Today local artist Jil Gordon performed the most sacred of duties on the Little Brown Jug. The tradition dates back to 1903 when Minnesota's custodian Oscar Munson and athletic director L.J. "Doc" Cooke painted on the 6-6 score in 1903. But you knew that.
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Sight & Sounds | Minnesota 1 Jug, Michigan None
I don’t have to explain how I feel about the history of this rivalry and also needless to say, it is very rough for me to watch that jug head out of town. Looking through the photos, it particularly stung seeing shots with that new section of the jug. I stood inches away when Jil Gordon painted on the score last year. You might call this the dong punch de resistance: Check out the kid holding a program. Inside there is a story this week that I wrote, particularly about the different paint jobs the jug has had over the years leading off with a mention of Jil’s work (including the photo below) on the new section last year. Now that thing is hundreds of miles away and they are doing lord-knows-what to it. Punch. Read on..(1964 team, Arena, Pomp, Mood, links and more…)
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Retrofitted Jug
So we have two photos of the original, what I call the “Oscar Jug”, i.e., the Little Brown Jug as it looked after Minnesota equipment man Oscar Munson found the jug, brought it to AD Doc Cooke and painted it up. Readers of this site have seen these a few times but here they are: You know I’m a fan of Jil Gordon, artist, creator of True Blue 365, famed LBJ score painter agreed to take on a special project for me. I received this today, and…wow: I’ll be toting it around tomorrow. A huge thanks to Jil – this is awesome. Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Mud-covered Mugs and Brown Jugs
Folks, including me, talking about John U. Bacon’s book Fourth and Long have focused on the “serious” stuff like in there, like the discussion of the state of college football and the Brandon’s handling of the athletic department and struggle of Penn State’s seniors to hold its team together. But much of the book takes a lighter look at many of the elements off the field that we all know, especially in these parts, help form the true soul of this sport. Two of those elements he discusses in Fourth have special place in my heart: the Little Brown Jug (Chapter 18) and the Mudbowl (Chap 19). I played in the Mudbowl but didn’t do much beyond delivering a late hit/cheapshot that triggered a bench-clearing brawl. In future blogger-like fashion I slipped out of the melee because I have sensitive fingers and wrists, man. Bacs described the battle in the slop (two decades removed from my triumph in the early 1990s) and he has it about right: The play wasn’t pretty, but it was fierce, with almost every down resulting in at least one player getting jammed face-first into the swamp, followed by a five-man shoving match, which usually ended with at least one more player eating mud. If you could claim anything was “beautiful” about a game that was…
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The Thumb of Pressure & Other Vintage Inspiration
Check out these pics local artist Jil Gordon forwarded over to me. You might remember Ms. Gordon she has the honor of painting the year and score Little Brown Jug when Michigan wins and she’s done other work with the athletic department over the years. Here is some of Gordon’s handiwork from the mid-70s in the football building and in the hockey locker room: Check out that camera! Here’s what used to be on display over at Yost: Thanks to Jil for sending this along – and make sure you check out her other more recent products on her website – also an MVictors sponsor. Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Jil Gordon & Painting The Little Brown Jug
Most people know the basics (or if you read this site, about everything you’d ever want to know) about the story of the Little Brown Jug. To recap, back in 1903, Michigan and Minnesota’s powerful teams played in Minneapolis to a fiercely fought 6-6 tie. After the game, the Wolverines left behind a five-gallon stoneware water jug, purchased at a local store before the game. Minnesota equipment manager Oscar Munson found it the following day or two and brought it to Director of Athletics L.J. Cooke. In remembrance of their mighty tie they decided to give the jug its first paint job, scribing, “Michigan Jug – ‘Captured’ by Oscar, October 31, 1903,” on one side. On the opposite face they spelled out, SCORE, “Minnesota 6, Michigan 6,” making the Minnesota “6” three times larger than the Wolverines’ score. Six years later Cooke and Michigan coach Fielding Yost agreed to play for the righteous crockery, something they’ve done 92 times now (if you count that 1903 game). While playing for the jug is of course one of the deepest and most replicated college football traditions, painting the jug actually is a practice that started before the teams even agreed to play for the pottery. After Cooke and Munson’s initial handicraft, the scores of the game have been painted on sometime after…
