OT: History of MGoBlog

RIP Haloscan

Big Bang.

And all the great contribution he brought to this blog for years

This week on Drunk History. Brian Cook, shitfaced in his parents basement discovers the Interwebz.

When did the UFRs start?

Here's the brief rundown of MGoBlog's history:

The year was sometime in the 1970's.  A young Mr. and Mrs. Cook looked upon their recently-born son, hair and beard fully-formed and already reading up on Scottish Premier League rules, and wondered just what his future held?  Would he be an astronaut, streaking through the sky in search of distant worlds while Space Oddity echoed through the capsule?  Would he invent the next great advancement in human technology, perhaps a machine capable of definitively identifying pass interference calls or a ray gun that could instantly send every Juggalo walking through East Lansing and Columbus to the Phantom Zone?  Or maybe be the future leader of this great country, the first to introduce hockey-jerseys-as-daywear in the White House and to strike down every sports league run by stuffed suits and replace them with semi-competent people who actually watch that sport, and also get rid of war and hypocrisy and other high-minded shit.

It is safe to say, though, that they never expected he would create the premier website on the internet (or as it was known back in those days, DARPA) for reasonably-sane people to lose their ever-loving mind about college athletes playing sports for the University of Michigan, and with it become one of the most prominent Q-list celebrities on "the web", next to JPop sensation Girls' Generation and this girl:

MGoBlog started off like most sites: full of personal thoughts and attempts at coherent narratives intermixed with the type of humor you've come to expect from a guy who started the Every Three Weekly and loves Kids in the Hall.  In a world of 56k connections and AOL CDs* it was a place for people who obsessed about Michigan sports to see that, no, they weren't crazy for thinking Mike DeBord was an idiot, Kevin Porter was amazing and Swedes in general rule, and, yes, Miek Hart is one of the more underrated RBs in college football history.  I suspect it also introduced a whole generation of you darn kids to Robert Smith and the Cure, so good for you.

Like all dynasties, MGoBlog has also had its palace intrigue, from great purges of obnoxiously-dissident members to heated debates about what constitutes a "spead" offense versus "whatever the f RR is trying to run with ThreetSheridanDamnit".  There was also the rarely-discussed torrid affair between a plucky-and-stunningly-handsome boy posting from the Bronx and a Mr. M Rosenberg, er I mean Michael R., which turned a semi-competent sports reporter into a man so driven by passion and lust as to single-handedly concoct an unbelievable tale of illegal stretching and swearing by a head coach at Michigan, effects of which still ripple through the program today.  Oh my sweet prince...

Over the years MGoBlog has become not only the top site for Michigan sports, but one of the top stops for college sports in general.  For a blog dedicated so much to a single school's various athletic pursuits, it contains essay-quality discussions on advanced statistics, college sports labor and financial issues, and the type of "classy memes" that are a step above the "stick figure fellatio" you can find in spades at Barking Carnival.**  It has also been at the forefront of Michigan fandom, mobilizing efforts to improve the stadium experience (by firing Dave Brandon), protect the history and sanctity of the program and protect against its crass commercialization (by firing Dave Brandon), and improve the overall outlook for the athletics department (seriously, by firing Dave Brandon.  Also, probably Brady Hoke).

Today, MGoBlog stands at the forefront of "informal" top-notch fan-based sport coverage, a mouthful I made up that basically means its a pretty cool site run by guys who aren't paid by Yahoo click-ads or however Bleacher Report screws 20-somethings into making shitty lists about "coaches on the hot seat".  It is also a place where people use part of their lunch breaks to write 600+ words about its fake history as a homage to the great, free content it provides.

Years from now, when John Hammond extracts bits from a laptop encased in amber, he will try to recreate the magic of MGoBlog to fill his digital park for tourists stopping by Urth (sponsored by Chobani) (damn you Space Overlord Brandon!) and something will go terribly wrong and MGoBlog will once again roam the planet, point out dumb bowl game names and calling for better use of Dennis Norfleet's great-great-great-great grandson Dennis Norfastfeet X1.  And it will be glorious.

* I have no idea what type of connection Brian had, and I can neither confirm nor deny that MGoBlog was distributed via digital media sent out in newpaper circulars.

** For the record, I am 100% okay with Barking Carnival making this a part of my life.

I used to just observe the blog without having a username, but I finally joined and haven't looked back.  We are fortunate to have IMO the best sports blog on the web.  I know we disagree at times with each other and with Brian, etc., but I have been interested in other teams and have tried to find equivalent blogs and nothing else is particularly close.  Our rivals in the worst state ever have a good blog, and fishduck,com is ok sometimes, but I prefer mgoblog's formatting and just the level of relevant content from users who aren't busy driving trucks or doing meth in Ohio.

All of that is said just to reiterate that anyone who works on and/or contributes to this site can't get enough gratitude.  I often find out about news on mgoblog earlier than anywhere else....

Looking at some of the old posts just makes me realize how much time I spend here. 

I don't know if this is totally rational, but I never really needed MGoBlog until after 2007.  I certainly did not deal with Michigan losses well prior to 2008, but even after the bad ones the reality was that the worst case scenario was a New Year's Day bowl game in Florida.  There was not this abiding need for catharthis, and for finding an MGoCommunity who remembers the good times, and is looking forward to better days.

Mgoblog saved my Michigan fandom in 2005 when I found the site. I was drifting, after 15 years of rooting and I had left "Michiana" for Iowa and South Dakota. The "season of Infinite Pain" (and we know how ironic that sounds today) made my disloyalties come out... but I found the writings of Brian Cook and the original friends and commenters of the blog.

Thanks, Brian.

UFRs, with a guide to every play Michigan runs started around 2005 or 2006. Our team has been in decline ever since. Our one up year was 2011 when we installed a whole new offense and defense. Damn Mgoblog! Ah jk I guess, it's probably just a coincidence...I'm sure every FBS staff breaks down film to the same level and more?