Desmond Howard's number was supposed to be retired 17 years ago
This is an extremely mysterious article that I found when doing some google news archive searching for an expansion of my SuperGuide I'm working on.
I did some research and found an MVictors piece on it that has no explanation for why it didn't happen.
Check this out
That article was penned in the defunct Ann Arbor News back in October of 1997.
It was supposed to be retired in 1998. Approved and everything. If anyone on here remembers hearing anything on why this didn't happen, I'd love to hear it.
Regardless, #21 finally gets retired on Saturday.
November 26th, 2015 at 9:05 PM ^
And everyone forgot.
November 26th, 2015 at 9:12 PM ^
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November 26th, 2015 at 9:07 PM ^
Love it. Shine on you crazy diamond, WD. This is a cool find.
November 27th, 2015 at 4:06 AM ^
November 26th, 2015 at 9:15 PM ^
Because if there are, you really should get the job. I feel like you'd be awesome at it. Nice find.
November 26th, 2015 at 9:20 PM ^
November 27th, 2015 at 10:57 AM ^
November 26th, 2015 at 9:26 PM ^
November 26th, 2015 at 9:27 PM ^
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November 26th, 2015 at 9:34 PM ^
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November 26th, 2015 at 10:24 PM ^
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November 26th, 2015 at 11:51 PM ^
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November 26th, 2015 at 9:37 PM ^
November 26th, 2015 at 10:00 PM ^
November 26th, 2015 at 11:04 PM ^
Superglide is a Harley Davidson bike, maybe you're thinking of Astroglide
November 27th, 2015 at 9:22 AM ^
November 27th, 2015 at 12:09 PM ^
The Michigan Football Compendium (TMFC)
Fits nicely with JMFR, JMFJ, etc. too.
November 27th, 2015 at 2:06 PM ^
It's not just a record book. It's not a media guide because this goes above and beyond anything media guides have ever touched. "Book of information" was what I called it originally but that just sounded lame and too long.
It's huge so I just called it a SuperGuide and the name stuck.
This is a really old picture. There are 4 books now and that comforter has been upgraded.
November 26th, 2015 at 9:31 PM ^
November 27th, 2015 at 12:07 AM ^
do not think this is the reason.
November 26th, 2015 at 10:24 PM ^
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November 26th, 2015 at 10:36 PM ^
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November 27th, 2015 at 8:18 AM ^
They publish a physical newspaper on Thursdays and Sundays.
November 27th, 2015 at 10:32 AM ^
to be fair, they WERE defunct for a few years. and the current Ann Arbor News is basically a renamed AnnArbor.com print edition, much in the same way the Winnipeg Jets are really the Atlanta Thrashers instead of the old Winnipeg Jets. But I digress.
November 27th, 2015 at 1:39 PM ^
It never went defunct. The Ann Arbor News transitioned to AnnArbor.com in 2009 retaining a small portion of the News staff. In 2013, when AnnArbor.com moved to MLive, it resumed the name Ann Arbor News. While the name changed it never ceased its publication, only rebranded itself every few years
November 27th, 2015 at 2:33 PM ^
They never stopped publishing through the name changes, although they did go from a daily to a twice weekly.
November 27th, 2015 at 3:24 PM ^
Technically it was defunct: AnnArbor.com opened at the same time that the Ann Arbor News closed, but they were separate organizations, it wasn't just a name-change. If they had just changed names/operations, they wouldn't have been able to lay off large numbers of employees easily--instead, by shutting the News down, everyone was laid off, and then just some were rehired to AnnArbor.com. The distinction is debatable, since it's all owned by Advance Publications, but the Ann Arbor News was definitely officially closed.
I don't know as much about the switch from AnnArbor.com to Ann Arbor News in 2013, but I assume that was different, just switching names and merging operations with MLive.com
November 26th, 2015 at 10:50 PM ^
SuperGuides is actually a thing?
November 26th, 2015 at 11:05 PM ^
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November 27th, 2015 at 10:52 AM ^
November 26th, 2015 at 11:03 PM ^
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November 27th, 2015 at 12:05 AM ^
PLAIN STUPID! IF IT IS TRUE. the reason not you.
November 26th, 2015 at 11:13 PM ^
I do remember that. Tom Goss had just become AD. The Number 21 Retirement plans most likely went down the drain quickly along with Goss' career as AD at Michigan.
November 26th, 2015 at 11:55 PM ^
Update: Desmond doesn't know why it didn't happen.
@umichWD That is crazy!
— Desmond Howard (@DesmondHoward) November 27, 2015@Maizeandgoblue Good ?
— Desmond Howard (@DesmondHoward) November 27, 2015November 27th, 2015 at 12:02 AM ^
it should have it done way back. now it is being done and you are still alive. so forget the what and why's enjoy the moment.
November 27th, 2015 at 10:09 AM ^
November 27th, 2015 at 8:35 AM ^
November 27th, 2015 at 12:37 AM ^
This is a strange ass story but man on a different note how do you have time to watch every Michigan related sporting event and dig up cool stories like this and pass all your classes? Do u sleep? Are u a wizard? Is it aliens? Whats ur secret man?
November 27th, 2015 at 6:15 AM ^
November 27th, 2015 at 8:09 AM ^
It was seeing the exchange with Desmond that really kind of fascinated me here - you would think that if there were a plan in place you would tell the person who wore the number so that they could, well, plan and be there. I could be way off, but that conversation makes me think the paper got wind of this idea in its relative infancy, plenty of time for it to never materialize for reasons unknown.
November 27th, 2015 at 8:11 AM ^
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November 27th, 2015 at 8:37 AM ^
I think this post proves the point that some people downvote WD no matter what he says or does here. I cant for the life of me find a reason that this content is downvoted OTHER than the guy who posted it. It's interesting, certainly never been posted before, it's not an apparel thread, it's a very slow news day so it's not like it's bumping something important off the board and Desmond himself doesnt know the answer!
November 27th, 2015 at 9:16 AM ^
The word "SuperGuide" has been added to the list of terms that are auto-negworthy. (It's not on my list, but it seems to be on others).
November 27th, 2015 at 10:39 AM ^
So, what you are saying is the assholes just asshole? I occasionally find WD's enthusiasm a bit annoying, but recognize that that's on me.
Luckily, the OP has a voting history, so we can all see who the assholes are.
November 27th, 2015 at 9:53 AM ^
November 27th, 2015 at 11:05 AM ^
November 27th, 2015 at 11:47 AM ^
November 27th, 2015 at 9:18 AM ^
So, the basic problem with the logistics of retiring his jersey is that you would presumably want him in the stadium when the ceremony takes place. Looking at the NFL & Michigan schedules for 1998, there was always an Oakland Raiders Sunday game the day after every Michigan home game--no bye week, no Thursday or Monday night games where he could get away from the team for a few hours. It couldn't happen.
Of course, he could have made it to the Notre Dame game in 1999 (he had moved to Green Bay at that point, and the ND game was played after the last exhibition game but the week before the first regular season game), but I wonder if the retirement plan had been forgotten by then.
Interesting fact: the number 21 was not assigned to anybody in 1996, 1997 and 1998, but was given to Jeremy LeSueur in 1999, although he was redshirted that year. I have to assume that something happened between 1998 and 1999 that changed everybody's plans here.
November 27th, 2015 at 10:42 AM ^
Interesting info, there. I wonder if, by '99, the whole concept of retired numbers had been reconsidered and the idea of retiring numbers had been dropped.