Rich Rod postgame, making sure the clock still reads 0:00
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This Week in Michigan Football History – September 18, 2004
Here’s the next entry in ‘This Week in Michigan Football History’ to be played tomorrow on WTKA 1050AM’s Key Bank Countdown to Kick-off pregame show before the UMass game. This is probably the most recent history we’ll visit in the series, just a few years back to September 18, 2004 when Michigan took on the Aztecs of San Diego State. Hope you like it: [display_podcast] The sponsor is Wolverine Beer so here’s where you can find Wolverine Beer, or check out the Beer Wench’s Blog. Anyone tried Wolverine Beer? I should probably try one sometime soon. You can hear all of the This Week… clips here.
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Should Michigan Men where Numbers on Jerseys? (1910)
Saturday Michigan players will wear a special ’87’ decal on their helmets in honor of the great athlete Ron Kramer who passed away last week. Here’s what it will look like on the winged headgear (HT: U-M Media Relations): Not every Michigan football great got the opportunity to wear a jersey number, including but not limited to Willie Heston, Germany Schulz, and Neil Snow. 1930 was the first year uniform numbers showed up in a Michigan team photo, but we know digits were worn on the gridiron sweaters starting in 1915. Trolling through the 1910 Michigan Daily archives, I found a brief discussion on whether Yost’s men should don digits on their numberless backs. Apparently eastern teams wore numbers and there was a legitimate question of whether Michigan should join them. Yost saw it as a counter to the team concept, telling the Daily, “..it brings the individuals into too much prominence. The team is a machine and should be considered as such and not their individual efforts.” Baseball captain Norman Hill comments echoed Yost’s sentiments but he also noted, “It looks queer to me.” (It’s unknown if the Daily reporter told Hill, “No, you are.”) Here’s the entire piece from the front page of the Tuesday, October 11, 1910 edition of the Michigan Daily:
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Denard Robinson (audio from Sept-13 press conference)
The man of the hour and here’s the audio: [display_podcast] The thing about Denard is that he’s highly likeable. He’s clearly humble, there’s a bit of an ‘aw shucks’ thing going on and that huge smile just tops it off. I think that extends outside the Michigan fan base too. As you do, I know quite a few State fans who really couldn’t stand Tate especially after the "I don’t get nervous" comment. I saw it differently of course, but I guess I understand. There were several questions about his workload running the ball, both at Rich Rod and Denard. One interesting fact. He was of course a quarterback in high school but most schools recruited him as a receiver or cornerback but did you know Denard only rushed for 462 yards his senior year at Deerfield Beach (while throwing for 1809)? So he’s just seven yards away (read: 1 carry) from beating his rushing totals from his entire high school senior year. P.S. They handled out an updated copy of the Michigan record book at the press conference today, haha, that’s never a bad thing.
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I Think it was the Fourth of July
What a day at the Big House yesterday but it’d be a much different feeling and memory had the team fell flat. Off the Field: Artwork: I love that they honored the national championship teams with these larger-than-life displays. I didn’t get a chance to get over to the east concourse but plan to before the next game. This from the west concourse, very nicely done: Commemoratives. The renovation pin is a nice item for fans and the game program is off the hook. Some of the history features were very well prepared expect one—the section on the Little Brown Jug. Page 27, bottom right: Dating back to 1909, the battle for the Little Brown Jug is the oldest trophy game in NCAA Division I Football Subdivision. OK. That’s ok to say “1909” if they meant to say when the teams started playing for the trophy. That’s correct of course. But it continued: Heading into that 1909 contest, Michigan was undefeated in 28 straight games as it headed to Minneapolis.. Ugh. They were describing when the jug was bought and left behind in Minnesota and that was 1903 of course, in the midst of Yost’s point-a-minute teams. In 1909 Michigan rolled into Minneapolis on the heels of a furious “one” game winning streak, albeit an all-timer—the great victory over Penn…
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Schembechler Hall Lockers – Still Available
A must have for any man cave, Michigan shrine, office, garage and/or living room (if you aren’t married). Details: Full size locker, with combination. We have proof of authenticity, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the ultimate Michigan Football memorabilia collector. It could be a very long time before they change lockers again. Locker numbers still on them. Dimensions: 36? wide x 24? deep x 74-3/4? tall Weight: About 200 lbs – free pick-up in Detroit It seems a local demolition company cleaned out the locker room and was granted rights to take away the lockers. Get this—they actually crushed one of them before someone came to their senses. The company is based in Detroit and they’ve still got some to sell. Interested to buying one of these to round out your shrine or for a gift? The seller was asking $800 earlier this year but shoot me an email, he might do better: One recent buyer sent over this pic. He got the #7 locker and went with the Drew Henson theme. Looks great, although I think a few Ricky Leach and Chad Henne fans are scratching their heads:
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Moe’s Tailgate Contest Winners
The folks at Moe Sports/Underground Printing got a bunch of great entries for the "trick out your tailgate" contest and decided to do a couple things: Award three tailgates with custom shirts instead of just one as originally planned, see a breakdown below, and… Is considering awarding more winners as "tailgate of the week" this season based on the entries received. Details TBD. Drum roll, the three tailgates selected: Grand Champion Jason Freeman & John Baciak – "Grey Lot Tailgate" What they get: Forty (40) custom shirts made up and discounts to use at Moe’s for their tailgate members. They’ll be the official tailgate of the UMass game. What put them over the top? If you plan a theme this hard, you must be serious. I haven’t met Jason or John (yet) but you should know I likes me Irish fare: Tailgate Theme: ST. PATRICK’S DAY TAILGATE Description: With Massachusetts representing the state with the highest population of Irish Americans per capita, and with September 18th representing the halfway point to St. Patrick’s Day, this one was TOO EASY!!! We’ll be celebrating this cosmic Irish alignment of circumstances in true stereotypical American fashion: by wearing green t-shirts and beaded necklaces, drinking green beer, enjoying some corned beef hash, potato skins, and cranking up the Irish tunes! This will be one…
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NCAA hearing Concludes; Brandon Statement
The hearing dragged on most of the day, perhaps a bit longer than the media hanging outside the committee room expected. Hot news? Beyond the AD dropping a few Dominos pizza pies on the press (hopefully topped with coffee beans) the timetable for the official NCAA decision is unclear. Oh, and count the Alabama game as officially a "maybe", and Michigan and Notre Dame are still working out the details of the future of their football-playing relationship. Statement from Super Dave Brandon, via U-M Media relations: Statement from Dave Brandon Regarding NCAA Hearing We feel that the committee gave us a full and fair hearing today. Our statements today were similar to those we provided the NCAA earlier this summer: We own the mistakes we have made, we fixed some process and communication problems that caused them, and we’re keeping a close eye on this so it doesn’t happen again. I’m proud of the extra effort everyone has been putting into compliance these past several months. Rich and his staff – in coordination with the compliance group – have been working together to keep us on the right track. We will await the committee’s decision and we will not speculate about the outcome – we must let the process play out. We won’t comment further on this matter until after…
