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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Michigan Helmet Stickers with Jon Falk
Bo era savant Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis recently caught up with Jon Falk to get down and dirty on the decals. And if you are wondering when this site is going to stop talking about helmet decals, the answer is NEVER.
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The Huckleby Wink & The 1970s Player Introductions | Storytime with Dr. Sap
By Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis In the 1970s player introductions for college football games were very different compared to the productions that they are now. There were no fancy graphics, no computer-generated backgrounds, and no animations some forty years ago. While the intros back then lacked the glitz and glamour of today’s game, they made up for it in uniqueness and creativity. In 1973, the player introductions for the Michigan-Ohio State game were announced over the Michigan Stadium public address system. ABC-TV’s Bill Fleming was live on the field and had the players run-up to the on-field camera as he announced their names to the sell-out crowd and national TV audience, literally minutes before kickoff. Those introductions were epic and captured the emotion of the moment. None were better than Michigan’s Curtis Tucker, Dave Gallagher, and Paul Seal’s introductions. A few years later, ABC decided to use video mug shots at the Friday walkthroughs for both teams instead of delaying the start of the game with on-field player introductions. This was relatively boring as the players were usually just standing there in their team-issued sweat-suits as the camera moved down the line, one by one. Then, in 1978, Michigan tailback Harlan Huckleby added a subtle coolness to his intro for the game against Notre Dame. When the camera moved in…
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Jim Harbaugh and the Pro Pigskin | Storytime with Dr. Sap
[Ed. Dr. Sap is back and offers up some Bo-era flavor that comes from the treasure trove that is the Sap archives. –G] Guest Post by Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis When Michigan quarterback Jim Harbaugh scored on a quarterback draw against Notre Dame in 1985, little did he know that a photo of the classic TD would spark an interesting discussion in the national media. As Harbaugh crossed the goal line that afternoon, Ara Parseghian exclaimed on the CBS broadcast, “A quarterback draw – great call!” The next week, Sports Illustrated captured Harbaugh’s scoring play under the title, “A Cure For Bo’s Blues”: A couple of SI readers took notice of the NFL football Harbaugh was cradling in the photo. They were inspired to write the editor and ask why a collegiate athlete was using a professional pigskin:As noted by SI’s ED/Sir, this question was addressed by the NCAA and the next year they decided to modify their college footballs that were used by Division I schools. So when Michigan played at Notre Dame in 1986 Harbaugh was throwing around the new AFCRT Wilson 1001: It was the same model, size and shape as the NFL Wilson – it now just had a different, less professional-looking, stamp on it. Of course everyone then was asking, “What the heck does AFCRT…
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Bo’s $.02
Via the Dr. Sap Archives!
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Man Down in the Press Box | Brandy Does Play-by-Play (1980)
Last week we learned that the new radio broadcast team will be former U-M teammates Jim Brandstatter and Dan Dierdorf. The big news is that Brandy is shifting over a seat to do the play-by-play, with DD handling the color commentary. I confirmed with Doug Karsch that he will remain is his previous role handling the on-field duties. I kinda hope Karsch would get the nod to be in the booth (in one role or another) but it’s hard to argue with the Brandy-DD team. Heck, I didn’t even know Dierdorf was an option. You might know that Brandy stepped in to handle the radio play-by-play back in 2003 for the Northwestern game, but that’s not actually the first time he performed those duties during a Michigan football game. It turns out that was way back in 1980…on TV. Recently Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis shared with me the details of Brandstatter’s first shot calling the game: In 1980, Larry Adderley and Jim Brandstatter were all set to call the Michigan-Notre Dame football game from South Bend, Indiana for a local cable TV outlet. Adderley, who had just finished 5 years as the host of Michigan Replay with coach Bo Schembechler, would unfortunately come down with laryngitis just before kickoff. He made a valiant effort to do the play-by-play, but…
