Straight to the miscellanea: Honoring Falk > Postgame: Q. For the last 40 years your equipment manager Jon Falk has been the keeper of the jug. Any last words about Mr. Falk and knowing he’s got the job one more time that concludes his tenure here? Hoke: “Well, we gave it to him when we got in the locker room. I just hope he doesn’t take it home. But no, very emotional, very happy. Jon, his loyalty to Michigan and Michigan football is special.” I caught up with Falk after the game as he was heading out of the stadium. He told me when he got the jug he told the players, “There’s no coach & there’s no player bigger than Michigan football.” Uniform notes > Team wore LHS decal in honor of Lucas, son of former All-B1G tackle Adam Stenavich. As Sap pointed out, that’s the first non-player or coach to be honored in such a way (POTUS Ford, Bo, Ron Kramer). Timeline updated. Mood > Slight uptick, but that was way closer than the score of course and..well…meh: Jug History slaughtered but forgiven > At the conclusion of the broadcast Mike Patrick absolutely butchered the history of the jug, talking some nonsense about Minnesota taking the jug to Michigan and the crock being made of clay from the…
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Retained
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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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Growing the Jug Brotherhood…with Dilithium
On the week of the Little Brown Jug game, is there a better time to welcome a member of the Jug Brotherhood? James Heike A hearty congratulations to James who created a beautiful replica jug, sent me the pics and his story and thus punched his ticket to eternal glory. He’ll never have to buy a drink again in Ann Arbor or Minneapolis. Here’s a look: And don’t look now but James went the extra mile getting it signed by #16. Proof that Denard signs jugs if you ask him nicely: James, let’s hope that Michigan wins and paints the new scores somewhere other than immediately above the Michigan ‘M’ (which seems to be the clubhouse leader in the local betting houses) so you don’t have to make a tough decision on your Denard signature :) Here’s Heike’s story in his own words: My buddy’s been bugging me to write in for a year or two now and in the spirit of jug week, I figured I’d finally share the story of my own Little Brown Jug, how it came to be, and what makes it just a little bit different from the other jugs you’ve featured on the site over the years. It all started 2 years ago. Michigan 58 – Minnesota 0I was in my living room with…
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Big Night for Big Jon
Falk with artist Jil Gordon and the replica jug she created. Jon makes the jug actually look “little” What a cool event for Jon Falk held at MGoPatio last night! Props to Wolverine Beer for running the tap and for Slow’s BBQ for delivering the food. I dialed up WTKA this morning to talk about the night (and a little jug business) with Ira and Sam: [display_podcast] While I can’t recap everything, I captured a few of the quotes delivered by Jon’s longtime colleagues Coach Jerry Hanlon and longtime trainer Paul Schmidt. Coach Hanlon started by joking about how stingy things were at Miami, OH when Falk worked there, but because of that Jon brought a certain attitude to Ann Arbor: “He put in our kids into a mode that not everything in this life is free, not everything that’s going to happen to you is going to be great. He kept them on a straight and narrow program. He brought a realistic attitude on how to handle the kids, and I really believe he’s done as well as any coach here in developing young men and having them understand that this isn’t a free ride, you have to work for what you want to get. I have a great deal of respect for him.” Hanlon, in his vintage M…
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80 Years Today…The Real Jug Returns!
Many of you know the story—For those who don’t read on. For those who do, skip to the bottom for a little Jug update. PANIC(!) erupted in mid-September 1931. The coveted Little Brown Jug, the symbol of the Michigan-Minnesota rivalry, vanished from the U-M Administration building. A frantic search ensued sending media relations man Phil Pack (think of a vintage Bruce Madej) all over town chasing leads. Based on a tip Pack even searched a few cider mills..but those visits proved fruitless. /wink Then, on November 19, 1931, the very same week of the Minnesota game that season, a car pulled up to the Tuomy Hills gas station (now the Bearclaw Coffee at the corner of Washtenaw and Stadium) with four men wearing “dark goggles.” One of the disguised passengers rolled out a jug onto the pavement & it was scooped up by gas station attendant K.D. Smith. While initial reports were skeptical of the authenticity of the crock, which was said to have been “freshly painted”, Fielding H. Yost himself inspected it and said it was indeed the real McCoy. A local sports writer said Yost was full of it, calling it “a clever imitation.” Michigan retained the jug in 1931 but then headed back to Minneapolis in 1932. Yost went along on the trip (Harry Kipke coached the…
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Twelve is a Quarterback’s Number – Sights & Sounds (2012: Michigan 35, the Gophers 13)
So I’m following Brandin Hawthorne into the TCF Stadium tunnel after the game as he toted the jug back to the locker room. I got a slight bump from someone passing by and it was enough to jar my iPhone out of my left hand. As I was turning to grab it, a saw that a U-M player was already reaching down, in stride, and calmly scooping it up off the cement. Devin Gardner, who had just finished up an interview, handed me my phone. I thanked him and I mumbled something like, “nice game.” I’m not sure if there were any elderly ladies needing an escort on a crosswalk but I’m certain Gardner was there for them as well. After a frightening start, Gardner was amazing. I’m amazed that he can spend basically one week preparing for this game and do that. Yes, I realize it was The Gophers and like everyone else in this fanbase I’m prone to oversteer after any win, but that was remarkable. So that is the 5-star guy that everyone was salivating over out of high school. Because he’s so cool, I’ve theorized that Gardner is the type of person who needs to get pissed or face a challenge to really get going. In the postgame, I asked Hoke about it and he basically…
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Gopher Game Photos
Check out more postgame jug photos here, and of course pregame shots here. Slash! Gardner heading here: Gardner and Capt. Robinson comparing notes Gopher drumline adding some pageantry Gang tackle. There are few extra legs and feet in there somehow like the Iwo Jima Memorial Deep sigh. Guys, it’s hard to take the ‘No More Minnesota Nice’ thing seriously when you flash the hearty double thumbs up next to Mandy Pepperidge – who herself looks like she just found a box of puppies. And memo to the guy below: I know Gangnam Style is irresistible but you made a commitment when you put on that shirt and the eye black. I haven’t seen the reply yet but this is the play where Roundtree wrestled the catch down near the goal line to set up the score. Would love to see a little more of Wrestlin’ Roy the rest of the way. Here he is telling the back judge what was up: Until just now, I thought there were merely cute little helmet cozies on the back of the bench, certainly worthy of a post here for many reasons. Upon further review- they are actually hooked up to a propane-fueled heating (or cooling?) system. Gophers know how to deal with the elements, that’s for certain.…
