The Big Ten released its annual media guide today, including the all-time coaching records. Thanks to scandals at Ohio State (and now Penn State) we know that the recognized W-records of a couple of the big name coaches have been in flux. Some history for context: In 2010 I lobbied the Big Ten to change Yost’s all-time conference record wrong because they had included the years 1907-1916…when Michigan was not a member of the conference. The B1G media brass conferred and then agreed. They made the change and thus bumped Yost’s #1 overall conference record from an .833 winning percentage to .888 (to #2 Tressel’s .828). In 2011, after the Ohio State scandal sent Tressel packing and vacated the entire 2010 season, I put the question out there of how the conference would treat Tressel’s all-time record on the official books given the scandal. I suggested five potential scenarios: Based on today’s media guide (and if they published this previously I haven’t seen it)…we know that they went with option #2 above. Tressel drops to .810: So they simply removed the 2010 wins, kept the Wisconsin loss, dropped the win % to .810 and kept Tressel on the list saying he met the 10-year minimum threshold. Sure, it would have been nice to see him drop off behind Bo or…
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The Winged Wizard: Russ Hawkins and Capitol Varsity Sports
It was a road trip years in the making. Finally last month Dr. Sap and I headed down to Capitol Varsity Sports in Oxford, OH to visit shop owner Bob Fawley and winged helmet artist Russ Hawkins. Uniform gurus probably know that it is Capitol Varsity that has done the bulk of Michigan helmet reconditioning over the past four decades, and it is Hawkins who’s personally created the winged design that you see on many of the helmets each Saturday. Of course, Bo and equipment manager Jon Falk came from Oxford-based Miami, OH and that’s how the bond between the company and U-M was formed & maintained over the years. The Wolverine tie is clearly important to the Ohio company–winged helmets, schedule posters and photos of U-M dignitaries are found around the facility. (And no, despite being an hour from Columbus they don’t do any work for the Buckeyes. Without saying as much, you can tell there’s some bitterness in the air about that.) They even have a shrine to U-M and Jon Falk in their offices: A couple of notes: As implied above Capitol Varsity isn’t the only firm that handles the reconditioning of the helmets for Michigan as the Riddell helmets are handled by Riddell in Elyria, OH. On a disappointing note for me, Capitol Varsity did not…
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Air Cover Needed!
GOOOAAAL! Over $1500 raised and it’s walk day – thank you!: Champions: ‘Go Blue!’, Craig Barker of The Hoover Street Rag, DaBangStick, Brad Muckenthaler, Art Balourdos, Andrew Rosenstein, Jack Everett, Ben McCready, The Kool Breeze, Mark Snyder, James Lewis, Greg LePore, Jen Mahan, Shashi Mara, <your name here>. .thank you!
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The Tinseltown Victors
Readers of this site might be familiar with this collectible poster for the 1941 Columbia film ‘Harmon of Michigan’: So you may know the poster, but I finally had a chance to watch the film. More on that later but I thought I’d pass this along—the intro to the film contains a Hollywood-style rendition of The Victors, a mandatory addition to your Rose Bowl roadtrip mixtapes: [display_podcast] While we’re on Harmon, one other nugget from the archives. Not too long before he made this film, The Hoosier Hammer played in the 1941 East-West Shrine Game. His equipment order for that game: Helmet size 7 3/8 Pants 32 Shoes 9 1/2 D Jersey size 42 Jersey number 98 (naturally) Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Fab Five First Pitch – September 20th
The Detroit Tigers are teaming up with U-M’s Pat Maloy Cancer Scholarship this September. The promo is called ‘Wolverines in the D’ for the Tiger’s game on Friday Sept 20 against the Twins. $25 gets you an upper deck seat and a “Wolverines in the D” t-shirt. The Tigers will then donate $5 of each ticket package sold back to the Maloy Scholarship. All the details and online ordering info is on the Tigers site here. Notable: The U-M Men’s Glee club will perform the National Anthem.Very notable: Fab Fivers Jimmy King and Jalen Rose are throwing out the first pitches. I need someone to be there with photos and scouting report. Again, details here. The Pat Maloy Scholarship was created by former students of University of Michigan professor Bernard “Pat” Maloy who passed away in 2001 after a courageous battle with esophageal cancer. The scholarship is a four year scholarship awarded to an incoming freshman with financial need who has battled cancer or whose direct family members have been stricken with cancer. H/T to Neil C. for passing this along
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Walk-Offs (Michigan Game Winning Kicks)
If you missed it, more nice work by WolverineHistorian—freshly updated below. But first several notes: Longtime Michigan fans know that back in the day U-M had a very tough time connecting on game-winning or game-sealing kicks. Dr. Sap and I recently took a roadtrip down to Oxford (more on that later) where we listened to several old classic games..a few of which involve painstaking missed kicks that would have altered the course of U-M football history. And speaking of those misses, it’s one of the reason Bob Bergeron’s kick against Iowa 30 years ago this season was such a freaking big deal. From my interview in this year’s edition of HTTV Bergeron noted that fact saying, “So fortunately for me I was one of the first to make a game winning kick for a Michigan football team. We had a lot of troubles with special teams over the years…” I’ll never stop reminding people that I caught Gibbons’ brunette girls kick off the Superdome net [6:49] in New Orleans. Trust me..or come to my house where I still have it queued up on the DVR in HD. Enjoy: Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Brady Hoke Press Conference (B1G Media Days)
file THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by Brady Hoke.COACH HOKE: First off, I know we’re all excited that you’re all here and you took the opportunity to travel up here and it’s really an honor and a privilege to represent the University of Michigan and the team 134.We’ve got 12 days until fall camp, look forward to it. We’ve had some good things throughout the summer and since we got back from the game with South Carolina a year ago. Not a year ago, but in January.We’re a young team. We’ve got to replace some guys who have been very important to Michigan football. But with that youth comes a lot of competition, and that competition is always good.And the expectations, though, never change. And that’s to win Big Ten championships.A year ago we were 8 and 5, and that’s unacceptable. It’s unacceptable at Michigan. It’s unacceptable for us.And in those five losses, we had 18 turnovers. So it tells you a little something that we need to be a little more diligent in taking care of the football. We need to be a little more diligent in making better decisions. And those are things that we’ve talked about and we’ve had through spring ball, had a good spring.I like our football team. I usually don’t say that. I said it…
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Big Jonny Falk joins WTKA (7-23 audio)
If you missed it, you missed it. Legendary U-M equipment manager Jon Falk, who will retire after the season, joined Sam and Ira this morning and talked about…everything. Worth your time: [display_podcast] Find all of the WTKA podcasts here. Follow MVictors on Twitter
