By Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis In the 1970s player introductions for college football games were very different compared to the productions that they are now. There were no fancy graphics, no computer-generated backgrounds, and no animations some forty years ago. While the intros back then lacked the glitz and glamour of today’s game, they made up for it in uniqueness and creativity. In 1973, the player introductions for the Michigan-Ohio State game were announced over the Michigan Stadium public address system. ABC-TV’s Bill Fleming was live on the field and had the players run-up to the on-field camera as he announced their names to the sell-out crowd and national TV audience, literally minutes before kickoff. Those introductions were epic and captured the emotion of the moment. None were better than Michigan’s Curtis Tucker, Dave Gallagher, and Paul Seal’s introductions. A few years later, ABC decided to use video mug shots at the Friday walkthroughs for both teams instead of delaying the start of the game with on-field player introductions. This was relatively boring as the players were usually just standing there in their team-issued sweat-suits as the camera moved down the line, one by one. Then, in 1978, Michigan tailback Harlan Huckleby added a subtle coolness to his intro for the game against Notre Dame. When the camera moved in…
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Wangs and the Red Jersey | Storytime with Sap
[Ed. Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis is featured here each postgame with Dr. Sap’s Decals. You might know that his detailed knowledge of uniform tweaks since the Bo era helped spearhead the Uniform Timeline. Bottom line – the Sap mind blended with the Sap archives is a Wangler-to-Carter-esque combination. Here’s another great Bo-era story from the mind of Sap.] Guest post by Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis Nowadays it’s commonplace for quarterbacks to wear red (or sometimes orange, /wink) colored jerseys in practice. This of course is a reminder to all players and coaches that they are not to be hit or tackled in drills. Last year, former Michigan quarterback Rick Leach told me that he never wore a redshirt at practice during his four years as Michigan’s man under center. I was shocked to hear that, especially when you consider two things: 1. Bo liked to hit in practice as much as possible and; 2. Leach ran Bo’s option offense and got hit quite a bit carrying and pitching the ball. So all this got me thinking – who was the first QB to wear a redshirt at practice for Bo? I know it wasn’t Tom Slade shown here at practice in 1972: And like Leach said, no redshirts here in 1976 when President Ford dropped by to…
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The Reverse Dimple Rawlings Double Grip Football | Storytime with Sap
[Ed. Here’s another great Bo-era story from the mind of Dr. Sap.] Guest Post by Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis After Bo Schembechler left U-M to become the president of the Detroit Tigers he met Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley. Finley liked to dabble in the unique as he was the inventor of the high visibility yellow baseball as well as the green and gold tunics the A’s wore in the ‘70s. The two talked about Finley’s new football invention – the reverse dimple football. Its enhanced grip was supposed to improve the accuracy of throws and increase the distance it was kicked. [more on the patent here.] The grip enhancement looked much like a golf ball’s surface and the leather looked something like this: Bo was intrigued and told Finley to go see U-M equipment manager Jon Falk in Ann Arbor…and that’s exactly what he did in the spring of 1990. The two hit it off and Falk agreed to try the new ball that Rawlings now dubbed the “Double Grip Football” with the 1990 Wolverines. Everybody liked it. The quarterbacks liked the grip and felt more accurate throwing it. The receivers liked the tackiness and the kickers felt it sailed longer when booted. Falk wanted to use the new pigskin against Notre Dame to start the 1990 season, but…
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Super Toe’s Forgotten Field Goal | Storytime with Dr. Sap
Guest post by Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis On a cold, cloudy, 34 degree November Saturday in Ann Arbor, Mike Lantry pulled Michigan from the depths of despair to the heights of ecstasy. In the last minute of the tenth game of the 1972 season against the Purdue Boilermakers, “Super Toe,” as Bob Ufer referred to him, kicked a game-winning field goal….that no one remembers. Before getting into the reasons why this moment is lost in U-M lore, here’s how it all went down: Trailing 3-0 at the half against a very determined Purdue defense, Michigan came out and scored a touchdown on their first drive of the second half. Unfortunately, Lantry’s PAT was wide right and the Boilermakers now only trailed, 6-3. After Purdue tied the game at 6 with field goal on the last play of the 3rd quarter, Lantry had a chance to give Michigan the lead early in the 4th quarter. This time his 49-yard field goal attempt came up short. Later in the final quarter, as Purdue drove down the field looking for the win, Randy Logan intercepted a Gary Danielson pass to set up a final shot for Michigan. With the weight of the game (as well as the season) on his shoulders and left toe, Lantry composed himself and calmly booted a 30-yard field…
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How Bo Nabbed the #1 High School QB | Storytime with Dr. Sap
In honor of National Signing Day 2014, Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis is back with a little story of how Bo nabbed the nation’s #1 quarterback. A few hours ago one of the nation’s top recruits, Jabrill Peppers, sent over his LOI and Michigan fans from coast to coast rejoiced. Did you know there was a time when Bo Schembechler landed the nation’s top high school quarterback? This quarterback was so talented (4.5 speed and a cannon for an arm) that every major college wanted him. By most accounts, he was the #2 overall high school recruit in the entire country. But there was just one problem – he wasn’t exactly sold on going to Michigan. Bill McCartney was assigned the recruiting responsibility to bring him to Ann Arbor but the QB had his mind made up – he was going to go to (/gasp!) Michigan State. The Spartans had just beaten Bo a few years earlier in Michigan Stadium and MSU’s passing scheme was exactly the type of offense this recruit wanted to play in. When Coach Mac reported back to Bo that he couldn’t change this prized recruit’s mind, The General realized it was time for this QB to have a face to face with Coach Schembechler. Bo went to this player’s high school and waited for him in…
