September 3, 2005 - Bubba and Stephen hit 100 straight home-and-away Michigan games as Michigan opened the season with their first ever contest against NIU. Chad Henne threw for 239 yards and 2 TDs, while Coach Mike Hart added 117 yards and a TD on the ground helping #4 Michigan beat the Huskies 33-17. Michigan will play the Huskies for only the second time ever on Saturday at noon. Full flashback game page is here.
September 8, 2001: You’ll be saying this a lot over the next few days, but “I can’t believe it’s been 20 years.” We gathered in Seattle prior to The Huskies ruining yet another one of those 90’s and 00’s west coast road trips for Michigan, 23-18.
“In less than 60 seconds in the 4th quarter, the Huskies blocked a kick and returned it for a touchdown, and returned a Navarre tipped pass for a touchdown 2 plays into the ensuing Michigan drive” 🤮 🤮 🤮
I might have ate some salmon. Then some serious shit happened and trapped a few of our members on the left coast for a bit, and we all became super American for a while. Full game page is here.
September 1, 2001: Captain Michigan becomes the first inductee into the UMTailgate.com Hall of Fame before the Wolverines defeated redshirt freshman quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s Miami of Ohio 31-13. Of note, I was wearing a Hawaiian-ish shirt so this may have been the first Luau tailgate. The rest of the game pictures from that day are here. Some interesting quotes from the postgame write up of a 25 year old:
Bubba and Stephan W attended their 50th straight Michigan game on Saturday, enduring what may have been the most boring Michigan victory ever. The Godfather presented several of us with commemorative champagne with personalized labels marking the boys place in history.
The streak lives on dammit. Covid doesn’t count.
About half way into the tailgate, our friend Larry dissappeared. Minutes later, Captain Michigan appeared with a duffel bag full of yellow socks and passed them out to the tailgaters. He announced that he was ready to leg wrestle again...right now. He quickly disposed of Goody, Tuba, and Brian. I warned you all...don't ever count out the Captain. He'll be leg wrestling until he’s 6 feet under...and then he'll wrestle God.
I feel sorry for those of you that never had a chance to see Captain Michigan wrestle. And drink.
I want to thank everyone for attending the first real tailgate since the creation of UMTailgate.com. People know us, people know this website, and the support and thanks I received throughout the day (especially that which came from people I have never met) is enough motivation for me to keep this thing running forever.
And wow, forever? I think we’ve crossed forever. Forever is a mighty long time when your last Big Ten title was in 2004.
Looking forward to starting it all over again in 3 days.
GO BLUE!
August 31, 2019 - The last time we kicked off a season together. Our newest member brought a guest. That guest was over-served. This is the result. On the field, Shea threw for 3 TDs in a 40-21 victory over the 15-seeded MTSU. Sloppy.
September 13, 1997: Group picture before Michigan’s season opening victory over the Buffaloes 27-3. Game page with additional pics is here.
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