The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/90932
FROM OUR READERS TRIED IT, LIKED IT November 2012 • Vol. 24, No. 4 ISSN 1048-9940 John Borton Editor Associate Editor Michael Spath The Wolverine.com Editor Chris Balas Football Recruiting Editor Tim Sullivan Staff Writer Andy Reid Managing Editor Chris Riffer Contributing Editor Steve Downey Contributing Writer Ryan Tice Editorial Intern Kevin Minor Jeanette Blankenship Layout And Design Cory Lavalette Contributing Photographers Lon Horwedel Per Kjeldsen Cover Photo Lon Horwedel Publisher Stu Coman Business Manager Linda Autry Circulation Manager Gail Evans Marketing/Merchandise Manager Beverly Taylor Director Of Advertising Dave Searcy Customer Service Manager Laura Kendall The Wolverine is published monthly. A one-year (12 issues) subscription is $49.95. The Wolverine is printed at The Papers in Milford, Ind. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Wolverine, P.O. Box 2331, Durham, NC 27701. Periodical postage paid at Durham, NC 27702 and additional offices. Dear The Wolverine: After reading Jim Supance's let- ters about volleyball for the past couple of years, I decided to go see them play Northwestern after the Illinois football game. Just like any other sport, seeing it live is a lot better. The speed of the spikes, the loud thud of the blocks, and the force on the digs that almost and sometimes do knock over the ladies is unreal. I now have to check the volleyball schedule to see when I can go again. Temperance, Mich. Eric Gerber Dear The Wolverine: In 1926, the Big Ten Conference thwarted a golden opportunity to admit the University of Notre Dame into its confines. The confer- ence adamantly refused to "appoint a committee to visit" and "conduct an investigation of all conditions, both academic and athletic" of that Catholic school in South Bend coached by Knute Rockne, bending to the wishes of the University of Michigan's coach Fielding H. Yost and the University of Chicago's coach Amos Alonzo Stagg. One could hardly blame 39 mem- bers of the Notre Dame Board of Trustees when, nearly 75 years later on a clear, crisp Friday afternoon in early February, 1999, they declared Irish independence in a building off Trafalgar Square in London, England, claiming "They turned us down in 1926; why talk to them now?" This proclamation flew in the face of the Notre Dame faculty senate, which had previously voted nearly unanimously for affiliation. Flash forward to September 2012. And so the word spreads … SO LONG TO THE IRISH For advertising or subscription information, call 1-800-421-7751 or write The Wolverine, P.O. Box 1304, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. The Wolverine is a publication of Coman Publishing Company, Inc., 324 Blackwell St., Suite 1020, Durham, NC 27701. thewolverine@comanpub.com Subscription questions: gevans@comanpub.com Web Site: E-Mail Address: www.thewolverine.com 12 THE WOLVERINE NOVEMBER 2012 Notre Dame reaches an agreement with the Atlantic Coast Conference to affiliate with all sports except Or e-mail: jborton@thewolverine.com Letters may be edited for clarity or length. Wolverine Letters • P.O. Box 1304 • Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Be Heard! Send your letters to: Michigan and Notre Dame are slated to play in 2013 and 2014, but the Irish have can- celled the games for 2015-17, and the teams had already agreed to a break for 2018-19. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN football with a caveat that Notre Dame must play five ACC teams annually on the gridiron. Now I am not so naive as to believe for one moment that the Domers would have been able to continue their six annual rivalries with Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Navy, USC and Stanford with only seven slots remaining on their schedule given the five-game ACC member stipu- lation. ics director Jack Swarbrick to hand Michigan athletics director Dave Brandon a notification letter cancel- ing future games one hour prior to the 2012 game to include the 2012 game in the three-year notice was duplicitous to say the least. I am as much chagrined as any Wolverine fan along with most college foot- ball fans to see the great Michigan/ Notre Dame rivalry go the way of all flesh. Nevertheless, when one partner in the relationship isn't even consulted beforehand in the decision-making process of sepa- ration, "it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another" and go their separate ways. And if our Big Ten brethren Michigan State and Purdue don't expect to be next on Notre Dame's chopping block, I have a bridge to sell them. However, for Notre Dame athlet- When the Michigan/Notre Dame rivalry resumed in 1978, it was done so with the unwritten under- standing that this game would be the first game for each team each