Grew up in Ann Arbor in lower Burns Park. Grandfather went to UM law school, my Dad was a Sigma Chi in the mid 60's and lived in the house with a bunch of guys that played for UM so they would park at our house when they came back for games. My brother went to UM. I used to hangout in front of the practice field on weekdays waiting for autographs: I had AC, Bubba Paris, Johnny Wangler, Rich Hewlett, Bo... That '81 Rose Bowl was a revelation for me.
My earliest memory is being at a game in the mid 70's with my Dad and going down towards the field, the only thing I can remember is the brick wall around the field but it was the beginning of a lifelong relationship.
1987: Bird steals the inbound pass - We were in a van coming back from a track meet (AAPH) listening to the game on the radio, the Pistons were fighting to finally take their place in the Eastern Conference, we were all sitting on pins and needles as the Pistons had the ball in the Garden, up by one with 10 seconds, finally wresting the home court advantage away from the Cetics. Ultimate gut punch.
1990: Bobby Abrams gets called for holding against USC in the Rose Bowl - Bo's last game. Heartbreaking.
1993: Time out. We all believed that it was our desting to win that game.
2015: Trouble with the snap, to any other team it might have been palatable, maybe even to the Buckeyes, but not to the Spartans and Dantonio.
2023: Two pick sixes versus TCU, we just handed a completely inferior opponent the game.
Honorable Mention:
2000: UM with its 12th ranked team and a prolific offense (D.Henson, M.Walker, D.Terrell & A.Thomas) bobbled the snap on a last second field goal to fall to Northwestern.
My brother and I were texting across the Atlantic in the second half about all of the New Year's Days growing up spent watching the sun set behind the San Gabriel mountains with that sinking feeling of losing yet another Rose Bowl. We could both hear Keith Jackson speaking in our heads...
Yeah LOTL was an absolute 70's classic. Not sure if others feel the same but any film from that era with those 70's soundtracks just takes me back. If you could bottle that feeling I'd buy it everyday.
Hilarious comment, my wife is from Zabreb and for ages every time she walked by the TV on Sat night and saw Saban she'd comment about he's one of ours. I always told her she had no clue until I looked it up one night after she went to bed. The best in college and the best in the pros both from Croatia... ko bi rekao?
For most under appreciated I'd have to call it a draw between Mo Hurst as the top rated player in all of college football in PFF his senior year, and Khalid Hill who rushed 42 times for 73 yards and scored 13 rushing touchdowns in his career, the guy was automatic from 1-2 yards out.
I have a RAV 4 Hybrid Black edition and I'm stunned at how much I like it. I wasn't that excited as I've driven either a Jeep Cherokee or a BMW 325ix since 2010 but in Covid there was a huge shortage of cars over here (based in Europe) and had to take what was available. Am really happy with my choice. Highly recommend it!
Great post and your point is often missed. What is happening in the Ukraine is horrible but is hardly unprecedented.
It is unfortunate that we are not doing more to help just as we failed to do in Rwanda, Syria (Aleppo is no different than Mariupol) and many other place where we were the aggressor as well. We should push our leaders to support the Ukraine but we should also recognize our own role in provoking this mess by interfering in the internal politics of a non-strategic country for the west that has a strategic geopolitical border with a nuclear superpower.
An entire generation of people have had their lives completely upended due to an avoidable conflict that is just reheated leftovers of the cold war that nobody really wanted.
I think a lot of us were waiting for this to happen. When he committed he had only played seven football games (I believe) so he was a bit off the radar, yet he still managed to get offers from UM, ND, OSU, TAMU, Clemson... and ran a sub 11 sec 100M as a DE, which I found pretty crazy. That's Willie Henry / Frank Clark raw athleticism that a proper S&C program and good coaching will turn into an NFL player.
Yes, indoors is generally slower. 200m track v. 400m, tighter turns, the air isn't a good inside and distance runners come off of cross country season training for 5k not middle distance events like 800m or 1600m. I ran a sub 2min 800m my sr year at Pioneer a lifetime ago in outdoor track but couldn't even sniff 2:10 during indoor season.
Wow, Jim's Fish & Chips, that is an old one, I remember when it became a Chinese restaurant at one point. I used to walk past there every day in the 70's coming home from Burns Park. Thanks for the memory. BTW my father proposed to my step mother at Thanos.
My buddy from Tappan worked in the kitchen and they would prop the back door open on busy nights and a few of us underager's would sneak in and the bartender would slip us drinks. I think it was spring of '85 or '86. Great memories...
Didn't hear any stories about vandalism, that said I was like 14 when I worked at Ralph's in the mid 80's so anything before that was before my time. The place was run by a fairly dysfunctional family and the regulars in the store were a veritable freak show of A2 townies. There was always some drama, a homeless dude stealing, local nut case posing as a doctor running up an unpaid tab and the parents constantly screaming at their kids. This was when Lower Burns Park was still a healthy mix of students and lower middle class families, some of which were pretty nuts. Lots of 70's era divorcees, Vietnam vets all mixed in with students, lower middle class families and a couple streets that were still traditionally ethnically dominated. It was a beautiful place to grow up...
This is a really well thought out analysis. Thanks for your effort. This really shows that UM is performing and has a very strong base. Unfortunately not as strong as those that dominate in playoff appearances.
I remember reading years ago in one of Bo's books that his recruiting pitch centered around the fact that if a kid wanted to be playing on New Year's Day then he better come to UM - and by and large this worked, even though he had only a slight edge in the battle w/OSU.
The problem now is that with a four team playoff the rich got richer. I don't see any of that changing until the playoffs expand. Kids want a reasonable chance to get into the playoffs, we've seen this through the trend of top players skipping bowl games.
I hope that NIL rights and Harbaugh's player advocacy efforts help but until we get a legitimate shot the make the playoffs each year we will likely be playing second fiddle...
There was a sports bar on Haymarket below Piccadilly Circus where I used to watch games. A few UM fans would show up there about 15 yrs ago. Can't remember the name but it was on the southwest side of the street toward the Pall Mall.
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Grew up in Ann Arbor in lower Burns Park. Grandfather went to UM law school, my Dad was a Sigma Chi in the mid 60's and lived in the house with a bunch of guys that played for UM so they would park at our house when they came back for games. My brother went to UM. I used to hangout in front of the practice field on weekdays waiting for autographs: I had AC, Bubba Paris, Johnny Wangler, Rich Hewlett, Bo... That '81 Rose Bowl was a revelation for me.
My earliest memory is being at a game in the mid 70's with my Dad and going down towards the field, the only thing I can remember is the brick wall around the field but it was the beginning of a lifelong relationship.
1987: Bird steals…
Top 5:
1987: Bird steals the inbound pass - We were in a van coming back from a track meet (AAPH) listening to the game on the radio, the Pistons were fighting to finally take their place in the Eastern Conference, we were all sitting on pins and needles as the Pistons had the ball in the Garden, up by one with 10 seconds, finally wresting the home court advantage away from the Cetics. Ultimate gut punch.
1990: Bobby Abrams gets called for holding against USC in the Rose Bowl - Bo's last game. Heartbreaking.
1993: Time out. We all believed that it was our desting to win that game.
2015: Trouble with the snap, to any other team it might have been palatable, maybe even to the Buckeyes, but not to the Spartans and Dantonio.
2023: Two pick sixes versus TCU, we just handed a completely inferior opponent the game.
Honorable Mention:
2000: UM with its 12th ranked team and a prolific offense (D.Henson, M.Walker, D.Terrell & A.Thomas) bobbled the snap on a last second field goal to fall to Northwestern.
My brother and I were texting across the Atlantic in the second half about all of the New Year's Days growing up spent watching the sun set behind the San Gabriel mountains with that sinking feeling of losing yet another Rose Bowl. We could both hear Keith Jackson speaking in our heads...
Yeah LOTL was an absolute 70's classic. Not sure if others feel the same but any film from that era with those 70's soundtracks just takes me back. If you could bottle that feeling I'd buy it everyday.
Hilarious comment, my wife is from Zabreb and for ages every time she walked by the TV on Sat night and saw Saban she'd comment about he's one of ours. I always told her she had no clue until I looked it up one night after she went to bed. The best in college and the best in the pros both from Croatia... ko bi rekao?
For most under appreciated I'd have to call it a draw between Mo Hurst as the top rated player in all of college football in PFF his senior year, and Khalid Hill who rushed 42 times for 73 yards and scored 13 rushing touchdowns in his career, the guy was automatic from 1-2 yards out.
My brother was a co-captain on that team w/Tabb, that was a great squad. It's a shame they didn't get a state championship that year.
I have a RAV 4 Hybrid Black edition and I'm stunned at how much I like it. I wasn't that excited as I've driven either a Jeep Cherokee or a BMW 325ix since 2010 but in Covid there was a huge shortage of cars over here (based in Europe) and had to take what was available. Am really happy with my choice. Highly recommend it!
Really great that you're promoting this. He was the nicest guy. My family grew up with the Jileks, many fond memories. Thanks for posting.
How could you skip any of these:
Digital Underground - Sex Packets
NWA - Straight Outta Compton
A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
Run DMC - Raising Hell
De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising
Frampton Comes Alive, Do You Feel Like We Do?
If you grew up on MI in the 70's you know what I'm talking about...
Love the Tripp Welborne comparison. Watching him and Vada Murray block field goals as a kid is a UM football childhood highlight.
Great post and your point is often missed. What is happening in the Ukraine is horrible but is hardly unprecedented.
It is unfortunate that we are not doing more to help just as we failed to do in Rwanda, Syria (Aleppo is no different than Mariupol) and many other place where we were the aggressor as well. We should push our leaders to support the Ukraine but we should also recognize our own role in provoking this mess by interfering in the internal politics of a non-strategic country for the west that has a strategic geopolitical border with a nuclear superpower.
An entire generation of people have had their lives completely upended due to an avoidable conflict that is just reheated leftovers of the cold war that nobody really wanted.
...UM fan in Serbia
Like Ian Gold who played at Belleville, on the UM '97 team, 1st team All B1G in '99, eights years in the NFL, pro-bowler...
I think a lot of us were waiting for this to happen. When he committed he had only played seven football games (I believe) so he was a bit off the radar, yet he still managed to get offers from UM, ND, OSU, TAMU, Clemson... and ran a sub 11 sec 100M as a DE, which I found pretty crazy. That's Willie Henry / Frank Clark raw athleticism that a proper S&C program and good coaching will turn into an NFL player.
Yes, indoors is generally slower. 200m track v. 400m, tighter turns, the air isn't a good inside and distance runners come off of cross country season training for 5k not middle distance events like 800m or 1600m. I ran a sub 2min 800m my sr year at Pioneer a lifetime ago in outdoor track but couldn't even sniff 2:10 during indoor season.
Wow, Jim's Fish & Chips, that is an old one, I remember when it became a Chinese restaurant at one point. I used to walk past there every day in the 70's coming home from Burns Park. Thanks for the memory. BTW my father proposed to my step mother at Thanos.
My buddy from Tappan worked in the kitchen and they would prop the back door open on busy nights and a few of us underager's would sneak in and the bartender would slip us drinks. I think it was spring of '85 or '86. Great memories...
Didn't hear any stories about vandalism, that said I was like 14 when I worked at Ralph's in the mid 80's so anything before that was before my time. The place was run by a fairly dysfunctional family and the regulars in the store were a veritable freak show of A2 townies. There was always some drama, a homeless dude stealing, local nut case posing as a doctor running up an unpaid tab and the parents constantly screaming at their kids. This was when Lower Burns Park was still a healthy mix of students and lower middle class families, some of which were pretty nuts. Lots of 70's era divorcees, Vietnam vets all mixed in with students, lower middle class families and a couple streets that were still traditionally ethnically dominated. It was a beautiful place to grow up...
I worked at Ralph's in like 85/86 when I was still in HS at Pioneer. My cousin got me the job stocking the beer coolers when he left.
Crazy times and great memories. Thanks for sharing!
This is a really well thought out analysis. Thanks for your effort. This really shows that UM is performing and has a very strong base. Unfortunately not as strong as those that dominate in playoff appearances.
I remember reading years ago in one of Bo's books that his recruiting pitch centered around the fact that if a kid wanted to be playing on New Year's Day then he better come to UM - and by and large this worked, even though he had only a slight edge in the battle w/OSU.
The problem now is that with a four team playoff the rich got richer. I don't see any of that changing until the playoffs expand. Kids want a reasonable chance to get into the playoffs, we've seen this through the trend of top players skipping bowl games.
I hope that NIL rights and Harbaugh's player advocacy efforts help but until we get a legitimate shot the make the playoffs each year we will likely be playing second fiddle...
There was a sports bar on Haymarket below Piccadilly Circus where I used to watch games. A few UM fans would show up there about 15 yrs ago. Can't remember the name but it was on the southwest side of the street toward the Pall Mall.