F. Scott Fitzgerald and Fritz Crisler
The Wall Street Journal has an article today claiming that F. Scott Fitzgerald often called Fritz Crisler to give him advice on football strategy.
The calls came “between 12 midnight and six a.m. of the night before our games—not just sometimes, but practically every eve of every home game,”
“Sometimes he had a play or a new strategy he wanted me to use,” said Crisler. “Some of the ideas Scott used to suggest to me over the phone were reasonable—and some were fantastic.”
This all happened while Crisler was coaching Princeton, but the information came from a 1956 interview with Crisler in the Michigan Daily.
The author of the WSJ article suggests that Fitzgerald may have originally given Crisler the idea to play platoon football. Elsewhere, though, the article seems to say that Fitzgerald didn't really have it figured out. His big idea may have been a sort of bizarre reverse goal-line offense, where you would bring in an extra small lineup to try to punch the ball in.
Sorry if this is a repeat, but I didn't see the article linked elsewhere on the site. The article as a whole is well worth reading, and perhaps a timely reminder that an innovative offense is not alien to Michigan tradition.
October 24th, 2014 at 10:47 PM ^
What I said in the title
October 25th, 2014 at 1:33 AM ^
October 24th, 2014 at 10:49 PM ^
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning ——
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
October 25th, 2014 at 3:51 AM ^
Oh, man. I wasn't even thinking about that when I made the OP. Michigan football has turned into The Great Gatsby, hasn't it?
"You can't repeat the past."
"Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can!"
He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand.
"I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before," he said, nodding determinedly. "She'll see."
I haven't read that book in a while. It has a happy ending, right? Right?
October 25th, 2014 at 9:06 AM ^
October 25th, 2014 at 9:45 AM ^
OMG. I laughed so hard at this comment that I almost lost it. My favorite book of all time. Read it more than 10 times.
Pleeeeaaaasssseeee.....Keep Brady Hoke out of it!!!
...unless we can say that Michigan football for a moment looked like what Manhattan did to Dutch sailors' eyes......Nah, please buy him a one-way ticket to San Diego, or Al Borges's house, wherever that is.
This is likely to be depressing day, I am going to Barnes and Noble to buy a fresh copy right after tennis.
Great Post.
October 25th, 2014 at 9:48 AM ^
Brady Hoke <> "the fresh green breast of the new world" anymore.
October 25th, 2014 at 9:46 AM ^
Well, the light is green, not blue. So, inconclusive.
October 25th, 2014 at 9:50 AM ^
No. I'm afraid it doesn't end well. otoh, those last four or five paragraphs are about the pinnacle of American Lit in the 20thC. So, taking that as an example, maybe we'll get some good art of this.
October 24th, 2014 at 10:50 PM ^
F Scott Fitzgerald originated the spread offense. You heard it here first kids.
October 24th, 2014 at 10:52 PM ^
I figured Zelda was the football fan
October 24th, 2014 at 11:05 PM ^
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
Brady Hoke elucidating his offensive philosophy
October 24th, 2014 at 11:08 PM ^
October 25th, 2014 at 12:27 AM ^
October 24th, 2014 at 11:10 PM ^
I like how Crisler used the old definition of "fantastic" in that quote.
I totally want to see a reverse goal-line offense.
October 24th, 2014 at 11:23 PM ^
A whole team of slot ninjas?
Back up the bus in Pahokee, we're going shopping for ninjas!
October 25th, 2014 at 12:35 AM ^
October 25th, 2014 at 9:51 AM ^
I'm sorry for the meaningless posts....but I cannot stop laughing.
I never realized how many analogies that there were in The Great Gatsby to the present state of Michigan football!!!
October 25th, 2014 at 7:02 AM ^
One of Fitzgerald's best quotes is very appropriate this season:
"Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat."
Go Blue!
October 25th, 2014 at 7:12 AM ^
October 25th, 2014 at 10:38 AM ^
October 25th, 2014 at 11:00 AM ^
Thanks very much for yet another connection for Michigan with history. It only gets better with each story.
October 25th, 2014 at 11:53 AM ^
Of course Fitzgerald and Hemingway were friends.
And Hemingway's young friend in the Nick Adams stories were based on his actual friend Bill Smith, who managed the Pool Hall, upstairs in the Union, when I attended.