Happy 135th birthday, Michigan Football!
135 years ago today in Chicago. That is when and where Michigan played their first Football game against Racine. They won 1-0 with Irving K. Pond scoring the first "touch down".
Complete account of the game from the Michigan Chronicle
The heat was oppressive, but despite the heat, 500 students students of Racine and citizens of Chicago witnessed, what we may call, the finest game of Rugby foot-ball ever played this side of the Alleghanies.
or death?
No, wait, I mean cake!
Yes. And Cake Upton will pop out of it.
After running up the middle 42 consecutive plays for a total of -2 yards, offensive coordinator Albus Borgeous was relieved of his play-calling duties.
As I recall, there was only one other game in 1879 and it was in November, so it seems as if bye weeks were far more restful back in the day (more like bye seasons) and a team could pace themselves in preparation fo their next opponent some five months later. I believe it was against the University Of Toronto and played at Recreation Park, which was on a site where much of the Detroit Medical Center sits now.
All these neutral sites games....geez
That was BEFORE the official advent of Wife Days. Who says women needed all that suffrage movement? Seems like they had it pretty good then. Now they are down to two Wife Days a season... That's NOT progress!
Friday worthy posbang thread...
The writing style from that era is interesting ... the phrasing is evocative of a different era, that's for sure. The word "splendid" is rarely seen in sports journalism nowadays.
It mentions that "a bus" took the team to the grounds ... in 1879 that was surely a horse-drawn vehicle. Interesting that it was called a "bus" in those days. That must be where our use of that term came from.
"The teams fought like dogs of war"
The post-game banquet was at the Palmer House in Chicago. I've stayed there. :-)
To think that someone spent untold hours setting little pieces of lead type to print that sheet. Years ago I had the opportunity to do that on a very limited scale. In today's world we take for granted spell checking and margin justification ... back then it was all due to the guy setting the type.
I especially like the old-timey play calls like "Whirligig" and "Whippersnapper" and "E Pluribus Unum."
to the Annexation of Puerto Rico play.
Don't get caught watching the paint dry!
Villains usually take 3 airplane rides.
Don't forget to give the fellow who scraped the tympan to fine-tune it his due! Without his diligence, all that carefully set type would still produce badly printed sheets.
I can't believe I still remember that mnemonic after all these years. I think I need one to remember my phone number.
I was wondering about their spell-checking when I read this curious sentence:
As crummage the nocurred in the middle of the grounds and finally the ball hovered in the direction of their goal.
Just win baby.
JUST WIN.
Never a doubt you were the OP on this WD
That's so funny you posted this. I was JUST going to say the same thing. I knew when I read the title who the OP would be.
Serious question WD - Do you use Outlook calendar or a Mac Calendar tool to remind yourself of these dates in Michigan history? I know I get these pop-ups on my computer during my work day reminding me of meetings I have to go to, people I need to call and stuff like that. In my mind you get them too but insted of telling you there's a report due tomorrow they say things like "Ricky Leach's Birthday - Due in two days" or "Anniversary of Tom Harmon's Heisman acceptance speach - Due in one hour".
Is that how you do it or do you have some other reminder system? Either way it's impressive!
I forget to celebrate my own birthday.
Good luck on the rest of your endeavors!
but do tell, where shall thou go? what shall thou do?
Your knowledge of and knack for finding UM minutiae continues to impress.
Pond Forever!
* Irving K. Pond did indeed obtain Michigan's first touchdown, but it might be better to not say he "scored" the first touchdown. In rugby football in 1879, a touchdown was not a scoring play; it was only an opportunity to score. Teams could only score by kicking the ball through the goalposts. Think of it as if the rules today said extra points and field goals were worth 1 point each, and touchdowns 0. Michigan did not score a goal off of Pond's touchdown.
* The first player to score for Michigan was the captain, David N. DeTarr from Boone, Iowa. He kicked a "goal" (i.e., the equivalent of a field goal, or, if you watch rugby, a drop goal) in the last minutes of the game.
* The game was on May 30, which at the time was called Decoration Day and is now called Memorial Day (having been moved to the last Monday of May, of course). Sports events always seem to have been a part of Memorial Day observances, even when it must have been a much more solemn occasion just 14 years after the end of the war.
* The location of the game (White Stockings Park), where the Chicago Cubs played in 1879, is about where Millennium Park is located now.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/2005-10-13_2880x1920…
If you look at the picture, the lake shore in 1879 was probably about where the tennis courts are now, and the field was almost exactly where the concert pavilion is now.
* A note on concussion management from the Chicago Tribune's article about the game (posted on the Bentley Library website):
"No bones were broken, but Torbert was stretched out on the turf. A bucket of water however revived him."
I am sure it was crazy afterwards, but we need to now if they were called "grinders," "hoagies," "heroes" or "wedges."
Given that the team was "banqueted" by the Alumni Association after the game at the Palmer House, the menu probably didn't have anything that you would touch with your fingers.
A typical 1879 hotel menu: http://digital.library.unlv.edu/objects/menus/1087
"We had leg of Southdown mutton in caper sauce. It was splendid."
NCAA rules violation?
That school up north seems a bit big for their britches for those of us in the Buckeye state. We might not have us any "coolers" yet per say but we left you a littlle something special in a picinic basket we did.
135 years. Wow! And who knew then what it would become?? Happy birthday, Michigan Football!
Who is the guy in the middle row, second from the right?
We'll see if you are a true fan.