ron kramer
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Previously: 1879, 1893, 1901, 1918, 1925, 1932, 1940, 1947, 1950, 1964, 1973, 1976, 1980, 1985 p.1& p.2, 1988, 1991, 1999, 2003, 2011 p.1 & p.2
1. Football in 1956
(starts at 1:00)
F. Scott Fitzgerald was a super weird fan. Eisenhower vs. Stevenson. Platooning is out, T-formation passing and facemasks are in. Rose Bowl has a no-repeat rule. Ohio State is banned from the postseason. The Pac falls apart because every school is selling each other out. Everybody’s playing each other. Racism: South is still segregated, North has an unofficial quota system so every team has one Black guy. At Michigan: Slippery Rock scores, a dog that makes a dashing goal line stand, and the Salk polio vaccine.
2. Fucking Kramer
(starts at 31:34)
courtesy Peg Canham-Keeley (left)
Had a sweeter shooting stroke than Caleb Houstan. Created the modern tight end who’s both offensive tackle and downfield receiving threat. “It was like having a license to play 12 guys” –Lombardi. At his funeral they asked the assembled “Who’s ever been kissed on the mouth by Ron Kramer” and everyone raised their hand, including the media, and Don Canham’s wife. Was to Michigan fans of his day as Denard is to modern fans. Never lifted a weight. “Big” scandal before 1956: his GPA is a 2.01 because Michigan just gives solid letter grades, but you need a C+ average, and Look Magazine reports Kramer shouldn’t be eligible.
[After the JUMP: Less swearing.]
With Ty Law joining eight other Pro Football Hall of Famers from Michigan last week, and Tom Brady continuing to push the bar for greatest football player of all time past the outer reaches of the Virgo Cluster, I figured our next Michigan All-____ team should focus on who made the best pro players.
This one got long and took a lot of research so here's Part 1.
Previously:
- Ancient History: 1879 to 1968
- The 5-stars
- The 3-stars
- The Extracurriculars
- Position-Switchers
- Highlights
- All-Numbers Team Part I: The Offense
- All-Numbers Team Part II: The Defense
- The Best of Michigan (the state)
- All-Name Team
- All-Small Team
Today's Rules: I'm creating a 53-man NFL roster with Michigan alumni based on their total contributions in pro football (mostly the NFL). It's not about the greatest Michigan players to go pro; in fact I'm going to include a few transfers best known for playing elsewhere. I'm judging based on things like years in the pros, years as a starter, Pro Bowl/All-Pro selections, a little bit on team success, and their impact on the game, all relative to when they played.
The goal is a bit different than normal because the idea here is to build a team, not reward the best players. A guy had to play a position in the pros to be be eligible for it, within reason: I expect a career left guard to be able to play right guard (but not necessarily center), and a 1950 flanker to not feel totally out of place as a modern slot receiver.
A * means he's in the Hall of Fame already.
Quarterback: Tom Brady (2000-present)
It doesn't seem to get old. I think we can skip the career rundown because you've no doubt been on this Earth the last few weeks. At this point Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are past trying and just making up challenges to keep things interesting.
Tom: Okay guys, don't even block Aaron Donald, Ndamukong Suh, and Dante Fowler for a quarter.
Bill: Betchya I can convince the whole league to go back to punting on 4th and short from the opponents' territory.
Tom: Oh yeah? Watch me make a short, bearded Jewish guy a Super Bowl MVP.
Bill: Ooh, that's a good one. Try this…I'm going to hold Jared Goff to the worst passing day of his career.
Tom: Yeah?
Bill: Using just zone defense!
Tom: That's good, but you know what would really be funny?
Bill: What?
Tom: Okay, here it is: Not only do you have to hold the Rams under 7 points, but you also have to get McVay to forget he has the highest paid running back in the league for a half…
Bill: …and?
Tom: And then you've got to bust out your own 1st round RB from Georgia and salt the game away using nothing but double ISO and counter-trey.
Anyway the nice thing about the All-Michigan NFL Team is it will beat any other college's all-NFL team. I mean, what other school gets to put out a tweet like this every year?
Congratulations to Brian Hoyer on becoming a Super Bowl Champion! #GoGreen #SpartansInTheNFL pic.twitter.com/qZL9p0Zc5n
— Michigan State Football (@MSU_Football) February 4, 2019
Backups: Benny Friedman* (1927-'34) and Jim Harbaugh (1987-'00). What's more incredible about the greatest quarterback of all time is he pushed down the Most Important. Without Benny the NFL would have taken much longer to get out of the college game's shadow. Benny also provides depth at RB, the secondary, and special teams. Former 1st round pick Jim Harbaugh was 49-22-1 as an NFL starter, mostly for the Bears, but had a long second career as a backup who doubled as a mentor and coach for young prospects.
Honorable Mention: Elvis Grbac (1994-'01), Brian Griese (1998-'08), Chad Henne (2008-present), Todd Collins (1995-2010), Larry Cipa (1974-'75), Jake Rudock (2017-present)
[After THE JUMP: a position that isn't as deep, and one that's deeper]
You know those “make your all-time” lists that circulate in the offseason? Suddenly they got serious.
Previously:
This week: I’ve been leaving out pre-Nineties players because I didn’t gain consciousness until well into the Eighties. We’ll leave the Best of Bo for Sap. These are Pre-Bo. Also this one’s going to be long because a lot of these guys are probably unfamiliar to you.
I did not run any of this past Greg Dooley, who studies this stuff, or the UM Bentley Library guys who curate it, or Craig Ross, who was alive for all of it, and I reserve the right to edit based on anything they might choose to add because they know this stuff way better than I do.
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Rules: Players are considered for how they compared to other players of their own time—a 180-pound center from a Point-a-Minute team wouldn’t survive a series versus one of Woody Hayes’s defensive lines; on the other hand Bump’s players didn’t have to worry about cholera. Pre-platooning players can be eligible for both sides of the ball.
Cutoff Point: To avoid overlap the majority of his playing time had to come before 1969. Just give Bump some credit for recruiting the excellent 1968 class.
Foul Language Warning: The faint at heart might want to skip tight end.
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Quarterback: Benny Friedman
Kinda tough to throw a spiral with that [The Michigan History Project]
Who was Michigan’s greatest quarterback ever debatable, but this much is not: He was certainly Jewish.
I’m going with Benny Friedman over Harry Newman. Friedman was the game’s first great passer, but still more Denard Robinson than Tom Brady. Back in the day freshmen were still not allowed to play varsity, so in 1923 the Glenville (yes, a powerhouse even then) product had to resign himself to embarrassing his classmates. In 1924 Yost was Barry Alvarez-ing over his handpicked successor George Little, and Little refused to put Benny, already a campus legend, on the field. Until, that is, Michigan lost to Red Grange’s Illinois, and a furious Yost joined the campus chorus to play Friedman. The result was immediate and spectacular. After ‘24 Yost sent Little packing, inserted Friedman as his starting QB, and in concert with a certain future Michigan head coach, outscored opponents 227 to 3*. The following year they lost only to eventual national champion Navy (a team Benny and Bennie handled 54-0 at home in ‘25). Friedman also kicked every field goal and extra point, led the team in rushing, returned a kickoff 85 yards, threw more TD passes than the rest of the Big Ten combined, and called every play.
* [As luck would have it the 3 went to Northwestern in a ridiculous 3-2 mudfest that got the safety rule changed and nearly got Evanston burned to the ground; Craig Ross wrote about it in HTTV 2015.]
Honorable Mention: Harry Newman, who went 24-1-2 as a starter and should be counted among Heisman winners except they called it the Fairbanks Trophy back then. Big Bob Timberlake
[After THE JUMP: Icons and Legends]
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