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Thursday, August 4, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS
Harbaugh, ‘M’ unveil jerseys
By ORION SANG
Summer Managing Sports Editor
DETROIT — At midnight Sunday,
Michigan’s new apparel contract
with Nike began, culminating in a
release event that took place in Ann
Arbor.
Tuesday, the festivities continued
— albeit on a smaller scale — when
Nike and Jordan Brand revealed the
new Michigan football jerseys with
a private presentation at the Ford
Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit.
It was just another step in the
beginning of a new era of Michigan
apparel.
The event began with Michigan
alum Dana Jacobson, a sports
anchorwoman at CBS, addressing
the crowd before handing the mic
off to several other speakers.
“These
two
brands
coming
together has created something
powerful,” said Larry Miller, the
president of Jordan Brand. “What
started as a phone call between
Michael
Jordan
and
Coach
Harbaugh has come to fruition
today.”
Michigan
Athletic
Director
Warde Manuel also attended the
event and praised Nike as the “best
apparel company (and) a leader in
the nation.”
“The Jordan Brand continues the
legacy of Michael Jordan,” Manuel
said. “But Michael builds his legacy
off the same qualities that we have
here at the University of Michigan.
The
legacy
transcends
sports,
and we are excited to be the first
football team in the country to wear
the Jumpman on the field.”
Following Manuel’s comments,
Jacobson led the group into a room
containing several display cases of
new Michigan Nike outfits — and
also former Michigan Heisman
Trophy winner Charles Woodson,
one of the special guests on hand for
the jersey unveiling.
“When you think about Michael
Jordan (and) Jumpman, you think
about excellence,” Woodson said.
“You think about the University of
Michigan as a university and as a
sports team, and you think about
excellence. It goes back to a long
time ago, way before me and you.
“I feel like right now we have our
swagger back. It’s all about looking
good and feeling good. That’s what
that Jumpman on our jersey means
to us.”
Later, head coach Jim Harbaugh
— who attended the event dressed
in apparel that he had helped
design himself — explained the
backstory of how Michigan and
Nike’s partnership came to be
as Michigan’s new jerseys were
revealed to those in attendance.
Harbaugh detailed how his son
Jay, the tight ends and assistant
special teams coach, approached
him and suggested that Michigan
“should be Jordan.”
Then, Harbaugh got a call from
Michael Jordan himself — someone
who Harbaugh described as “one of
the most evolved human beings in
the world.”
During
their
conversation,
Jordan
said
that
he
wanted
Michigan to be the first and only
football program in the world to
carry the Jumpman logo — and
Harbaugh was all-in.
“I said, ‘You had me at hello,’ ”
Harbaugh said of the conversation
between him and Jordan. “We’ve
been working for this for a very
long time. The other thing that
(Jordan) said that I thought was
profound was that, ‘You know what
Nike means to Oregon (and) you
know what Oregon means to Nike.
Michigan can mean that to Jordan.’
And that I thought was powerful,
that I thought was very profound.
“(The conversation) was about
the team. (Jordan) respects the
University of Michigan. He respects
his own school, North Carolina.
He’s very fond and talks about that
as well. But I could feel that he
respected Michigan. He respected
the fact that we are pouring our
heart
and
souls
into
making
Michigan football great. That was
a compliment on the highest level.”
The jerseys themselves don’t look
much different from those worn
last year in Harbaugh’s first season
as coach. The main difference is
the presence of the Jumpman logo
above the number and a matte
finish on the helmets.
But much of the design is the
same, and that’s apparently the way
Harbaugh wanted things — though
he left open the possibility of future
changes.
“We’re not going to change the
uniform design at this time, but
I stand open to (Nike and Jordan
Brand’s) ideas,” Harbaugh said.
“Some people just think of things
better than other people do. They
obviously do a tremendous job at
the highest level.”
A fitting marriage
By ORION SANG
Summer Managing Sports Editor
The fans started showing up at
8:20 — in the morning.
They trickled in as the day went
on, setting up lawn chairs and
gobbling burritos from the Chipotle
next door.
And as the sun set in Ann Arbor,
the line only grew bigger as fans
eagerly awaited The M Den’s
release of brand new Michigan Nike
products. At midnight, the school
officially began its new contract
with the apparel giant and severed
ties with Adidas.
When the intersection at Liberty
was blocked off, State street was
flooded by hundreds of people —
some there to buy the newest gear,
the rest there simply to take it all in.
But at what point could things have
been considered to be over the top?
It could’ve been when a stage
more apt to be seen at a music
concert was set up across the store.
It could’ve been when members
of the marching band, dance,
basketball and football teams all
arrived to entertain the crowd.
And it most certainly could’ve
been when Michigan head coach
Jim
Harbaugh
arrived
and
transformed the once docile crowd
into a writhing mass of outstretched
hands, pleading for the head man to
pay attention to them with cries of,
“Jim! Jim!”
Though Harbaugh would later
climb upon the stage and tell the
crowd that the rally was unlike
anything he’d ever seen in his life,
he seemed at home Sunday night.
If anything, he delighted in the
attention, at one point walking
straight through the crowd and
slapping five with as many hands as
he physically could.
And
that’s
the
thing:
For
Michigan, the switch to Nike and
Jordan Brand and all its surrounding
hoopla is only representative of the
change that Harbaugh has brought
to the football team in the short time
he has been here.
For a team that was once missing
— for lack of a better term — swag,
Harbaugh and his Wolverines have
certainly gotten their swagger back
now.
It was just two years ago when
Michigan’s former head coach
Brady Hoke publicly apologized
after a humiliating 35-11 beatdown
at the hands of rival Michigan State
for “poor sportsmanship” — former
linebacker Joe Bolden had run
out onto Spartan Stadium before
the game and driven a tent stake
through the middle of the field in
a brazen act meant to inspire his
team.
Now,
could
you
imagine
Harbaugh apologizing for anything
at all?
In just a year and a half, he has
drawn criticism from what feels like
most of the college football world —
for both his antics on the field and
off of it.
He has led a march through the
South in both offseasons, holding
satellite camps in the backyards of
his SEC counterparts and, when
challenged by those same SEC
coaches (and even the NCAA), he
has taken shots at his criticizers on
Twitter — something Nick Saban
and ‘The Georgia Coach’ can tell
you about.
His football team has only
followed suit. Last season, Michigan
bounced back from a total of five
victories in Hoke’s final year to win
10 games, and the Wolverines ended
the season with a 41-7 romp over a
highly-rated SEC team. This year,
with most contributors returning,
they appeared poised to compete
for a spot in the College Football
Playoff.
And what better way for Michigan
to show off its new demeanor than
with Nike, the flashiest and most
popular apparel brand?
If Adidas and its sometimes
tacky, alternative jersey designs
represented the Michigan of old,
Nike and Jordan Brand represent
Harbaugh’s Michigan.
In your face, with a bright
variation
of
maize,
dubbed
‘amarillo.’ Proud and unafraid to
show it, with a large block M and
the famous Jumpman logo printed
everywhere and on everything.
Everyone knows the swoosh
when they see it — just like how
they’ll
know
Harbaugh
and
Michigan,
whether
through
watching the coach mean mug his
way through a music video or by
watching the Wolverines fight their
way through the Big Ten.
Has it been mentioned yet that
Michigan will be the first team to
ever wear the Jordan Brand logo
onto the gridiron? And that Michael
Jordan himself will be there at
Michigan Stadium as an honorary
captain in the matchup against
Hawaii on Sept. 3?
And if that seems over the top at
all, at this point — after this night —
it shouldn’t.
ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily
Jim Harbaugh was in attendance at Nike and Jordan Brand’s reveal of Michigan’s new football jerseys.