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!