There are still many misconceptions about the history of the Little Brown Jug and the Michigan-Minnesota rivalry that persist today. Here’s at five common myths..along with a discussion of the reality.
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Speedy Willie & 1904
ICYMI – Late last week mgoblog posted an exclusive excerpt of Stagg vs. Yost, the brilliant new book by John Kryk. An excerpt of the mgo-excerpt, which focuses on Willie Heston and his exploits in 1904: In Michigan’s third game, a 95-0 obliteration of vastly overmatched Kalamazoo College in just 40 minutes of play, Heston might have rushed for more single-game yards than any running back before or since, at any level of college football. “As usual, Willie Heston’s performance was the headliner of the matinee,” the Michigan Daily reported. “A review of the game shows that the captain advanced the ball during the afternoon 515 yards — considerably more than a quarter mile.” Heston continually broke away on long gains and scored six of Michigan’s 16 touchdowns, four on runs of 65, 70, 85 and 65 yards. How fast was Heston? The fastest man in the world in 1904 just happened to be a fellow UM student — Archie Hahn. At the Summer Games in St. Louis that year, the “Milwaukee Meteor” became the first man to win the Olympic sprint double: gold medals in both the 100 and 200 meters. Back then there was a 60-meter dash too, and Hahn won a third gold in that race. Two years later, Hahn won the Olympic 100 metres again. In…
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Tripped by Terps, Sights & Sounds | Michigan 16, Maryland 23 (2014)
Ugh. For the record: This day in history – I mentioned to the fellas on air in the Victors Lounge that I’m actually getting crap on Twitter for citing history and historical events. Umm…that’s what I do and almost all I do. It this site’s raison d’être. Needless to say, I march on. So while sadly Saturday was a low point of sorts, November 22 will remain an epic anniversary for Michigan football for decades to come, if for no other reason these two games: Two Hundred. Holy fandom endurance awards, props to uber-fan Mike Khomutin for attending this 200th straight U-M game (yes, that’s home AND away). I believe that dates back to 1998. See Sap’s Decals for your decal. Jake No Patch – Some of you noticed that Jake Ryan didn’t wear his Bennie Oosterbaan Legends patch during the Northwestern game. I’m efforting some details from media relations on why. To my knowledge this hasn’t been addressed by anyone…and if you think this little detail is silly, I’d offer that it’s no sillier than anything else people are writing about this team at this moment. Willie Heston – Yo! My piece short bio piece on Willie Heston appeared in the game program on Saturday (page 4). I’ll repost it here soon and note that historian/pal John Kryk helped…
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Seeing and Hearing Willie Heston
Today marks the 110th anniversary of Willie Heston’s final game at Michigan. Heston was Michigan’s first superstar, a two-time All-American, who scored (somewhere around) 72 touchdowns. From 1901 to 1904, Heston’s teams went 43-0-1 and are credited with four national titles. I’ll have more on Heston later this year. Hearing WillieBack in 2012, I posted a short audio clip of Fielding Yost from the 1940 nationwide radio tribute the man titled, ‘A Toast to Yost from Coast to Coast’. Check it out if you missed it. In that post I promised to share a few more clips, and thanks to the Bentley Historical Library for passing these along. The man who introduced Yost to the crowd in attendance and the radio audience was none other than the great Heston. Here are two clips of the great Willie and in the first, we have a surprise. Before offering up his tribute to his old coach, Heston acknowledges that current student-athletes and national icon Tom Harmon is in the audience. Old 98 shares the mic & even has a little back and forth with Heston that is all in all pretty priceless. The second clip has Heston delivering his testimonial to Yost. Enjoy: As an aside, while I’m sure you’ll be hard-pressed to find another audio clip of the Harmon and Heston…
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How It Started: Minnesota Madmen 6, Michigan Machine 6
One headline in the November 1, 1903 Sunday edition of the Minneapolis Tribune declared, “VICTORY, THOUGH THE SCORE IS TIED." Further down toward the fold it blared, “YOST AND MICHIGAN PRACTICALLY BEATEN.” Here's what happened in the famous 6-6 tie between Michigan and Minnesota in 1903
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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.
