Continuing the discussion of items you might not know about Harmon. In the last post, I mentioned his high school athletic prowess at Horace Mann High in Gary, Indiana. An interesting question is why he ended up at Michigan. Three factors would suggest that Harmon might consider a different destination during his senior year of 1936-37: Harmon had brothers who were athletes at relatively nearby Purdue & another who landed at Tulane. Michigan football was in the middle of a horrible stretch, coming off the worst 3-year span in school history from 1934-1936. (And still the worst three year stretch, thanks Brian for having my back.) He was walking into a serious rough patch and head coach Harry Kipke was under fire. The powerhouse at the time was jug rival Minnesota, with Bernie Bierman’s Gophers rolling up a string of 3 straight national championships. Nearby Notre Dame and coach Elmer Layden had some decent teams in the mid-1930s as well. One disclaimer: I’m not a Harmon biographer of course. These thoughts draw upon what I’ve read over the years (which isn’t everything). The non-cynical view: THIS IS MICHIGAN! Despite the tough stretch, U-M was still a great football power with two national titles in the decade under Kipke. On top of this and perhaps more importantly, Harmon’s high school coach…
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Tom Harmon – Big Ten Icon #5
This morning the BTN revealed that Old 98 Tom Harmon will be the next athlete featured in their Icons series. The Harmon segment will appear on Super Bowl Sunday at a special time: 2:30PM (and will re-air again at 9pm). The BTN cameras were on campus last week interviews for the feature. This week I’ll run a few posts on interesting things you might not know about Harmon. You know he’s #98 and the Heisman winner and of course he’s actor Mark Harmon’s dad. (Mark did consider coming to Michigan FWIW—his pops stayed out of it.) For starters, here’s a little about Harmon’s exploits before he even strapped on Crisler’s new-fangled winged helmet: High School Days Harmon was beyond a standout athlete in high school—he was off the charts. It was in his blood, demonstrated by his athletic family. Two of Harmon’s brothers ended up at Purdue, another at Tulane. In addition to being named all-state quarterback twice, Harmon earned 14 varsity letters at Horace Mann High in Gary, IN. He captained the 1936 basketball team and won the state title in the 100-yard dash & the 200-yard low hurdles. He tossed three no-hitters in AAU summer baseball. Fielding Yost called him the scholastic athlete of the year. It was in high school that Harmon also settled on the famous…
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eBay Watch: Hand Him the Hustler Award (1990+)
While Wolverine fans tend to toss any great individual performance that occurred during a loss in the circular file, there are a few that stand out. One of those is tailback Jon Vaughn’s 201-yard rushing performance in Gary Moeller’s coaching debut, a thrilling 28-24 loss in South Bend in 1990. Thanks to eBay, we now also know that Vaughn had a little more than game film and the occasional ache/pain to remember that great effort. Evidently Vaughn was the game’s ‘Offensive Hustler’: Yes, apparently Coach Mo not only dealt out helmet stickers, he also handed out Little League second place trophies for individual efforts. Per the auction description: Very rare one of a kind John [sic] Vaughn offensive hustler award for the game on sep 15 1990 vs the notre dame fighting irish. The trophy stand approx 14 inches high. The trophy does have some wear in areas. Please note that this trophy does not specifically mention his name. However i just recently purchased a memoribilia [sic] grouping from John [sic] Vaughn. Vaughn earned more prestigious honors at the end of the season, particular co-Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year. Against Moeller’s advice, Vaughn bolted to the NFL after the season and had a short career in the bigs. Other Hustlers eBay Here’s a couple other guys who deserved…
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Tom Harmon says ‘Vote Willie Heston’
Someone dug up some type of campaign pin touting Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon and his club's support for "Heston for Judge".
