The Buddy Bowl
The day after Christmas Mike drove down from GR to meet Bone and a couple of Bone's Meechigan Football buddies for an evening of absolutely no-care football at the Little Ceasar's Pizza Bowl ( formally named Motor City Bowl). The evening's entertainment was to be provided by the Marshall Thundering Herd and the Ohio Bobcats, and a planned bar tour romp in D-Town. Mike and Bone had sequestered a Hotel Room Downtown so they could party freely in the City Limits. First, however the Boys settled in for some foootball !
Fabulous Ford Field
The great thing about the Motor City,,, err, sorry ! Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl is that:
You generally don't care (too much) who wins
The seats are much more comfortable than Michigan Stadium
Ford Field serves good beer !!!
Sitting the Club Section of Ford Field, the Michigan contingent settled their families in for a pretty good set of Marching Bands.
Mike and Bone jamming on Football
Ron and Garret
Ed & Kathy Woods
The Marshal Victory Celebration
It was a good game with a number of lead changes Marshall began to dominate. Marshall senior defensive end Albert McClellan posed by the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl trophy during a luncheon earlier this month and said, "We have some of these in our trophy case back at home. We'd like to bring this one back, too." McClellan's goal was accomplished Saturday afternoon when Marshall beat Ohio at its own game in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl at Ford Field. Ohio was known for its strong, opportunistic defence and special teams. The Bobcats entered the game with a nation's-best 36 takeaways, including 20 interceptions. They also had returned four punts for touchdowns. Well, it was Marshall's ability to force turnovers and score on special teams that made the difference in a 21-17 victory over Ohio in the bowl game, played before an announced crowd of 30,311. The Thundering Herd forced two turnovers -- a fumble recovery by McClellan in the second quarter and an interception by DeQuan Bembry in the final minute. They also scored on a 58-yard punt return by Andre Booker for their lone special team's touchdown this season.
"We wanted to make sure we sent our seniors out a winner,"
"Our defence came to play," Minter said. "The band of brothers on defence have been doing a great job for most of the year and they put the hammer down today when it counted the most." And Ohio's defence failed to reach its goal for once. The Bobcats wanted to leave Ford Field with an even 40 takeaways. They were able to force only one, a 75-yard fumble return for a score to cut the deficit to 21-7. Ohio rallied in the second half. It had a chance to take the lead with 10 minutes left, but Scott's third-down pass from the Marshall 12 fell incomplete and Matt Weller then missed a 29-yard field goal. Marshall redshirt freshman running back Martin Ward (nine carries, 72 yards, two TDs) was named bowl MVP. He will be remembered for his 12-yard TD run to open the scoring when he broke three tackles. Marshall left with a winning record, while Ohio will have to wait another year to try to earn its first bowl win in school history.
With the Game over, Mike and Bone bid adieu and farewell to the Nitschke and Wood Families for some much more adult entertainment in the local Deetroit pubs and dive bars.
The Post Bar
When you look up Dive Bar in Wikipedia, it says "please see the Post Bar." No tour of Detroit's pub scene can be had with out a stop at the Post, where the Boys had a round of Blues and dickered with the locals for half and hour.
Jacoby's
Jacoby's is one of the oldest Bars in Down Town, The old German Bar is well stocked with awesome micro-brews which the Boys sampled through several rounds.
Sweetwater Tavern
Sweetwater Tavern, right next to Jacoby has changed considerable over the years. When Mike and Bone went in they were the only two white guys, and after one beer each, they left the only two white guys!
The Temple Bar, Cass Corridor
Leaving Sweetwater Tavern feeling unwelcome, the Boy heading into the Hood in Cass Corridor to the Temple Bar. Again, they were the only two white guys, but this time they were welcome back as old friends, which they were, since they had hung out there before.
The Old Miami
After a few rounds the Boys moved further North on Cass to a old Vietnam Vet and Wayne State University Hangout. The Old Miami, which is always a good time, Slurping several rounds of Moulson Canadien's seem appropriate to the awesome Blues Band.
Quite frankly the Boys coulda wrapped the evening right there with the great Blues and beers, but Hamtramck was callin',
Hamtramck's Painted Lady, formally Lilli's
Lilli's used to be one of the happenist, punk rock bars in the Midwest and old favourite of Bone's. These days it is a little calmer, but the clientele is still young, Polish, and very eclectic, so after a shot of Polish Brandy and a Stroh's, the Boys continued on into Hamtramck to get paid at Paychecks !
Paychecks
The good news is that Paychecks hadn't changed in 25 years ! It still was a grungy, rock and punk Bar that played way too loud music and had very interesting patron's as seen below.
"Boy oh Boy !! "
One of the patron was an girl,, or a boy? We couldn't tell for sure so got a picture to sort it out when they were sober. By now it was pushing 2:30 AM, definitely Coney Time !
Lafayette Coney Island !!
Lafayette Coney Island: Deetroit Coneys! Hey ! Gimme one of each on two heavy chili light onions, two up on three light chili heavy onions, 2 fry, one chili fry, one of each light chili, heavy onions, bowl chili, two heavy chili no onion, two loose light onion, bowl of chili heavy onion, two loose heavy chili only.
In Detroit, where we call soda "pop," we call our chili-dogs "Coney Islands." Throughout the city there are hundreds of Greek owned restaurants serving up these hot dogs covered in chili sauce and raw onions named Coney Island. The name recalls the birthplace of the hot dog but this treat was born in Motown. In the heart of downtown there are two historic spots, owned by brothers and side by side, which have been serving up this coveted concoction for over 70 years. The competition between Lafayette Coney Island and American Coney Island is fierce and there isn't a Detroiter who hasn't had to pledge allegiance to one shop or the other.
Gust Keros immigrated to Detroit from Greece in 1910 and opened American Coney Island in 1929 on Lafayette Avenue. His nickel dogs were so successful that he sent for his brother William and trained him in the business. When the storefront next door became available, William started Lafayette Coney Island. The two have remained side by side for the past 70 years and are still owned by third generation family members. This friendly rivalry has supported them through Detroit's rise to industrial power and fall into racial strife. Both are opened seven days a week on downtown streets where most stores are boarded shut. Their clientele is still office workers, city employees, police officers and diehards who drive in from the suburbs have kept them open 24 hours a day. The menu is simple, chili-dogs, with or without raw onions, a loose meat hamburger or "loosey", a bowl of chili, with or without beans, and fries. Lafayette recently expanded their menu by adding chili fries, if you can count combining two things already on the menu an expansion.
Mike and Bone being frequent "customers" over the year absolutely devoured their four dogs with much gusto and aplomb and retired around 4:00 in the morning!
All-in-all, a great Night !