Hoke didn’t bring them back but I think a surprising number of Michigan fans would like to see them return. I’m talking about the helmet stickers or decals of course, Bo Schembechler’s 1965 invention (while at Miami, OH) that he brought to Ann Arbor. Wolverine gear guru Dr. Steve Sapardanis was one hoping they’d be back and he’s even suggested a 2011 version to grace the Schutts and Riddells on Saturdays: Although these won’t adorn the headgear this season, Dr. Sap thought he’d run down a his thoughts on who he’d honor each week. First, some context from Sap: In the past, Bo Schembechler had a list of achievements and criteria for each team (Offense, Defense and Special Teams) as well as individual accomplishments for awarding his helmet decals. Not being privy to film study or game performance grading, the process has been simplified to just touchdowns and big plays – and a few other "Awards of Distinction" as you will see below. Here’s Sap’s rundown for Eastern Michigan, including some influence from the editor of this site. Week #3 vs. Eastern Michigan ALL members of the Michigan Defense: for not allowing a point in the 1st quarter – first time all season! Jibreel Black: 1 decal for Forced Fumble in 1st quarter. Thomas Gordon: 2 decals – one for…
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Bo Is Always Watching
Were you there? Well prove it. The Under the Lights Fan Cam from the Notre Dame game is out. Look who checked in: To Hell with Notre Dame! Speaking of watching, I think old Bob Ufer was watching, too. Via The M Zone, love this:
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Lights Out! Under the Lights I – Sights & Sounds | Michigan 35, Notre Dame 31 (2011)
In the intro of this week’s edition of ‘This Week in Michigan football History’, I said, “Time will tell if this tonight’s battle will be talked about for decades to come…” Well, it didn’t take much time to make that assessment and you can have that answer now if you’d like it. Yes, this will be talked about for decades to come.
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Remy Hamilton Shakes Notre Dame’s Thunder | This Week in Michigan Football History
For this week’s segment which will be broadcast during WTKA 1050AM’s KeyBank Countdown to Kick-off, we go back to September 10, 1994, and remember when Remy Hamilton stuck his foot in the Ron Powlus hype machine: (Yes, Ira included the mandatory To Hell With Notre Dame drop!). Here’s how it looked: You can check out all of the This Week…segments here. Go Blue!
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Night Moves: Michigan’s First Night Game (1944)
While Notre Dame will be Michigan’s guest for the first night game at the Big House, did you know it was Bo Schembechler’s 1982 Wolverines who played in the inaugural battle under the lights in South Bend? The Irish upset the 10th-ranked Wolverines 23-17 on that historic evening in front of 59,000 fans at Notre Dame Stadium. But that ’82 game wasn’t the first time the Wolverines played at night, as that tradition started nearly 70 years ago. On September 23, 1944, Fritz Crisler’s Wolverines traveled to Wisconsin to play The Hilltoppers of Marquette in a game that kicked off at 7 p.m. As part of the war effort, Michigan had several players on the roster as part of the Navy’s “V-12” training program. To enhance the supply of college-educated officers, the Navy rolled out V-12 in 131 U.S. schools. Those enrolled were considered active-duty personnel, required to adhere to strict military rules and discipline. One of those rules prevented any member to be away from the “base” (the campus, in this case) for more than 48 hours. To accommodate the 48-hour rule and to play a game on the road as far as Milwaukee, Fritz Crisler’s crew left Ann Arbor at around 1:30pm Friday afternoon and arrived at Marquette that evening. Crisler held a brief practice under the lights…
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Hoisting A Legend
Author Bill Roose was kind enough to send along an excerpt from his new book on Desmond Howard titled, “I Wore 21: The Legend of Desmond Howard”. The book is dropping this week around Ann Arbor and will be available at the game on Saturday. While we’ve all seen the famous photo of Desmond making ‘The Catch’, how about this shot from page 69 of I Wore 21 of Howard celebrating with the lineman and the madness over in the student section? Look at the faces of the guys running up to him: Side note: I’m probably in that photo somewhere, over to the left. It’s up there with Woodson’s 1997 interception in East Lansing as the greatest Michigan catch I’ve witnessed. Here’s a clip from chapter two, Grbac talking about the play: Quarterback Elvis Grbac is still amazed by what Howard did that day. “I threw the ball up and it was really incomplete, to tell you the truth,” Grbac said. “Then at about the 5-yard line, Des looks up and he goes into another gear and absolutely runs by the corner and there are not too many guys who can do that. “That was a catch that just propelled him through the entire season, because now once we got inside the 20-yard line, people were like, ‘OK, what’s…
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The Eleven Jugsmen
From reader Daniel: I love reading the posts about custom Brown Jugs that readers make. In an awesome twist of fate, I found myself as the owner of a replica mini Brown Jug. Actually 11 of us did. One of my good friends got married in August. As a gift for all the guys who stood up, ushered, etc…he had replica Brown Jugs made. I had to pass these photos along. Right on, brother. Best wedding photo EVER: Like those guys didn’t get action that night. Check out these beauties: One disappointment: As an ordained minister in Jugology, I feel like I should have officiated this wedding. I case you are wondering, yes, all the scores are on there and it has the two spots awaiting the 2011 and 2012 games. Nicely done, gents! Consider yourselves in the Jug Brotherhood, Local 1903 along with: Brian Snider – 2011 post Eric Mierzwiak – 2009 post Mark Foster – 2010 post Dennis Dail – Post from earlier this year Related: Little Brown Jug Lore
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Denard Goes Schutt
Nice try, Denard. I’ve got uniform spies everywhere but even I caught this one. This season Denard switched from a Riddell helmet, used the past two seasons, to a Schutt model this year. Here he is in 2009 with the Riddell: And yesterday (from the nice photo gallery put together by Brad at MnB Nation), here’s the Schutt. A quick text to uniform guru Steve Sapardanis confirmed the switch. Sap checked his notes and verified that indeed, Denard wore Riddell in the Gator Bowl but trotted out a Schutt at the Spring game and at the Under the Lights press conference. As I wrote last season, I’m partial to Schutt. These are the helmets that are reconditioned and painted in Oxford, Ohio each year by a man named Russ Hawkins at a company called Capitol Varsity Sports. More from my 2010 post: This May I asked Falk about how Michigan hooked up with Capitol Varsity and Hawkins and he told me relationship goes back to the mid-1960s. Falk was the manager for his high school team in Oxford and naturally they used the local company for their reconditioning services. This relationship followed Falk to college at Miami, OH when he handled the equipment under Redskins head coach Bo Schembechler. When he was reunited with Bo up in Ann Arbor in…
