THE MICHIGAN DAIL'Y'

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Away Football Games by Ticker Tape-in 1924

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the
first of two articles dealing with
the reporting of football games in
the days before radio and tele-
vision.)
By HAL APPLEBAUM
Come Saturday afternoon Mich-
ighn students, not fortunate
enough to be able to travel to
Champaign, will gather around the
radios in their respective housing
units to follow the progress of the
Michigan-Illinois football game.
Traveling to away football games
or listening to them on the radio is
taken pretty much for granted by
University students today, but
what was it like 35 years, ago, be-
fore the invention of radio as we
know it or before traveling 400
miles to see a football game was
ever thought of?
The early .'1920's were years of
glory for Micpigan football.
Under the coaching of Fielding.
Yost the Wolverines lost only five
games in the first half of the
decade known as the "roaringj
'20s" and student interest was atj
a fever pitch, in this era of the
raccoon coat, the stutz bearcat and
bathtub gin.

In 1920 when the Wolverine
teams took to the road Michigan
fans were left behind, almost com-
pletely shut off from any news of
game results.
The role source of news for the
student body was a ticker tape
machine set up in the front of
Houston Brothers' Billiard Parlor,
located on the west side of State
Street just a few feet south of
Liberty.
This now defunct establishment,
(a men's store is the current oc-
cupant of the building) received
the scores of all the games on its
Western Union ticker. A half an
hour after the end of each.period
the news-hungry Wolverine fans
learned the score of the Michigan
game.
Play-by-play stories and other
reports of the game weren't pub-
lished until the next day in the
newspapers-.
However, in 1921 a bright young
man named Jerry Hoag, who came
to Ann Arbor in 1919 to manage
the local theaters (a job he still
has) brought the first- play-by-
play to Michigan football fans.

"In 1921 we were able to get
Western Union to let us have an
exclusive wire to and from the site
where the games were being
played," Hoag said reminiscing
about the old days.
"On the stage of the Majestic
Theater (no longer standing) we
had a large rectangular board,
painted like a football field, low-
ered from the ceiling."
"Off to the left 'we had a West-
ern Union operator sitting at a
table," Hoag continued. "He had
an empty tobacco can set next to
the telegraph key, the key hit the
can and he was able to hear and
decode the message over the noise
of the crowd."
"I would stand behind him with
a megaphone and read the plays
to the crowd as they came in."
"After I read them we had a
man behind our makeshift field
moving a ball up and down the
gridiron as the play dictated,"'
Hoag added.
"We had cheers and the crowds
were really enthusiastic. Our only
trouble was that we couldn't fit
everybody who wanted to come

into the theater," the theater
manager said.
The- fact that Michigan is to
play Illinois this week brought
back memories to Hoag of a day
almost exactly 35 years ago.
"In 1924 Michigan went to
Champaign and early in the first
quarter an unknown Illinois half-
back named Red Grange ran 75-
yards for a touchdown, an un-
usual feat in those days of defen-
sive, low scoring football," Hoag
said.
"Well, the next time Illinois got
the ball they gave to Grange and
off he went again."
"By this time the students and
I couldn't believe it.
"Two long touchdowns just
wasn't something that happened
to a Yost-coached team," Hoag
said, vividly recreating the scene.
"The students were boing and
thought I was faking; so we finally
broke in on the Western Union
line and asked the operator in
Champaign, if these reports were
true or whether he was just re-
peating the first message."
Continuing Hoag stated, "Fi-
nally, we regeived a message back

that it was true and that Gra
had scored again. After.t
everybody just groaned."
"Michigan came back and sc
twice, but Illinois put Grange b
in the lineup and he scored ag
that was a day I'll never forg
Hoag concluded.
USC Sorry
For Incident
BERKELEY (') -- Dr. Glenx
Seaborg Chancellor of the 1
versity of California, said yes
day Cal is "not contemplatin
break in athletic relations G
the University of Southern C
fornia' over the McKeever-B
football incident.
USC officials Tuesday n
publicly apologized to Califor
which charged guard Mike
Keever, an All-America candid
deliberately elbowed Cal halft
Steve Bates in Saturday's
USC game. Bates' cheekbone
nose were fractured.

DAYS OF YORE - The Majestic Theater, now just a memory, served as the auditorium where the
first Michigan football game was broadcast toA the student body. The theater, torn down in the
I940's, is shown as it was being dismantled. On the spot that it stood, the City's Maynard Street
carport is now located. To the right +is Ferber's Funeral home, now the home of the University
television station.



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Michigan's finest Y.F.W. Club!
Dancing every Friday and Saturday
to Artie Edwards Quartet
HALL RENTALS
BANQUETS and CLU
PARTIES 314 E. Liberty
NO 2-3972
Members and Guests

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Open 'til 2:00 A.M. Weekends

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CLOSED TUESDAYS

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TODAY 4:10 P.M.

Department of Speech

,',,
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THE BOOR
by CHECKOV
ROUGE ATOMIQUE
by RICHARD NASH

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS ASSOCIATION
Presents
ont 'ar oHl
CAMPUS-WIDE DANCE

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Trueblood Auditorium

No Admission Charge

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presented by

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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

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THIS WEEKEND

at the UNION!

Tickets available. on 'the, Diag, at
Engine Arch, International Center,
and the Union.

9-12 Sat.,Nov.7


Music by DICK TILKIN

Union Ballroom

n's Glee Clubs

Little Club ... 9-12... Friday
Bridge Tounament -..
7:30-10:30 . *. .Friday
ALSO

NOW

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DIAL
NO 8-641

at HUFF GYMNASIUM

"CAM ERA MAGIC'
Bosey Crowther -N. Y-Tim
"PERFECTLY WONDERFUL ...
H'oward Thomps". -N. Y. Tim"
"BRILLIANT..
BEAUTY FOR ALL
TO ENJOY.""x.
--~Cue Y

Saturday,

November
Tickets at the door--$1.00,1.50

7:30 P.M.

for your continuous enjoyment . -
*MICHIGAN UNION GRILL
* BOWLING ALLEY
* HI F l ROOMS

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NOWh lv
youth, love. and

Fabulous
FABIAN..
and that
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Girl in a
story that
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* * *


--


HILLELZAPOPPIN

Academy
IAward e ' x
Winner .
44Lois Clyde Stoumens

fsaturiag lie IeniUs a America's reatsst hotograpbers
EDWARD WESTON " MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE " ALFRED EISENSTAEDT " WEEGET


FRIDAY NIGHT-SERVICES
SATURDAY NIGHT SKITS
8:00
Ann Arbor High School
Tickets on sile at door... Student Rate

movinty 'to by RAYMOND MASSEY

I

RICHARD TUCKER
EADING TENOR OF THE METROPOLITAN OPERA

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:: in recital
FRI., NOV. 6,8:30


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