"Wolverine Olympics" - Still a Michigan football "tradition"?
Surprisingly, after a fairly lengthy search of the site, I have not found any reference to "Wolverine Olympics" anywhere. I'm knee-deep in Three and Out and, on page 149, Bacon references this competition that Rodriguez devised -
whereby the seniors drafted teams of eight players, then tried to get the most points - given out for touchdowns and tackles, attending classes, getting above a 3.0, visiting Mott Children's Hospital, and so on - and to avoid demerits.
(emphasis mine). Does anyone remember hearing about this competition? Does anyone know if the tradition is being continued under Hoke & Co?
Seems like a very cool way to hold the kids accountable to their teammates in a much more intimate way, all the while feeding their competitive spirit. A way to hold each other's feet to the fire in all aspects of their college life. Mostly, I am very surprised that we never discussed this (or even heard of it) as fans.
November 4th, 2011 at 4:44 PM ^
I loved how Zoltan was the presumed MVP before it started. Space Emperor indeed.
November 4th, 2011 at 4:47 PM ^
When I read "4.3" GPA I automatically assumed it was a typo. Gifted people are, well, gifted.
November 4th, 2011 at 5:19 PM ^
He is the presumed winner in all contests.
November 4th, 2011 at 8:11 PM ^
In space, no one can hear you get punted into the Oort Cloud.
November 4th, 2011 at 4:48 PM ^
"I'm" not "that" sure about "what" to call "it."
November 4th, 2011 at 4:52 PM ^
I moderated your comment as "funny" (no pun intended) and your rating showed up as "flamebait" (again, no pun intended). WTF?
November 4th, 2011 at 6:15 PM ^
Board don't lie
November 4th, 2011 at 4:56 PM ^
Yeah, I just got to that part recently, myself. When I read that, I thought I remembered hearing something about that when it started. I can't pinpoint where or when, but I just know when I read that part, it was more of a "Oh yeah, I forgot about" moment, rather than a "Wow, that sounds really interesting. Can't believe I never heard of that before" moment.
Edit: A Bing search turned up an article from the Michigan Daily in September '08. Here's the link.
To instill competition in his players, Rodriguez developed a superstars competition, which became the Mountaineer Olympics and is now the Wolverine Olympics. Over the years, events have included an egg-eating contest, tobacco-spitting contest, swimming, dodgeball and belly-flop contests.
November 4th, 2011 at 5:54 PM ^
Clearly he came up with this when at WVU....the tobacco-spitting contest I would love to see, I wonder what the competition is. Most in your mouth at once? Longest chew? Most spit in X amount of time? Or are we talking distance spitting? Or accuracy? Or thickness/color?
I am seriously intrigued.
November 5th, 2011 at 9:50 AM ^
In those Inside Michigan (or whatever they were called, maybe it was a Countdown to Kickoff) videos they would do in the Spring. One showed the seniors and RR and Dusty doing the draft in RRs living room erc
November 4th, 2011 at 5:12 PM ^
I like that idea a lot. Hoke will do what Hoke does, but I wouldn't mind at all if this continued. Sounds like a fun way to keep kids on track.
November 4th, 2011 at 5:44 PM ^
I'm pretty sure Hoke just expects all these things (in the OP) as the standard, which is as it should be. To each his own, but if you need a tobacco spitting contest to instill a competitive fire in the players... you got the wrong players.
November 4th, 2011 at 7:38 PM ^
November 4th, 2011 at 5:48 PM ^
Sounds pretty stupid to me.
November 4th, 2011 at 7:14 PM ^
Im pretty sure the contest identified in the MD article were sarcasm intended to poke fun at RR's hillbilly ways...the ones described by the OP were legit.
November 5th, 2011 at 7:56 AM ^
Nothing else in the story seems to be sarcastic. The writer certainly did quite a bit of research on the story. It's a great story; I encourage everyone to read it. I especially liked the part of his parents making him sit in the back seat with a blanket over his head on the way home after his team lost because of his foul attitude. There are several other points, too, that show how competitive he is.