This site has profiled a few different Michigan championship rings that have ended up on eBay. Long time readers may recall: 1986 Rose Bowl Ring: This prompted a few follow-up posts, the first speculating on the original owner and then another, after a teammate confirmed my sleuthing. 1977 Championship Ring: Not as pretty as the others, but painful to see. 1980 Rose Bowl ring: Probably the wildest story, a ring alleged to a salesman sample bearing the name ‘McCartney’ on the side prompts a note from former Michigan and Colorado coach Bill McCartney’s wife Lyndi, asking that the ring be returned to her husband. Funny, when I was posting about these other rings it crossed my mind that this day could happen but hoped it never would. It did: Ah yes, the 1998 Rose Bowl, what a week, what a game. [Sidenote: I arrived in Los Angeles a couple of days before the game. I saw Morris Day and the Time at the House of Blues on 12/30, then I joined Run DMC at the Viper Room to ring in the New Year. I still have the T-shirt from the show, it was incredible]. As with the 1986 ring, the seller has offered a clue as to the original owner, but not much. From the auction description: “..this is a…
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Plaxico Ditty
The Plexico jokes and talk are getting tired but had to pass this along. In the final segment of Jim Rome today, a text’er sent this over: “Why’s everyone coming down on me? I just shot the man who shot me. Sincerely, Plaxcio.”
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Ann Arbor Adopt-a-Family program (updates!)
Update 12/4: I spoke to Jamie Adkins at the A2 police department this morning, the contact for the program. Not a surprise, but she told me that this year they’ve got the largest number of families in need. They are very flexible on how you can give. If you are interested see the details below or email Jamie Adkins at jdkins@a2gov.org. Original Post (with a few updates): Looking for a way to give back the holiday season? Sam Webb of WTKA 1050AM had on former professional golfer Debbie Williams-Hoak, one of the founders of the Ann Arbor Adopt-a-Family Program. She started this along with the Ann Arbor Police Department, and she notes that the athletic department is heavily involved. Here’s the audio of her visit to the studio, check the audio here. It’s a great way to help a local family. More importantly, here’s the details as I gathered them (I don’t think they have a website): You don’t need to adopt a whole family. They accept straight donations and gifts. You can mail checks to: Ann Arbor Police Dept 100 North Fifth Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48104 attn: Adopt a Family/Jamie Adkins If you want to donate a toy or want general information, contact Jamie Adkins at the Ann Arbor police department at 734-994-2858 or at jdkins@a2gov.org unless you’re…
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What Happened to MSU hockey fans?
Driving in the Lansing area this morning I tuned into Tim Staudt’s show on 730AM WVFN, the sports radio show in that area. Near the end of the 9-to-noon Staudt on Sports show, they were giving away tickets to tonights Michigan State vs. North Carolina game at Ford Field, and were remarking about how many tickets were still available for the game. I’m watching the game right now and there’s no doubt many seats went unsold. But then he mentioned that the station had “volumes” of tickets available for Saturday’s Michigan-Michigan State hockey game at Munn Ice Arena, and how times had changed. I was floored. I’d heard things were bad and had a few commenters on this site describe the Spartan home ice as “the library” and the “Munnsoleum“. I grew up in the East Lansing area. During the mid-80s my dad had Michigan State hockey tickets at Munn and I joined him to many games. I loved it. The Spartans led by Ron Mason had great teams and the place was electric. In my memory at least, the atmosphere was in the conversation with Yost. The student section was hyped up and dropped clever chants. According to the Wikipedia page, Munn was sold out for 323 games from 1985 to 2004. I know there were a few down…
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Red Hot Poker in your Eye
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Coaching Legends in Atlantic City (1957)
This edition of eBay Watch takes a look at a special pint glass. Like I’ve found with many of these memorabilia auctions the description doesn’t quite make sense and certainly doesn’t do the item justice: Up for bid we are listing 9 vintage football glasses all in mint condition. This one is Herbert ” Fritz ” Crisler from the University of Michigan 1957. The top of the glass reads Atlantic City National Football Clinic. The back lists the Clinic staff members. It measures 5-3/4″ tall. Great piece for the collector. Paypal preferred or money order only. Yes, it’s an old pint glass for a football clinic with famous Michigan coach and athletic director Fritz Crisler on it. That got my attention. But on the back of the glass it lists the rest of the staff for the event and it’s remarkable. Here’s a photo of the piece which recently sold on eBay for $15: Check out some of the legends that attended the conference in the city where the sand turns to gold from March 11-14, 1957: The top of the list of coaches is the great Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant, who at the time was still the head man at Texas A&M. 1957 was his final season for the Aggies as his “momma called” him back to Alabama where he…
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Sportsman of the Year
Word.
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Rodriguez’s birthplace sparks a Wikifeudia
In the wake of John Bacon’s Michigan Today article, and my post [Rodriguez of the Midway] noting that RichRod was actually born in Chicago, a few admins at Wikipedia are at odds whether to change the birth place on the coach’s page. It still lists Grant Town, WV as of the writing of this post [12/1/08]. Someone linked to MVictors from one of the open Wikipedia Talk pages, which I gather is like a forum for Wikipedistrators to discuss entries on the open source encyclopedia site, and in particular, to build consensus on things like format, sources and general content. The debate over the Chicago birth “news” thanks to Bacon is pretty heated, you can read the whole thing here, pan down to the Born in Chicago? heading about 1 page down. The Wikipediphites are debating the credibility of Bacon, of his interview, of whether this is enough to make the change in the entry and more. A few selections pulled out from the debate: From user ‘MichiganCharms’: “The article from MichiganToday, while it contains a few errors, is written by John Bacon who is a noted author and a reliable source. But aside from that, Rodriguez himself is the one talking about moving to West Virginia” From user ‘Jnpmd’: “Did you actually witness this interview? Just because it has…
