Bob Ufer and The Michigan Spirit

Awesome. One month from today, it begins.

Also, that's the only time I've ever heard someone use the phrase "goose pimples" besides Mr. Bean in Rat Race.

WHOO!

Except... isn't the title "Hail to the Victors"?

Wait, what am I doing questioning Bob Ufer? How dare I?!?

Simply put, I can't wait for September 5th.

In the five seasons before this speech Michigan went 52-3-1 (the one tie was the infamous 10-10 game with OSU in 1973). We had not lost at home since 1969. We outscored our opponents in those five seasons 1106-165. After nearly 20 years of being average or worse, Michigan was once again a dominant football power. And this speech by Bob Ufer, which I heard him give a number of times, really gives a feel for what it was like to be there.

Hopefully this fall will be a step back to that kind of spirit.

My Mom took me to Crisler for the Gerald Ford rally. As a 12 year old, I still remember it like it was yesterday. As you would expect, Ufer had the crowd in a frenzy....thanks for rekindling the memories.

There was a post a couple days ago about our greatest Michigan Stadium games...i mentioned several, but left out the moment of silence after Bob Ufer's passing in 1981.... As i kid, I didn't start attending games regularly until I was 14, so i grew up on Meeechigan football with Ufer on the radio.

For you youngsters....a little background on the late great Bob Ufer....

http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/stadium/stadtext/ufer.htm

Ufer is probably as important as Bo in "making" Meeechigan Football what it is today.

President Ford, who took office after Nixon resigned, kicked off his '76 campaign against Jimmy Carter in Ann Arbor. Even though Ford had been on the team in the thirties, it was strange to hear Michigan football used in such a partisan manner. The introduction did get the packed arena fired up!

Thank you for the post. I actually got chills reading it.

I remember listing to Uffer as a kid. He was amazing. He would get so damn excited he would just yell and start honking that horn. You would have to wait for him to calm down so he could tell you what the hell had happened.

For many people, Uffer was Michigan football. This was back in the days when Michigan wasn't on TV every game. (Neither ESPN nor cable TV had been invented.) If you weren't at the game, you had to listen on the radio and that meant Uffer. When they were on the TV, many people turned the TV down and the radio up so they could still listen to Bob. A true Meeechigan Man.

Man, I want the season to start!

Wow. I just graduated and decided to stick around ann arbor working for a few years, and in this moment...

I realize it was one of the greatest choices I have ever made.

Good post.

What people are not mentioning about that event is that a great majority of the crowd--at least those around me--were Michigan students there to heckle Ford. He was giving an important campaign speech in front of a mostly hostile crowd, something you would never, ever see today.

All the usual dignitaries who show up at events like this gave their speeches--Congressman Esch, Governor William Millikin, Senator Griffin, some other local Republican bigwigs. The boos got louder as the speechifying went on and on.

I don't know who decided to have Ufer, rather than the Governor or some other bigshot, introduce the President. The choice was absolutely perfect from Ford's perspective. These booing Michigan students sat silently as Ufer started, and then he started by talking about Michigan being #1 in the nation in both football and basketball (they were #2 in the hockey poll as well, but he didn't mention that).

Then he went into the part that Chewer quotes above, about the greatness of Michigan, and by the time he ended and the Michigan band started playing The Victors, the hecklers were on their feet with everybody else cheering as Ford walked onto the stage. Not that they cheered Ford's speech, of course, but I have never seen anybody turn a crowd the way Ufer did that evening.

Great post! 30 more daysssssssss!

Nice piece.

There are some great cds of Ufer calling games. Makes me remember how great life was back then.

God bless his cotton pickin' maize and blue heart.

It brings back memories of a certain Saturday in 1979. My father wanted to beat the crowd out of the golf course, so we left a couple minutes early. "Indiana has this one," he said. So on that golf course, with a sudden distant roar across the street behind me, I heard that special voice from a steadfast tailgater's radio along with Gen. Patton's horn.

I missed The Play.

Had I missed The Call perhaps this would be a bitter memory. But I guess there are no bad memories when Mr. Ufer is involved. Indeed, the Spirit of Meechigan Football.

Thanks for reposting this great speech!