The Canary’s already dead

Following the uniform reveal there’s been much chatter regarding the potential for a maize jersey.  @UofM_graphix posted this:

I saw this and booted but quickly rallied (to type this post).

Legend has it that this has been done before.  No, not in 1964 despite what this oft-referenced graphics depicts:

Never happened:

So that wasn’t real…but apparently, the world did see the Wolverines in an all-maize way back in the day.  According to the book produced by my pals Bruce Madej and Greg Kinney Champions of the West, it was November 10, 1928, when Michigan faced the Navy down in Baltimore.  Navy wore their traditional blue so U-M came up with the alternate maize design – and apparently, they were not too well-received (via the Uniform Timeline):

While that’s a grainy B&W shot, you can clearly see one squad is wearing a light-colored jersey.  Add that in 1928 they certainly couldn’t produce the range of yellows that you see today, I’m guessing the canary was more of a dull yellow–but yellow nonetheless.  And P.S., the numbers were only on the backs of the jersey until 1930.

Either way – puke.  Don’t do it.  And don’t even try to invert the colors on the helmets!

More to come on the uni reveal.  Note that I won’t update the Uniform Timeline with specifics until we see which gear specifically makes it to the field, meaning starting with the Hawaii opener.