Welcome back Meechigan football – and welcome back Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis.  Who knows the Bo-era better than Dr. Sap? Nooooo-body.  Here are the Rainbow Warrior decals for the season opener. OFFENSIVE CHAMPION – It’s difficult to believe that Chris Evans is only the 3rd Michigan freshman running back to top 100 yards in a season opening game. The first time #12 carried the ball, his stature and running style reminded me of Jamie Morris, who just happened to set the Wolverine freshman season rushing record back in 1984 with 573 yards. But the more Evans ran, the more it dawned on me – he was the 3rd running back to carry the ball for the maize and blue against Hawaii. And just like that I realized that Michigan now has Alabama depth – in year two of Harbaugh. No, Evans does not equal Jamie Morris. Evans = T.J. Yeldon. Remember when ‘Bama had Eddie Lacy, Blake Sims and Yeldon was the 3rd-string RB as a freshman? That’s where Michigan is at right now with their offensive backfield. Deal with it, Paul Finebaum! DEFENSIVE CHAMPION – Seeing that I’m testing your memory, let me ask you this: remember a few years back when Michigan linebackers were slow to hit the hole? When Michigan linebackers would get caught up in the…

To kickoff season VII of This Week in Michigan Football History we go back a mere 365 days to the official start of the Jim Harbaugh era.   Salt Lake City, Utah of all places was the venue, and no, it turns out Harbaugh didn’t have any pixie dust in those khakis.  But we saw enough to believe that things were about to change – dig it: [display_podcast] As always, this segment will appear all season on WTKA’s epic KeyBank Countdown to Kickoff prior to each game.  You can hear it live inside the Go Labatt Blue Light Victors Lounge starting at 8am Saturday.  Go Blue! You can listen to all of This Week in Michigan Football History clips here. Follow MVictors on Twitter

By Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis Forty years ago, Michigan Football Coach Bo Schembechler had open-heart surgery. With it being his second procedure in just over 7 years, people were wondering just how The General would respond. Being aware of what was happening around him, and to squash any rumors or negative recruiting talk about his health and his ability to coach, Bo did what he loved to do – he jammed it down your throat. He conducted an interview to show and tell everybody how good he looked and how great he felt. But to make his point more emphatic, Bo would do the interview while running! Former Michigan Replay host Larry Adderley recalled to me that it was one of the more unique interviews he ever did. “It was shot out of the back of a truck while we were jogging around the field. (laughs) It was shot for Michigan Replay when Bo was in the recovery stages of his heart operation. (Producer) Bob Lipson and I were always looking for stories on Michigan Football and realized that other coaches shows didn’t pursue the same kind of features and segments we did.” Adderley, a former MSU football walk-on, also told me that the interview “was Bob Lipson’s idea. I had actually done a series on running earlier in the…

Following the uniform reveal there’s been much chatter regarding the potential for a maize jersey.  @UofM_graphix posted this: I saw this and booted but quickly rallied (to type this post). Legend has it that this has been done before.  No, not in 1964 despite what this oft-referenced graphics depicts: Never happened: So that wasn’t real…but apparently, the world did see the Wolverines in an all-maize way back in the day.  According to the book produced by my pals Bruce Madej and Greg Kinney Champions of the West, it was November 10, 1928, when Michigan faced the Navy down in Baltimore.  Navy wore their traditional blue so U-M came up with the alternate maize design – and apparently, they were not too well-received (via the Uniform Timeline): While that’s a grainy B&W shot, you can clearly see one squad is wearing a light-colored jersey.  Add that in 1928 they certainly couldn’t produce the range of yellows that you see today, I’m guessing the canary was more of a dull yellow–but yellow nonetheless.  And P.S., the numbers were only on the backs of the jersey until 1930. Either way – puke.  Don’t do it.  And don’t even try to invert the colors on the helmets! More to come on the uni reveal.  Note that I won’t update the Uniform Timeline with specifics until we see…

My thoughts are with Ann Arbor legend Charlie Green right now, as he is dealing with pancreatic cancer and is receiving care from Hospice.  Shemy Schembechler has started gofundme page to help out the family and I encourage you to consider helping out. That said, I’m guessing many of you, especially those outside of town don’t know Charlie.  He is one of those guys who is omnipresent at Ann Arbor athletic and charity events – he’s just part of the fabric of this place.  He always has a kind word for you and I always love bumping into him and sharing a few words. I really got to know Charlie for this piece I wrote back in 2010.  The story ran that summer in the Observer and the Detroit News and it provides a small glimpse at this great guy: Ann Arbor’s Charlie Green – Fifty years at the U-M golf course[Originally published in the Ann Arbor Observer and later, The Detroit News] In 1954, Albert and Gail Green drove up from Dayton and dropped their son off at South Quad. Charlie Green’s been an Ann Arborite ever since. After graduating from U-M in 1959, Green taught subjects that, he says, “make people groan”–algebra and geometry–in Willow Run and Taylor. But what made him eventually become one of the most-recognized folks in town…

I mentioned this in my Holiday Shopping List for Michigan Fans post, but noted I hadn’t actually seen it yet.   Well I recently picked up a copy of  Wolverine – A Photographic History of Michigan Football and I can confirm they did a nice job.  Instead of offering a smattering of photos across Michigan Football History (which isn’t a bad thing of course), they took a unique path. They present a pile of photos that deftly chronicle 5 specific seasons:  1925, 1947, 1969, 1997 and 2011.   Check out Bennie O. alongside Benny Friedman in the raccoon coat from 1925: And this shot from the Navy game that same year: It takes you on and off the field for these five years, including a few photos I’m not sure have been viewed by anyone outside of the photographer and a few folks in the Ann Arbor News sports department. Sadly, there’s no pic of me catching the ball after Gibby’s game-winning Sugar Bowl kick but I’m hopeful for the 2nd edition. Get Wolverine – A Photographic History of Michigan Football available at Amazon and, I assume around town?