Harmon was cool, Daddy-O, at least through July.   I also love, ‘Are you smoking now’, as in, ‘Are you smoking as you are filling out this form, you nicotine addict?’  It’s unknown if Harmon had started to go for the gusto quite yet.?…

Via a release from the Big Ten Network. BTN announced several new shows for this fall including this spicy meatball, to be hosted by Michigan legend Dan Dierdorf, dig this: Big Ten Film Vault (Tuesdays, 8 PM ET): With hours of rare footage, some of which has never aired on national television, the Big Ten Film Vault debuts on Sept. 7 and will feature yearbook and highlight shows from the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Fans will see rare mic’ed up footage of Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and other Big Ten coaches. The narration for these shows was originally recorded by broadcasting legends such as Chick Hearn, Jack Brickhouse, Tom Harmon and Bill Flemming. The show will be hosted by Michigan alum and Pro Football Hall of Famer Dan Dierdorf. BTN will offer a preview of this and the other new shows next week during media days, and will post them on the network’s Facebook (www.facebook.com/thebigtennetwork) and YouTube (www.youtube.com/bigtennetwork) pages, as well as at BigTenNetwork.com.

Coach Rodriguez joined midday host Ryan Ermanni on WDFN today.  The audio, thanks to DFN: [display_podcast] [Ed 7-31.  Didn’t have time for the recap.  Here’s a rundown from Scout.com/GoBlueWolverine user miguel81.  The only thing he didn’t note, RR referred to his wife as “Miss Rita”:] The juices are flowing…things just around the corner. Rich had the seniors over at the house the other day…he thinks they’re really hungry and cant wait to get out there.  Rita cooked, played games, etc. On the Big Ten media day?  Expects the “drama questions”…par for the course…hopes most are about football and the coming season. On turnovers and negative yardage plays?  They really worked on that in spring…more hitting the qbs (other than spring game).  Thinks they did a good job.  It will be a point of emphasis in August. Reason to look forward?  Think they made progress.  Need to improve defensively, thinks they have better numbers..should see better production.  Been humbled..should be hungry and improved football team. Base 3-3-5?  Would tell you but I’d have to kill ya.  Did a few schemes in the spring, some of what coaches developed in the spring, a bit of what they did last year..play to the strengths of the personnel Will you have to win those high scoring games?  I hope not.  UM has great success…

Hockey season ticket holders hold a nice email from AD Dave Brandon today.  In it, Super Dave reminisced about last season, evoked Bo Schembechler and thanked my fellow ticketeers for their patronage:   Also included was a 25 question survey where you were asked a variety of questions like how many games you attend, who goes with you, what you do with your unsold tickets, if you’d be interested in transferring your tickets to someone else, and of course what you’d improve about the game day experience at old Yost.  As far as improvements, I started to type “bathrooms” (which aren’t that bad) but then remembered the biggest issue at Yost: Yeesh.  I guess the scoreboards themselves aren’t so bad—it’s the horrible video screens.  Fans deserve to see all these terrible calls replayed over and over again inside the rink.  The best feature offered today is the “slot machine” effect on out of town scores.  Dave, pump some technology upstairs next to all those banners.

  “Head!  Do you want to go to a football game?  I’ve got your GIANT TICKET right here!” It’s always a great day when season tickets arrive.   This year’s cover art features various views of Michigan Stadium from over the years including a great shot on the original construction in 1927.  The shot is taken (I believe) some time prior to the dedication as it doesn’t include the temporary seating around the bowl that Yost  fashioned prior to the Ohio State game.   Very well done, here’s the UMass ticket:   If that’s the Ohio Wesleyan game, then coach Red Simmons is in this photo  As a bonus you also get a super sized ticket to the UConn game.   I mean it’s bigger than life itself.  HUGE: Don’t have season tickets?  Never fear, StubHub is here:

In March I posed this question – Are any original Michigan Stadium bonds out there?  Given the lack of comments on the post and emails (none) on this matter, I’ve only confirmed that there are loud crickets in Ann Arbor.  An email from Brian at the great U-M Bentley Library this week was pretty enlightening (and a little discouraging) as far as the prospect of one of these being out there: UM records show most were redeemed.  Not only redeemed, but also destroyed by burning: A March 17, 1955 document states: The Board in Control of Intercollegiate Athletics … hereby certifies that it has proved the following described documents and has caused same to be completely destroyed by burning them to ashes in the presence of the undersigned witness. (1) Stadium Bonds issued by the Board in Control … numbered 1 to 3000, inclusive, except bond numbered 2393, together with all unmatured coupons attached thereto, all of said Bonds thus destroyed having previously been paid in full, duly retired and cancelled. . . . ”     HO Crisler Marcus Plant Norma Bentley I thought you might be interested in this information.  I’d love to know if there are any Bonds that weren’t redeemed and are still out there, but like I said, there couldn’t me many.  I think there were…

[ed.  Enjoy this guest post by James Dickson of AnnArbor.com.  James offered to post his coverage of this event on MVictors and of course, I was thrilled.] On Saturday night, the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund held its second annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The Gridiron Greats fund came about in 2007 to assist players from what former Detroit Lions DT Roger Brown called the “B.C. Era” – Before Cash – and has granted upwards of $2 million to former players and their families since its founding. 14 men were inducted into the hall of fame, mostly men who played or coached for the University of Michigan, Michigan State, or the Detroit Lions at some point in their careers. Among the inductees were legendary Detroit Lions Lomas Brown and Lem Barney, broadcaster Pat Summerall and headliner Mike Ditka, who has served as the public face of the nonprofit since its founding. Four Michigan Men were inducted into the Hall:  Lloyd Carr, former head coach, and retiring associate athletic director, “The Specialist” Bob Chappuis, war hero and star of Michigan’s 1947 national championship-winning team, John Greene, an end under coach Fritz Crisler who went on to break barriers as a Detroit Lion, and Michigan’s new athletic director David Brandon. Lloyd Carr Without Lloyd Carr, the University of Michigan would have to…