brendan morrison

Previously: Part One, Part Two

[Yost in the late ‘90s/Kalmbach via Bentley Historical Library]

Michigan’s heralded 1993 and 1994 recruiting classes began paying dividends immediately. The 1993-94 Wolverines had three winning streaks of seven games or longer in just a 41-game season, the longest of which reached 11 games. The 1994-95 team took something of a step back—their longest winning streak was only nine games—while still winning 30 games and finishing first in the CCHA.

The most dominant streak of the decade dovetailed with the vaunted recruits becoming upperclassmen. The nature of collegiate hockey scheduling left its mark on previous winning streaks; many took place across multiple road series with neutral-site games sprinkled in. In 1995-96, however, Michigan’s offense hit its stride just as the Wolverines returned home for a six-game homestand at the beginning of January. Their eight-game winning streak started with a GLI title that they took by a combined score of 9-2. They put up even gaudier numbers in front of their own crowd, averaging 9.6 goals per game over six home contests.

The season ended with Michigan’s first national championship in 32 years; before they got there, goalies were pulled, the wooden bleachers creaked and swayed, the crowd beyond the students got involved, and for opponents, the ghosts of Yost were growing louder.

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Brendan Morrison, forward (1993-97): That was an incredible stretch. I think we averaged that month or six weeks or whatever it was, we averaged something ridiculous like 8.7 goals a game or something like that. [Ed. A—They averaged 7.6 goals per game over the ten games from the GLI at the end of December through the end of January and the aforementioned 9.6 goals per game counting just the six-game January homestand.] Just absurd. I know every single home game we played, the other team’s goalie was pulled at some point. I don’t think it was a very fun place for other teams to come in and play. They knew they were walking into kind of the lion’s den there; we were rolling and scoring a bunch of goals. It was intimidating. I remember other programs coming out and verbalizing that it was a tough place to play. It was difficult. It’s almost like with our fans and playing in that arena, it was like you were up 1-0 or 2-0 before the game even started.

Marty Turco, goaltender (1994-98): For me, having us rolling teams, you look at the scores and you’re like rolling teams, yeah, 8-3, 7-2, 10-4. You’re like, Alright. Everybody else was happy except for Red because Red was like, “No one cares because we won and we dominated but how about those two you let in there?” I might not have been needed as much to have the game on the line early and mid-year, but he wanted to make sure I was the guy he thought I was at the end of the year. So it wasn’t all hunky-dory during that year [1995-96] for me in particular but it was huge in terms of growth.

Tim Carmody, student season ticket holder: It was exciting. It was definitely very relevant. People would go all the time. People would show up a little bit later for parties on hockey nights.

[After THE JUMP: the crowd’s creativity, the environment’s advantage, and the quirks of an old barn]

So Brendan Morrison and some friends are starting up a website that's particularly relevant right now since most of you are probably carrying a bunch of resolutions ("stop fumbling," "go to bowl game," "stop making everyone very sad indeed") around this January. They'd like MGoBlog readers to be pilot members of the site and politely asked for a little time. Here it is:

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Brian,

I have a good friend who graduated from UM with me in 1997. He had been climbing the corporate ladder since then but at some point decided he’d had enough. He started a project to improve the areas of his life that he saw going haywire – not having the time or energy to stay fit, or to contribute anything meaningful in his work life, to the community or the environment. Essentially he wanted to find balance and increase his effort in these areas.

Since he's also kind of a tracking freak he started working on a way to quantify progress in all these areas and that's what the website is. He's working on the assumption that there are people in a similar position who'd be interested in benefiting from the tracking tools on the website. He also sees the “empowurment” you get from recording and measuring your effort as a way of tackling a lot of the bigger problems America faces – getting in shape, helping the planet, and just finding more of a work/life balance in general.

Net, the goal of the website is to make the world a better place, but in an entirely non-commercial (it's free), non L. Ron Hubbard kind of way. My take is that it's like crossfit for your entire life, not just the physical fitness part of it.

I’ve been following the project since the beginning and have been a test user for a while now. I believe in the concept and wanted to do something to help. We’ve gotten to a point where the site needs more e-pinions and thought it would be cool to tap the mgoblog community for input.

As far as what kind of test users he’s looking for (his words):

• Those looking to increase their effort levels.

• Those wanting to “get better” and/or find more balance in their lives.

• Those searching for more happiness and less emo.

• People who aren't about smugness.

• Tracking types who enjoy tracking things.

• 18+ only.

Anyway, the site is sure to have plenty of bugs, issues and functional flaws which should be good target fodder for the more critical segment of the mgo readership – all the better. The website can be found at www.empowur.com.

- Brendan Morrison

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Less emo sounds excellent. Empowur is the site.