Michigan Daily Appreciation Thread: Archived Issues Available Online
As a former Dailyite, I have a special affinity for the Michigan Daily, but I think it's something we all have at least some appreciation for. Yes, the Daily gave us Drew Sharp, Michael Rosenberg and Mark Snyder ... but it also gave us Rich Eisen and America's greatest playwright, Arthur Miller, along with zillions of other high-profile journalists.
So I wanted to offer up a thread for any Daily memories or stories. And in case you haven't seen it, you need to check out the Daily archives on the Google News Archive, which is available here.
It includes scanned-in copies of almost every Daily issue from 1947-2009. Whether you went to U-M or are a lifelong fan, you'll find it addictive. It's a day-by-day history of our school and the times we lived in. The old ads alone are so cool to see. I can waste an entire day looking at old issues from 1982 - and I have.
So check it out, and offer up any appreciations or stories of your own from the Daily.
September 14th, 2016 at 2:57 PM ^
I'm as big a Michigan fan as anyone, but do we really need appreciation threads daily?
September 14th, 2016 at 3:01 PM ^
Better than an empty board with no new threads
September 14th, 2016 at 3:16 PM ^
I think you misunderstood what I wrote. It's a pun based on the name of the newspaper. "Michigan Daily Appreciation Thread" can be read to mean "Daily Michigan Appreciation Thread."
In fairness it probably would have been clearer if I had written, "...do we really need Michigan appreciation threads daily?"
September 14th, 2016 at 3:00 PM ^
It's not every single year from that period. There's definitely a lot missing. But enough for normal people who aren't in search of the 1982 spring game score and whatnot.
I've scanned and searched through them countless hours to find info for the SGs.
Awesome stuff. Bentley is working on getting THE ENTIRE collection online. Toss a few dollars their way as it costs a lot to get it done. It's a great cause because who knows what will be uncovered from the past.
September 14th, 2016 at 3:57 PM ^
You sent me on a mission to find out who won the 1982 spring game. I found the result in the Free Press archive on Newspapers.com - the Blue beat the Maize. I was too cheap to pay for the unfuzzy version, though, so if you want to know the score and the details, you'll have to pay for it yourself.
What happened in 1982 is that April 17 (the date of the game) was the last Michigan Daily of the semester, since classes ended then. So there was no newspaper on April 18.
Now I have to get back to work.
September 14th, 2016 at 3:04 PM ^
Thanks for sharing. Just quickly perused during my time at the university including my first day as a college student (which was the Tuesday after the App St. game)... #memories
September 14th, 2016 at 3:08 PM ^
I drew editorial cartoons for The Daily, but the details stop there: I was pretty average at it.
September 14th, 2016 at 3:16 PM ^
Will come in handy for people looking for historical info on Michigan and various Michigan sporting events. I know it would've come in handy for me in writing a diary or two
September 14th, 2016 at 3:21 PM ^
Some of the most fun I've had writing was as a film critic at the Daily. Sometimes I revisit my reviews and note how my style or opinion has changed.
I cherished the opportunity to cover films that I would not have otherwise seen, like Hirokazu Koreeda's Still Walking or Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon. I loved even more the chances to tee off on hot piles of cheese like Legion or 2012.
But this thread has led me to stumble across a film that I had literally stricken from my memory. I honestly could not remember watching or reviewing this film, and to this day I am not convinced that anyone else has ever seen it. It stars Bruce Willis and it's called Surrogates.
If you have viewed this movie, please contact me and let me know why.
September 14th, 2016 at 4:47 PM ^
Now that you mention it, I will find and watch the Surrogates. I have added it on my Netflix.
September 14th, 2016 at 3:24 PM ^
Enabled me to relive my two favorite daily headlines from the late 80's - "Michigan Creams Seaman" and "M flushes Peay" (basketball victories over Navy and Austin Peay).
Don't judge me I was a teenage boy.
Also made me remember one of my favorite college signs - Austin Peays best player was nicknamed "the fly" and they would hold up signs that said "The fly is open - lets go Peay"
September 14th, 2016 at 3:34 PM ^
crime notes? There was an unsolved incident I was involved in that included a bus stop behind markley and an empty keg.
September 14th, 2016 at 4:00 PM ^
personally, i was involved in a crime notes that included an IM hockey team and the Nite Owl.
September 14th, 2016 at 4:02 PM ^
a good topic for OT season; what is the crime notes story you were involved in
September 14th, 2016 at 3:37 PM ^
Downvoted for pompous ass BursleyHall82, not the Daily.
September 14th, 2016 at 4:15 PM ^
When Rosenberg was the editor and Snyder was a sports writer, too. No, I'm not either one of them.
My favorite artice I remember was one from '97 written by Jim Rose about the Michigan hockey team's upset loss in the Frozen Four. I was at the game and his article summed up the emotions of the day absolutely perfectly. (No, I'm not Jim Rose, either!)
September 14th, 2016 at 11:09 PM ^
I was there at that time too. Rosenberg interviewed me at amers deli. Shifty fella, was a poor planner and scheduler iirc. I covered water polo when it was club. Got a gig at Michigan Radio the next year that paid and left the daily. Wish I could've done both
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September 14th, 2016 at 4:18 PM ^
I was a sportswriter for a little while. It's cool to be able to find some of those old articles again.
September 14th, 2016 at 4:22 PM ^
Why not after 2009? My good friend and housemate for 2 years in college was a writer for the Daily and ended up being the arts editor. He died this year in March. I really regret not pursuing a writing job at the Daily and I want to go back and read some more of his stuff again. But that would be around 2008-2012.
September 14th, 2016 at 4:26 PM ^
Can't figure out how to link it, but man it read just as brutal today as it did back then. Of course, it's easier to write when UM football actually beat the Buckeyes most years....
September 14th, 2016 at 4:35 PM ^
I'm anti-Daily.
September 14th, 2016 at 4:37 PM ^
I lived with 4 Daily staffers... three sports columnists and one photog. I got to know quite a few other staffers through them. I think Rosenberg is the only one I met that I didn't like. I particularly enjoyed the Jeopardy style trivia night/party that I guess was an annual thing. Most of the "answers" involved staff members and it ended up being more of a roast. Fuggin hilarious.
September 14th, 2016 at 5:08 PM ^
Big fan of the Daily as well
September 14th, 2016 at 5:18 PM ^
I was a sports writer/editor from 1998 to 1991 ("Catcher In the Ry") and covered the football team in 1990. My funniest story, though, is from 1989, when I was (supposed to be) covering the Women's Basketball Tip-Off luncheon in Indianapolis. 4+ hour drive from A2, only to get into a car accident 2 blocks from the convention center right in front of the Indiana Statehouse. Car was undrivable, so I sent the younger reporter into the event to get the story, while I spent the entire afternoon figuring out how the heck we were going to get home. Had to have a friend drive all the way from campus to pick us up. The Daily picked up the cost of the accident, which unfortunately cost the paper the ability to send extra people to tournament games. That was not good, but it happens.
Best part -- the young reporter was John Niyo. Didn't bat an eye through the whole thing and handled the story with aplomb. Terrific guy.
September 14th, 2016 at 7:45 PM ^
And yes, John Niyo is a great guy. How is it that all the great Daily guys ended up at the News (Niyo, Wojo) and all the a-holes ended up at the Freep (Sharp, Rosenberg, Snyder)?
September 14th, 2016 at 6:56 PM ^
Former fine arts editor and music writer here. I remember sharing cheap wine out of the bottle at full arts staff meetings. Did other departments do that or were they busy being professional?
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September 14th, 2016 at 7:43 PM ^
The coolest sports tradition (aside from drinking) was putting all the football-game headlines from every year on the ceiling. I think the tradition continued until the 2000's, when the building was renovated. Broke my heart when I walked in there and saw them all gone.
September 15th, 2016 at 8:13 AM ^
Don't remember that one, but we did traditionally sing the Canadian national anthem (as a hockey homage) before the end of the year event that the incoming Editor in Chief hosts.
September 14th, 2016 at 7:37 PM ^
I absolutely appreciate this post. I just found a letter to the editor that I had written and was published in 1997. Very cool!
September 14th, 2016 at 10:48 PM ^
I just came across the above headline, which I don't remember but must have written because it ran in the first issue of the spring term, when I was practically a one-man sports staff. I used to love writing headlines.
September 14th, 2016 at 11:11 PM ^
If it is searchable, I can't figure out how to do it I recall a story we ran from the AP wire with a phenomenal lead. It was about an appearance that Bobby Thompson made to a civic group in Brooklyn. The lead was: "Bobby Thompson returned to Brooklyn Monday, and lived to tell about it."
But it's possible the archive is missing that issue. I googled the lead and found it in some newspapers dated 2/3//70. The archive doesn't have an issue with that date, but I'm sure we had one. I'd like to see what headline we used. I'm sure it was clever. We were all clever in those days.
Hope I'm not boring too many people with my reminiscences.
September 14th, 2016 at 11:41 PM ^
The Michigan Daily also gave you me ;)
September 14th, 2016 at 11:44 PM ^
My favorite memory of The Daily is the last edition of the year, when the seniors would turn seemingly every article/ headline into a joke. I remember at the end of the Fab Five era a picture of either Jimmy or Ray grabbing their crotch and screaming with a headline reading "Deez Nuts!"
If anyone can grab a screen shot or locate this paper in the archives, I would be ever grateful.
September 15th, 2016 at 10:51 AM ^
Current School of Information student here. I worked on this project! It was pretty cool! I mostly just got to look through the Dailys and make sure nothing was out of the ordinary, then I did some basic quality control on the completed scans. Really fun for me, got to go into work and read about old Michigan athletics. They're working on getting the rest online, promise.
September 15th, 2016 at 7:08 PM ^
I wrote for the Arts section in the mid-80's, and just looked up the story I loved working on the most. Turns out, another writer wrote about the same thing in 2009. The story was about another Daily writer who, in the late 60's, wrote a piece about the notorious Beatle lyrics, when played backwards, said Paul McCartney was dead. The writer's name was Fred Labour and his band, Riders in the Sky, was playing in Ann Arbor at the time. Good pop cultural trivia.