Eastern Michigan at Miami Football

Eastern Michigan was playing at Miami University (of Ohio) today and I decided to head down there to take pictures.  Given the records of the two teams, I thought that Eastern actually had a shot at victory.  However that was not the case.  Once again, I will post pictures of other than the game here.  If you want to see game pictures go to Eagle Totem.

 Miami Field was opened in 1896 and was the home to the Miami Redskins until 1982.  By 1928, it had a capacity of 7,240 and it when it was closed, it could seat 14,800.  It was the second oldest college football stadium after Franklin Field for the University of Pennsylvania.

 In 1982, Yager Stadium was opened with a capacity of 25,183 fans.  The stadium was started with natural grass but that was replaced with FieldTurf in 2003.  I will have to admit that it is a pretty nice stadium.

 Miami University is known as the "Cradle of Coaches".  There are many famous coaches that got their start there.  My favorite of those being Bo Schembechler.  I don't really think I need to go into details here about him, as I've posted several times about him.

 A close up of his face.

 I would have liked this picture a lot more, but there is the disjointed hand of a ref.

 I saw this dog in the stands and I thought he was pretty cute.

 I'm not sure what kind of plane this was, but it was close enough to get a picture.

 The Miami band was pretty cool though.

 I kind of liked the percussion too.

They were honoring veterans at today's game.  These people represent Miami's Veterans Organization.

 One of the flag girls.

 This was a pretty cool tribute to the Iwo Jima statue.

 This is the Miami Redhawk.  At one time Miami was known as the Redskins and when the controversy over that name first started, they actually asked the Miami tribe what they thought about it.  Apparently, they didn't really have a problem and they helped them with cheers and stuff that weren't so offensive.  It seemed like a pretty good relationship.

 A shot of the stadium.

 Weeb Ewbank was a multi-sport athlete at Miami University.  He began his coaching career in 1928 where he coached at various high schools in Ohio.  In 1943, he joined the US Navy and was a coach for a service football team at Naval Station Great Lakes.   After the war, he became an assistant with Paul Brown for the Cleveland Browns.  They ended up winning an All-American Football Conference Championship in 1949 and an NFL Championship the following year.  In 1954, he left the Browns to become the head coach for the Baltimore Colts.  He ended up leading them to an NFL Championship in 1958.  He was fired by the Colts in 1963 and was picked up by the Jets shortly after.  He led the Jets to an AFL championship in 1968 and won Super Bowl III in the same year.
He was also the coach during the famous Heidi Game.  During this particular game, his Jets were leading 32-29 but the Raiders would score two touchdowns in the last two minutes to win the game.  It was dubbed the Heidi Game because NBC Executives decided to show the movie Heidi instead of the last two minutes.  There were so many complaints that NFL games are now shown in their entirety.
He would end up retired from football in 1973 and return to Oxford, OH.

 Ara Parseghian was another famous coach that went to Miami.  In 1964, he would become the coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish where he would win two National Championships. 

Paul Brown began his coaching career at Severn School in 1931.  Shortly after that, he became the head coach for Massillon High School in Ohio.  During his 11 seasons there, his team only lost 10 games.  He was hired by Ohio State and led them to a National Championship in 1942.  He ended up joining the Navy and became the coach for the Naval Station Great Lakes.  After the war, he was hired by the Cleveland Browns, where he led them to four AAFC Championships and 3 NFL Championships.  He fired after a conflict with the Browns' owner Art Modell in 1963.  In 1968, he co-founded and was the first coach of the Cincinnati Browns.  He would remain there as coach until 1975 and remained their President until 1991.
He was the first coach to use game film to scout his opponents.  He also implemented a number of other innovations in football.  He was not well liked because he was a very controlling (but obviously successful) coach.  He died in 1991.