For Saturday’s edition of This Week in Michigan Football History, we head back 112 years to arguably the greatest calendar year in Michigan football history. That’s right I said it. While that’s up for discussion, there’s little doubt 1902 was one of the finest for Michigan athlete Neil Snow. On January 1, 1902, Snow tallied 5 touchdowns in the inaugural Rose Bowl. Back in Ann Arbor my man Snow the undisputed was big man on campus #BMOC, and the folks at the Koppitz-Melchers Brewery of Detroit put an ad in the Cornell-Michigan baseball program telling everyone how much Snow loved their beer. Of course he didn’t consent to the ad. Here’s how that all played out, as well as the game played on October 4, 1902: [display_podcast] The full story of the 1902 beergate tale here. You can catch all of the This Week in Michigan Football History clips here. And don’t forget to catch it live Saturday on the KeyBank Countdown to kick-off on WTKA 1050AM starting tomorrow at 3pm EDT (4 hours prior to Rutgers getting their butts kicked). Follow MVictors on Twitter
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1902 Usher’s Ribbon (Michigan-Minnesota)
So you don’t see many authentic items on eBay that fall inside the Yost Point-A-Minute era from 1901 to 1905. There’s one up now. So check out this Usher’s ribbon for the Thanksgiving day game held on November 27, 1902. It’s the last game played between the Gophers and Wolverines that didn’t involve a certain water crock. It wasn’t until the following year, 1903, that the Little Brown Jug was purchased in Minneapolis, left behind after the game, and reclaimed by Michigan in 1909…and the rest is college football history. Looking at the Usher’s ribbon, it looks to be authentic, although I’m not suggesting that someone would have the stones to forge such a thing, but you never know. Having written on this stuff for a while now when I first spotted the ribbon I knew I’d seen that font style before. Sure enough, on this vintage MVictors post from 2006, you clearly see the athletic department favored that print type on official materials including this 1901 season athletic pass that I’d give my right pinky to have on my wall. The usher who donned this silk ribbon watched Michigan take down the Gophers 23-6 in the ‘02 season finale. Yost and crew once again ran the table finishing the season a perfect 11-0, outscoring opponents 644-12 to claim the…
