Michigan is set to release their self-imposed sanctions in about 30 minutes. File this under FWIW, but despite what some maintain it’s not the first time Michigan has been mixed up with serious off-the-field issues. I’ve covered a couple of these incidents on these pages and beyond, but thought it’d be a good time to review.
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Jalen joins Rome (5-21 audio)
Former Fab-Fiver and NBA analyst Jalen Rose joined Jim Rome Friday to talk NBA playoffs and more. Two clips of note for you. First, Rose is talking about about the emergence of the Celtics Rajon Rondo which prompts Rome to ask him about the leadership on the Fab 5. In the second clip, Jalen talks a little bit about his future in basketball: [display_podcast] Related: Emotional night for Jalen Your favorite Fab 5 Story
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Intrepidus, Michigan’s Last Living Wolverine (1939)
Check out (above) this excellent wire photo of a live mascot wolverine. The auction description says it dates to October 13, 1939 and was retrieved from the archives of Sport Magazine. The beast just might have been trotted out before the Michigan-Iowa match the next day, a game in which Tom Harmon dominated everyone including Iowa’s great Nile Kinnick. Here's the story of Michigan's attempt to have actual live mascots on campus:
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Troughs Pee, Stalls and Splash
Various parts of Michigan Stadium are being overhauled as part of the stadium renovation. Last season I heard that some of the troughs in the men’s bathrooms were replaced with traditional urinals with dividers. For the ladies, the above photo is a decent representation of what we’re dealing with and they cover just about every wall and along with a few traditional stalls. As I understand it, the remaining troughs will be replaced this summer. This topic came up on the WTKA 1050AM morning show and Sam expressed his disdain for the community drains, citing the hazards involved when adjacent streams go astray. I’m not with Sam on this. For me, anytime I have to leave my stadium seat I’ve got one mission: return as quickly as I can. Unless they expand the size of the bathrooms there’s no way you can achieve the throughput the troughs provide with stalls or urinals with dividers. If I recall correctly, years ago legendary AD Don Canham removed the mirrors in the women’s bathrooms to get ladies in and out quicker. Let’s hope that there are enough new bathrooms to avoid the bottlenecks. As far as Sam’s fear of getting hit with the occasional errant trickle, that’s certainly a risk with the troughs but in my experience, you rarely end up elbow-to-elbow, even…
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Dufek’s Homer – The Call (audio)
Love this photo – mgoblue.com Certainly by now you’ve heard of Michigan’s epic comeback from down 14 runs to Northwestern this weekend on Senior Day. The story made it to SportsCenter and prompted ESPN to ask, ‘Are you Serious?’ WTKA’s Ira Weintraub called the game on the radio and was kind enough to forward over a clip of his call the Dufek’s bomb. Per Ira, “Not a great call, but not bad for a guy who has now called 8 baseball games in the last 10 years!!” Not to bad indeed, and note Weintraub using the Harwell technique of letting the crowd and band paint the scene after the blast: [display_podcast] . For more, check out frequent mgoblog diarist FormerlyAnonymous who gave his account of the game. (HT: Ace @ TWB) And speaking of WKTA 1050AM, Rich Maloney’s call into Sam and Ira this morning is worth a listen. Maloney effectively acknowledged the was over at 13-0, telling his players that no team of his has ever quit during a game, and it wouldn’t be happening today. That said, he did tell the guys that the wind was blowing out and their pitching was a bit depleted. Who knew? Unfortunately I don’t see the podcast up there yet; it is comes up I’ll toss up a link.
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Swing to Cure Diabetes Event (Recap, Photos)
Hewlett welcoming everyone to the event An excellent event put on by former Michigan QB Rich Hewlett as today he held his 2nd ‘Swing to Cure Diabetes’ event benefitting the U-M Comprehensive Diabetes Center and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). Coach Lloyd Carr and Cathy Schembechler were the honorary co-chairs once again. Joining Carr and Schembechler amongst the golfing groups were coach Jerry Hanlon, broadcaster Jim Brandstatter, former NFL coordinator Sherman Lewis, and several of Hewlett’s former U-M teammates. A couple years ago Mrs. Schembechler donated a football that sat in Bo’s TV room signed by Bo and Don Canham for the silent auction. This year she brought something quite unique – a handwritten set of talking points (on a manila file folder) that Bo would use during public speaking events. It sold for nearly $1,000 and I was able to get a shot of it from the winner, here’s just a clip: Coach Carr made it around the course to meet and take pics with most of the golfing groups but not mine :( . A couple more photos from the day: Coach Hanlon donning his “We Stayed” lid Brandy with Cathy Schembechler before we teed off My favorite hole on the course
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Response to the NCAA
I caught this in a mgoboard post last night, and Brian mentioned it today above the virtual fold. Apparently President Coleman gave a speech to Boston-area alums and noted that U-M would be reporting self-imposed sanctions to the NCAA later this month. I sent a note off to media relations to confirm this. Bruce Madej responded thusly via email: "As we said during the February 23rd press conference, May 24th is the date we must have the self-imposed infractions to the NCAA. After the NCAA receives and reads the report, we will release the information the following day." Emphasis mine of course. I guess this snuck up on me, but it’s clear in the letter to Coleman from back in February that the NCAA wanted a response by May 24: And apparently that response will indeed include self-imposed infractions. Take: the sooner the better for this stuff. Let’s get it out there and move on. As far as the next steps, the NCAA will review U-M’s recommendations and respond on August 13-14.
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WTKA 1050AM Mott Takeover Is on, Details
To Donate: 1-800-559-2657 Listen Live: Click here Live Video stream of the event: It works! Podcasts throughout the day: Here. More Details: from WTKA.com The line-up: 7 – 9 am – Lloyd Carr and Charles Woodson 9 – 10 am – Jerry Hanlon 10 – 11 am – Steve Hutchinson 11 am – Noon – Gary Moeller Noon – 1 pm – Brian Griese 1 – 2 pm – Jake Long 2 – 3 pm – Jeff Backus 3 – 4 pm – Jerame Tuman and Aaron Shea 4 – 5 pm – Mike Hart, Ron Bellamy and Drew Henson 5 – 6 pm – David and Jan Brandon and Rich Rodriguez Here’s a snap from the video feed and umm, is Coach Carr wearing a name tag? I think folks are clear on who that is!:
