This season longtime local sports radio voice, M sideline reporter, & mgo-misc. host Doug Karsch will co-anchor the Michigan radio network Tailgate Show with former U-M All-American Jon Jansen. Karsch will also continue his sideline reporting duties as part of the play-by-play broadcast. I’m pulling together a piece on the new show and recently chatted with Karsch. Listeners of the radio broadcast know that Beckmann & Brandy referred to Karsch as “Krash”. I never knew why, admittedly never asked, but either way, I never really cared for it. I’m not sure why – I figured it obviously had something to do with Doug’s last name and I guess I assumed Frank or Brandy just thought it was funny to call him Krash. Meh. Anyway, when I chatted with Doug recently I asked him about the nickname and if ‘Krash’ was going to endure in Frank’s absence. Here’s what Doug told me: “I’ll tell you how it started and what’s funny is that I’ve been broadcasting since 1993 and I get asked more about that than anything else. It was my first year doing sideline, it was 2006 and Michigan had a game at Minnesota. The whole team arrives [at the hotel] and I was the last to check in. I was a rookie and I’m just waiting. The team checked…
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Real Madrid vs. Manchester United | Sights & Sounds from Michigan Stadium (2014)
Rooney turns on one in the first half (MVictors photo) Quick hitters: What an awesome event. For all the beatings #1000SSS has taken lately, hats off to Hunter Lochmann and Dave Brandon for putting this together. Strongly feel we need to keep using this facility for events like this. Fielding Yost would have loved this. I was naive to think there’d be a big overlap between Michigan football fans and this event. Wrong, this was a completely different crowd and demographic. Evidence: The traffic mess..but not because NB Ann Arbor-Saline was closed. It was because of the noobs. From the east folks figured the best way to get to the stadium was down M-14 to downtown. From the south, the masses went to the Washtenaw exit off of 23 – which IIRC is where the signs tell you to go. Yikes. Backups started 3-4 hours before the game. The Wave..your old lame friend The Wave was spun up in the first half but..it was actually kind of cool. No, not because the wave is cool, but because unofficially 99.4% of the crowd participated and screamed like girls. It felt like 1989. Languages..circling the field I think I heard 7-8 different languages. Newsflash: Ronaldo is indeed one handsome cat. And it was pretty cool when he stepped down on the field…
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Manchester United Practice at Michigan Stadium (2014)
A few from Michigan Stadium tonight so dig it: Football player! New 98 looking fit and rocking Michigan From the Heart t-shirt Ryan Giggs! Ryan Giggsy! Wayne Rooney! Yes man, it’s big Giggs meets Devin!? What? What? Grass back on the M Stadium pitch
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Bo Peels and Plants | Wire Photo Wednesday
Here’s a candid shot of General Bo in the bowels of the snakepit peeling off his wildly long coaching socks following the 14-3 victory over the Buckeyes on November 25, 1978. This was the final battle with Woody in the Ten Year War and gave Schembechler the 5-4-1 edge in the series. To celebrate Bo flashed his feet and treated the media to the gun show: Next up, continuing with the candid shots of Bo, here he’s planting one on Miss Texas Luann Caughey as the team arrived for the 1981 Bluebonnet Bowl. It almost looks like Bo went straight for the lips…but Luann evaded him with a quick lateral move? Thankfully Bo didn’t enjoy Texas too much.
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My adidas
I wore these little beauties this weekend: A few folks asked what the story is on these – it’s just pretty cool service available from adidas. Basically you can take many of the shoes/cleats/whatever from their catalog and trick them out your cotton-pickin’ maize and blue hearts content. Go to adidas.com and click on customize. Once you pick a style (menu of styles on the left toolbar) you want to start with you’ll be sent into a widget where you trick out the shoes – piece by piece, element by element, soles to lace eyelets . Here’s a screen shot of the widget doing its thing: Tips and FYIs: If you want the older school maize, go with the ‘gold’ color if it is available on your shoe. The yellow is more like the high maize you see on the unis today. The uniform blue is a richer (more navy-like) blue, the bluebird blue is UCLA-ish. The shoes are suitable quality (I’ve worn mine around for a few days) but don’t expect to get quality on par with a shoe you can buy off the shelf. The lettering (at least on my shoes MVICTORS) was embroidered which was a nice touch. They said it would take 4-5 weeks for delivery but I got mine in about 10 days. Most…
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Those Pearly Whites
Michigan has scheduled Oklahoma in 2025 and 2026, bringing to mind the epic all-white road uniforms we wore vs. the Sooners in the 1976 Orange Bowl. And don't forget the set the MMB rolled out:
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And I’ve Been Working Like a Dog
A Hard Night’s Day – via Hail to the Victors 2014. Yo! I’ve been wrapped up for a while with all kinds of stuff, including working on some interviews and pieces that you coming up soon or this fall. Things will being to ramp up on these pages soon heading up the season. Things to look for: Hail to the Victors 2014 – Within the pages of mgoblog’s annual epic preseason book, this time I dropped in a piece on the widely ignored 1964 Big Ten/Rose Bowl championship team. It takes you through the season primarily through the eyes of team captain Jim Conley, along with some help from his coach Bump Elliott and teammate Barry Dehlin. Earmuffs! It’s harsh – it’s spicy – and after you read it you won’t have a problem remembering the ‘64 team. GoBlueWolverine Mag – Coming out before the season, I dropped in my interview with Bump Elliott that you’ll dig – it talks about the ‘64 team of course, but also gets into Woody, Bo, Bump feeling on his own legacy and much more. 2014 Game Program – Still working on some stuff for the program (a few things in the works) and I interviewed both Dan Dierdorf and Jim Brandstatter. You’ll get the full interviews on these pages later on. A sneak…
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Hail, Hail to the Chief | Happy 101 Gerald Ford
A hearty salute to the memory of President Gerald Ford born July 14, 1913, who today would have turned 101. In honor of the 1934 team MVP, a repost. Here are a few of my favorite shots of the POTUS in and around campus. Above, via eBay one of the classic shots of Ford hiking the pigskin in the 1930s. Below, via the Bentley Library, Ford addressing captain Mark Messner and the team in 1988: Here with Bob Ufer kicking off his presidential campaign in 1976 at Crisler Arena: And finally at practice with General Bo: In honor of Ford’s 101st birthday, here is a repost of the speech President Ford delivered to the Annual Congressional Dinner of the University of Michigan Club back in March 1975 and worth a read: [Introductory portion omitted] You know, as a matter of fact, I can still remember spending a good part of my sophomore and junior years washing dishes in the DKE house–of which I was a proud member–and I mean washing dishes. As a matter of fact, I washed so many dishes I was the only athlete in Michigan history who ever had a football knee and dishpan hands at the same time. [Laughter] As I mentioned a moment ago, I was lucky enough to play football, first on Ferry Field…
