The story of how why Fielding H. Yost showed up with a dog in a 1910 team photo. It was apparently to get the goat of former player and Notre Dame coach Shorty Longman:
-
-
Bailing out the Band (1910)
So certainly you’ve heard by now that the Michigan Marching Band won’t be heading to Dallas. I don’t like it either. Fergodsakes. Local radio host Lucy Ann Lance suggested via Twitter that perhaps we could have a fundraiser to get the band to Dallas. I’m not wild about putting that on the fans and geez, I hate to give the Machine more ideas about where to squeeze. That said, there is a historical precedent for passing the proverbial hat to get the MMB to big games. From my rundown of the 1910 season, there was a big plea made by students to make sure the band made the trip to the big game at Penn that year. An alumnus of 1848 helped out: Random Notes: The Michigan band wanted to make the trip to Philadelphia to support the football squad, but needed to raise some money to supplement the university’s funding to make it happen. The Daily reported that a Mr. Joseph R. Smith, U-M class of 1848, sent $2.50 to the band leader to help. Eventually, thanks in large to the attention given to the matter in the Daily, the funding was secured and the band made the trek to the game to support the Wolverines. I can tell that this happened frequently back in those days. In fact,…
-
Really, really Little Brother & Shorty’s Pooch (1910)
For This Week…we got deep into the archives back into 1910 and focus on the battle against M.A.C. and the controversy surrounding the scheduled game against Shorty Longman and the Irish. You can hear all of the This Week… clips here.
-
A Century Ago: 1910 Michigan Football through the Words of The Daily
Recently I visited the outstanding U-M Bentley Historical Library to wade through the pages of the Michigan Daily archives from fall of 1910. Here’s a brief look back at Fielding Yost’s tenth season at the helm of the Wolverines: Preseason: Expectations were high coming into 1910, as the previous season Yost’s men became the first “western” team to knock off one of the traditional eastern foes when they defeated Penn 12-6 in Philadelphia, in a game not as close as the score indicated. They added a 15-6 win in the season finale over Minnesota and Michigan made claim to the mythical title of “Champions of the West”. The 1910 season would prove a bit rockier, as Michigan was still settling into their status as an independent. Seven games were scheduled for the year, including four against rivals that are quite familiar a century later: M.A.C (later MSC then MSU of course), Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Minnesota. Here’s how the season went, through the words of the U-M student newspaper from the fall of 1910: Game 1: vs. Case, Ann Arbor, October 8, 1910 The 1910 slate started on October against Case, the Wolverine’s foe in the previous four season openers and a team that nearly spoiled the 1909 season. Yost squeaked by 3-0 that season and hoped to put…
-
Broken Records
The offense continues to pile up yards and tripping up team records–the media relations folks will be busy today updating the record book. A few notes: * The team fell just six total yards short of passing the team record for total offense of 727 yards set last year against Delaware State. * You heard that Forcier set the record for passing efficiency (minimum 10 attempts), something they do track. Here’s who he passed: * 65 points is a mighty number, but to crack the top five all time Michigan will have to get really close to triple digits. Four times Yost’s point-a-minute teams exceeded the century mark, with the high remaining ‘The Mountaineer Romp’ in 1904 when the Wolverines doubled Saturday’s tally: * Of course the record for fewest punts was tied as Will Hagerup only saw the field in warm-ups (and not even that much then). This happened three other times according to the books: * Ahh, the obligatory history nerd nitpick. The books cite the most punts by an opponent as Ohio State with 21 during the awesome 1950 punt fest, the Snow Bowl. I strenuously object, like Demi Moore in A Few Good Men. Media Relations might argue the punting statistics don’t go back that far (understood), but it appears the Gophers punted 25 times in…
-
Should Michigan Men where Numbers on Jerseys? (1910)
Saturday Michigan players will wear a special ’87’ decal on their helmets in honor of the great athlete Ron Kramer who passed away last week. Here’s what it will look like on the winged headgear (HT: U-M Media Relations): Not every Michigan football great got the opportunity to wear a jersey number, including but not limited to Willie Heston, Germany Schulz, and Neil Snow. 1930 was the first year uniform numbers showed up in a Michigan team photo, but we know digits were worn on the gridiron sweaters starting in 1915. Trolling through the 1910 Michigan Daily archives, I found a brief discussion on whether Yost’s men should don digits on their numberless backs. Apparently eastern teams wore numbers and there was a legitimate question of whether Michigan should join them. Yost saw it as a counter to the team concept, telling the Daily, “..it brings the individuals into too much prominence. The team is a machine and should be considered as such and not their individual efforts.” Baseball captain Norman Hill comments echoed Yost’s sentiments but he also noted, “It looks queer to me.” (It’s unknown if the Daily reporter told Hill, “No, you are.”) Here’s the entire piece from the front page of the Tuesday, October 11, 1910 edition of the Michigan Daily:
-
Preserving The Call to Battle
Rest assured that the practice of Wolverine fans bitching about alterations to gameday traditions is not a recent phenomenon. If you’ve perused early editions of The Michigan Daily, you know that students (and fans in general) have always been quite vocal about goings on around football games. Check this out from nearly 100 years ago, the October 29, 1910 edition of the Daily. A student put pen to paper after noticing the band stopped playing ‘The Victors’ prior to games. He didn’t care for the change and asked the Daily to step in to get the pulse of his fellow students. It made it on the front page: Keep in mind ‘The Victors’ was a mere 12 years old at this point but what’s right is right! Good for you ‘Senior’
