When the Michigan Wolverines arrived in Minneapolis to battle the Minnesota Gophers in 1903, a simple 30", five-gallon Red Wing stoneware water jug began football's first rivalry trophy game. The "Little Brown Jug" has been the subject of conspiracy theories, theft, national championships, and most of all pride, with each game's victor prominently displaying the jug on its campus--until it is fought for again.

"...provides a detailed look at America's pastime through the lens of pop culture, [an] A-to-Z inventory of how certain aspects of the game affect and reflect broader society."--from publisher description.

Under the leadership of head coach Bump Elliott, the 1964 Wolverines won Michigan's first Big Ten championship since 1950 and their first Rose Bowl since 1951, and finished fourth in the national college football polls. They defeated four top-ten ranked teams: Navy, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Oregon State, their Rose Bowl opponent. The Wolverines also defeated Minnesota for the first time since 1960, and reclaimed the prized Little Brown Jug. Despite its impressive record, the 1964 team failed to attract the national attention it deserved. At the beginning of the season, few football observers expected Michigan to contend for the Big Ten championship. But by the end of the season it was clear that the Wolverines were one of America's elite teams--perhaps the best in the country. This book chronicles for the first time the exploits of Michigan's 1964 team and gives them long-overdue recognition.

From New York Times bestselling author and Michigan football expert John Back, an analysis of the state of college football: Why we love the game, what is at risk, and the fight to save it. In search of the sport’s old ideals amid the roaring flood of hypocrisy and greed, bestselling author John U. Bacon embedded himself in four college football programs—Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Northwestern—and captured the oldest, biggest, most storied league, the Big Ten, at its tipping point. He sat in as coaches dissected game film, he ate dinner at training tables, and he listened in locker rooms. He talked with tailgating fans and college presidents, and he spent months in the company of the gifted young athletes who play the game. Fourth and Long reveals intimate scenes behind closed doors, from a team’s angry face-off with their athletic director to a defensive lineman acing his master’s exams in theoretical math. It captures the private moment when coach Urban Meyer earned the devotion of Ohio State’s Buckeyes on their way to a perfect season. It shows Michigan’s athletic department endangering the very traditions that distinguish the college game from all others. And it re-creates the euphoria of the Northwestern Wildcats winning their first bowl game in decades. Most unforgettably, Fourth and Long finds what the national media missed in the ugly aftermath of Penn State’s tragic scandal: the unheralded story of players who joined forces with Coach Bill O’Brien to save the university’s treasured program—and with it, a piece of the game’s soul. This is the work of a writer in love with an old game—a game he sees at the precipice. Bacon’s deep knowledge of sports history and his sensitivity to the tribal subcultures of the college game power this elegy to a beloved and endangered American institution.

In v.1-8 the final number consists of the Commencement annual.