This Week in Michigan Football History is back for Season 9, featuring a sweeping look of Meechigan football over several decades including – 1887, and the origins of the Notre Dame rivalry. And a several of canceled games: 2001 and the response to and reschedule following 9/11 1963 reschedule after Thanksgiving following the Kennedy assassination. 1918 handling WWI and the wicked worldwide flu epidemic Audio: Check it out Saturday on the WTKA 1050AM pregame show, live from Soaring Eagle Casino. Props to Ira Weintraub on the 1s and 2s, and To Hell With Notre Dame! Go Blue. Script: Tonight we renew the on-again, off-again, on-again storied rivalry with our Natural Enemy, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The history of our prestigious pigskin institutions is very much intertwined starting with your beloved Wolverines traveling to South Bend to teach them how to play this sport back in 1887. Immediately after that lesson we taught them another lesson, beating them 8-0 – providing an early jump on the all time win percentage race. The rivalry really heated up 2 decades later after the Irish (coached by Yost protege’ Frank “Shorty” Longman) finally won a game in 1909, then due an eligibility dispute the 1910 game was ABRUPTLY CANCELLED, literally hours before the scheduled kickoff. Things would never, and I mean EV-ER – be…
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Big Ten Conference Divisional/Championship Tie-Breakers (2021)
The Big Ten divisional tiebreakers rules in a nutshell: Via bigten.org The Big Ten football championship will be decided by a game played between the two division champions. A team or teams that are not eligible to participate in a postseason football bowl game as a result of NCAA and/or Big Ten sanctions shall not be eligible to participate in the Big Ten Football Championship Game. The winner of the Big Ten Football Championship Game will represent the conference in one of the bowls that comprise the College Football Playoff – the Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, Peach, Rose, or Sugar Bowl. If the Big Ten Champion is ranked No. 1, 2, 3, or 4 in the final College Football Playoff poll, the team will play in a semifinal game. Otherwise, the Big Ten Champion will play in the Rose Bowl Game (when not hosting a semifinal) or the Cotton, Fiesta, or Peach Bowl. The following procedure will determine the representative from each division in the event of a tie: If two teams are tied, the winner of the game between the two tied teams shall be the representative.If three or more teams are tied, steps 1 through 8 will be followed until a determination is made. If only two teams remain tied after any step (or sub-step), the winner of the…
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Gearing Up for 2018
A couple quick announcements as we count down to the season opener: For starters, I’m happy to report that the prolific Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis returns for another season of Dr. Sap’s Decals following games this season. I’m returning for Season 9 of ‘This Week in Michigan Football History‘ on the WTKA 1050AM pregame show. The ep for Notre Dame is in the can and replete with Bo’s “To Hell With Notre Dame” drops (cheers to Ira) just like you like it. I expect to guest lecture at U-M in EDUC 212 – The History of College Athletics this fall. Watch here and Twitter for updates. Other regular features: Sights and Sounds following home games Uniform Timeline updates as they happen Snark on Twitter during all games Go Blue. Hit me on Twitter with questions, theories, tips and what-have-you. P.S. If you missed this, read Cody from The Athletic’s piece on Greg Kinney and the Bentley Library. I contributed to the piece and it’s righteous.
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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…
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One from Each (Michigan Football ticket stubs 1927-2017)
One ticket from each season since Michigan has played in the Big House: Why not? Random Factoid: Did you know that there are only 2 seasons where the home ticket did not display the year that the game was being played? Indeed. First in 1967, as the ticket simply includes a logo and the words “One Hundred Fiftieth Year” celebrating the 150th anniversary of our beloved institution. The other instance? That’d be last year, the season of infinite mediumness, which happened to be the 200th anniversary of U-M but no mention of this event is included on last year’s tickets. HT to Mike D for pulling this video together. I’m down with Mike D and it ain’t no hassle. Go Blue. Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Ohio State-Michigan 2017 (Game Photos)
A selection of photos from the 2017 U-M-Ohio State game held in Ann Arbor from photog Mark Kolanowski. He did a great job out there Saturday!
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Bogus Votes (1973), Wear 3 Coats (1950) | This Week In Michigan Football History
This edition of #TWIMFbH first goes back to a dark day in recent lore, the 1973 Big Ten AD vote that sent the Buckeyes, not your beloved Meechigan men to the Rose Bowl. But then we shoot back to 1950 to one of the wildest games in college football history – to be forever known as The Snow Bowl. Go Blue! Here’s the clip: ?TWIMFbH is sponsored by Hillside Terrace of Ann Arbor. This segment can be heard on the Keybank Countdown to Kickoff and you can listen live on 1050AM in Ann Arbor & on wtka.com around the world. This segment plays approximately 2 hours before kickoff each week – specifically around 10am Saturday morning before THE GAME. You can hear the archive of This Week in Michigan Football History clips here. If you have suggestions for future games hit me on Twitter @MVictors. Go Blue! /script …after the jump
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Badgered | Dr. Sap’s Decals
Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis is a Schembechler-era savant and once again this season he’ll be diligently handing out his postgame helmet stickers after each game. Sap has pored over hours and hours of U-M games over several decades, and in these posts he’s able to tie the present to the past. I encourage you to subscribe to Dr. Sap on YouTube, or follow Sap on Twitter. OFFENSIVE CHAMPION – It’s always difficult awarding champions after a loss because, for the most part, no one typically will have played a perfect game. Mistakes were made all over the field, in all phases of the game. Having said all that, I’m awarding my decals to those players whom I feel demonstrated the ability to be game-breakers. I call that out because in order to beat Ohio State next week, players will need to step up and make plays. On offense that guy is Chris Evans. He seems to finally be healthy and quite possibly THE ONLY healthy runningback right now. He was close to going all the way against Wisconsin on a couple of plays, on Saturday. He can hit the home run and/or leap over defenders in a single bound as he did last week against Maryland. Hopefully #12 can channel his inner Clarke Kent because the offense could sure…
