October 30, 2004: Having a little trouble coming to grips with the fact that “the Braylon game” was almost 20 years ago, but here we are. The first families of UMTailgate pose before Michigan comes back from a 17-point 4th quarter deficit to defeat Michigan State 45-37 in triple overtime. Chad Henne went 24 of 35 for 273 yards and 4 TDs, of which 189 yards and 3 TDs were Braylon’s. More memories on the game page here.
Did that first quarter with 2 stalled possessions and a seemingly porous defense have you wondering if 2023 was all smoke and mirrors? Nah. That gave way to 8 consecutive scoring drives and a quick quieting of a few mouthy Hoosiers a couple rows behind me that thought they were gonna go full Hickory over Muncie on us.
Chilly and rainy for the first time this season, but a huddled and spirited tailgate gathered to celebrate Stephen’s 325th consecutive home and away game, Andy’s 50th birthday, and your favorite Belgium League Center of the Year dominating the shotgun scene.
Onward to East Landfill…we’re coming.
October 19, 1996: The crew gets creative before Michigan comes back from down 17-7 to beat the Hoosiers 27-20, a comeback that included a 48-yard end around by future Heisman trophy winner Charles Woodson. Even the play by play stenographer knew CW was something special and got flowery with the language: “Williams started right, reversed to woodson who danced away from tacklers and went around le for 48 and the M TD.“ Love it. Also looking forward to re-creating this photo this week. I think we have half of this crew still around on the regular :). The rest of the pictures from this day 27 years ago are up on the game page.
Licensed to kill gophers by the government of the United Nations. A man, free to kill gophers at will. To kill, you must know your enemy, and in this case my enemy is a varmint. And a varmint will never quit -- ever. So you have to fall back on superior intelligence and superior firepower. And that's all she wrote. - Carl Spackler
Tremendous day in the Twin Cities, with a Nook lunch and a Malcom Yards takeover pregame, followed by complete domination on the field. Traveling fam was strong.
October 24, 1992: Just 31 years ago 🤮, the group (with a super early Stephen appearance!) gathered before Michigan manhandled the Golden Gophers 63-13 in the Big House, amazingly just the second worst beat down of the Gophers (58-0 in 2011). Michigan had 66 carries for 391 yards and 5 touchdowns AND Elvis was 14/19 (11 of them to Derrick Alexander) for 208 yards and 4 more touchdowns. More on the game page.
