A few quick hitters on the Bo Schembechler statue. I spoke to the artist, Brett Grill, a few hours before the unveiling tonight – a few nuggets: Grill was identified by a art consultant that the athletic dept hired, and selected after a review of 3-4 other candidates. The only guidelines for the design were that Bo would be wearing an ‘M’ hat and no headset (on his head that is). He created 20-30 models, with different ideas on the pose, etc. He eventually created a scale model of the design selected. He interviewed family, friends and former players (including Jim Brandstatter & Fritz Seyferth) to understand as much about Bo as he could. His parents are Michigan alums – before the project his knowledge of Bo centered around watching him on TV as a child. Before the project Bo was more of a caricature (the guy Grill recalled yelling on the sidelines). Statue is 7 1/2 feet tall, made of bronze. He used actual Bo era artifacts for the project – including the headset and the Rose Bowl watch. One challenge was getting the contours of the jacket correct—he actually used a vintage jacket found on eBay to help get it right. Grill is an associate professor at the University of Missouri. Follow MVictors on Twitter
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One Upping the Jug Brotherhood
The Brotherhood of Jugsmen—those who have built replicas of the coveted Little Brown Jug— is becoming long and distinguished. By my count we’re at 7. And as an aside I know someone else sent me some photos last year but I lost track. If you feel worthy of membership by all means, send me your story and some photos. I know there are a few Minnesota fans out that that are rocking replicas in their boat houses—let’s see ‘em. Here’s the current list: Eric Mierzwiak – 2009 post, Not Available in Stores Mark Foster – 2010 post, His Own Little Brown Jug (v2) Dennis Dail – 2011 post, Jug Club +1 Brian Snider – 2011 post The Jug Brotherhood +++ Daniel and his wedding crew – 2011 post, The Eleven Jugsmen T.C. Thorton – 2012 post Joining the Brotherhood of Jugsmen Jil Gordon – Editor’s discretion. She paints the jug fergodsakes. One of the earliest members of Local 1903 is Mark Foster and over the years he’s gradually stepped up his game. Since creating a replica in 2010, Foster built a custom case for the jug and went onto to create subsequent replica jugs. That brings us to reason for this post: Over the past year he decided to take this passion to the next level—building a replica of the…
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Jil Gordon & Painting The Little Brown Jug
Most people know the basics (or if you read this site, about everything you’d ever want to know) about the story of the Little Brown Jug. To recap, back in 1903, Michigan and Minnesota’s powerful teams played in Minneapolis to a fiercely fought 6-6 tie. After the game, the Wolverines left behind a five-gallon stoneware water jug, purchased at a local store before the game. Minnesota equipment manager Oscar Munson found it the following day or two and brought it to Director of Athletics L.J. Cooke. In remembrance of their mighty tie they decided to give the jug its first paint job, scribing, “Michigan Jug – ‘Captured’ by Oscar, October 31, 1903,” on one side. On the opposite face they spelled out, SCORE, “Minnesota 6, Michigan 6,” making the Minnesota “6” three times larger than the Wolverines’ score. Six years later Cooke and Michigan coach Fielding Yost agreed to play for the righteous crockery, something they’ve done 92 times now (if you count that 1903 game). While playing for the jug is of course one of the deepest and most replicated college football traditions, painting the jug actually is a practice that started before the teams even agreed to play for the pottery. After Cooke and Munson’s initial handicraft, the scores of the game have been painted on sometime after…
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Sugar Bowl 2012 – Behind the Scenes
A few random notes, pics and takes in the aftermath of a solid trip to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. A few quick hitters: >> Hospitality. File under you probably don’t care, but I’ll say it. The media was treated first class by the Sugar Bowl folks. Beyond being ridiculously courteous, they provided excellent communication, was quick with the transcription of the press conferences, offered good food/coffee/drinks, workspace, logistics, etc. They offered a couple of nice gifts as well—a Sugar Bowl jacket and luggage tags. It was very cool to be a part of it all. They also arranged for a 30 foot Po Boy (above). >> Dome View. The press box in the Dome is all the way at the top, here’s a fairly accurate look at the view from up top: They did have video monitors rolling everywhere, along with a screen of live stat updates. The ESPN feed appeared to be about 6-7 seconds behind the live-action. >> Fans. I was surprised by the number of Virginia Tech fans that showed up for the game. I thought Wolverine fans would overwhelm the joint but that didn’t happen. There was still more Maize and Blue out there but to me, it was only a slight majority. One thing I noticed wandering around town—Michigan definitely had more students just…
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Mo
Coach Gary Moeller was at Schembechler Hall this afternoon. Don’t know the circumstances for the visit, but the no doubt the he had a few words for the coaches and team about Ohio State. Moeller is a Buckeye grad and captained Woody Hayes’s squad in 1963. Moeller went 3-1-1 against Ohio State. Looks pretty good, don’t you think?
