“Major” props to Michigan’s Lion Kim for hanging with the big boys in the opening round on Thursday. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of his epic blue, maize and white custom Footjoys with “LION” on the side—but I’m sure a pic will surface. Kim shot a respectable 76 (+4) on the day and is tied for 87th heading into Friday. He’s got a little work to do to make the cut, but it’s certainly within reach if he can shoot near or just under par. Consider how fine that line is. Here’s how Kim stood up statistically against the leaders and Tiger: Player Driving Accuracy (Fairways) Greens in Regulation Lion Kim (+4) 10 of 14 12 of 18 Rory McIlroy (-7) 10 of 14 14 of 18 Alvaro Quiros (-7) 7 of 14 10 of 14 Tiger Woods (-1) 9 of 14 14 of 18 Kim’s average driving distance was 272 yards, just over eight yards behind Tiger (280.5). Other sights and sounds from Thursday: Kim teed off at 12:31 and hit a beautiful drive, up the middle just short of the bunker up the hill. (Former champion JM Olazabal and PGA vet Davis Love III put it to the right & in trouble. Lion made birdie—what a start. On #9, Lion hit a low stinger from around 190…
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Gold Pants and Pawn Stars
One of the Ohio State gold pants charms appeared on History Channel’s Pawn Stars last night. (Finally something related to Michigan football).
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Wanted: Fans with 98% Enthusiasm, 2% Husky Fatima Drenched Vocal Chords (1911)
From the 1911 Michigan Daily, love this. In just about every issue the ‘Night Editor’ submitted a short column with a pointed message or opinion, and in the fall of ‘11 it was often related to the football team and fandom. Check out this piece delivered by night editor Loren Robinson, the week of the game in East Lansing against M.A.C.: Michigan scored 15 unanswered points in the second half to take down the Farmers 15-3. It’s assumed the Wolverine fans enjoyed a few of these on the two hour train ride back to Ann Arbor that evening:
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The Uniform Changes Since Bo Era
The “All Whites” bring good luck as you can see (via Sports Illustrated) [Ed. See the full Uniform Timeline for more detail. This post inspired the idea.] A little history on the the subtle (and a few not-so-subtle) tweaks to the Michigan uniform in the past four decades via historian and Wolverine uniform expert Steve Sapardanis. This was basically off the top of his head (!) – so feel free to review and comment: 1969 – Bo removes the numbers from the SIDES of the helmets and adds award stickers (solid yellow football-shaped decals) 1974-1975 – White pants for road games. Road unis changed to all white with thin blue and yellow stripes on the end of the jersey sleeves, and matched in same stripes down the outsides of the pants. (Check out all whites in action in the ‘76 Orange Bowl). 1975 – UM changes the facemask color from gray to blue. Decals get a little facelift – a snarling Wolverine head with laces is added 1976 – UM goes with YELLOW pants for both home AND away games. M switches to BIKE helmets for the entire team (90% of the players make the switch – a few still wear MacGregor, Rawlings, or Riddell helmets). A slight change to the helmet design – the middle-strip “tail” is removed and…
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Yost Field House: Bring Back the Photo of the Old Man! (1966)
You might know that Yost Ice Arena, the current home of your beloved Frozen Four bound hockey squad, was once the home of the Michigan basketball team. Check out this wire photo of Michigan hoops star Cazzie Russell and notice the gent who’s featured on the wall with his familiar grin
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American Pickers Coming This Way
Do you know these guys? That’s Mike Wolfe and his partner Frank Fritz, stars of History Channel’s American Pickers. According to AnnArbor.com, the treasure hunting pair is coming to town looking for a good pick: Show producer Jeff Eggleston confirmed on Tuesday that the show will be coming to Michigan, but said the itinerary is not set. The show plans to shoot in the area sometime between April 12 and April 24, he said. So why do I care? I love the show but more importantly, check out what’s on Eggleston’s list of items they are looking for on their visit: Michigan sports memorabilia: Unique pieces related to any of Michigan’s college or professional sports teams. I try to catch the holy trinity of memorabilia shows on Monday: Antiques Roadshow, Pawn Stars and American Pickers hoping that one day they’ll stumble upon an item related Michigan football and dial up yours truly to provide some expert input. (I even stretched this wish to Detroit’s Hardcore Pawn as I told Hondo Carpenter the other day.) I reached out to the show’s research department to let them know I’m available if they find anything, and I suggested a couple places/people to talk to about their collections. If you know of an awesome collection they should check out, email americanpickers [at] cineflix.com.
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Coach Mattison’s Ring (with Audio)
The media met with Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Mattison at midday today. My favorite portion was near the end, when someone cool asked him about why he wears his ‘M’ championship ring, then he talked about the Big Ten championship game & finally Angelique asked him about Denard. Clip: [display_podcast] _ * Photos from yesterday’s practice. And speaking of photos, one guy that Mattison likes (but admits he’s got a ways to go) is Cam Gordon. From yesterday’s practice:
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What’s in My Bag? Michigan’s Lion Kim
Golf Digest has a cool regular feature called ‘What’s in My Bag’ where they run down what a pro carries in his golf bag each week. During a recent visit in March in the basement of the U-M Clubhouse, Lion Kim was kind enough to spend a few minutes running through the equipment he’s bringing to Augusta in April
