We jump around a bit in Saturday’s edition of TWIMFbH starting with the 1892 match-up between Michigan and Northwestern which featured the first African-American to play for a future conference team – George Jewett. We then fast forward to 1932 and Fritz Crisler’s visit to the Big House and how my colleague, an Illinois Professor, devised a system to determine a national champion. Finally, the Paul Bunyan Trophy – we didn’t want it, why it’s odd, but we’ll take it!
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Go Blue! BEAT SPARTY! You’ll hear this live inside the shiny new Bud Light Victors Lounge aka “Joe’s Garage” and on the WTKA 1050AM KeyBank Countdown to Kickoff tonight around 5 pm EDT!
Good evening! A huge welcome to maize & blue fedora-wearing fans here to watch your beloved men in blue battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy. Speaking of trophies, did you know it was on this day WAAY back in 1892 that your Wolverines, featuring multi-talented back George Jewett faced Northwestern in Chicago? Jewett was the first African American to compete in the Big Ten and today, Michigan and those same Wildcats play for the trophy bearing his name.
Four decades later in 1932 Michigan claimed another big prize. It was on this day EXACTLY 90 years ago that we welcomed the Princeton Tigers and its brand new coach Fritz Crisler to the Big House. The Harry Kipke-lead Wolverines prevailed 14-7, and OH YES, won every game on the schedule that season. There were no national polls or playoffs yet, but people still wanted to know — WHO IS THE NATION’S BEST TEAM? To the rescue came one of my peers – an Illinois Professor – to figure it out!
So Frank Dickinson, a faculty member from Champaign, devised a mathematical formula to determine a national champion. In a nutshell, The “Dickinson System” weighed wins, losses, and ties based on strength of the opponent, and it included a factor based on each team’s geographical region.
Thanks to my colleague Professor Dickinson, Michigan scored highest in his formula in 1932 and again in 1933 to claim two of our now 11 national championships. And while Fritz and Princeton lost on that day 90 years ago, Crisler was welcomed back to Ann Arbor just 6 years later when he replaced Kipke as head coach. Crisler UNLEASHED a new era of Michigan football and added another national championship himself.
Back to today’s prize – THE Paul Bunyan Trophy was the brainchild of Michigan governor “Soapy” Williams in 1953. It’s true we never really wanted Michigan State in the Big Ten, and we certainly never wanted a trophy for the winner of this game. Also consider the name “Paul Bunyan” – his story is a northern US and Canada bit of folklore and not unique to the State of Michigan. On top of this, Minnesota and Wisconsin had already been playing for a trophy bearing Mr. Bunyan’s name – the Paul Bunyan Axe – for several years!
But since there’s a trophy, we’ll take it – and let’s bring Paul HOME. So GO BLUE Beat Sparty! And for more checkout MVictors.com and WTKA.com – for the Keybank Countdown to Kickoff this is Prof Greg Dooley.
