Seems like we keep hearing about "fake-out" attempts by the University of Michigan. They faked the attendance numbers for their football games, they faked an exhibition basketball game into a regular-season game (Hillsdale), they faked a "Senior Night" for a player who was not a senior and whom they may still "re-sign" for his second "senior season" (Max Bielfeldt), and they faked a college basketball career for a player whom they dropped like a hot potato as soon as better players appeared on the horizon (Austin Hatch).
We've been reporting on the faked-out nature of their so-called "All-Time Wins" record for college football. UM claims 915 "victories" and the top-spot amongst Football Bowl Subdivision schools, yet we've shown how dozens of their claimed wins were against pick-up squads of high-school age kids.
The non-college-student who caught most of the attention was James "Joy" Miller, arguably the best player on the UM team in 1909. Turns out he barely attended any classes, and he was never actually enrolled as a college student at Michigan. In other words, he was a professional player.
Here is a preview of what you will find in the story if you click on the link:
We've been reporting on the faked-out nature of their so-called "All-Time Wins" record for college football. UM claims 915 "victories" and the top-spot amongst Football Bowl Subdivision schools, yet we've shown how dozens of their claimed wins were against pick-up squads of high-school age kids.
But the 1909 season may be the most
egregious claim of them all.
Michigan blatantly used illegal players
to win six games that year.
We don't need to make things like this up,
we just report on stuff that's glossed-over by
the UM-loving mainstream sports media.
"In early December 1909 the Michigan Daily reported concerns over whether newly elected team captain James ‘Joy’ Miller was properly registered as a U-M and if he actually attended enough classes during the fall 1909 to be eligible for the football team. While an official decision had yet to come down on the incident, Chairman of the Board in Control of Outdoor Athletics Geo. W. Patterson had heard enough and started firing off letters of apology to Michigan’s 1909 opponents. The U-M Bentley Library holds a copy of the apology sent to Minnesota in its archives. The one page missive, dated December 22, 1909, explained the situation:
"The facts of the case are that Mr. Miller returned to college late this fall, registered in the Engineering Department but neglected to enroll in his classes, although he did attend some of them."
"On Christmas Eve 1909 the New York Times broke the news to the world with a headline that howled “FOOTBALL SCANDAL IN MICHIGAN TEAM”. Miller’s colleagues in the School of Engineering recommended that he be kicked out of school. After ignoring several requests to return to campus to face the charges, Miller was officially expelled on January 14, 1910."
So there goes another six (6) "football wins" swirling down the drain-pipes of history. And along with it, the mythology that Michigan never cheats at football. Looking over the historical record, it's not so hard to understand the roles played more recently by players like Taylor Lewan, Brendan Gibbons, and others.
Combined with our other articles on this topic (links below), that makes 27 undeniably bogus football wins for UM, leaving them a mere eight (8) games ahead of Notre Dame on the all-time list. Can we find more fake victories? Yes we can, stay tuned to this web site!
Combined with our other articles on this topic (links below), that makes 27 undeniably bogus football wins for UM, leaving them a mere eight (8) games ahead of Notre Dame on the all-time list. Can we find more fake victories? Yes we can, stay tuned to this web site!
- - - Research credit for this article goes to MSUSpartan76 - - -
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