Finally an MGoBlog Book That Won’t Self-Destruct!
cover art by MonuMental. Sorry Jen, it’s just that Kipke is super tall.
Attention holiday shoppers: You could get your family hats for Christmas this year. Like a cute Michigan beanie they can wear to games. Hats are nice. They’re in the right price range, you can never really have enough of them, and surely there will be a Michigan fan in your white elephant group who’ll want one again this year.
Or, you know, you could give them a highly entertaining 128-page history of Michigan football stories that cover most of the important traditions and people they need to know about, and finally have them understand why you spend so much time on MGoBlog. And you could pre-order it NOW. And it will ship from Ann Arbor (with tracking) on/around December 12th, a good two weeks before you’d have been running to the store to buy a last-minute hat.
Unlike previous books published by MGoBlog, HAIL TO OLD BLUE: Stories of Michigan Football 1879-2017 won’t have half of its content rendered inert by football events a month after you purchase it, so you can buy this and give it to someone this Christmas, or next Christmas, or three Chanukahs from now, or just stock up a pile of them for birthday gifts until you’re the guy who gives out those fascinating Michigan stories instead of the hat guy.
Also I’m pretty sure you got them the same hat last year.
THIS IS NOT A HAT
We bring up things that we learned in old HTTV features all the time, but given the exponential growth of this site I’m pretty sure only a bare handful of you have every copy going back to 2007. Do you know how Yost got Michigan Stadium built? How Craig Ross bumbled his way into a Carr-era quarterbacks meeting? Why OSU is full of the bird poop on their helmets when they claim responsibility for inventing stickers? What role Lloyd played in hiring his successor? How Bo beat Ohio State his first year?
Yes, those were all HTTV features, and today you can’t even buy them online—I’ve tried, and after a month Amazon just quietly removes it from your orders.
Bearing that in mind, we’ve grabbed 18 of the best evergreen stories from past HTTVs and compiled them into a single collection of historical vignettes, because I’m sorry to tell you this, but you’re already starting to get a reputation as the guy who always buys everyone hats.
The topics:
THIS MICHIGAN OF OURS (1879 through Bump):
- Michigan played in the first actual football game (by Craig Ross, 2016)
- The story of Fielding Yost (John Kryk, 2013)
- How Michigan Stadium was built (Greg Dooley of MVictors, 2010)
- The first great passing team (Ross, 2014)
- The Harry Newman/Gerald Ford-era champs (Dooley, 2012)
- Ron Kramer, the uncensored version (Dooley, 2013)
- The 1964 team, the uncensored version (Dooley, 2014)
TWISTED BLUE STEEL (Bo):
- The story of 1969 (Joel Pennington, 2008)
- Helmet Sticker history (Kryk, 2010)
- The 1973 Screw Job (Kryk, 2013)
- How Michigan invented the dime defense (Dr. Sap, 2016)
- When Texas A&M made their run at Bo (Seth Fisher & Mel Newman, 2016)
- The 1985 Season (Kryk, 2015)
NECK SHARPIES (Moeller to the modern day):
- Interview with Jerry Hanlon (Dooley, 2015)
- Craig Ross sits in on a 2005 QB meeting (Ross, 2008)
- Lloyd-sided take on the Rich Rod controversies (Ross, 2012)
- Denard (Brian Cook, 2013)
- The 3-3-5 then and now (Chris B. Brown of SmartFootball.com, 2010)
Go get your book.
November 15th, 2017 at 10:57 AM ^
Could write an article in itself about how hilarious the entire back row looks on that cover. Yost's hat. RR creeping in the bushes. Brady looking real Brady...
November 15th, 2017 at 10:58 AM ^
Wow, cool. I had no idea this was in the works. Can't wait to read it.
November 15th, 2017 at 11:01 AM ^
Could you, maybe, release a special edition of the book that folds INTO a hat?
(like Kramer's coffee table book that had legs, so it was an actual coffee table?)
November 15th, 2017 at 3:16 PM ^
I think it would be more appropriate if it folded into a coffee table. Or maybe a ship it with a new rug, to tie the room together.
November 15th, 2017 at 11:02 AM ^
to me!
November 15th, 2017 at 11:05 AM ^
Guess I'll get him this instead, and then borrow it when he's done. He's retired, it shouldn't take long.
November 15th, 2017 at 11:15 AM ^
November 15th, 2017 at 11:25 AM ^
November 15th, 2017 at 11:26 AM ^
November 15th, 2017 at 2:24 PM ^
November 15th, 2017 at 11:26 AM ^
Will there be a digital/kindle version?
November 15th, 2017 at 11:53 AM ^
No. We made this just as a print book, and it's not like there's a rush to get it read. Making a kindle edition takes me a lot of work and I'd rather spend that time writing on MGoBlog since we're at the season high point.
November 15th, 2017 at 12:22 PM ^
Seth, you could have saved a butt-load of time by not making a thousand links that all go to the book! Just sayin'... It did crack me up though. Well played.
November 15th, 2017 at 11:29 AM ^
There was a board post about Michigan cycling clothes about a month ago. I bought the short sleeve shirt, a couple arm warmers and a pair of leg warmers. I was planning to give these out to myself, my son, and my wife, respectively, for Christmas. The stuff finally arrived this week and I waited all of a minute before tearing open the package. (I had a rough day at work and needed a pick-me-up.) I'll get other stuff for Christmas. The shirt is incredible, but I fully expect wifey to steal it from me.
The sleeves and leg warmers are nice, but under the home fluorescent lighting, the blue looks purple. Anyone else have this experience?
November 15th, 2017 at 1:55 PM ^
make me think of the 80s and like Flashdance.
Please send pics.
November 15th, 2017 at 7:11 PM ^
I'll admit, they are a little odd looking. The UofM ones are blue with maize MICHIGAN along the sides and they have a 4-6" zipper at the bottom near the ankle.
https://www.pactimo.com/collections/black-friday-accessories/products/a…
November 15th, 2017 at 11:45 AM ^
November 15th, 2017 at 11:46 AM ^
November 15th, 2017 at 11:52 AM ^
So does the book come with a hat or what?
It's friggin' cold up here in December. I need a hat whilst I read.
November 15th, 2017 at 11:55 AM ^
Get in on a white elephant that I'm a part of, because I am the guy who always buys hats. And since it's declasse to put your own book into a white elephant I'm the only Michigan fan in the world this year who can't buy the thing that I should for the white elephant.
November 15th, 2017 at 12:17 PM ^
But what if the book is tucked inside of a hat? Then it's like the surprise white elephant inside of a white elephant. Kind of like a turducken...not really, but you get my point. It's an awesome way of making the book your present...and someone gets a hat!
November 15th, 2017 at 11:55 AM ^
November 15th, 2017 at 12:01 PM ^
KERNING PLEASE
cool book, tho
November 15th, 2017 at 12:11 PM ^
For one brief, thrilling moment, I thought the headline was telling us, "Finally, a website that won't self-destruct."
Oh well. The book sounds really cool.
November 15th, 2017 at 12:19 PM ^
November 15th, 2017 at 12:20 PM ^
Is there a version of the book that will self-destruct?? Asking for a friend.
November 15th, 2017 at 12:30 PM ^
Is it Dec. 12 yet?
November 15th, 2017 at 12:39 PM ^
I don’t like the cover. While I did initially chuckle at the faces of RR and Hoke being partially obscured, it really is in poor taste and isn’t appropriate for the cover of a book that is expected to be taken seriously.
As awful as their campaigns were, they were still the head coaches of our football program and should be given an appropriate level of decorum.
November 15th, 2017 at 1:53 PM ^
Since they're the only coaches to get fired I think it's fair. Elton Wieman sorta got fired too I guess but Yost was Barry Alvarez'ing when Wieman was coaching, and that was kind of a mutual breakup. Wieman by the way went on to coach at Princeton when we stole Crisler from them and then become the AD in Denver. He was the main driver in making facemasking a penalty (because guys weren't wearing them to avoid getting yanked by 'em).
Moeller too but that was dumb.
November 15th, 2017 at 2:44 PM ^
I think Kipke was also fired, or at least sort of fired.
Meanwhile, your explanation to Jen should note that it is Crisler who is super tall, not Kipke. Kipke is on the far left of the photo.
November 15th, 2017 at 3:38 PM ^
since they're losers and got fired I hope you didn't waste anyone's time by including any stories from their eras.
You can call it a fair decision if you want, but that doesn't mean it isn't amateurish.
November 15th, 2017 at 1:00 PM ^
November 15th, 2017 at 1:24 PM ^
and declared the book to be "rad".
November 15th, 2017 at 1:41 PM ^
Whenever someone opens up the Neck Sharpies section, there should be a clapping sound in honor of the Hoke era.
November 15th, 2017 at 1:57 PM ^
Because people are asking:
[edited] Front Row: Harry Kipke, Fritz Crisler, Bennie Oosterbaan, Bump Elliott, Bo Schembechler
2nd Row: Gary Moeller, Lloyd Carr, Fielding Yost, George Little
3rd Row: Rich Rodriguez, Elton Wieman, Jim Harbaugh, Brady Hoke
November 15th, 2017 at 4:24 PM ^
oops. yes
November 15th, 2017 at 2:52 PM ^
I clicked on every link. Does that make you a monster or me?
November 15th, 2017 at 3:41 PM ^
November 15th, 2017 at 4:03 PM ^
November 15th, 2017 at 8:37 PM ^
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