It’s official now. The Big Ten Network will continue its Icons series this fall, this time looking at the iconic coaches in the league. It’s not a countdown this time, rather, they just selected a legend from each school: The 12-episode series will stretch into the winter, and profile one coach from every Big Ten school, including Illinois’ Lou Henson, Iowa’s Dan Gable, Indiana’s Bob Knight, Michigan’s Bo Schembechler, Michigan State’s Jud Heathcote, Minnesota’s Herb Brooks, Nebraska’s Tom Osborne, Northwestern’s Kelly Amonte-Hiller, Ohio State’s Woody Hayes, Penn State’s Joe Paterno, Purdue’s Gene Keady and Wisconsin’s Barry Alvarez. I did get interviewed for the Bo piece so my goofy mug might be in there. (And maybe in Woody? That would be a treat.) As far as the other selections, Lou Henson is a bit of a surprise. I guess I would have went with Bob Zuppke but ok. I’ve got a big issue with the Jud Heathcote choice, however. Without getting too far into this, I grew up in East Lansing watching Jud and I went to his hoops camp and I have nice memories of the man. And I get that the show can highlight the 1979 title and his grooming of Izzo & it will make for a quality show. But brother, Jud would be pretty far down on…
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Closer to the Poof Scenario
The latest Ohio State media guide apparently wiped Tressel’s 2010 coaching season from the books: — 94, career wins for Tressel at Ohio State. The media guide does list Tressel’s win total after subtracting the vacated 2010 season. So he’s 94-21 (instead of 106-22) and is credited with an 8-1 record vs. Michigan (9-1 before 2010 was erased), nine bowl appearances (instead of 10) and six Big Ten championships (he had seven before the self-imposed penalties took away last season). We’ll see how the Big Ten treats it. As discussed here, if the Big Ten agrees that the 2010 season never happened for Tressel, he’ll be wiped from #2 behind Fielding Yost in the all-time conference coaching standings which requires a minimum of ten seasons at the helm. Tressel would just have nine, and thus…see ya. The bonus: guess who’s currently at #3? Bo Schembechler of course, meaning General Bo will nestle up to Yost in second place if this goes down:
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Air Cover Needed
** One last chance to help out – the Walk is Saturday August 6th. A HUGE thanks for all the support to date. $1225 $1480 raised so far! A big thanks to Craig Ross for the impromptu donation at the media event, and all the readers and my blogging brothers who have helped out in one way or another. Folks occasionally ask how they can help support this site. Here’s a big way: On August 6, 2011 I return to the MSU campus for this year’s JDRF walk to cure diabetes. Yes, this event is in Spartan Country but this is not an green and white cause–in fact you may know that Bo Schembechler participated in the Ann Arbor JDRF walk and was a big advocate of diabetes research and education. I learned about this horrible disease when my nephew Jack was diagnosed at age 3. If you want a sense for what life is like with Type 1, watch this short video that Jack helped put together. All this said, I need some air cover. Here’s how you can help me: Donate to my walk group – something, anything Join me in East Lansing for the walk Learn about JDRF and Type 1 diabetes—you probably have some friends or relatives that are affected. All of the above Donate something/anything,…
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Poof Goes the Vest?
The saga continues on the Big Ten all-time coaching statistics. Readers of this site know that at the urging of a pesky blogger, the Big Ten officials updated their records last season to reflect the time Michigan left the conference from 1907-1916. The result was a boost to Fielding Yost’s lead over Jim Tressel in conference win percentage by coaches from .833 to .888 (here are the current numbers, through last year’s bowls): Mark Snyder discussed the ramifications of the Ohio State self-imposed vacated wins on the all-time records in this recent piece, & note Mark corrected Yost’s official win pct last night ;) As Snyder points out, I think we can assume nothing is official until the NCAA/Big Ten complete their investigations. I asked the Big Ten offices to confirm and I’m guessing they will say it be resolved when the investigation is completed. [Update July 11] I got the expected response from the Big Ten’s Scott Chipman: My question: Scott, is there an official ruling from the Big Ten on how the Ohio State sanctions/vacated wins affect Tressel’s conference win percentage? Or is this all pending the final NCAA/B10 rulings on the sanctions? Chipman’s reply: Greg, As of right now, that’s all TBD. I see a few possible outcomes that could impact these records once again: Final Punishment…
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Viva Michigan Helmet Stickers!?
Near the end of Wojo’s extensive Q&A with Coach Hoke was this exchange: Q. Many fans crave a return to old Michigan ways. You’ve talked about being tough in the trenches, having a pounding defense. What about the little traditions, like helmet stickers again? A. I don’t know about the helmet stickers yet. I’m gonna get some counsel from ex-players, from coach (Gary) Moeller, coach (Jerry) Hanlon. We are going to have captains, I can promise you. It’s a tradition many believe started with Woody Hayes and the Buckeyes in the late 1960s but thanks to the piece in Hail to the Victors 2010 by John Kryk (with Steve Sapardanis), we know that the tradition was actually started by Bo. Kryk described the scene in 1969 when Schembechler announced that the Wolverines would be placed stickers on their helmets after games: “Oh, like Woody?” a reporter asked. “Uh-uh.” Schembechler grinned triumphantly. “Woody got the idea from me.” Kryk goes on to trace the start back of the “big-play” stickers to 1965, Bo’s third season at Miami, OH (then still nicknamed the Redskins). They used little red tomahawks. Thanks to Sapardanis, here’s a breakdown of the Michigan helmet decals used to date: Count Sapardanis as one who would like to see the tradition return in fact he’s made a bold suggestion…
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Anthony Carter’s Gator Bowl Watch (1979)
The second biggest unknown out there right now is where Michigan will end up this bowl season. The Insight Bowl in Tempe seems likely, but the Gator Bowl isn’t out of the question. Here’s a piece of Michigan and Gator Bowl history-–a watch which the seller claims once belonged to the great WR Anthony Carter (and thanks to reader Art for sending this over). So who do we know this once belonged to AC? It comes with this not very official-looking document saying as much: Anyway, I wouldn’t be shocked if this did indeed belong to Carter. Michigan lost a tight Gator Bowl to North Carolina but AC shined, hauling in 4 catches for 141 and two touchdowns. The difference was probably the crazed dawg donning the Carolina blue. The Wolverines were up 9-0 when Lawrence Taylor knocked QB John Wangler out of the game. B.J. Dickey replaced Wangs and connected with AC for a score with under two minutes to go, but they failed to convert on the two-point conversion that would have tied the game. 1979 was an interesting year for Bo and crew. All told they finished 8-4, dropping their final three games and finishing #18 in the land. Speaking of that crew, Bo’s assistants that season included Jack Harbaugh and Les Miles, and now this post…
