Ufer
Anyone else miss Ufer? He dominated my falls as a yout'. "Huckleby deep and Davis close and Leach the Peach under center". If I had a dollar for every time I heard that, I could buy a really nice dinner, at least.
Wrote this in 2012:
Sometime in the mid-70s I was on a Boy Scout hike, and one of the assistant leaders had the game on. I completely fell in love with Ufer's enthusiasm and word pictures, don't think I missed more than a couple broadcasts after that. One of the few times per year they were on TV, I would turn down the volume and turn up the Ufer. RIP, you marvelous maniac.
October 20th, 2019 at 9:26 AM ^
October 20th, 2019 at 10:52 AM ^
More than a few people took their transistor radios to the games so they could watch the play on the field and listen to Bob call the game. I certainly wasn't alone with doing it.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:16 PM ^
I did the same thing and when I lived and worked in Cincinnati, I could pick up WJR (which carried Michigans back then) and absolutely loved it. Got my new Cinti and Northern KY friends to love listening to Bob call the game while watching Michigan play on TV (there was not lag time like nowadays). They thought he as a hoot.
I mourned when he passed and still miss him very much, today.
October 20th, 2019 at 9:58 AM ^
Ufer died when I was 3, so I never heard him live. I have to admit his style is not my cup of tea, but I’m sure my kids would find Ernie Harwell boring, so it’s just about what pushes the nostalgia button for you
October 20th, 2019 at 10:07 AM ^
Exactly. I'm not trying to be crass, but I never heard Ufer live. I'm sure it means something to an older generation, but I've never gotten it. Tip of my cap to Michigan's history and that's about it. Whatever.
Now if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to sit my 6-year-old down for his weekly study of Sparky Anderson and the '84 Tigers.
October 20th, 2019 at 10:36 AM ^
I get that you don't get it, its hard to feel the whole thing from just clips. If you ever had the chance to listen to an entire game you'd have a different opinion. The clips everyone hears are over the top big plays - the unabashed highlights. But the every-down plays, the routine and mundane middle of the game plays, were so descriptive without the over abundance of enthusiasm you hear in the clips. It was very much like Ernie Harwell calling a Tigers game - you knew the immediacy and tension, and felt like you were in the stadium. He made you part of the game. It wasn't all yelling and scoring horns, dude was a legit play caller that drew you in.
Every bit as good as Harwell ever was, albeit in a different sport.
October 20th, 2019 at 10:50 AM ^
What was his style? That he was a proud homer? Everyone knew it and he didn't pretend otherwise. That he was a wordsmith par excellence? That he could with words alone, paint in your mind a picture of the football game cameras could not ever capture? Or maybe it was his exuberance which made you feel as if you were sitting in the stands being part of the emotional energy of the crowd?
October 20th, 2019 at 12:17 PM ^
I didn't like Ufer at first but he grew on me quickly.
October 20th, 2019 at 10:12 AM ^
The Guts and Glue of the Maize and Blue, Rick, the Peach, Leach! Ufer was the best.
October 20th, 2019 at 10:26 AM ^
"They're not going to be able to kick the extra point! Who gives a damn?" Yes, I am old. Yes, he was awesome.
October 20th, 2019 at 10:30 AM ^
‘Cotton Pickin’
October 20th, 2019 at 10:29 AM ^
He died 38 years ago. The only posters here who heard enough to able to say they miss him are quinquagenarians or older. Likely a pretty slim portion of the readership but maybe I'm wrong.
October 20th, 2019 at 11:57 AM ^
Thank you. I'm rarely described as "slim."
October 20th, 2019 at 12:22 PM ^
So what, I am in that age group. You miss the point; Ufer's legacy lives on. He exemplified "Enthusiasm unknown to Mankind".
October 20th, 2019 at 1:36 PM ^
I think you missed his more subtle point.
October 20th, 2019 at 10:56 AM ^
I’ll get downvoted but I didn’t listen when given a choice. I grew up listening to him on WJR but got to U of M in the late ‘70’s and found Tom Hemingway (I think?) on WUOM. His straight forward not to homerish style fit my ears better. I was asked if I wanted to be interviewed for the Ufer documentary a few years back and I declined stating this opinion.
October 20th, 2019 at 10:57 AM ^
Even though his radio announcing for Michigan predates Bo's time at Michigan, that is the era I always associate him with, because that is when I first heard him. And after Bo heard the news of Ufer's death, he had tears in his eyes. Ufer was over the top and knew it, but in an era before most games were televised, his exuberance was appreciated by most Michigan fans. I always just thought of him as an eccentric old man--now I'm nearly the age he was when he died, and older than he was when I first started listening to him. It wasn't until after he died that I learned what an athlete he was as a Michigan student (played in the same backfield as Tom Harmon his Freshman year but left football to concentrate on track where he set the world record in the indoor 440).
October 20th, 2019 at 11:46 AM ^
I arrived on campus in ‘71, and although Ufer had been doing PBP for years, Bo’s success gave Ufer a visibility that he’d never had previously. When it came to creating a total All-Michigan environment for your mind, Ufer was without peer.
When it came to accurately describing the game action so you knew what was actually transpiring on the field, Frank Beckmann was far superior.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:27 PM ^
Ufer had stats in his grasp on notes he took that predates the internet. I am still amazed today at how well he could pull stats of individual players and opposing team stats that you'd need the internet today. Ufer will always be my greatest play by play announcer for Michigan.
October 20th, 2019 at 1:38 PM ^
Not many can do both PBP and color commentary, let alone do them simultaneously and seamlessly.
October 20th, 2019 at 1:26 PM ^
I think he had a national rep before Bo, I believe Ufer was offered an ABC national gig in the early 1960s
October 20th, 2019 at 1:41 PM ^
That's what I understood as well, though not the specific agency. Cooler heads prevailed, Ufer wouldn't have been the same trying to be straight down the middle. Besides, he did have a very successful day job running his insurance company.
October 20th, 2019 at 4:47 PM ^
Frank Beckmann was excellent, but "far superior" to Bob Ufer? No. I listened to both and they were both excellent. Ufer's preparation for the games was at least as good as Beckmann's.
October 20th, 2019 at 1:42 PM ^
Ufer got that this was all supposed to be fun.
It was OK to be a little out there, it's not a murder trial.
October 20th, 2019 at 2:05 PM ^
Dude. You might also ask if anyone remembers Milky the Clown.
Ufer? I'm barely old enough to remember him. Accomplished Michigan Man (track and field), bright guy, but definitely an acquired taste as a broadcaster.
October 20th, 2019 at 4:43 PM ^
Ufer was and is an institution here. As a student I remember going to see him talk at a pep rally at the Mud Bowl in the week right before the Ohio State game in 1979. What an amazing performance. He had the entire crowed mesmerized and ready to go stomp the Buckeyes when he was done. He could do something like that talk with no notes of any kind and could still rattle off names/numbers/past games with no effort.
Aside from that though and after stripping away the unbridled homerism, I just think he was an excellent play-by-play announcer.With TV and live streaming games today, you could argue that play-by-play announcing is a lost art. Back then though, when often, the only way to follow the game was on radio, it was a valuable skill.
October 20th, 2019 at 7:06 PM ^
Ufer was extraordinary and loved Michigan with all his soul.
And, as a student athlete at Michigan, he set the world indoor record of 48.1 seconds in the indoor 440-yard run and was selected as an All-American in 1943.
October 20th, 2019 at 8:25 PM ^
Could you imagine Ufer with the kind of officiating we have been getting the past few years?