Hello, Loyal Readers, from Chicago!
As you probably know by now, ENDZONE: The Rise, Fall and Return of Michigan Football is set to launch on Tuesday, September 1.
You can pre-order your copy on amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, or local stores like Literati and Nicola’s. Thanks to you guys, it is already the #1 selling football book on amazon.
Meantime, here are a few excerpts and interviews you might enjoy.
EXCERPTS:
Wall Street Journal, on Harbaugh: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-seduction-of-jim-harbaugh-1439481739
MGoBlog on post-Minnesota PR mess: http://mgoblog.com/content/endzone-minnesota-aftermath
MToday Excerpt on Hackett taking the UM job http://michigantoday.umich.edu/for-god-and-country/
ESPN.com, on Harbaugh not coming in 2011: http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/122405/excerpt-endzone-the-rise-fall-and-return-of-michigan-football
Yahoosports.com’s Postgame.com, the Preface: http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/road-saturday/201508/endzone-rise-fall-return-michigan-wolverines-football-book-john-bacon
INTERVIEWS:
-Michigan Radio’s Stateside with Cynthia Canty (18 min): https://twitter.com/BigTenNetwork
-Big Ten Network with Mike Hall (8 min): https://twitter.com/BigTenNetwork
-Drew and Marc, 105.1 ESPN-Detroit. (1 hour) http://detroitsports1051.com/episodes/john-u-bacon-joins-drew-marc-in-studio/
REVIEWS:
The Sporting News’s Bill Bender’s review of Endzone:
http://www.sportingnews.com/…/end-zone-john-u-bacon-michiga…
Eleven Warriors (top Ohio State site) www.elevenwarriors.com/college-football/2015-season-preview/2015/08/57993/the-situational-you-only-live-twice
Hoover Street Rag (UM Site): http://hooverstreetrag.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-maize-and-blue-nation-at-risk-review.html
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Please join the conversation, but remember: I run only those letters from those who are not profane or insane, and who include their FULL name.
My next book, “ENDZONE: The Rise, Fall and Return of Michigan Football,” comes out Tuesday, Sept 1. That same day, Literati bookstore in Ann Arbor is renting out Michigan’s Rackham Auditorium to host the book launch. I’ll be introduced by WTKA’s Sam Webb and Ira Weintraub, then give a 30 minute talk, take some Q&A, then sign books until they’re all signed. Literati will be selling hundreds of books there that night, many of them pre-signed before the event if you don’t want to wait to have it personally signed.
You can find all my book tour events this fall at https://johnubacon.com/upcoming-events/ We are adding new events every day, and will make 50-plus stops coast to coast this fall. If you’d like your city to be one of them, the best bet is to talk with your local UM Alumni Club.
Radio stuff: On Friday mornings, these commentaries run at 8:50 on Michigan Radio (91.7 Ann Arbor/Detroit and Flint, and 104.1 Grand Rapids), and a few minutes later, I join Sam Webb and Ira Weintraub LIVE from 9:05 to 9:25 on WTKA.com, 1050 AM.
After 12 years, I’ve handed over my “Off the Field” slot on WTKA to my good friend Jamie Morris, who launched his new two-hour show, “A View From the Backfield,” last year. He’s returning this fall, and I’ll be joining him Sunday, August 30, to talk about my next book, “ENDZONE.”
This gives me the time I need to join Michigan Radio’s great Cynthia Canty on her afternoon Stateside show every Thursday for a few minutes. Check it out!
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/johnubacon. Just cracked 30,000 followers. THANK YOU!
Like this story? Please feed the blog, and keep ’em coming!
I didn’t see the URL to the 54 minute segment o the “Drew and Marc” show earlier this week on 105.1. GOOD STUFF. Here is the URL for the podcast:
http://detroitsports1051.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2015/08/John-U-Bacon.mp3
Thanks for this, Joe!
Excerpts have been great. I’ve stopped reading them in anticipation of the book’s arrival at my mailbox.
See you in Lakewood on September 30.
GO BLUE!
Great thanks, Harvey — and see you soon!
John the first three chapters from the start to Canham is a primer for any Michigan fan old and certainly young. You really define the term “Michigan Man “
Great thanks, Joe!
John it was a pretty brilliant performance at Rackham on your part. If your voice acted up (in the midst of a tour that would exhaust any voice), it should be nice for you to know that you’re a winner even without your A game.
I was not satisfied with my own question (nor with your honest, careful answer) regarding the partisan political divide at the Board of Regents and so I am taking it up here where we can both be careful with the wording of our references.
Specifically, on Thursday, July 17, 2014, the Regents’ regular meeting dealt with two votes, on proposed fireworks at two football games. A vote on fireworks at a game with Penn State night game was voted down on a pure party line 5-2 vote. (The five Democrats were Regents Deitch, Bernstein, Darlow, Illitch and Diggs. The two Republicans were Regents Newman and Richner. Another Democrat, Regent White was unable to attend the meeting due to a military reserve commitment.) A vote on fireworks for a day game with Miami was 4-3, wherein only Regent Diggs changed her Democratic vote to the Republicans’ side.
John, I was at the Miami game and of course you’ll remember it was “Military Appreciation Day.” The Michigan Marching Band played a halftime show that included a portion of the 1812 Overture. Scored by Tchaikovsky for a battalion of instruments including, famously, cannon fire. It would have been a natural setting for fireworks, even daytime fireworks. The two Republicans plus Shauna Ryder Diggs, voted for those fireworks.
The Penn State night game was the one marquee game of the home schedule in the dismal-schedule year of 2014; without an OSU or a MSU on the home slate, it was felt (naturally, I think) that the PSU night game needed to have some landmark status. Night games attract a certain demographic (not me, frankly) and I thought the fireworks idea was well within keeping with other similar events at Michigan Stadium. I mentioned the Big Chill fireworks show (an extended show, lasting long into the night as fans cleared the Stadium after the hockey game). And you corrected me, pointing to no fewer than FOUR times fireworks have been previously displayed at Michigan Stadium.
So as I continued my question to you at Rackham, I observed that I failed to understand Regent Larry Deitch’s rather pointed reference to potential “liability” questions, and his withering criticism of the presentation of the question. Regent Bernstein, Deitch’s partisan colleague, joined in the ridicule. Here is now the Daily reported it:
https://www.michigandaily.com/news/regents-vote-against-fireworks-michigan-stadium-upcoming-season
Note as well, this past Sunday’s Op-Ed in the opnion section of the Detroit Free Press, co-authored by Deitch and Bernstein, aimed at lobbying Democrat Gary Peters to become the 34th vote in the U.S. Senate to sustain a presidential veto of the bipartisan legislation to kill the Iran nuclear deal:
http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2015/08/29/iran-deal/71k358270/
The Op-Ed is widely and well understood as some weapons-grade political cover being laid down, on what has become the most intensely whipped congressional vote of 2015.
The nearly-perfect partisan divide on fireworks, it seemed to me, was unlike almost any other football/athletic proposal ever brought to the Regents, and the votes seemed inexplicable to me on anything other than partisan grounds. (Again noting in fairness to Regent Diggs that she voted for Miami game fireworks.) I still regard it all as a partisan division on its face. But now I understand that you think there was more to it than that, and the partisan divide in the Board of Regents was not as prominent a force as you might have when you began the book.
They teach us in trial practice seminars to never ask a question in cross-examination and I certainly blew that advice on Tuesday night at Rackham. I still think that the fireworks case was one of partisanship; and it seems to me that there is no other good explanation for that vote, which set a tone for the 2014 football season then to come.
Dear Mr. Brown,
Thanks for your question at Rackham, and your note here.
While it’s true the fireworks vote of July 17, 2014, fell almost perfectly along party lines, that is exceedingly rare among the Regents — witness the typical 8-0 votes on most other issues, including Dave Brandon’s contract extension in 2012. Further, talking with a Republican Regent, Andrea Fischer Newman, she said even the prospect of the 2014 Regental election altering the partisan balance of the board would not likely have affected Brandon’s tenure, either way.
You might disagree, of course, but they seem to come by it honestly.
Again, thanks for your note, and well-reasoned argument. Always fair game.
-JUB
John,
Are you a pawn?
Seriously, after listening to all the air time, it’s comical how you gloss it over. Your bias invites serious investigative journalism. Your story is so very flawed, obviously dissuasive, but my opinion is based upon Stateside.
I will read your book with my knowledge after being connected to the Bill Martin upstairs. I totally disagree with your assertion that the machine was running well. That’s just silly.
Tell the real story.
Can I suggest you do a reading yourself, such the Michigan Man. Pick up David Brooks’ The Road to Character. All this Bo braggadocio. Really? Take a back seat and let the man perish.
And while at it, be future oriented and stop polishing the past. Michigan is now tarnished. Let it go.
Build the future and stop wallowing.
Mr. Jones,
You signed your name, and I’ve printed your letter, but until you learn to disagree without being disagreeable, we will not be discussing much.
This time, I will address some of your questions here. A pawn? Of whom, or what? You resort to name calling, but provide no evidence for any of your claims. You also recommend a book, while providing critiques of my books before having read them. I’m not sure what university taught you to do so, but I’m hoping it’s not UM.
If you care to respond to this or other pieces on my blog, I look forward to a higher level of discourse.
Again, disagreement is fair game. Adolescent, unfounded name-calling is not.
-JUB
Looking forward to reading. Excerpts look interesting and feedback so far intriguing. Thank heavens Harbaugh ran into this fire, and things look promising now. Go blue, go Harbaugh.
Great thanks, Ginger! Hope you like the book.
Just finished ‘ENDZONE’… great read ! Your coverage of M football is without question the best.
Great thanks, RTM! (Please include your full name in the future — thanks!)
As an alum and (briefly) a football walk-on at the U of M, I have read the first 60 pages of “Endzone,” but stopped out of frustration over the frequent editing errors and shortcomings, not to mention outright mistakes like the Monday “Toilet Bowl” dating only to the era of Dave Brandon. It was contested as far back as 1968, I know first hand, though at the time it was (then-ineligible) freshmen against upperclassmen who had not played the Saturday before.
Michael Murphy
Springfield, IL.
Mr. Murphy,
Thank you for your note.
I did not realize the term “Toilet Bowl” predated Bo, who told me this story about ten years ago, but I’m not sure Coach Elliott and Coach Schembechler used the term to describe the same thing. In your case, it apparently was the then-ineligible freshmen against the upperclassmen who hadn’t played. By Brandon’s time, it had become something else.
-JUB