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…
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Dr. Sap Discusses…the Bo Brackets (WTKA audio 4-18)
A close-up on the watch Bo is wearing on the Schembechler Statue – hmm, 1981 Rose Bowl! Note it also reads 1pm – Bo’s favorite time to start a game — (MVictors photo) Bo’s headset – with the Dymo tape and all– (MVictors photo) If you missed it, we had some great radio this morning on WTKA 1050AM as Ira and Sam were joined in studio by MVictors’ own Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis to discuss his recent Bo Brackets series. The discussion of Bo’s greatest teams wasn’t left to those in studio alone, as Ira took calls from longtime coach Jerry Hanlon and legends Don Dufek, Stan Edwards and Ali Haji-Sheikh. Check out all of the Bo Brackets posts here: Background Results: Schembechler 16 Elite 8 Final Four Title Game Here are three clips from the show with a little on each: Clip #1: The Bo Bracket is introduced, Sap explains the origins and the initial seedings. 1980 kicker Ali Haji-Sheikh joins about 10 minutes in, and shares a quote from Bo himself what he considered his best team. Clip #2: Leading off with a Bob Ufer clip, they get deeper into the Brackets and coach Jerry Hanlon joins in (5 mins in) and then Stan Edwards (10 minutes in). Edwards tells Hanlon, “…you know damn well..” that 1980 team…
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The Bo Brackets: The Title Game
[Ed. The conclusion of the Bo Brackets – a guest post once again by Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis!] To celebrate the conclusion of the Bo Brackets, it was decided that the Championship Game would be played at the Rose Bowl. The 1973 squad was designated as the home team via coin toss and would wear their home blue jerseys. Conversely, the visiting 1980 M-Men would wear their white, road jerseys for this championship tilt. While both teams were directed by #1000SSS to wear commemorative patches below sewn on to their respective jerseys for this game…there was one slight problem.. …the 1973 team refused to put anything on their classic uniforms. U-M Equipment Manager, Jon Falk, balked at the idea of stitching the patch on the 1973 blues and told the media, “We don’t need a patch on that beautiful uniform. We didn’t wear one for our other bowl games in the ‘70s, so we’re not going to start now. No thank you.” The 1980 team had a different take on the patch. The same trail-blazing group that convinced Bo to have their names put on the back of their jerseys (see Uniform Timeline – 1979 and 1989 entries) and felt having a patch sewn on was no big deal. But General Bo wouldn’t be pushed too far. “Sure, I gave…
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The Bo Brackets | Schembechler Sixteen Results
Via the mind of Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis, here are the Round 1 results of the Bo Brackets. ROUND 1 GAMES – 1970s 1969 vs 1970In a close game, 1969 pulled away late in the 2nd half with a pic-six by Barry Pierson and a Garvie Craw 1-yard TD run that came off a Tom Curtis interception. Final Score: 21-71969 advances 1971 vs 1972Dennis Franklin out dueled Tom Slade for most of this game, but Billy Taylor scored his 2nd TD of the contest on a 65-yard scamper to put the ’71 squad up, 17-13. Franklin’s last second Hail Mary pass was batted down by Thom Darden in the endzone to preserve the victory for the 1971 team as they move on. Final Score: 17-13 1971 advances 1976 vs 1977Rob Lytle ran for three TD’s as the ’76 squad looked to make this game a blowout, but Rick Leach’s three TD passes in the 4th quarter tied the game at 21 with just under a minute to go. Jim Smith returned the ensuing kickoff 67 yards to set up Bobby Wood’s game winning 33-yard field goal. Final score: 24-21. Final Score: 24-211976 advances 1973 vs. 1974A back and forth contest that saw the lead change 3 times, this game, not surprisingly, came down to a…
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How Bo Nabbed the #1 High School QB | Storytime with Dr. Sap
In honor of national signing day 2014, Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis is back with a little story of how Bo nabbed the nation’s #1 quarterback. A few hours ago one of the nation’s top recruits, Jabrill Peppers, sent over his LOI and Michigan fans from coast to coast rejoiced. Did you know there was a time when Bo Schembechler landed the nation’s top high school quarterback? This quarterback was so talented (4.5 speed and a cannon for an arm) that every major college wanted him. By most accounts he was the #2 overall high school recruit in the entire country. But there was just one problem – he wasn’t exactly sold on going to Michigan. Bill McCartney was assigned the recruiting responsibility to bring him to Ann Arbor but the QB had his mind made up – he was going to go to (/gasp!) Michigan State. The Spartans had just beaten Bo a few years earlier in Michigan Stadium and MSU’s passing scheme was exactly the type of offense this recruit wanted to play in. When Coach Mac reported back to Bo that he couldn’t change this prized recruit’s mind, The General realized it was time for this QB to have a face to face with Coach Schembechler. Bo went to this player’s high school and waited for him in…
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Sap’s Salute to Frank Beckmann
[Ed. Saturday night is of course the final call for longtime play-by-play man Frank Beckmann. I’ve offered up a couple of salutes on these pages around the Ohio State game, but this week Dr. Sap shared a few touching thoughts on Beckmann that I wanted to pass along.] Guest post by Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis Before Frank Beckmann took over the reins from Bob Ufer as the “Voice of Michigan Football,” Frankie cut his teeth on the radio broadcasts by doing the locker room interviews. As a Michigan Fan who grew up with Bob Ufer, I gotta tell ya, I did NOT like Frank’s style initially. There was no horn blast after every TD.There was no, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1 TOUCHDOWN MEECHEEGAN!!” call. Ufer’s passing marked the end of my innocence for Michigan Football. It would never be the same again. Sure, I was 16 years old at the time, but to me, Ufer WAS Michigan Football. Who was this Beckmann guy, anyway? Frank’s tenure as the Voice of Michigan Football would signal a change in my Michigan fanhood. During Frank’s run, I grew up as a person and as a fan. Sure, I would continue to follow the maize and blue, but the result of the games would no longer determine my mood for the remainder of the…
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No Passing Fancy
On today, Jim Harbaugh’s 50th birthday, a nice time for another guest post from Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis. While it’s no shock that Bo Schembechler didn’t like to put it up in the air, check out this breakdown by Sap. Guest Post by Steve Sapardanis Woody Hayes taught Bo Schembechler a lot of football lessons. One that resonated with Bo was the importance of running and possessing the football. The thinking was establishing a powerful ground game would almost certainly ensure victory, because by the end of the game you would be able to impose your will on your opponent. When that happens, your opponent will have been morally and physically defeated. Besides, when you throw the football, three things can happen, and as Woody liked to say, two of them were bad. You think Bo forgot this? I pulled the passing stats for every game during the Bo era at Michigan (1969-1989) to see if there was any statistical correlation to Bo’s disdain for throwing the football and losing. Sure enough, I found something. In the 21 years that Bo coached at Michigan, his teams only attempted more than 25 passes just 23 times. The Wolverines lost 20 of those games. And before Jim Harbaugh arrived, Bo had lost 17 straight games when attempting more than 25 passes. In…
