Former B1G Commissioner Wayne Duke Passes Away
Wayne Duke, who preceded Jim Delany as Big Ten Commissioner, died today.
From a Michigan perspective, Duke probably won't be remembered particularly fondly, given his role as at least the public face of the conference's '73 vote.
Obviously, Duke's tenure preceded the current era of both realignment and cut throat TV/digital rights negotiating, so it's more difficult to assess as anything beyond vague feelings, at least if you're like me and you were too young to be aware of such machinations at the time.
Even with that, a dead Wayne Duke > a live Jim Delany
I hope he rests in peace as well.
I would like to know the vote of 73 among the athletic directors. What could it hurt at this point?
MICHIGAN
Bill Orwig, Indiana
Bump Elliott, Iowa
Don Canham, Michigan
Paul Giel, Minnesota
OHIO STATE
Cecil Coleman, Illinois
Burt Smith, Michigan State
Tippy Dye, Northwestern
Ed Weaver, Ohio State
George King, Purdue
Elroy Hirsch, Wisconsin
If the vote had been 5-5, the next tiebreaker would have been eliminating the team that has been to the Rose Bowl most recently, so Michigan would have gone. Orwig, Elliott, Canham, Smith and Hirsch all attended Michigan.
The only question is how much Mr. Duke did to encourage people to vote for Ohio State. Coleman, Hirsch and Dye all voted for Ohio State because (they said) of Franklin's injury.
Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch also played at Michigan. Amazing that a former M football player voted for OSU. Yes, he also played for Wisconsin, but still. Wow.
As far as I'm concerned he never played here.
He's in the same category as the Boren clan.
Burt Smith was a Michigan Alumnus as well.
March 29th, 2017 at 10:53 PM ^
MSU Smith was the deciding vote
March 29th, 2017 at 11:06 PM ^
That's kind of a strange way to look at it. Smith wasn't the deciding vote any more than Ed Weaver was the deciding vote. MSU was going to vote against Michigan, period. They are Michigan State; it's what they do. I'm guessing Smith didn't even have much say in the deal--his job probably depended on voting the way he did.
The vote should have been 8-2. Everybody was expecting that the vote was going to be 8-2. Everybody knew the vote was going to be 8-2. But it was 4-6. I would argue that Elroy Hirsch was the deciding vote; he's probably the one who got talked into voting against Michigan.
Well, that pretty much proves my point, so I don't know why Smith's vote was called "The biggest surprise" by Canham.
There is no way--absolutely none--that Smith would not have been instructed by somebody (a trustee or a vice president, like Jack Breslin) that his job depended on him voting for Ohio State. What might be hard for people to understand if they weren't around at the time is that even more than today, Michigan State's entire identity, both athletic and academic, seemed to have been built around their hatred of Michigan. They had some old-timers, like Breslin, hanging around from when Michigan tried for a while to keep MSU out of the Big Ten. And Spartan resentments don't die easily.
Smith never had a choice, and everybody knew that. The vote was going to be 8-2...until something swung 4 votes the other way.
March 29th, 2017 at 11:20 PM ^
Duke said that Bo was one of the very first people to contact him, and wish him a good and speedy recovery. Said that Bo told him he had another 20 years to live. He wasn't far off.
http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/illini-sports/football/2006-11-17/te…
I don't think Duke "engineered" the vote in November 1973. I don't think there's any proof of an "engineering of the vote" either.
Bo was just angry on that particular Sunday in November 1973, so he popped off. Those things happen. Who knows, they may be having a beer in heaven as we speak.
My brother played for Bo from 1976 to 1980. He said the pregame speech before UM played one of the teams that voted against UM was a tirade of how he wanted to beat the snot out of the teams whose UM graduated athletic directors voted against Michigan.
March 29th, 2017 at 10:22 PM ^
a man who fukd Michigan royally?
March 30th, 2017 at 12:59 AM ^
March 30th, 2017 at 10:44 AM ^
This was the chant of Michigan fans at the end of Michigan's 73-67 beating of Indiana in the Big 10 Championship game in March 1974. Michigan and Indiana were tied for 1st in the regular season at 12-2 so the Big 10 had a one game playoff in Bloomington for the NCAA spot. A great Michigan led by Campy Russell prevailed. That team could really score- they went over 100 a couple of times and scored 111 points against Purdue at Crisler! Heartbreaking loss to Marquette in the tourney.
March 30th, 2017 at 11:50 AM ^
I did see one remembrance of Duke that credited him with aiding in the expansion of the NCAA tournament to 64 teams, so I guess he has that as a positive testament to him. BTN also said he was in on the initial discussions of bringing in Penn State.