I recently participated in a virtual roundtable discussion with U-M greats Bruce Madej, John U. Bacon and Jon Falk talking about what else? The Little Brown Jug. Here's the full piece, nicely produced by the University of Michigan Alumni Association as part of a virtual Homecoming celebration.
-
-
Brian McDonald of Rivalry Trophy | MVictors History Show
Recorded at Fraser's Pub in Ann Arbor, an interview with Brian McDonald, a co-founder and co-owner of Rivalry Trophy - the maker of Big Ten replica trophies. In Part I we discussed the origins of the company, his research on the Paul Bunyan Trophy, how they solved the licensing question. In Part II we get into more of their trophies, and discuss the nature of B1G fandom in general:
-
Anthony Carter and the Tear-Away Jersey | Storytime with Dr. Sap
When looking back at some classic pictures and photos of Anthony Carter, you will notice that most of the time his jersey looked different from those worn by his Michigan teammates. Your eyes aren’t deceiving you – AC, at times, did in fact wear a different jersey than his maize & blue brethren. From 1979 through the 1981 season, Carter wore tear-away jerseys made by Russell Athletic. Read on for the full story...
-
Carl McKee & the Version 3 Helmet Sticker | Storytime with Dr. Sap
Bo Schembechler introduced the first Michigan helmet sticker in 1969. It was a crudely shaped, gold colored football. Those lasted through the 1974 season. In 1975, the second version of the helmet sticker was introduced. This time the shape of the sticker looked more football-like, but the difference was that a snarling wolverine head was added to the decal. These lasted through the 1982 season.In 1983 and 1984, while no stickers were placed on the Michigan headgear, the awards were still tracked on a board/wall inside the Michigan Football locker room
-
The Case of the Missing Helmet Decals | Storytime with Dr. Sap
In my never-ending quest to accurately recap the history of the Michigan Football helmet stickers, I have since determined, and confirmed with Jon Falk, that there were indeed three versions of the Wolverine decals. The image below recaps the nuances of the three versions:
-
Michigan Helmet Stickers with Jon Falk
Bo era savant Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis recently caught up with Jon Falk to get down and dirty on the decals. And if you are wondering when this site is going to stop talking about helmet decals, the answer is NEVER.
-
Wangs and the Red Jersey | Storytime with Sap
[Ed. Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis is featured here each postgame with Dr. Sap’s Decals. You might know that his detailed knowledge of uniform tweaks since the Bo era helped spearhead the Uniform Timeline. Bottom line – the Sap mind blended with the Sap archives is a Wangler-to-Carter-esque combination. Here’s another great Bo-era story from the mind of Sap.] Guest post by Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis Nowadays it’s commonplace for quarterbacks to wear red (or sometimes orange, /wink) colored jerseys in practice. This of course is a reminder to all players and coaches that they are not to be hit or tackled in drills. Last year, former Michigan quarterback Rick Leach told me that he never wore a redshirt at practice during his four years as Michigan’s man under center. I was shocked to hear that, especially when you consider two things: 1. Bo liked to hit in practice as much as possible and; 2. Leach ran Bo’s option offense and got hit quite a bit carrying and pitching the ball. So all this got me thinking – who was the first QB to wear a redshirt at practice for Bo? I know it wasn’t Tom Slade shown here at practice in 1972: And like Leach said, no redshirts here in 1976 when President Ford dropped by to…
-
The Reverse Dimple Rawlings Double Grip Football | Storytime with Sap
[Ed. Here’s another great Bo-era story from the mind of Dr. Sap.] Guest Post by Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis After Bo Schembechler left U-M to become the president of the Detroit Tigers he met Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley. Finley liked to dabble in the unique as he was the inventor of the high visibility yellow baseball as well as the green and gold tunics the A’s wore in the ‘70s. The two talked about Finley’s new football invention – the reverse dimple football. Its enhanced grip was supposed to improve the accuracy of throws and increase the distance it was kicked. [more on the patent here.] The grip enhancement looked much like a golf ball’s surface and the leather looked something like this: Bo was intrigued and told Finley to go see U-M equipment manager Jon Falk in Ann Arbor…and that’s exactly what he did in the spring of 1990. The two hit it off and Falk agreed to try the new ball that Rawlings now dubbed the “Double Grip Football” with the 1990 Wolverines. Everybody liked it. The quarterbacks liked the grip and felt more accurate throwing it. The receivers liked the tackiness and the kickers felt it sailed longer when booted. Falk wanted to use the new pigskin against Notre Dame to start the 1990 season, but…
