Happy 137th Birthday, Michigan Football!

I am so glad that didn't leave us hanging on that one. Try writing to a friend and include that in the conversation, minus the explanation. Would love to see how that plays out.

I remember the stand at Thermopylae

The Greek Guard made one day;
I remember the legions that Caesar used
To shatter the Gallic sway;

And I remember across the years
Two banners that crowned the crest,
When Yale was king of the conquered East,
And Michigan ruled the West.

At night in my humble den I dream
Of the glories that used to be ?
Of Hannibal taking the Alpine Trail,
Of Drake on the open sea;

And then I wander the ancient ways
To dream a dream I love the best,
When Yale was king of the conquered East,

• Actually The BIG with UM, OSU, PSU, NU among the game's all time best represents nicely.
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would have gone on to become a tremendous qb. There are some excellent, all-time greats who took a break from live action - Roger Staubach, most prominently - but as a Naval officer, he was free, after work hours to throw the football without trying to earn a living and learning another sport at the professional level. More than likely, he even played on a Naval football touch passing league. Hell I know he did simply by the way my cousin was treated as an All Air Force centerfielder in the Air Force, what I witnessed of Butch Beard while at Ft. Knox. And even me getting an invite. Beard was a Lobo, so I'm not certain if that makes him a grad of N.M. or N.M. St.

But anyway, he was an All-American bb player - thinking '69 because I was at knox in summer and fall of '70. He did go on to the NBA. While at Knox, as an enlisted man, his job was to take care of a very nice gymnasium and allowed him to team up with some very good college players, certainlly not at his level, but together they were very, very good. Almost all under 6'5" because I believe that was the height limit for the Army. They knew who played and where,, even h.s. All-Staters, etc.

Butch was also an excellent receiver in the touch FB league and this is what I mean about them having your stats. They had my h.s. track times and my passing stats and asked if I would like to try out for the same team as a qb and/or a receiver/dl rusher where quickness and speed are prized.

I am not even going to pretend I was anything other than good and that was at a Class C school when they had 4 classifications. I was a very good qb there and my speed would have won me 4 letters at any school in the area. I doubt, however, even a large Muskegon school, like the Big Reds would have taken me seriously as a qb, simply due to my size, or better put, lack thereof. And the Big Reds under Chev were a running team. Sure could have played today though with that option attack. Sorry, reliving the past for a second. Letters of Interest I received were from the likes of Kalamazoo College and both Ferris and GVSU, which was probably w/in the first 5 years of their program. These were merely ltrs to judge my interest and if I had any, probably would have been invited to walk-on and try out. Just as in the Army, I said No thanks.

But that is why I think Drew would have excelled his senior year as everyone who watched predicted, prior to George entering the picture. He would not have screwed himself up mentally trying two sports off and on and understandably losing his confidence in football when he returned. He wasn't like Beard and Staubach who got to practice their profession while waiting. Receiver certainly didn't hurt Beard in basketball. In fact, I'm certain all the conditioning and competive sports he could play only helped him.