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…
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Rich Rodriguez Full Presser (08-09 audio)
RR: "Have any of you ever kissed a girl?" You know you’re getting old when driving over, the thought enters your mind that this "late" night press conference will be cutting into your precious ‘Antiques Roadshow’ time. Yikes. Full audio from this evening below. Follow MVictors on Twitter for live updates during press conferences this season. [display_podcast] Key takeaways/notes: RR called out "a handful of guys" that aren’t in shape. Wouldn’t name names. He didn’t name anyone beyond the "guys upfront" for being in exceptional shape. Coach Rodriguez wouldn’t comment on the WVU allegations, deferred to his previous statements. First practice in pads is Friday morning "full contact"; two-a-days start Sunday. All the quarterbacks took the first snap together, haha. "All three guys are competing." Said Devin is in "great shape". On the Woolfolk comments and Tate. "I’m glad our seniors are taking some ownership and leadership in this team." … "Tate knows he’s a lot of work to do to prove himself, not only on the field but off the field." On whether Tate is doing the right things to prove himself. "I don’t watch summer practices." Weeee. All the injured players in the from the spring are back 100% except Will Heiniger. Michael Shaw and some other players are still in summer school, into next week.…
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Michigan captain Whitey Wistert’s ID (1931)
Here’s an auction of the U-M student identification card for the 1931-32 school year for the first of the legendary Wistert brothers: Francis Michael ‘Whitey’ Wistert: As the card indicates, Francis was a Chicago native and after graduating from high school worked in a factory building radios. A decision to tag along with a classmate on a visit to Ann Arbor effectively kicked off the Michigan-Wistert tradition. Several online references claim Whitey had no football background before coming to Michigan, but he is enshrined into his high school Hall of Fame for “Baseball and Football”. Oh and yes, he could also play some baseball—he was named Big Ten MVP his senior season. Whitey anchored the line for Harry Kipke’s back-to-back national championship squads in 1932-1933, and the 6-2, 210-pound stapping lad was named All-American in ‘33: I’ve written on the Wistert Trio before but in a nutshell, each played football for Michigan of course, each played tackle, each wore 11, all three made it into the college football Hall of Fame and they are the reason you won’t ever see another U-M football player wear jersey number eleven. Also included is an ID from 1938 when Wistert returned to assist Harry Kipke and his staff:
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Fielding Yost’s New Packard (1927)
Check out this wonderful signed photo of Fielding H. Yost posing next to a vintage car in front of the original Michigan Stadium press box (photo above).
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Winged Helmet T (As in Trouble)
Michigan is set to release their self-imposed sanctions in about 30 minutes. File this under FWIW, but despite what some maintain it’s not the first time Michigan has been mixed up with serious off-the-field issues. I’ve covered a couple of these incidents on these pages and beyond, but thought it’d be a good time to review.
