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?  

By Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis If I told you at the beginning of the season that Michigan would finish the season with a 9-3 record, would you have taken that?  Coming off the RichRod and Brady Hoke years, of course you would.  Now that the season has played out, how does 9-3 look?  A little bit different, right?  Why? Expectations.  In less than one year, our new coach has not only given us as a fan base expectations, but he has also raised them for the team.  That bodes well for the future, but that doesn’t eliminate the sting of losing to Ohio State.  The victories will come, and while it was easy to draw parallels from this team to the 1969 team in Bo’s first year, you need to remember this:  That 1969 team had talent oozing all over the place.  There were 18 players from that team that went on to play professional football.  And don’t forget that 4 players from that squad are in the College Football Hall of Fame (so far!). Does this 2015 Michigan squad have that same level of talent?  No.  There is talent, but there are deficiencies that need to be addressed.  It will take time to amass the talent needed to take down the B1G Boys, but they will come. For now,…

Congrats to Desmond Howard; the coveted #21 officially retired during the second quarter today: Via Matt Pargoff, they also did this in the North end zone, nice: And there’s are new flags atop the stadium on the south end honoring each retired jersey –  I assume just for today?