From my inbox, thought I’d pass this along. Greg Kinney, the great curator at the wonderful U-M Bentley Historical Library forward this cartoon last week and I love it. It was stored in one of the athletic department scrapbooks: The gent on the left is disgraced Michigan football player James Joy Miller, who was dismissed after the 1909 season for failing to properly register and attend classes. The scandal made it all the way over to the New York Times and Michigan ended up apologizing to each of the teams they faced that year. Cook is explorer Frederick Cook, who reached or (claimed to reach) the North Pole in 1908, months ahead of the guy credited with it – Robert Peary. At one point he promised to the King of Denmark that he would submit all the detail of his reports and findings to the University of Copenhagen. He submitted a report, but not all of the detail the school was expecting and this happened: In late November, drawing on his diary, he completed his promised report to the University of Copenhagen. (He chose not to send his diary to Denmark for fear of losing it.) In December, the university—whose experts had been expecting original records—announced that Cook’s claim was “not proven.” Many U.S. newspapers and readers took that finding…
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Sam McGuffie Update
photo: riceowls.com You’ll recall Sam McGuffie transferred to Rice, sat out last season but now he’s in action for the 1-5 Owls. He their leading rusher (399 net yds or 57/game, two TDs) including 309 in the last four games, and the Owls’ top receiver (28 catches for 254 yards, one TD). The stats sheet also lists him with 10 punt return yards on zero attempts which is pretty damn cool. (Add that phantom punt return to the mix tape.) While he sat out football last year he immediately joined the 2009 Rice track team & did work: From the photo above, looks like he’s also offering free admission to the ladies for his one man gun show. And I’m sure he’s still logging onto his favorite defunct website. Follow MVictors on Twitter
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Bo Rolls into Berlin (Navy 1976)
Here’s a program to the 1976 Navy game: A selection of a few other Navy-Michigan programs from the U-M Bentley Library program database: On Saturday from noon-3 WTKA 1050AM (and I assume WTKA.com) will be replaying the original Bob Ufer radio broadcast of the 1976 Navy game. If you’re cleaning out the garage or mowing the lawn I suggest you tune in. Old ‘Ufe practically wore out the scoring horn in this one, as #1 ranked Michigan put up 70 points on the Midshipmen, the most since 1905, and it’s a radio call to remember. Incredibly Bo’s Wolverines actually trailed with just over a minute to go in the first half before taking the lead. In a span just over 5 minutes in the third quarter sophomore QB Ricky Leach accounted for four touchdowns, two on the ground and two in the air, and shortly thereafter Ufer nearly keeled over with excitement as he tended to do. Based on the WTKA promos, after the 70th point Ufer likens the feat to “rolling into Berlin”! A few props are in order here. First, Ira and crew at WTKA for continuing this tradition. Next, my pal and M history buff Steve Sapardanis of Guts ‘n Glue for recommending they reair this game. Finally, audio and video archivist Art Vuolo, Jr., [see…
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Banished from the Big House
Prior to the Iowa kickoff I heard from good sources that the athletic department revoked some premium seating privileges as a result of unruly behavior from certain fans during the Michigan State game. Tonight I spoke to Dave Ablauf from media relations who confirmed that two individuals had their tickets in the premium seating areas revoked due to consumption of alcohol inside the stadium. Ablauf said they reviewed the incidents with fans seated near the offenders and ultimately made the decision to take away their tickets. He added that premium ticket holders sign an agreement that clearly states the beverage policy. I think that everyone is clear on the alcohol policy but it sounds like a few folks got out of control and earned it. Ablauf wouldn’t confirm whether the offending fans were rooting for Michigan or for Michigan State, instead stressing that the alcohol policy applies everywhere in the stadium to ticketholders and their guests.
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Iowa! (Pregame Photos)
Just a few on another wildly beautiful day in Ann Arbor—let’s hope it ends that way. From the field, center David Molk warming up. He looked fine, perhaps favoring his taped left ankle just a tad. [ed. I published these just before the game started and obviously jinxed Molk big time, my bad] Some of the pink accessories the players are wearing today. Also saw pink wrist bands and tape: Many recruits in for the game today. Here are two stand-outs from Fort Myers, FL, Sammy Watkins and Dallas Crawford: The alumni band in full effect on this Homecoming:
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This Week in U-M Football History – The Stand of 1993! (audio)
Here’s the next entry in ‘This Week in Michigan Football History’ to be played Saturday on WTKA 1050AM’s Key Bank Countdown to Kick-off pregame show before the battle against the Iowa. This time we head back, not too far, to 1993 and feature the first ever match-up between Michigan and Penn State. It was the 1000th game in Nittany Lion history and ABC sent their A team of announcers, Keith Jackson and Bob Griese, to call the game to the national audience. The signature moment of the game was the goal line stand that Michigan put up that spanned the end of the third quarter, and the first play of the fourth. The great WolverineHistorian captured the set of downs here: Not even close! Paced by that stand, a punt return by Derrick Alexander–no one touched him or even stepped on DA’s shoes! [inside joke]—the running of Tyrone Wheatley, and a late beautifully executed pass from Todd Collins to fullback Che’ Foster, Michigan won 21-13. Here’s the This Week…segment for this week, include production drops of Mr. Keith Jackson: [display_podcast] – The sponsor is Wolverine Beer so here’s where you can find it, or check out the Beer Wench’s Blog. I’m still waiting to have my first Wolverine beer, perhaps some day soon. You can hear all of the This…
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Michigan to Open 2012 Season vs. Alabama at Cowboys Stadium
Full official press release, via U-M Media Relations. [Comment: What. A. Schedule. Oh crap let’s get better soon.] U-M to Open 2012 Season vs. Alabama at Cowboys Stadium DALLAS, Texas — The University of Michigan football team will face the University Alabama in the 2012 College Football Kick-off Event at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Sept. 1, 2012. The game will be televised nationally in primetime. “This is a great way to kickoff the 2012 season with two of the nation’s winningest college football programs,” said Athletic Director Dave Brandon. “We are excited about playing a regular season game in the state of Texas, a region of the country where we have traditionally recruited. Our goal is to get as many Michigan fans to the game as possible to witness this match-up of traditional powers.” The Wolverines will be the away team with the Crimson Tide designated the home team. The game officials will be a crew from the Big 12 Conference. This will be the fourth time that Michigan faces Alabama in school history, and the first contest played during the regular season by the two programs. All three previous games between the Wolverines and Crimson Tide were played in bowl games. Michigan defeated Alabama by a 28-24 score in the initial meeting, the 1988 Hall of Fame…
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We’re Getting Pink Saturday
No doubt you’ve seen NFL teams donning various forms of pink gear over the past couple weeks in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month. I confirmed with U-M Media Relations that Michigan will be joining them on Saturday, as coaches will be wearing sideline polos and hats laced with pink along with the breast cancer ribbon logo. (Hat tip to Craig Barker for alerting me to some sightings of pink M gear in town a few weeks back.) As I understand it, the shirts will be white with a pink ‘M’ logo. As far as the hat, my contact at the PR firm representing adidas sent this over and I believe this is it or close. Based on what I heard media relations, the ‘M’ logo on the hats might be pink for the game: Limited quantities of the pink gear will be available a M-Den stores and at the game. More details to come. For those attending Roger Waters’ performance of ‘The Wall’ at the Palace on October 24th, grab this gear so you can represent your Wolverines and blend in nicely with the crowd. I’m sure the Hawkeyes will appreciate Rich Rod and crew embracing the cause. For decades they’ve been pushing for teams visiting Kinnick Stadium to get into the pink:
