Voice of Michigan’s Bob Ufer still resonates with fans

Oct. 19--When the University of Michigan Board of Regents met last week to discuss athletic director Dave Brandon, they talked about a man running a $150-million business in the national spotlight.

The primary issue surrounding Brandon seems to be that he is too concerned with the business aspect of the job. It's a stunning evolution from nearly 50 years ago, when a Michigan representative went to the private sector to find a businessman, seeking to modernize the athletic department.

In early 1968, former U-M track All-America Bob Ufer knew a former teammate would be a perfect fit. So Ufer and Marcus Plant, the school's longtime faculty athletics representative, traveled around the state in February 1968 to pitch Don Canham, Ann Arbor businessman, to the regents.

"As they say, we know the rest of the story," Tom Ufer, Bob's son, said last week. "He revolutionized the position."

Canham gave Ufer many thanks over the years, from acknowledging it in his book, "From the Inside" to a letter recently discovered from Canham dated the day he took over as athletic director on March 15, 1968.

"What a sensation," Canham wrote. "One guy did it all. That was Robert Ufer. My sentimental thanks."

Primarily an Ann Arbor insurance salesman, Ufer was no traditional power broker. He was simply one of many broadcasters of Michigan football games at the time.

He just loved Michigan enough to want to see the best.

Anything but ordinary

It's difficult to imagine a broadcaster having that pull these days, but Ufer was anything but ordinary.

On Oct. 26, many Michigan fans will make their yearly pilgrimage to Ufer's grave at Ann Arbor'sForest Hill Cemetery. One will likely leave a rose, following recent tradition.

Just steps from Fielding Yost's resting place -- as he desired -- Ufer was laid to rest 33 years ago. Yet his presence remains vibrant in the Michigan community.

Current U-M play-by-play man Jim Brandstatter was reminded of that before the 2013 Outback Bowl, when ESPN analyst and former football coach Jon Gruden asked him: "Who was that Meeeechigan guy?"

Though more than three decades and hundreds of miles removed from Ufer's last broadcast, the Michigan broadcasting legend's audio signature remained vibrant. Brandstatter, who played at U-M and was a media member toward the final decade of Ufer's reign, later sent Gruden a Ufer DVD to let him bask in the legend.

From 1945 to 1976, Ufer was the grassroots voice of Michigan football. Starting at Ann Arbor's small WPAG, he was one of many announcers who broadcast the games, but the one with such a passionate style that fans in the stands would use their pocket radios to listen to him.

So when WJR switched from Michigan State to Michigan in 1976, Ufer was the obvious choice for the 50,000-watt behemoth. The same year, Ufer was a central figure in helping President Gerald Ford kick off his re-election campaign at Crisler Arena, gaining nationwide acclaim.

"Bob Ufer exploded and became a huge factor in Michigan's identity," Brandstatter said.

Ufer became a sensation on the coattails of Bo Schembechler's on-field dominance.

(Ufer was also the first one to tell Canham to look at hiring Schembechler before the 1969 season, according to Joe Falls' Schembechler book "Man In Motion," reinforcing his role as a pivotal player in the two most transformational hires in modern Michigan football history.)

"His style, his unique love of Michigan got to a much larger audience," Brandstatter said.

Still everywhere

More than three decades after his death, Ufer is still everywhere.

His family's tailgate at the Ann Arbor Golf and Outing Club can be seen from miles around, with the 13-foot Ufer blimp floating above the course with a 300-foot tether.

During Michigan football's bye weekends in the fall, Ufer's voice emerges with a classic game broadcast on WTKA-AM (1050) in Ann Arbor. Saturday was scheduled to be the 1979 Michigan-Michigan State broadcast, and during the November bye, it could be the 1964 Michigan-Ohio State game. (Spoiler alert: Michigan usually wins.)

The Bob Ufer Quarterback Club, which he helped found 67 years ago to connect Ann Arbor business people with the U-M football staff, has developed into a annual spring golf outing and banquet dinner to honor Michigan senior student-athletes.

The fund-raising at the event -- now more than $1.4 million for the Bob Ufer Memorial Scholarship Fund -- has sent nearly 150 Ann Arbor high school student-athletes to U-M over the years (check out the details at ufer.org).

And it's almost impossible to stroll through the Michigan Stadium concourse these days without running into fans wearing the Underground Printing Ufer T-shirts, from his face on the "Meechigan" shirt to a pair with two of his most famous quotes -- "Never forget that O*--is still a four-letter word" and "Football is a Religion and Saturday is the Holy Day of Obligation."

You can still hear his voice, from pre-Rose Bowl pep rally passion speeches to the wild shrill during John Wangler and Anthony Carter's 1979 touchdown to beat Indiana echoing on CD and DVD sets.

But Ufer was more than just a voice for U-M. He ran a 40-year thread through the U-M athletic department, from setting the world quarter-mile indoor record as a Michigan sprinter in 1942 to constant local promotion as a program ambassador with recruits (when that was still permitted) to his involvement in the Canham and Schembechler hires.

As Michigan football flounders on the field, fans become nostalgic for the legends of the glory days, and Ufer's memory ignites memories of a dominance long passed.

"People want positive," Tom Ufer said. "And with all the challenges we've had over the past decade, they go back to those positives and that plays you right back into Bo, Canham and the old boy."

Contact Mark Snyder: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @mark__snyder.

___

(c)2014 the Detroit Free Press

Visit the Detroit Free Press at www.freep.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services