Good Wednesday to you, friends. WPW leads off with a classic shot of the B1G football coaches meeting prior to the 1931 season (see above). This photo, from the Big Ten meetings prior to the 1931 season, is probably worth its $44 auction price. On the floor you’ve got M headman Harry Kipke with Purdue coach (and former player under Rockne) Noble Kizer demonstrating life in the trenches. Minnesota’s Fritz Crisler, who would replace Kipke later that decade, watches from the back. Amongst the men seated is Illinois legend Bob Zuppke sitting next to the one & only Amos Alonzo Stagg. Great shot. Dress code in ‘31? White shirt, tie, Brylcreem in the hair (except for Stagg). I don’t know when wire photos started to be distributed to newspapers, but this has to be a fairly early one (from 1926) featuring the great Michigan quarterback and NFL HOF’er Benny Friedman. The seller claims it is an original and wants a mere $30. If it’s truly the original it’s worth over $100 easy IMO.
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TWIMFbH: You Gotta Hand it to Chap (1946)
This Week…heads to back at the battle on a hot October 5, 1946 day at the Big House against the Hawkeyes. That summer we lost Michigan’s Grand Old Man, but returned to us (from World War II) was the great Bob Chappuis. The formula for coach Fritz Crisler was simple so dig it: [display_podcast] You can catch all of the This Week in Michigan Football History clips here….sponsored in 2013 by Ziebart of Yspilanti. Listen to it live tomorrow on the KeyBank Countdown to kick-off on WTKA 1050AM or catch it live inside the Bud Light Victors Lounge. Radio notes!! I’ll be on with The Wolverine guys at 11am – you can catch it here. I’ll live in the WTKA Victors Lounge at around noon talking jug Catch me on the Michigan Tailgate Show on WWJ 950AM at 2:20pm Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Marooons In Memoriam
From the front page of September 24, 1940 edition of the Michigan Daily, announcing the demise of the once-great University of Chicago football program: So why did one of the original members of the Big Ten, who brought us the heralded Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg (and Fritz Crisler, for that matter), ditch football? This issue of Sports Illustrated from 1954 put it nicely: The University of Chicago abandoned intercollegiate football in 1939 because the game hampered the university’s efforts to become the kind of institution it aspired to be. The university believed that it should devote itself to education, research and scholarship. Intercollegiate football has little to-do with any of these things and an institution that is to do well in them will have to concentrate upon them and rid itself of irrelevancies, no matter how attractive or profitable. Football has no place in the kind of institution Chicago aspires to be. It has been argued that Chicago is different. Perhaps it is and maybe it is just that difference that enabled the university to separate football from education. That’s sweet and all, but methinks the 85-0 beating at the hands of Tom Harmon’s Wolverines in 1939 had a hand in it as well. Here’s one of my favorite all-time photos featuring Tom Harmon cooling off on the sidelines during…
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Platooning to Stop Davis, Blanchard (1945)
While 1945 isn’t the greatest in Michigan football history, Fritz Crisler’s crew finished the season #6 in the country and played one of the toughest schedules in the land. More importantly, Crisler made history when he faced the #1 Army at Yankee Stadium and their Heisman-winning duo Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard. TWIMFbH gets into it here, and I even said “Fritzmen”: You can catch all of the This Week in Michigan Football History clips here. Listen to it live tomorrow on the KeyBank Countdown to kick-off on WTKA 1050AM or catch it live inside the Bud Light Victors Lounge.
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The Game and the Buckeye Ballet (1938)
Above, take a look at this wire photo from the 1938 version of "The Game" - Michigan vs. Ohio State.
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Bob Ufer’s Football Application
I love dropping by the U-M Bentley Historical Library. I stopped in recently doing a little research for the 2012 edition of HTTV and check out this gem Brian W., one of the archivists, shared with me: Now we know that the late, great U-M radio voice Bob Ufer played freshman football in Ann Arbor and was a U-M track star at Michigan, but I didn’t know he gave varsity football a run. Apparently so, as above is one of Fritz Crisler’s preseason surveys filled out by old Ufe himself. (Here’s Tom Harmon’s 1943 form, posted in 2010, worth a look if you haven’t seen it). He was living at the Phi Delt house at the corner of South University and Washtenaw at the time and as a good Pennsylvania worked in the steel mill during the summer. “VOICEM” Speaking of Ufer, had to scan eBay for a cool photo and jackpot. Here he is in 1976 showing off his luxurious sled and his fitting vanity plate:
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Closer to the Poof Scenario
The latest Ohio State media guide apparently wiped Tressel’s 2010 coaching season from the books: — 94, career wins for Tressel at Ohio State. The media guide does list Tressel’s win total after subtracting the vacated 2010 season. So he’s 94-21 (instead of 106-22) and is credited with an 8-1 record vs. Michigan (9-1 before 2010 was erased), nine bowl appearances (instead of 10) and six Big Ten championships (he had seven before the self-imposed penalties took away last season). We’ll see how the Big Ten treats it. As discussed here, if the Big Ten agrees that the 2010 season never happened for Tressel, he’ll be wiped from #2 behind Fielding Yost in the all-time conference coaching standings which requires a minimum of ten seasons at the helm. Tressel would just have nine, and thus…see ya. The bonus: guess who’s currently at #3? Bo Schembechler of course, meaning General Bo will nestle up to Yost in second place if this goes down:
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This Week in Michigan Football History: The Incomparable Bennie Oosterbaan & September 25, 1948
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 Bowling Green game. This time we head back to September 25, 1948 for the season opener and the first game for at the helm for the legendary Bennie Oosterbaan. A little different flavor this time, as we focus less on that season and team and more on Oosterbaan himself: [display_podcast] The sponsor is Wolverine Beer so here’s where you can find it, or check out the Beer Wench’s Blog. I’m still waiting to have my first Wolverine beer, perhaps some day soon. You can hear all of the This Week… clips here. Here’s much more on Oosterbaan on MVictors: eBay Watch: The Wolverine Pack & 1926 eBay Watch: Hanging Bennie in Effigy (1958) eBay Watch: Have a Highball with Bennie Oosterbaan
