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!

My Dad's Band adventure with the OSU Marching Band

Prior to the 2005 Michigan - Ohio State football game, the field was lined with former Michigan letter-winners.

Since the 2003 (100th game between M & OSU) Michigan has invited their "Legends" back to either the OSU or MSU game to form a tunnel as the team comes out to touch the banner. My father had played freshman football for Michigan back in 1940. So he has been back for each of these games since 2003.

For the 2005 edition the field was particularly crowded. As the OSU band was finishing their pre-game show and headed towards the western sideline they were essentially forced into hundreds of former Michigan players.

Here's my dad, 83 years old, staring down the eyes of an 18-22 year old cymbalist. My father, unable to move - the cymbalist unwilling to leave his formation. A collision occurred, knocking my father to the ground - my dad says the cymbalist even hit my dad's chest with his cymbal to move him.

We should all be as healthy as my dad is at his age. Not only did he not break a hip, from the ground he purposefully kicked his feet around to take down the cymbal player and two of his bandmates.

Although I was at the game I was 90 rows and and entire football field away, I did not notice any of this happening, so I can only rely on his commentary. If anyone has footage of the OSU pregame show from 2005, I would greatly appreciate it!

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!

Was that the worst Championship game ever?

There has been a lot of griping about last night's U-Conn/Butler clank-fest. Butler managed to stay in the game for a good 30-35 minutes while shooting 18% from the field. But was it the worst Championship game ever?

I don't think so - Although it wasn't aesthetically pleasing, I'll take a close game over a blowout every time.

Here are a ten(+) Championship games that I would say were much worse:

2009 NCAA Men's Basketball - UNC 89 - MSU 72 (final score not as indicative of how bad it was)
1990 NCAA Men's Basketball - UNLV 103 - Duke 73
Super Bowl XXII - Redskins 42 Broncos 10
SB XXIV - 49ers 55 - Broncos 10
SB XXVII - Cowboys 52 - Bills 17
SB XXIX - 49ers 49 - Chargers 26
2001 Orange Bowl (BCS) - Oklahoma 13 - Florida St 2
2008 BCS - Florida 41 - OSU 14
2005 Orange Bowl (BCS) USC 55 - Oklahoma 19
All three Bowl Alliance Championship games (1996-1998) Nebraska 62 - Florida 24; Florida 52 -FSU 20; Nebraska 42 - Tennessee 17

People on twitter were actually suggesting that a BCS like Kansas - OSU game would have been better. U-Conn won 11 straight games (over 10 tournament teams) to win the championship. Butler had won 14 straight before losing last night.

These were very good teams that had a bad night. Lets not scrap the system that game us a 41 point TOTAL difference between the champs and runners-up in the decade of the 1980s

Go Bulldogs!

One year ago today, the match-up was set for the NCAA basketball final. Perennial power Duke would be facing local underdog Butler. The expectation was an easy victory for Duke. Butler took them to the brink. Gordon Hayward's half-court heave rattled out securing Duke's 4th title.
Even with this close a match-up, had the question been asked which of these teams will be back in the final next year. I would have expected the answer to be Duke more than 9 out of 10 times.

And yet Butler is the team playing for the championship tonight. Hayward was their best player last year and is now in the NBA, but somehow, they made it back anyway.

I've heard callers on the local radio complaining that they prefer when the big names teams are playing rather than these small schools. I've heard national "experts" say the TV numbers will be down because no one cares about Butler. Strangely enough, Saturday's match-up were the most watched semi-finals since 2005. I would expect similar numbers tonight.

I think Butler's coach, Brad Stevens, has to be considered the top young coach in the game. I would think any school with an opening will be trying to convince him to leave Butler for greener (like $$$) pastures. I hope he stays.

UConn is facing punishment next season. Jim Calhoun will have to sit out 3 games next season for recruiting violations. Combining that with his rant a couple years back when asked about justifying how much he makes in this economic crisis, makes it easy to root for the under(Bull)dog.