To help fire up for the Zips here’s your sneak listen at TWIMFbH for Saturday. This time was step by 39 years to the 1974 season opener against Iowa. Thanks to a nasty virus, senior star QB Dennis Franklin couldn’t play so Bo gave the ball to Bay City, Michigan legend Mark Elzinga (left, with coach Hanlon rocking the sabertooth maize coaches shirt). Here’s a look at that game, after a brief look back at the conclusion of the 1973 season and a shout-out to my boys Crazy Legs and Spartan Bert.. 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
-
-
A Cool Ninety-Eight
<< From Sports Illustrated this week, Tom Harmon joins a few current athletes on its list of ‘Breakout Performers.’ The comment on the inset pic pretty much sums up why I (someone like you who knew damn well “who?” Harmon is) am a fan of the Legends program.
-
Mud-covered Mugs and Brown Jugs
Folks, including me, talking about John U. Bacon’s book Fourth and Long have focused on the “serious” stuff like in there, like the discussion of the state of college football and the Brandon’s handling of the athletic department and struggle of Penn State’s seniors to hold its team together. But much of the book takes a lighter look at many of the elements off the field that we all know, especially in these parts, help form the true soul of this sport. Two of those elements he discusses in Fourth have special place in my heart: the Little Brown Jug (Chapter 18) and the Mudbowl (Chap 19). I played in the Mudbowl but didn’t do much beyond delivering a late hit/cheapshot that triggered a bench-clearing brawl. In future blogger-like fashion I slipped out of the melee because I have sensitive fingers and wrists, man. Bacs described the battle in the slop (two decades removed from my triumph in the early 1990s) and he has it about right: The play wasn’t pretty, but it was fierce, with almost every down resulting in at least one player getting jammed face-first into the swamp, followed by a five-man shoving match, which usually ended with at least one more player eating mud. If you could claim anything was “beautiful” about a game that was…
-
Chicken Wrap | Sights & Sounds (Michigan 41, Notre Dame 30 – 2013)
Under the Lights II, Slim Shady, uniform updates, and more:
-
Dr. Sap’s Decals – Winners Get Chicken Dinners
Back by popular demand, here’s Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis with his postgame decal awards for Notre Dame: OFFENSIVE CHAMPION DEVIN GARDNER – The last time #98 was worn by a Wolverine, Tom Harmon accounted for 6 touchdowns and 290 yards of offense. Against the Irish, Devin Gardner truly had a legendary night – 376 yards of total offense and five touchdowns in only his seventh start under center. WOW! Think about that for a second – Harmon played perhaps the best game of his career in his LAST game as a Wolverine – and here is Gardner putting up video-game like numbers and he hasn’t played a full season as the Michigan starting quarterback! Legendary indeed. [Complete wrap-up of Harmon notes here.] DEFENSIVE CHAMPION BLAKE COUNTESS – Six tackles and two picks – the last one sealing the victory – makes me so happy that Countess is back in the secondary that I want to do backflips! Yes, I’d say he’s fully recovered and ready to go this year. SPECIAL TEAMS CHAMPION BRENDAN GIBBONS – For those of you too young to remember, Bo did not offer scholarships to kickers in the ‘70s and early ‘80s. As a result, Michigan had walk-ons who did an ok job of splitting the uprights. So for Gibby to have now successfully kicked…
-
Sights & Sounds – Notre Dame – Under the Lights 2
More pregame photos here. All the postgame Tom Harmon/98 related thoughts & takes here. Passionately attacking you with miscellanea since 2001, here’s more: Students: The earliest started queuing up around 10:30PM Friday evening as I understand it and they were let in around 4:30PM yesterday. Here they are filing in (on the left), and.. …props to the athletic department for dropping the 4 pack of live games (right, above) on the big boards for a while. The Ross Toss: Love for Stephen Ross and his wallet saturated Ann Arbor all day Saturday, from Desmond leading off with a huge thank you to Ross on GameDay, to the story and full page ad in the game program, to the special break during the game to acknowledge the man, to the massive sign the students propped up (some fans were literally under the C). The even dedicated the coin toss to #$teve which makes one ask, if they used a quarter for the coin toss and handed it to Ross when they were done…is it now technically a $199,999,999.75 donation? Cease and Desist. Still waiting for the bros who blew up my photo for their GameDay sign to reveal themselves and face the music. And by music I mean 7 Nation Army on a loop. Lasers. I haven’t seen lasers like that…
-
The Harmon File
On honoring #98 and Tom Harmon for the 2013 Michigan-Notre Dame game
-
Not Quite Yet Under the Lights (Notre Dame pregame Photos)
A smattering from pregame. More later. Mark Harmon and wife Pam Dawber chat it up with Laura Hoke Da’Man. That’s Da’Shawn Hand. His world. Mark got a tad choked up addressing the crowd Devin Gardner wearing this tonight. Uniform Timeline updated. Michigan ‘M’indy. Pam Dawber at the Big House Blimp reads ‘Tom Harmon’s a PIMP’ Jets over Saline, a few minutes before they headed into Ann Arbor Guys named Steve everywhere love it Follow MVictors on Twitter
