Our weekly lesson starts way back in 1955 on this Saturday 67 years ago, when the #6 Army cadets visited Ann Arbor to take on coach Bennie Oosterbaan’s second-ranked Wolverines. There was an elephant in the room---Michigan had yet to defeat the fabled West Point squad in five previous tries in our storied history. We quickly turned to the legend, who was actually dinged up early in this game: Michigan's Ron Kramer. Here's the story:
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Denard’s Nod to Ron Kramer (2010); Bo Blasts Badgers (1976) | This Week in Michigan Football History
ad of Michigan's battle against the Washington Huskies on September 11, 2021, we first honor U-M legend Ron Kramer, who passed away on this day in 2010. We close with a focus on the 1976 season opener against the Wisconsin Badgers, where Bucky kept it close for a while until Bo Schembechler unleashed the hounds.
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Kramer of Michigan | This Week in Michigan Football History
For Saturday’s edition of This Week in Michigan Football History we take a couple trips, first back to 1994 when we retired the #48 jersey of President Gerald Ford, then down the dial to 1955 as the Wolverines took on Army in the premier match-up in the college football world. This provided a great opportunity to remember the great Ron Kramer. On the gridiron the Michigan legend played offensive & defensive end, running back, quarterback, kicker, and receiver– sometimes all within the same game. Off the gridiron, Kramer was a 9-time letterman and set Michigan’s all-time scoring record on the hoops squad and he excelled in the high jump for the track team. Here’s more: As always, this segment appears on 1050AM WTKA and 1330AM WTRX’s epic KeyBank Countdown to Kickoff prior to each game. During home games you can hear it live inside the Go Labatt Blue Light Victors Lounge starting 4 hours prior to kickoff. Go Blue! You can listen to all of This Week in Michigan Football History clips here. script – October 8 is a special day in Meeechhigan football lore, as it was on this day in 1994 that the Big House welcomed someone even more famous than Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. 22 years ago today President Gerald Ford was honored and had his #48 retired. Ford played for the back-to-back national champion teams…
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Delivering WOW Experiences…since 1954
Check out this item on eBay right now. It’s a promotional packet for season ducats nearly 6 decades ago, implying ticketholders would get a piece of the coveted WOW experience (see above). The 1954 season (6-3 overall, 5-2 conference, #15 ranked) didn’t quite deliver the full punch of a WOW but sitting in the Big House watching #87 Ron Kramer line up against Army, #4 Iowa, #8 Minnesota, and Michigan State must have been pretty cool.
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60 Meh-nutes (Michigan 63, Massachusetts 13)
Bright sides: I’m glad it was a perfect day out there. I was happy to see Treezy get in the endzone (so we he obviously), Gardner looks like he’s getting better including his blocking, and the legend of D Funch took another step forward. My biggest concern: Beyond Denard’s inconsistency tossing the ball, Fitz couldn’t seem to get many yards with the play that was called—he had to bounce it outside often to create space. That’s not This-is-Michigan-Fergodsakes football, fergodsakes. The D-line is still a big question mark. Elsewhere: * Ron Kramer: #1000SSS did a nice job once again on the Legends ceremony and the #87 hype video was well done. I got to meet a few of the family members before the game including Ron Kramer’s granddaughter Kelsey who was rocking #87’s ring as promised: L-R Ron Kramer’s granddaughter Kelsey, daughter in law Dawn, son Kurt One disappointment of course was that, unlike Jake Ryan and the #47, we didn’t get a chance to see the #87 on the field as TE Brandon Moore was dinged up. I’m not sure what could have been done about that. * Good sign. The game was effectively over UMass squad gathered at midfield prior to suiting up and formed the Radish of Rage (formerly known as the Turnip of Terror): * Tay…
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Ron Kramer enters Michigan Football Legends Program–Official Release
The University of Michigan Athletic Department officially recognized Ron Kramer as a Michigan Football Legend today (Sept. 15) during a pregame ceremony at the Michigan-Massachusetts football game.
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Kramer Just Being Kramer
I hope you had a chance to check out the piece on Bennie Oosterbaan that I contributed to Saturday’s game program. If not, I’ll post that in full on these pages in days to come. I will also have a story on #87 Ron Kramer in this weekend’s UMASS program and I think you’ll like it. Several of his friends helped out including former Lions teammate Tom Nowatzke, longtime Detroit TV and radio broadcaster Bob Hynes, and the widow of legendary U-M athletic director Peg Canham-Keeley. Speaking of Mrs. Canham-Keeley, I met her a few years back while I was doing a segment on the official Michigan Football Tailgate Show. She was standing behind the set and I noticed her necklace—a 1970s-era M football ring (inset)—and had to learn more. I led to this MVictors post from back in 2009. Anyway, Canham-Keeley and I swapped a few emails & I couldn’t quite fit all of her thoughts on Ron Kramer into the program piece. So here are a few bonus memories and thoughts on the truly one-and-only Ron Kramer, #87: “The funny thing is though when I first met Ron back around 1975 I couldn’t stand him. My first impression was of him taking a can of beer, taking a bite out of it, drinking the beer in one gulp…
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TWIMFBH – Crushing The Cadets and “Kramer of Michigan” (1955 – audio)
This Week in Michigan Football takes a look back to Saturday October 8, 1955, when Michigan took on Army in front of 97,000 at the Big House. Michigan prevailed that day 26-2 for its first win over Army. I touch on the game but talk a bit about the legend Ron Kramer who passed away last fall. As always, you can listen to it out before the KeyBank Countdown to Kick-off on WTKA 1050AM tomorrow, or click play now: [display_podcast] You can hear all of the This Week… clips here. For more on Kramer’s life, check out his book, co-written with Dan Ewald, That’s Just Kramer!
