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DAVE
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CLASS OF
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The "Go Blue M Club Supports You" banner has been a gameday fixture inside Michigan Stadium since Marge Renfrew and Joan Helmers stitched the first edition late in the 1962 season.
And Michigan Ruled the West
Uncovering the roots of the Wolverines' famous banner
A few blocks away from the Big House, d
East Stadium Boulevard, take a right into W
bury Gardens. Drive past the patch of g
grass, perfect for a football game, and s
baseball field at Frisinger Park - past thei
and rows of houses. Every fifth townhouse l
the same. Tucked in the corner, down a
street is one particular house.
White paint fades off its bricks. Specks o
have fought through over time. The hedge
trimmed. It looks unassuming, lost among
normalcy of the neighborhood.
Twelve, fifty-five Wisteria Drive. Dep
ing on who you ask, it could've been any oi
Charles Woodson, Marcus Ray, Russell S
or DiAllo Johnson who named their sancta
"I'm going to the Dub-Nik," one of them
claimed, and a legend was born. Short for I
ble-Nickel - in reference to the 55 at the er
the address - Woodson owned the master
room the year he won the Heisman, the yea
four of them won the National Championsh
This is where Marcus Ray decided to sl
his time, away from the team, after his
friend Woodson bolted for the NFL. Marc
secluded in that sense, but not because he th
he's better than anyone. He was just focusec
This where the preseason All-America s
tion invited four phenom freshmen to come
with him that summer before he tried to de
his championship: Justin Fargas, the run
back; Larry Foote, the linebacker from Det
Marquise Walker, the No. 2 wide receiver re(
in the country; and Dave Terrell, the best
school receiver he had ever seen.
He them all if he had any shot at a repeat.
This was where they spent the dog da
summer, working odd jobs to put food on
By STEPHEN J. NESBITT
Daily Sports Editor
"And I remember across those
years Two banners that crowned the
crest, When Yale was king ofthe con-
quered East, and Michigan ruled the
West."
When Grantland Rice penned
that first stanza in the early 20th
century, college football rested on
the dominance of two pillars -
Yale and Michigan. Walter Camp,
the father of football, aligned with
Fielding Yost's virtually unbeat-
able Michigan teams.
The programs were the cor-
nerstones, wrapped in tradition,
boosting college football into
national prominence.
But Rice's poem sits on display
in Al Renfrew's basement for a
more specific reason - not to pro-
mote Yale and Michigan, per se,
but two very different banners
that once crowned the crest at
Michigan Stadium.
Today, 110,000-plus watch
every game begin with the Michi-
gan football team rushing from
the tunnel to touch an iconic blue
banner at midfield. The maize
recited by almost any casual fan:
GO BLUE: M CLUB SUPPORTS
YOU.
It's now a tradition, more of a
formality, but nearly 50 years ago
it was born in a time of great need.
Bump, 'M' Club supports you
In the fall of 1962, Michigan
football coach Chalmers "Bump"
Elliott was in the doghouse. In his
third year at the helm, the Wolver-
ines were far from a banner pro-
gram -- they were hovering near
.500 and seats weren't quite as full
as athletic director Fritz Crisler
wanted.
Renfrew, then the head hockey
coach at Michigan, saw something
needed to change.
Asa faculty leader of the under-
graduate 'M' Club - the letter-
winner athletes on campus that
met once a month - Renfrew
devised a simple plan to cheer on
Michigan's men of the gridiron,
something to get their mind off a
1-5 record in November.
"We were just trying to help
Bump out - he was having a tough
time - so that's how it started,"
Renfrew said earlier this month.
Renfrew took the idea home
neighbor Joan Helmers brought
the blueprints to life. The plan was
simple enough: make a pair of blue
flags, five by six feet, mount them on
10-foot wooden poles with a maize
and blue bulb at the top and stitch a
block 'M' onto each side.
"There weren't many big flags in
those days," Renfrew said. "There
was nothinglike this - big at all. So
we had to make our own and (the
'M') had to go on both sides of the
flag."
The idea had actually been brain-
stormed before the season. Marge
and Joan concocted the idea to cre-
ate a pair of flags during a Iabor
Day camping trip, planning to dis-
play them in front of their homes on
football weekends.
With the help of Bob Hoisington,
the assistant dean of Engineering,
to ensure that the 'M's were per-
fectly aligned on both sides, the two
women plunged their needles into
the fabric one final time to finish
the flags.
"It was a labor of love," Renfrew
said. "Those galsworked on it along
time."
Later that week - with a game
against Illinois looming on Satur-
day - Renfrew gathered the 'M'
Club and the flags outside Yost Field
House.
The football team used the
locker rooms inside the old brick
barn before emerging for practice
on Ferry Field, where the baseball
batting cages are today, Renfrew
explained.
The 'M' Club formed two lines
and placed the flags at the head as
practice drew to a close. Minutes
later, the football team ambled
underneath the "flag tunnel" and
past their fellow letter winners.
"It got them fired up a little bit,"
Renfrew said.
And then he had a better idea. He
didn't see how the energy they cre-
ated on Friday wouldn't happen on
Saturday.
"We thought, 'If it works great
before practice, why not do it before
a game?"'
So with Elliott's permission,
the 'M' Club gathered inside the'
tunnel at Michigan Stadium,
joined by coaches Newt Loken,
Gus Stager, Wally Weber, Bennie
Oosterbaan, Moby Benedict and
Dick Kimball, and walked onto
the field. They formed another set
of lines and held the flags at the
end, draped over the locker room
entrance.
The team passed through,
Bump gave Renfrew a smile, and
Michigan promptly disposed of
the Fighting Illini; 14-10, ending
the Wolverines' four-game losing
streak.
The flags spent the entirety of
the game in the stands with the
athletes, flying high and proud.
After the game they were taken to
Renfrew's home on White Street,
just past Yost Field House, and
flown from the flagpole.
The routine carried on for at
least two years, and the flags
gained more attention and noto-
riety. Judy Renfrew Hart, Al's
daughter, remembers the band
parading the flags in front of them
as they circled the field.
But having large wooden poles
being swung around the stands
eventually became a hazard.
"It became a distraction in the
stands," Renfrew said, ' almost
sheepishly.
By this time, the stands didn't
have room for the flags anymore.
Bump had turned things around
and Michigan was coming off a
Rose Bowl victory in 1964 - the
glags made the trip to Pasadena.
The stands were filling up.
Once again, as Rice put it, "Mich-
igan ruled the West."
own
ood-
reen
mall
rows
ooks
side
f red
s are
the
end- -table, training with each other long after their
ne of team workouts ended, hanging on every word
haw Marcus said, making sure not a drop of wisdom
uary. was lost.
pro- He turned every opportunity into a teach-
Dou- ing moment. Whether it was watching the NBA
nd of Finals or reading a story of a player who made
bed- the wrong choice, everything turned into a
r the roundtable discussion, an open conversation.
ip. What would you have done? What should you
pend have done?
good They needed his guidance. He'd been there
us is and done that. Three times. They needed to
inks know that being late for an I a.m. workout
d. with Marcus may just piss him off, but it won't
elec- be acceptable come training camp. They stud-
live ied the playbook together. He made sure they
fend attended summer workouts with the rest of the
ning team. They wouldn't miss a single one.
roit
crui1
high
ys of "I know these
zthe
guys on the team
aren't. better
than me."1
At midnight, after already working out, the
brothers of Dub-Nik sprinted to the track, ran a
mile and raced home, twice a week. It was a treat
on the nights Marcus snuck them into the Big
House to run the stairs. They challenged each
other to be better. Everything was a competi-
tion: trivia, board games, cards.
One flame Marcus wanted to keep out is any
potential jealousy between Dave and Marquise.
He couldn't remember the last time the top two*
iS RAY receivers in the country chose the same school.
9 Both wanted to be top dogs and Marcus knew
1997- there was room for the two of them. The Wolver-
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Top: Larry Foote, Marcus Ray and Dave Terrell pose
together. Bottom: Terrell was named MVP of the 2000
Orange Bowl, a 35-34 win for Michigan over Alabama.
ines hadn't had an impact receiver with as much
talent as either of them since Derrick Alexander
graduated.
But Marcus had truly never seen a freshman
like Dave. His routes were so crisp already. Nat-
urally, Dave looked like a machine, and ran like
the wind. Throw in a dash of growing up in the
projects of Richmond, Virginia, and you had one
talented, tough son-of-a-gun.
"He was fearless," Marcus says. "So him going
across the middle was probably like him walking
out his front door, seeing a gang fight and partic-
ipating in it in the eighth grade. It was nothing.
"That was the last thing on his mind when the
ball was in the air, that someone was going to
take his head off. It was his ball."
The coaches promised Dave during recruiting
that he could wear the No. 1 jersey. They handed
him the jersey-of-all-receiver-jerseys:. "What
number you think I'm gonna wear?" his swagger
said when big brother Marcus asked.
Marcus could feel Dave's confidence, but he
needed someone to steer him. When Marcus got
Dave alone ne day that summer, he asked Dave:
."How great do you want to be?"
"I'm not afraid of competition, but I lnow
these guys on the team aren't better than me,"
Dave said.
"Realistically, there's no reason why you
TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com 9
Snoop Dogg visitsrthe residents of Dh-Nik. Chares;
Woodson and Marcus Ray first lived in the house in'
script on the blue banner can be to his wife, Marge, and she and
4 FootballSaturday, September 3, 2011