On eBay right now, a series of football ticket applications from the early 1930s, with one including this message from #1000SSS from The Grand Old Man himself: This wasn’t the only time that Yost spearheaded a message on the ills of drinking at games during this era. Back in 2008, I noted this cartoon that appears in the 1934 yearbook: While we know folks found a way to drink during Prohibition, the law ended with the ratification of the 21st Amendment on December 5, 1933. That said, Michigan state law approved the sale of 3.2 percent alcohol earlier that year and I’m sure more than a few bottles of the good stuff found their way to and through the gates of Michigan Stadium.
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The Dickinson System: How an Econ Prof determined the National Champion
Harry Kipke’s 1932 and 1933 teams were champions not by virtue of a poll of writers or coaches. The two titles were determined by the most widely recognized method at the time: the Dickinson System, a formula devised by Illinois economics professor Frank Dickinson that ranked college teams at the end of each season.
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1933 Michigan National Champions Charm
A real doozy of an item showed up recently on eBay, described to be a pendant awarded to Michigan’s 1933 national championship team under coach Harry Kipke. Very cool: It appears to be in outstanding condition, made of 14K gold, and assigned to a quarterback named “W.W. Renner”. This appears to be originally the property of a William Renner who was on that ’33 squad and who wore #63: Renner is listed as “Art” on the 1933 team photo caption but as “William W.” on the official roster and in his later years, including when he was captain of the 1935 squad. I think the “Art” reference is an error as there was an Art Renner who played in the 1940s. I’ll let the Bentley know so they can check it out. I rarely use Wikipedia as a research source but the entry on Renner has some excellent detail, including this nugget about the Youngtown, OH native’s exploits against the Buckeyes during that 1933 championship year: In the 1933 Michigan-Ohio State game, played before the largest crowd to see a Big Ten Conference football game to that date, Renner came into the game at the end of the first half and ran the ball for a game-winning touchdown. An Associated Press story described Renner’s impact in the scoring drive against…
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Michigan captain Whitey Wistert’s ID (1931)
Here’s an auction of the U-M student identification card for the 1931-32 school year for the first of the legendary Wistert brothers: Francis Michael ‘Whitey’ Wistert: As the card indicates, Francis was a Chicago native and after graduating from high school worked in a factory building radios. A decision to tag along with a classmate on a visit to Ann Arbor effectively kicked off the Michigan-Wistert tradition. Several online references claim Whitey had no football background before coming to Michigan, but he is enshrined into his high school Hall of Fame for “Baseball and Football”. Oh and yes, he could also play some baseball—he was named Big Ten MVP his senior season. Whitey anchored the line for Harry Kipke’s back-to-back national championship squads in 1932-1933, and the 6-2, 210-pound stapping lad was named All-American in ‘33: I’ve written on the Wistert Trio before but in a nutshell, each played football for Michigan of course, each played tackle, each wore 11, all three made it into the college football Hall of Fame and they are the reason you won’t ever see another U-M football player wear jersey number eleven. Also included is an ID from 1938 when Wistert returned to assist Harry Kipke and his staff:
