If you read this site you know that Saturday is officially Willis Ward Day in the state of Michigan. It is also not-so coincidentally the 78th anniversary of the infamous 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech game. I bet you didn’t know this: there’s a descendant of Willis Ward currently studying on campus in Ann Arbor. I met Melanie Ward, the grand niece of Ward (Willis is her grandfather’s brother), at a screening of Black and Blue at the U-M Alumni Center on campus earlier this year. Ward (left) is currently a U-M senior and was kind enough to chat with me this weekend as we approach the day that will honor her great uncle. MVictors: What did you know about your great uncle before coming to U-M? Melanie Ward: I knew that I had a great uncle who played football for the University of Michigan in the 1930s. I also knew a little later that Gerald Ford also played on his team. But I did not know anything about the Georgia Tech football game. MVictors: Do you have any other family members who attended Michigan? Ward: Just Willis and his sister-law, who is my dad’s mother. MVictors: So when did you learn about the controversy about the 1934 Georgia Tech game and Willis Ward’s involvement? Ward: At the screening of the documentary…
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Righteous Pigskin
One of the great things about talking about Michigan football history is that I find often the story tends to evolve after the initial post, tweet or article. The boys at Stunt3 Multimedia know this well, and here’s another example. They’ve been showing the latest cut of their fine documentary Black and Blue around the country and talking to many folks along the way. I recently interviewed director Brian Kruger from Stunt3 (check out the full interview in the next issue of GoBlueWolverine Mag) and he talked about a great discovery: “A few weeks ago a woman called me. She said her father was John Regeczi, who played on the teams with Gerald Ford and Willis Ward, those three years. She was very excited about that and she was telling me some stories. After about ten minutes I figured the conversation would wind down, but then she said, ‘Oh, and by the way, we have the game ball.’ [laughs] I was like, ‘What?!’.” Indeed it appears as thought the game ball to the controversial 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech game exists. Brian told me the owner, who lives in California, was kind enough to take a few pics of the ball and send them over to Kruger, who in turn relayed a couple to me. Check it out: And I thought my…