My four years at Michigan (twice)

MGoBlog referenced this article from the Michigan Daily yesterday.

And at times, it has outright sucked to know that these last four years have rendered the football team a mess, the basketball team a mediocre success and the hockey team an incredible tease.


For those of us who have been here for four years, the first major sporting event we experienced as students was a loss to Appalachian State — the worst in the history of Michigan football. The last: Saturday’s national championship loss to Minnesota-Duluth — one of the toughest losses in the history of Michigan hockey.

It got me to thinking about how Michigan athletics fared during my years on campus.

In September of 1985, Michigan football was coming off the worst season in Bo's career, 6-6 with a loss in the Holiday Bowl that gave the MNC to BYU. My first game was a 20-12 upset over Notre Dame that put Michigan on a path for a 10-1-1 season, with the only loss in the #1-#2 game in Iowa City. Over my four years M finished 38-9-2 with two Big Ten Championships and 3 bowl victories.

Michigan basketball was coming off their first Conference Championship since 1977. They would follow it up in the 1985-86 season with their most recent Big Ten championship. They were still having trouble in the NCAA tournament going 1-1 in 1986 and 1987. They made it to the sweet 16 in 1988 before falling to UNC. In 1989 - they broke through for their only NCAA championship!

The Hockey team was in full rebuilding mode - they went 70-84-5 over those 4 years (but improved every year) and failed to make the NCAA tournament. But the 1988-89 team won the GLI for the first time since 1975 (and this was the first of 9 straight titles).

When I entered Pharmacy school in 1994, Michigan football was coming off a disappointing 8-4 season. 1994 wasn't much different. The 8-4 season included a loss at OSU, a crushing defeat on the Hail Mary to Colorado and Gary Moeller's firing in the off-season. 1995 and 1996's only bright spots were victories over heavily favored OSU teams. The 1997 team, of course, went 12-0 and won the National Championship in the Rose Bowl!

Basketball seemed to be doing fairly decently 3 NCAA tournament appearances, and NIT championship and winning the first Big Ten conference tournament. However 3 of those seasons are officially stricken from the record due to Taylor, Trailor and the rest.

For hockey this was their most dominant time since the 40-50s heyday. Red took the Wolverines to 4 final fours and won two National Championships.

Men's swimming also won a national championship on 1996!

So Michigan's revenue sports overall records in my 8 years of college:

Football 38-9-2 and 37-12 for 75-21-2 with 3 conference championships, one national championship and a Heisman trophy winner.

Basketball 104-32 and 87-45 (or 17-14) for 191-77 (121-46) with 7 (5 NCAA tournament appearances), an NIT championship (or not), an Conference Tournament Championship (or not) and a National Championship.

Hockey went 70-84-5 and 133-30-10 for a total of 203-114-15. With 4 GLIs, 4 Frozen Fours and 2 National Championships.

I'd say my 8 years stack with with some of the most successful in Michigan Athletic history - and I had absolutely nothing to do with it!

Go Blue! Beat the Bulldogs!

Here's a video of the @ChildrenOfYost and the Hockey Pep band I took this season

One step away from the championship - Go Blue!

The best team doesn't always win

Michigan took advantage of that last night. Riding a hot goaltender and nursing a 1-0 lead for most of the game. Scooter Vaughn's empty-netter put the Wolverines into the Finals Saturday.

Lots of good stuff about the game

But the best might be this:

@DaveBrandonAD

I think Scooter's #UofM open net goal might have upset this NDakota fan http://ow.ly/4wewW #goblue

Nice work from the AD!

Michigan Hockey

Without a question, the most consistently successful athletic team for Michigan in the past 20 years has been the hockey team. When I first came to college Red Berenson was very early in his tenure at the U. Michigan was trying to get back to the glory they'd experienced in the late 40s to mid 60s. Outside of a decent run in the mid 70s Michigan had been a hockey also ran for almost 3 decades when he took over.

Ron Mason and his MSU Spartans were dominant in the state. Bowling Green, just down the road in Ohio, won the 1984 championship.

It took him until the 1990-91 season before Red finally got the Wolverines back into the NCAA tournament (the 1989-90 team got robbed of a spot - they won the 3rd place game - but the team they beat got the tournament bid), but they haven't missed the tournament since.

The 90s were really Michigan's decade - with Championships in 96 and 98 and 4 other Frozen Four trips. The 1997 team may have been the best team ever to not win a championship. Essentially the entire 1996 roster was back but they jsut didn't have it in the semi-final match-up.
The 1998 team might not have made the tournament if Yost wasn't hosting a regional. And the team certainly wouldn't have gotten tot he Frozen Four without the crazies at Yost cheering them on.
The Round of 8 opened with OSU facing the hated Spartans in the first game. MSU had beaten Michigan ever game they played that year (Pat Caputo still says M was the National Champ but not the state champ.) But somehow OSU pulled off the upset - Likely, the only time Michigan fans ever cheered for the Buckeyes!

In the nightcap Michigan took on North Dakota. The Sioux were heavily favored and took an early lead. They lead 2-0 and were peppering Marty Turco on a 5-3 power-play, when Matt Herr came out of the penalty box at just the right time. (it is worth mentioning that I now own a game worn #8 Michigan Hockey jersey in Matt's honor!)

ND scored again to make it 3-1, that along with a couple of Michigan goals called back should have been enough to win the game, but it wasn't. Bill Muckalt made it 3-2 midway through the 2nd period.

After Greg Crozier tied it at 3 early in the 3rd, Bobby Hayes completed the comeback with just under 3 minutes left.

That was the last time Michigan has beaten North Dakota, hopefully tomorrow night they'll do it again!

Big Chill Free Skate

I was finally able to to get this off my phone and on to YouTube. Warning - watching may cause dizziness or vomiting...

NCAA Hockey

The NCAA Men's Division I hockey tournament starts today. Here's the match-ups:

East Regional (Albany - Fri/Sat)
1Denver vs. 4RIT
2 Cornell vs. 3 UNH

West (St Paul - Fri/Sat)
1 Wisconsin vs 4 Vermont
2St. Cloud St vs 3 NMU

Northeast (Worcester - Sat/Sun)
1 BC vs 4Alaska
2North Dakota vs 3 Yale

Midwest (Ft. Wayne - Sat/Sun)
1Miami (OH) vs 4 Alabama-Huntsville
2Bemidji St vs 3 Michigan

My picks to make it out to the Frozen 4 in Detroit are Denver, St Cloud St, BC, and Michigan

BTW, I have 2 extra Frozen 4 tickets if anyone is interested.

olympic hockey

Maybe I'm misreading the Canadian feeling here, but I don't understand NBC making such a big deal that Canada was so interested in beating the USA in hockey - like the USA is Canada's biggest rival.
It gave me a "Illinois thinks M is their biggest rival" feeling. Obviously team Canada NEEDED to win the hockey gold medal. But I don't think they feel any more satisfaction about beating the US than anyone else. (I know there is some point to be made for making up for the team that beat them in the round robin - but that is not what NBC was claiming.)
On a side note, when will there be enough pressure placed on NBC or any future US network showing the Olympics to actually show events live. And full events. It was so much more enjoyable to watch the skiing events on the BBC feed at work than the 10 minute version on NBC.
NBC's version of the Olympics had maybe 150 athletes. And we were DVRing the closing ceremonies by then, but to go away from the ceremonies to show "The Marriage Ref"?!? WTF

Miracle on Ice

30 years ago today Terry Aicher and I were among the the last "athletes" left in a gym in Sault Ste Marie Canada. The UP games were in Soo Canada in 1980, Terry and I were teammates on the 7th grade Gladstone Basketball squad (we would finish out of the medals).

Our host family apparently forgot about us and Don Pfotenhauer (the long time Athletic Director) was working hard to find us a place to stay. He overheard a woman looking for 2 skiers from Iron Mountain and when they were nowhere to be found Mr Pfotenhauer stepped in and asked if "2 basketball players from Gladstone would do?"

While we were waiting they announced over the PA in the gym that the US hockey team had beaten the USSR in what would be dubbed the Miracle on Ice. But like everyone else, I've seen replays of the game especially the closing seconds. Al Michaels "Do you believe in Miracles?" is in my opinion the best announcing clip I've ever heard.




I do remember some of the other games. I remember watching the opening game against Sweden where the US scored in the last seconds with an extra skater to tie the game. Our family had never really watched hockey before those games.

Hockey game @ Camp Randall

The ice did not seem very good in the first period. I think the puck actually stopped on the ice a couple times. Hogan appeared to dig ruts down to the paint in his crease in the first period.
M was lucky to come out of the first tied at 1.

They seem to be playing better so far in the 2nd period.

M got a redirected goal about midway through the 3rd. The announcers never mention the redirection off the defenseman - they keep blaming the poor angle the goalie took.

Weak penalty call with about 5 minutes left leads to a quick PP goal to tie it up for the Badgers. A second weak call with just under 3 minutes left leads to a second PP goal (another redirection that the announcers miss). M loses 3-2. A win or a tie would have greatly helped their tournament chances. I would think they need to win the rest of their CCHA games to be in the mix.

wings

I predict the team that wins four games wins the Cup. HAHAHAHAHA. Never a dull moment.

TOO MANY MEN

The Penguins had 6 skaters for 21 seconds last night and no penalty was called. Who cares. They didn't score or even get a shot on goal as I recall. The Wings have not been so great that a PP goal was a sure thing.
I think the Wings got so breaks the first 2 games. The Pittsburgh goalie let in a few horrible goals.
I think Osgood was the difference in the first 2 games. If the Penguins win game 4, the Wings might be in trouble. I predict the winner of game 4 wins the Cup.