Guest Post by Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis The last time Minnesota won the Little Brown Jug in Minneapolis, Marion Barber SENIOR was the running back for The Gophers. That was back in 1977, when Michigan was #1 in country and Jim Harbaugh was roaming the sidelines for the Wolverines – as one of the Michigan Coaches’ sons! Like Wilton Speight said, maybe the Football Gods WERE smiling down on Michigan Saturday night. Speaking of #3, here are your LBJ Champions: OFFENSIVE CHAMPION – Gotta give it to QB Wilton Speight. His first three completions in his career? WoW! He was obviously tight at first but it sounded like the old ball coach settled him down and stuck with him. Sure enough, he delivered the goods in a BIG way – especially on that 2-point conversion pass. He has come a long way since the verbal tongue-lashing he received from Coach Harbaugh that we saw on the HBO Real Sports feature a few months ago. DEFENSIVE CHAMPION – I haven’t seen a game end on a defensive stop since the 2012 OT Game against Northwestern when Kenny Demens made the pivotal play. But this one felt a lot like the 1993 Michigan – Penn State Game at Happy Valley. Michigan stopped JoePa and the Nittany Lions 4 times at the goal…
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Sights & Sounds: Zero Tolerance (Michigan 38, Northwestern 0) 2015
Fans & pundits grasp to find historical context at times like these, but no matter what you come up with doesn’t really help you explain or understand what’s going on. It’s head shaking. Michigan is destroying these teams. This game felt over when Michigan went up 14-0 just a few minutes in. It was certainly all but done at 21-0. Teams aren’t even getting decent looks at field goals right now. All this said – State looks better than any of these teams we’ve crushed. Connor Cook is an outstanding QB. Despite this, at this point, it’ll be a big letdown if Michigan doesn’t win. Sights and Sounds: Opening Kickoffs – The last Wolverine to take the opening ball to the house was Coach Wheatley against Houston in 1992. Coincidentally the big board showed a few highlights from Tom Harmon’s performance at Cal in 1940 – and Old 98 took the first kickoff back in that game as well. Sadly #1000SSS didn’t show this highlight, Harmon’s TD run where the final “defender” was Harold Brennan, a drunk Cal fan. More on that epic run & incident here. TDs in 3 Phases: via #1000SSS, the holy trinity achieved: • The last time U-M posted touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams was 2003 against Indiana. Steve Breaston scored on a 69-yard…
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Happy Birthday Bo and Ufe!
Thee cheers and a happy birthday to a pair of Meeechegan legends: General Bo Schembechler (1929) and Bob Ufer (1920)! mgo-Cake: Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Michigan Football Nicknames
Coach Harbaugh recently sent this tweet lauding a few great nicknames in M lore – and as you might guess most of them fall into the Bo era. With some help from Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis and a few of his contacts, a nickname Rosetta Stone of sorts on that tweet: One of the great M Men who was quick to dish out nicknames was of course the great announcer Bob Ufer. Back in 2012 Sap ran down a healthy list of his nicknames and Ufer-isms that seems apropos: Below are a few of the more famous nicknames from Bob “THE UFE” Ufer: * Don Lund (Ufer’s color commentary man) – Lundo* Jack Lane (Ufer’s stats man) – The Human Computer* Tom Ufer – Old #3 son* Bo Schembechler – Bo “George Patton” Schembechler, The General* Woody Hayes – Dr. Strange Hayes* Woody Hayes’s Buckeyes – Test Tubes* Earle Bruce – “Darth Vader” Bruce* Earle Bruce’s Buckeyes – Scarlet and Gray Stormtroopers* Dan Devine – Dreary Old Dan Devine* Michigan State – Jolly Green Giants* Dennis Franklin – Dennis “The Menace” Franklin* Ed Shuttlesworth – “Easy” Ed Shuttlesworth* Mike Lantry – Super Toe* Gil Chapman – The Jersey Jet* Gordon Bell – The Whirling Dervish* Rob Lytle – The Blonde Bullet, The Fremont Flash* Rick Leach – Ricky “The Peach”…
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That’s Meeechegan with three Es
An update to your U-M style guides: Those of us who love Bob Ufer have often tried to type out how Ufe, imitating Yost, liked to say Michigan. Until today I settled on “Meechigan”. I believe John U. Bacon goes with “Meeshegan”. I’ve seen many other variations here and there.
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Dr. Sap’s Decals | Leaving the Snake Pit and 2014 Behind
Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis bids adieu to a painful 2014 with a final offering of decals to a handful of seniors. But before that, did you catch ESPN’s GameDay on Saturday? It included a nice piece on the rivalry and the Michigan banner, including a short clip of the Buckeyes tearing down the coveted slice of canvas in ‘73 synchronized with Bob Ufer’s epic audio description of that dastardly deed. Guess who put that together and shipped it off to ESPN? That’s right..Dr. Sap himself! Here’s a low res version of the full clip Sap provided to our friends in Bristol: Those painful dekes: OFFENSIVE CHAMPION DEVIN GARDNER? – We watched a gutty and gutting end to New 98’s career on Saturday. In between the first pass/interception of the game and the fumble that gave OSU the clinching score, Gardner played his heart out and did all he could to help UM win. Problem is, he also helped OSU win. Take away those free 14 points and we have an even ballgame. I don’t want to remember Gardner for his interception and fumble. I want to remember him for his courage for keeping UM in the game. I want to remember him for his compassion when he went over and consoled J.T. Barrett when he broke his ankle. Instead, I…
