I know it’s last minute, but if you are in Ann Arbor looking for something cool for lunch: Special Event: A Bentley Brown Bag Film — Friday, February 7, 12:15-12:45“One Saturday Afternoon” (The Tom Harmon Story) Bring your lunch and joins us for a screening of the 1965 television program “One Saturday Afternoon”; a look back on Tom Harmon’s career on the 25th anniversary of his winning the Heisman Trophy. Hosted by Bing Crosby, the 30 minute film features clips of Harmon’s football exploits at Michigan, his World War II heroics, rare footage from his early TV variety show and interviews with Fritz Crisler, Forest Evashevski and others. More info here. If you check it out let me know how it goes! Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Don’t Like the Present? Bentley Extended Hours this Friday
Note! The Bentley Library will be open for special extended hours on November 8th (this Friday, before the Nebraska game) from 5pm to 8 pm EST. At 5:00 pm Bentley archivists Greg Kinney and Brian Williams will give a special presentation on “Michigan Football Firsts,” using rare original documents, photographs, and publications from the University of Michigan archives to highlight some of the notable firsts across 134 years of Michigan football — the first team and first game, first coach, first airplane trip and much more. The hour-long presentation will be followed by extended viewing hours for the exhibit, “Harmon of Michigan” profiling the career of Michigan great Tom Harmon, along with showings of “One Saturday Afternoon,” a 1965 television feature celebrating the 25th anniversary of Harmon’s Heisman trophy winning season. The 30 minute long “One Saturday Afternoon” features Harmon game footage and interviews with Harmon, Fritz Crisler and Forest Evashevski. The U-M Bentley Historical Library is located at 1150 Beal Avenue in Ann Arbor.
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TWIMFbH: You Gotta Hand it to Chap (1946)
This Week…heads to back at the battle on a hot October 5, 1946 day at the Big House against the Hawkeyes. That summer we lost Michigan’s Grand Old Man, but returned to us (from World War II) was the great Bob Chappuis. The formula for coach Fritz Crisler was simple so dig it: [display_podcast] You can catch all of the This Week in Michigan Football History clips here….sponsored in 2013 by Ziebart of Yspilanti. Listen to it live tomorrow on the KeyBank Countdown to kick-off on WTKA 1050AM or catch it live inside the Bud Light Victors Lounge. Radio notes!! I’ll be on with The Wolverine guys at 11am – you can catch it here. I’ll live in the WTKA Victors Lounge at around noon talking jug Catch me on the Michigan Tailgate Show on WWJ 950AM at 2:20pm Follow MVictors on Twitter
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TWIMFbH: Harmon and Howard Launch Legendary Seasons (1940, 1991)
HOLD ON TO YOUR MAIZE AND BLUE FEDORAS! For the Under the Lights II edition of This Week in Michigan Football History we take a double dip to the opening game of two Heisman winning seasons: Tom Harmon’s trip to Cal in 1940, and Desmond Howard trek to Boston College in 1991. Each man delivered two of the greatest performances in Wolverine history, accounting for 9 touchdowns between this. And Harmon had to outduel 12 men on one play, as my man Bud Brennan hopped on the field and tried to bring down Terrible Tommy. Without further ado: [display_podcast] For more on the 1940 Cal game and much, much more on Tommy Harmon, grab Saturday’s commemorative game program and support U-M efforts to archive these men and these eras. Oh, and sponsor note. You know I recorded TWIMFbH in style by rocking my Michigan Game Changer from MaraWatch, don’t you? That’s it on the left with Ira manning the 1s and 2s in the background in studio at WTKA. Remember: You can catch all of the This Week in Michigan Football History clips here. Listen to it live tomorrow on the KeyBank Countdown to kick-off on WTKA 1050AM or catch it live inside the Bud Light Victors Lounge. Follow MVictors on Twitter script: For this Prime Time…
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Tom Harmon Exhibit at the U-M Bentley Library
A few hours after I published this post discussing how the Michigan Football Legends program has spawned fresh materials on these guys and their eras…I got this press release from the U-M Bentley Library: Harmon of Michigan The Bentley Historical Library is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibit, “Harmon of Michigan” focusing on the life and career of University of Michigan football legend Tom Harmon. The exhibition, in conjunction with the “unretiring” of Harmon’s famed number 98 jersey this season, highlights Harmon’s college career at Michigan, both as a student and an athlete. Using archival documents, photographs, and artifacts, including material recently acquired through Harmon’s son, Mark Harmon, the exhibit traces Harmon’s career as the University of Michigan’s first Heisman Trophy winner, World War II pilot and war hero, and a pioneering radio and television broadcaster. The exhibit is curated by Greg Kinney. The exhibit runs from September 3 to December 20, 2013. Exhibit Hours: Monday-Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturdays 9:00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. Special Event: September 7, 2013, 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. On September 7, the day of the Note Dame game, at which Tom Harmon will be honored, the Bentley Library will have special exhibit viewing hours. There will also be repeated showings of the 1965 television program “One Saturday Afternoon.” Produced…
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Marooons In Memoriam
From the front page of September 24, 1940 edition of the Michigan Daily, announcing the demise of the once-great University of Chicago football program: So why did one of the original members of the Big Ten, who brought us the heralded Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg (and Fritz Crisler, for that matter), ditch football? This issue of Sports Illustrated from 1954 put it nicely: The University of Chicago abandoned intercollegiate football in 1939 because the game hampered the university’s efforts to become the kind of institution it aspired to be. The university believed that it should devote itself to education, research and scholarship. Intercollegiate football has little to-do with any of these things and an institution that is to do well in them will have to concentrate upon them and rid itself of irrelevancies, no matter how attractive or profitable. Football has no place in the kind of institution Chicago aspires to be. It has been argued that Chicago is different. Perhaps it is and maybe it is just that difference that enabled the university to separate football from education. That’s sweet and all, but methinks the 85-0 beating at the hands of Tom Harmon’s Wolverines in 1939 had a hand in it as well. Here’s one of my favorite all-time photos featuring Tom Harmon cooling off on the sidelines during…
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Smoking the Brand (early 1900s)
A look at the culture of smoking at University of Michigan and in particular, its tie to athletic teams and functions. I briefly discuss few items of smoking memorabilia like ashtrays and tins/artwork from "Smokers' --- campus social functions where students smoked tobacco together and rejoiced.
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Golden Forty Seven
Saturday night I had dinner with some friends at the Sheraton in Ann Arbor. In the bar I spotted a group of folks donning black and gold #47 jerseys and was puzzled. Was it a group of Oosterbaan family members? I’m thinking Bennie O’s godson Bennie McCready would have given me a heads up if that were the case, right Bennie?. Maybe it was Jake Ryan’s crew? Again I was thinking probably not, and if so, why would they wear throwback-ish jerseys? So I walked over. It turns out they were wearing the #47 in honor of Dr. Gerald Drake, a former Michigan State football player from the late 1930s. Oh, and the kicker: the 95-year old Dr. Drake was there with them! Photo inset are the Drakes: Chuck, Molly, Gerald, Donna, Dan & Doug. Naturally I hustled over & chatted with him. What a great man. I asked him how he ended up playing football at State. “My dad played football at [M.A.C.] in the class of aught three,” Drake told me. “It wasn’t intercollegiate football; it was class team football. They beat each other up without headgear on the banks of the Red Cedar.” He shared that he was a fullback at East Lansing High School and also ran track. Freshmen back then didn’t play on the varsity…
