Right there! via Yost Built (via mgoblog) Strange days. Beilein bested Izzo, the Vest is up Crap Creek sans paddle & we didn’t get screwed in the hockey playoffs. As the minutes turned to hours on the replay review, I was thinking the refs knew the puck probably crossed the line but couldn’t make a definitive call. I was at Fort Fun last year. Good on them for growing a collective pair, talking it out and making the right call. HAGOAL, Go Blue. If you ask any fanbase I’m guessing they’ll tell you their team is screwed by the refs more often than not. Wolverine fans have a little list of the most egregious in our heads and this is always at the top (another hat tip to my pal Steve Sap for passing it along): This is of course a wire photo of Charles White’s phantom touchdown against the Wolverines in the 1979 Rose Bowl. The back official is calling Michigan first down while numbnuts is signaling a USC touchdown. The LA Times described how that ref discussion played went: Referee Paul Kamanski cast the tiebreaking vote, saying that the line judge, Gilbert Marchman, was in charge of forward progress of the ball. Since the line judge was emphatic that the ball had broken the plane of the goal…
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Happy Days Are Here Again (Radio, Print, Mag)
A dash of MVictors-elsewhere: 1. Radio: Last night I spent a few minutes discussing the wonderful victory over the Spartans at Breslin with Hondo Carpenter of Spartan Nation on SN Radio. If you missed it, here’s the audio: [display_podcast] 2. Observer: Check me out ‘Up Front’ in the current Ann Arbor Observer. I wrote the short piece on the frat booze raids of 1931. You might recall this eBay Watch feature from December that has much more on the police action that nabbed football captain James Simrall. 3. GoBlueWolverine Mag: In the current issue I talk a little on the early days of Michigan hockey–much of it extracted from John U. Bacon’s wonderful Blue Ice. In the next issue check out a little more depth on those Michigan clans! Unite the Clans!
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Lovely Parents – Big Chill | Sights & Sounds
It was quite a day in the Big House yesterday and Michigan smoked the Spartans 5-0 in front of 113,000 plus. A few notes: Sam and Ira firing up the Victors Lounge before the game. Ira taught fans the traditional Yost chants all week but the classic “UGLY PARENTS” was left in the chamber in the shut-out. An example of the nice touches they included – the hockey team going under the Go Blue banner before the game Mike Hart was in attendance. I asked him if he smoked peace pipe with Jim Harbaugh. Hart told me he’d support whomever is Michigan’s coach, including Harbaugh, but reminded me that Rich Rodriguez is our coach. Teams assembling for the national anthem. My weak lens doesn’t illustrate the view from the 6th level of the press box. Surprising to me, you could actually following the puck very well up there. Unfortunately I couldn’t see the stealth bomber fly over from the photo deck but it got rave reviews from folks in the stadium. Funny – I didn’t see this on the rack at Moe’s Almost 5 minutes into the game I left the photo deck and headed to my east side seats. The West lower concourse was a mess – huge lines. There was no wait to get in on the…
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Lightly Chilled (Pregame Notes and Photos)
I popped over to the stadium for a few minutes to get a flavor of the action and the scene. Notes: Achtung! Media relations announced that they have CLOSED both golf courses tomorrow due to the weather. Fend for yourselves! mgoblog’s game preview is up. Check out The Only Colors for the Spartan preview if nothing else for the photo that leads off the post. I ran into the pyrotechnic crew (at least a dozen guys). From the sound of those cats, it’s going to be pretty good. If-Dwight-Scrute-were-in-charge good. Tune into WTKA 1050AM for the pregame show. I’ll be doing a Big Chill edition of This Week in Michigan Football Hockey History. It involves life, death, ice and you might even from Red Berenson in the middle of the segment. And here it is: [display_podcast] FWIW – I’ll likely be in the Victors Lounge tomorrow if you have the means. A few photos for you, enjoy. It was beautiful out there around lunch time: A view of the Blue line from one of the benches Refrigeration in Exexcelsious deo From the student section
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Ice Evolution
On Monday Red Berenson taught Sam Webb and the rest of the media a little bit about ice. Here’s what he said (thanks to Ira at WTKA for the clip): [display_podcast] Building on Red’s description of the surface for Saturday’s game, I thought it’d be cool to take a look at how the ice has evolved over the years. Where did I find a lot of this info? John U. Bacon’s outstanding book Blue Ice of course, get yours if you don’t. “Outdoor/Outdoor” Ice (1900-1916): Michigan hockey, or at least something like it, started after the turn of the century as students formed ‘The Huron Hockey Club’—a group of students that played the game on the Huron River and its “outdoor/outdoor” ice. According to Blue Ice, in those early days instead of sweaters they wore bowler hats, coats and ties. In lieu of pucks they used things “tin cans, wood blocks, frozen fruit and even packed horse manure.” I’m guessing you could also find a little bit of “maize ice” near the woods back in those days. For years the group lobbied the athletic department unsuccessfully for funding and more importantly, for its place amongst the other varsity sports. “Indoor/Outdoor” Ice (1916-1927): The sport (and ice skating in general) was growing in popularity as the years went on. Eventually the…
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Restoring Yost
Those in town may have noticed some crews working on the outside of Yost Ice Arena again this year. It raised an eyebrow from me, given the issues they had last season which caused the postponement of a game and given the timing—why would they be working on it during hockey season? Fear not. I spoke with Matt Trevor in hockey media relations who told me the work is simply "masonry restoration and cleaning." Trevor advised they did some of the work over the summer, and continue to work their way around the building. I also noticed the cement ‘M’ in one of the corners was removed: I asked Trevor if they were <gulp> changing any of the design. Once again, fear not. "They’re just cleaning and restoring what’s there," he told me.’
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Hanging a Piece of Yost West (1989)
It’s Friday and the NCAA Hockey playoffs commence today. Michigan of course gets into it against Bemidji State tomorrow night in Fort Fun. By now we all know the story of the Wolverines’ heroic run into the postseason and readers of the Wall Street Journal even got clued in today. While the improbable run got started at home against Lake State, the first sign that something special might be afoot occurred up in East Lansing when mobs of Wolverine fans took over Munn and watched the Blue sweep the Spartans out of the tournament and ended MSU’s season. Here’s a chance to take something else out of Munn, check out this 1989 CCHA play-off Champion banner up for auction for a mere $4,000: The auction ends April 1st. I’m not sure what you’d do with the banner, but for $4,000 I’m guessing you can do much better. It’s certainly a cool item for a Spartan fan’s man cave but paying anything over $300 seems like a stretch. (Heck, for 4 large you could probably hire Ryan Miller come to your house…and fire tape-ball wristers at him in your basement for a few hours).
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Tropp Returns to Yost tonight
To this day, the most read post on these pages remains the breakdown of the Conboy-Tropp-Kampfer mauling from January’s Michigan-Michigan State game. Spartan Andrew Conboy was kicked off the team and left school, opting to take his chances within the Canadiens organization. It looks like he’s currently playing with the Hamilton Bulldogs. Corey Tropp was also kicked off the MSU team but earned his way back onto Rick Comley’s squad, and will return to Yost tonight. Wolverine Steve Kampfer is of course still skating for coach Berenson. Should be an interesting night tonight. Here’s a look back, first at Red’s comments from January on the weekly coaches’ show at The Arena just after the incident: [display_podcast] And here are those stills that I took from Section 22: Conboy and Tropp zero in on Kampfer Conboy gives Kampfer the old clothesline from behind …and takes Kampfer down. Tropp cocks his stick, but actually pulls back a bit Then Tropp gets a look… …and then takes a swing.. …and connects. Michigan immediately dispatches the team doctor To Conboy’s credit, he appears to shove Corey Tropp with his right arm… ..and then pushes him away with his left
