Continuing the discussion of items you might not know about Harmon. In the last post, I mentioned his high school athletic prowess at Horace Mann High in Gary, Indiana. An interesting question is why he ended up at Michigan. Three factors would suggest that Harmon might consider a different destination during his senior year of 1936-37: Harmon had brothers who were athletes at relatively nearby Purdue & another who landed at Tulane. Michigan football was in the middle of a horrible stretch, coming off the worst 3-year span in school history from 1934-1936. (And still the worst three year stretch, thanks Brian for having my back.) He was walking into a serious rough patch and head coach Harry Kipke was under fire. The powerhouse at the time was jug rival Minnesota, with Bernie Bierman’s Gophers rolling up a string of 3 straight national championships. Nearby Notre Dame and coach Elmer Layden had some decent teams in the mid-1930s as well. One disclaimer: I’m not a Harmon biographer of course. These thoughts draw upon what I’ve read over the years (which isn’t everything). The non-cynical view: THIS IS MICHIGAN! Despite the tough stretch, U-M was still a great football power with two national titles in the decade under Kipke. On top of this and perhaps more importantly, Harmon’s high school coach…
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You Love Chucky
In 2007 as the search to replace Lloyd Carr commenced, I set up 24 candidates in a silly bracket . After the votes were tallied there was one man remaining: Jon Gruden. Three years later, two dozen more candidates squared off late last week and over the weekend. Once again look who’s the people’s choice: I understand the appeal (I guess) but still I’m a bit amazed this keeps happening. You love this man. Marry him. Full bracket: More on Death March Madness II here. Thanks to the thousands who voted. Thanks again to Christian Sack, (icefins26 on mgoblog, or guy who rocks the Zack Morris/AC Slater avatar) who drew up the seedings and prepared a quick summary of each candidate.
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Merry Meeeeechigan Christmas
Thanks for my friends at Moe’s and Underground Printing – my fav, the Ufer shirt: get yours here get yours here The shirts are posed in front of my authentic #77 Michigan Schembechler Hall locker (yes, I convinced the boss to let me put it in my office). Want one? Email me.
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Adopt-A-Family 2010 (audio)
It was a pleasure to join Ira and Sam this morning on WTKA 1050AM to talk about Debbie Williams-Hoak’s wonderful Magic of Christmas Adopt a Family program benefitting families in the Washtenaw County area. I’ve been a big supporter of this since they started their affiliation with WTKA a couple years back and I encourage y’all to join in and help. I chatted with Ira & Sam about Debbie’s program, Rich Rod, Brandon and his decision, about the Soccer program and more. In two parts: [display_podcast] _ from the 2008 Gift wrapping party WTKA is promoting it all week and you can call into 734-998-1050 or email studio [at] wkta.com to help out. Also the gift wrapping is going to be held at the U-M Golf Course Clubhouse and given the volume of families involved, you can bet they’ll need some help.
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Mark Messner Won’t Get Fooled Again (1988)
Check out this excellent postgame photo taken by the Freep in the moments after Michigan's 17-3 win over Michigan State. The photog captured a great shot of the aftermath of the game within the game, the battle between Spartan behemoth Tony Mandarich and Wolverine All-American Mark Messner.
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This Week Michigan Football History – Bo Won’t Get Spoilermakered – November 13, 1971
Here’s the next entry in ‘This Week in Michigan Football History’ to be played Saturday on WTKA 1050AM’s Key Bank Countdown to Kick-off pregame show before tomorrow’s battle against the Purdue. This time we look back to 1971, as third year coach was crushing opponents on both sides of the ball. Leading up to this game Michigan scored 124 points in the previous two games, and was holding teams to 5.1 points per game. Gary Danielson and Purdue were up next, and it wouldn’t be easy for Bo’s Wolverines: [display_podcast] . [Ed. One note: The final score of the game was of course 20-17 (not 23-30 as mentioned in the recording. Sorry about that.] The sponsor of This Week…is Wolverine Beer so here’s where you can find it, or check out the Beer Wench’s Blog. I’m still waiting to have my first Wolverine beer, perhaps some day soon. You can hear all of the This Week… clips here.
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Update: Mudbowl Set for 9:45am Saturday
[Ed. 11/3 Updated with team details] With the kick-off of the Illinois game set for noon, the SAE Mudbowl will start around 9:45am at the corner of South University and Washtenaw. The host fraternity will face Phi Psi who defeated Alpha Epsilon Pi in fraternity league playoffs last night. The sororities are also set, as Kappa Kappa Gamma will face off against Sigma Kappa (photo inset above). The event will benefit Mott Children’s Hospital and I understand over $30,000 has already been raised. They typically play this on Homecoming but due to a student break that coincided with that weekend, the game was moved out to November 6, 2010.
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Ernie, HLHD ’08
For those who don’t think U-M takes honorary degrees seriously, I spotted this flipping through Michigan Alumnus magazine which came today. In the back of the issue they have a few pages listing, in fine print, alumni who passed away, organized by the decade in which they received their degree. One Michigan Man from the class of 2008 caught my eye: Harwell earned an Honorary ‘Doctor of Humane Letters’ (HLHD) in the spring of ’08. Follow MVictors on Twitter
