In this post last week I mentioned that I contacted the Big Ten about their listing of the all-time conference coach rankings by winning percentage. I noticed that Jim Tressel (.823) was on the right on the heels of Fielding Yost (.833): But Yost’s record included all 25 years that he was a coach but we know that Michigan wasn’t in the conference for a big chunk of his tenure. I reran the numbers after removing the years the athletic department lists as out of conference (1907-1918), and the Yost’s winning percentage jumped to .888—a tad out of reach of The Sweatervest. I shot an email to the Big Ten and was told they would look into it. This afternoon Scott Chipman, Assistant Commissioner of Communications, got back to me: We made the change in the weekly release and for next year’s media guide. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. My pleasure! The new weekly release is out and here’s the updated listing: Much better, no? Side note: my pal, writer & historian John Kryk (Natural Enemies) knows his history and argues that Michigan didn’t officially leave the conference until January 1908 (and thus the 1907 should be considered as in conference). The athletic department and the Bentley Library list 1907 as out of conference. I asked Greg…
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Conference Records and The Yost Gap
Jeff Arnold of AnnArbor.com mentioned this in his game notes from Saturday: The 132 points that Michigan and Illinois combined for set a record for a Big Ten conference game. The previous mark was set in 1902 when Michigan and then-Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State) scored 119 points in a 119-0 Wolverines victory. I read that in the paper Sunday but missed this error that MVictors reader "jmblue" points out: By the way, we’ve been told repeatedly that the "highest-scoring Big Ten game" before this was our 119-0 win over Michigan Agricultural College, but that’s not accurate since M.A.C. wasn’t in the conference at the time. Any idea what the highest-scoring actual conference game was? Yes, according to the Big Ten weekly release it was this game: Last Saturday at Michigan Stadium, Illinois and Michigan went to triple overtime and piled up 132 points to shatter the record for combined scoring in a conference game. … The previous Big Ten record for combined scoring in a conference games was 115 points when Minnesota defeated Purdue, 59-56, on Oct. 9, 1993. Other Stuff While browsing through that release I stubbed my toe on a few other items of note. Check these out starting on Page 7 at the bottom under "Current Players Amount Or Nearing Single-Season Leaders". You knew that…
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Less Frequent Brown Jug
The topic of conference rivalries came up on several occasions at Big Ten media days last week. You may have caught Minnesota coach Tim Brewster utter the following: “We haven’t played Michigan for the past two years,” Brewster said. “To me, I don’t see anything different there. Obviously the Little Brown Jug is a historical game and it’s been really important to Michigan and Minnesota for a long time … I just don’t feel like that game is in the same place as the Wisconsin and Iowa games.” A few thoughts here. Clearly the history of this game and its trophy means a lot to me and it seems to be a given that the Wolverines and Gophers will be on the opposite side of the soon-to-be-announced Big Ten divisions. This will mean that the teams won’t meet on a regular basis and the battle for the jug will be an on-again, off-again affair. I’m ok with this. If the conference moves to a nine game conference slate, Michigan will still face four of the six team in the opposite division anyway. The Jug game won’t be going away and when they do meet it’ll mean that much more. And heck, we’re running out of space on the crock anyway: Related, The Little Brown Jug Lore Series: Part I: What…
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Fielding H. Yost’s Bust (1927)
In the past couple of years, I’ve featured posts on Fielding Yost busting the Galloping Ghost and highlighted a program from the 1953 Football Bust which featured autographs from a few of the Yost’s finest players. Thanks to reader Craig B., this edition of eBay Watch takes a look at a statue bust of the old coach as presented in a wire photo: Along with the note, Craig asked an excellent question: So, what we know from this is that there was a bust of Yost in Yost Field House, but I have never, in my life, seen it. Do we know where it is today? Can we get it put back into Yost? Am I just missing it somewhere? Anyway, I shall eagerly await any potential news you have on this, in post or reply form. Thanks much! The photo is dated October 27, 1927 and if I had to guess at the blurry plaque below the bust, it reads “Fielding H. Yost – illegible – University of Michigan – then I think it might say, ‘University of Michigan Club of Chicago’ – 1927: As Craig points out, the auction description hints that this statue might have been associated with Yost Field House but given the date of the photo itself, it may have been presented to Yost…
