In 1879, U of Michigan introduced Notre Dame to football. Michigan’s football team stopped in South Bend, IN (Notre Dame’s location) en route to the University of Chicago, and spent an afternoon teaching their future rivals how to play.
President Ford was often parodied by comedians for his clumsiness… but he wasn’t clumsy at UMich! He was a star center and linebacker—he even got drafted by several NFL teams!
UMich used to have LIVE wolverines named Biff and Bennie who served as mascots in the 1920s. Unfortunately, they “grew larger and more ferocious.” Head football coach Fielding Yost explained:“It was obvious that the Michigan mascots had designs on the Michigan men toting them, and those designs were by no means friendly.”One of the Wolverines, Biff, was put in a cage at the University of Michigan Zoo.
As a gesture of goodwill to its hosts at the 1932 Ohio State-Michigan football game, the Michigan Varsity Band (as it was known then) spelled the name of its rival state while playing “(Fight the Team) Across the Field,” one of Ohio State’s fight songs. Four years later, the Ohio State Marching Band began its pregame tradition of spelling “Ohio” in script before its October 24, 1936 game against Indiana.
Back in 1922 when Ohio Stadium was dedicated, Michigan was naturally the team invited to play OSU. Many know that we spoiled their dedication with a 19-0 M victory. What isn't widely known is that there had apparently been a wager between officials of both schools on the outcome of the dedication game regarding the color scheme that would be used for the dome/rotunda. Michigan won the dedication game 19-0 behind the efforts of an engineering student and captain, Paul Goebel (who later became a 3-time mayor of Grand Rapids) who blocked a punt, recovered a fumble, kicked a long field goal and generally wreaked havoc on the OSU defense all day. Because of Michigan's win ultimately Ohio State (to their credit) honored their obligation to go with a maize and blue color scheme on the dome of the rotunda which lasts to this day (see picture below). Kind of a nice tribute to the rivalry eh?
Ohio State Stadium Rotunda
That's probably even more frustrating to the Buckeye's than the fact that Urban Meyer's initials are UM. Whoa!