The MVictors guest post on mgoblog last week touched on two key firsts in Michigan football history: the inaugural game held in 1879 against Racine College, and the first touchdown scored in the Big House by Kip Taylor in 1927. While on vacation I started digging into John U. Bacon’s Blue Ice, the story of Michigan hockey. Naturally he discusses the roots of the hockey program including its first game, held January 12, 1923 against Wisconsin: Although Coach [Joseph] Barss had only five days to select and prepare his team before the inaugural content, “the individual play was sensational,” wrote a nameless reporter who, it must be said, knew so little about the game that he called the puck a ball.  “Michigan counted the first point,” he wrote, “when [Eddie] Kahn, by clever work, rushed the ball through the Badger defense for a goal.” So we learned the date of that first varsity game and that Eddie Kahn netted the first goal.  In later pages Blue Ice talks through Kahn’s amazing life as a groundbreaking brain surgeon. Like the first football game, this game went down to the wire: But in the second period Wisconsin evened the score at 1-1.  The Badgers made it stick throughout the third period and the first five-minute overtime.  In the second overtime, the report…

It’s always (well, usually) nice to get a link from another blog or website to a story you post.   I recently posted a slightly more detailed version of eBay Watch as a guest on mgoblog [see eBay Watch: Michigan Football Turns 100].  It received a few links outside the M blogosphere, including a few worth mentioning: mgoblue.com– Yes, the official athletics site enjoyed the post on the centennial and included a link in its thrice weekly M Notebook enewsletter yesterday.  Very cool.  Am I a sell-out now? The Ann Arbor Chronicle—   The breakthrough A2 News site also linked to the story, and included a nice summary. Also, a little different take on the “Chrysler” vs. “Crisler” blunder might make it into next month’s Ann Arbor Observer, so look out for that. Programming Note: Like Brian of mgblog, I am off on vacation for a few days and return next week.  (We’re both in Ibiza at a blogging/techno festival).

Take a look at this illustration from a 1932 newspaper featuring future Michigan head coach Fritz Crisler: Crisler is depicted giving an overhaul to “last year’s model” of a Princeton Tiger, trying to repaint the frightened kitty in the likeness of a ferocious feline.    The disheveled subject was a fitting representation of the 1931 Princeton squad who finished 1-7.   Fritz was brought in to fix the mess and he quickly did just that.   Over the next six seasons, he went 35-9-5, claiming national titles in 1933 and ’35.   The run ended when Fielding Yost lured him away from New Jersey to replace Harry Kipke in Ann Arbor. An early visit to Ann ArborIn the upcoming season, probably weeks after this cartoon was published, Crisler actually visited the town where he’d cement his legacy.   On October 29, 1932, Kipke, Harry Newman, and crew defeated the Tigers 14-7 in front of 26,000 homecoming fans.   Perhaps Crisler liked the digs.   The Victors would go on to take the national championship that season and the next. For those reading closely, you noticed that Princeton also claims the national title in 1933.  The most widely accepted method of determining the champ was the Dickinson Formula [more on this here].  Michigan earned the most points in ’33 and was awarded the Knute Rockne Trophy.  Despite…

Greetings, if you’ve been looking for a new eBay Watch post, the next edition will be published on the prolific mgoblog this evening, helping Brian Cook while he’s on vacation. I’ll start with an event celebrating the 100th anniversary of the football program and as usual, the tale winds from there. I think you’ll like it. Update: Just posted the guest column, dig it.

Did you catch the scene on ESPN of coach Beilein’s talk prior to the Connecticut game this evening? Nice speech and all, but was the real visitor’s locker room closed? Tell me they were at a nearby YMCA or something! Check it: I realize these are the lockers for the away team, but dude. The tiny lockers, the low bench seating, the portable white board and the topper: the Gatorade cooler for the drinks! Is there a creepy guy passing out washcloth-sized towels? Salami and Thorpe had nicer digs.