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FINAL DRAFT – FINAL DRAFT

The 2019 University of Michigan Jersey auction ran from April 15 until April 29 and was announced on the team website and social media channels. According to the announcement:

“The University of Michigan ice hockey team is hosting its annual silent auction featuring five different styles of game-issued jerseys from the 2018-19 season along with the winged game helmets. The five different jerseys available are Michigan’s home white, road navy, road navy alternate, alternate maize, and “Winter White” uniforms from the outdoor game at Notre Dame. The outdoor game uniforms come in a package with the gloves, pants, socks and sweater. The minimum bid for game helmets and game jerseys is $250, and the “Winter White” package starts at $750. “

Our annual analysis of Michigan jerseys for the 2019 auction is available here. One may notice that the analysis includes 2 additional columns that were not included in past years: “Outdoor-Gloves: Model – #/Sharpie” and “Pants #/Sharpie“. When winners started receiving the gear from the auction, it became apparent that the gloves and pants were altered after the outdoor game and each “Winter White Package” contained a random pair of pants and gloves with a number added to match the jersey number.

Gloves

During the outdoor game, most players had blue numbers on the thumbs of their gloves as can be seen in this photo of Will Lockwood:

One exception was Brendan Warren who had the blue numbers on cuffs of his gloves as can be seen in the following photo:

The following Alamy preview image is from https://www.alamy.com/indiana-usa-05th-jan-2019-michigan-forward-brendan-warren-11-skates-with-the-puck-during-ncaa-hockey-game-action-between-the-michigan-wolverines-and-the-notre-dame-fighting-irish-at-notre-dame-stadium-in-indiana-michigan-defeated-notre-dame-4-2-john-mersitscsmalamy-live-news-image230563961.html Please click on the image and then select “View full size 1300×956” to enlarge and view the “11” on the gloves.

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We have also cropped the original Alamy image to show the blue 11 clearly on the cuffs of the glove.

Pants

As far as we can tell, there were no outside number markings on the player pants. However, all the pants contained a number written in sharpie located on the inside of the waist.

Alterations

When the auction winners started to receive the gear, there were obvious issues. In most cases, the blue on white numbers on the the thumbs were replaced by a blue patch with maize numbers. In most cases, the new maize numbers did not match the number written in sharpie on the palm of the glove.

The pants also had blue patches with maize numbers added over or in one case alongside the sharpie written numbers inside the waist. Upon removing these patches it was revealed that the newly added patches did not always match the number written in sharpie.

We reached out to the University of Michigan Equipment Manager and received the following explanation:

All of the pant shells and gloves were washed after the outdoor game because it was our plan to wear them for a game or games at home during the second half of the season.

Originally we numbered the gloves with marker on the palms and then we put numbers on the thumbs for the game. Some players switched gloves after they said they were fine with their gloves. When we cleaned the gloves and pants most of the white numbers came off the gloves and pants. To insure that we had all of the right gloves and pants we numbered everything in blue, pants and gloves. We never wore the gloves or pants again after the outdoor game.

Unfortunately, the above does not explain why no effort was made to attach the correct number to the matching pants/gloves, why a number of gloves and pants without the added maize on blue patches appeared on SidelineSwap and why no disclaimer was given during the auction.

An additional attempt for clarification was met with the following reply:

When the white shells and gloves came in our staff numbered them according to the navy pants and gloves they were using. Unfortunately the shells were bigger than their pants and the gloves had palm issues, some had thicker palms than others. Some players were fine but most were not. We had to switch a lot of gloves and shells during the week leading up to the game. We decided to put white numbers on both the shells and the pants. After the outdoor the shells were washed to get the stains out of the rear ends and the gloves were washed 3 or 4 times to soften up the palms. It was the coaches desire to wear the solid white stuff a couple of times at home. The white numbers came off all of the pant shells and most of the gloves and we put the navy numbers on knowing we wouldn’t wash them again. The players vetoed wearing the all white uniform in any games because of the shell sizing problem and the glove palm issues. This is exactly what happened and this stuff happens all the time with equipment.

A final attempt for clarification resulted in a reply from the Director of Hockey Operations:

Please stop accusing us of supplying random pairs of gloves and pants with the sets that were sent out.  As Ian has stated, the gloves and pants received are those worn by that individual player.

I have no information regarding what is sold on sideline swap.

Unfortunately, the facts do not support the assertion that the “the gloves and pants received are those worn by that individual player”.

Discrepancies

We have documented some of the discrepancies in the gloves in pants in the table available here. The “Outdoor-Gloves: Model – #/Sharpie” column contains the model number of glove that the player wore (based on photos from the game), the number on the added blue patch, the number written in sharpie (with a note if it is written in bright new sharpie or faded sharpie) and the glove size and model number that the auction winner received. The “Pants #/Sharpie” column contains the number on the added blue patch, the number written in sharpie in the waist of the pants and also the size of the pants. We have included links to any of the actual game worn items that have appeared on SidelineSwap. The data in these 2 columns indicate that minimal effort was given to ensure that the proper maize on blue number patches were added to the pants/gloves.

The gloves included with the #74 “Winter White” package were worn by Brendan Warren (#11) during the outdoor game. As can be seen in the 2 photos below, the gloves have the blue patch with a maize #74 added to the thumbs. The palm has been marked a “74” in bright new silver sharpie rather than the faded silver sharpie that would be common in worn (and washed) gloves. These gloves still contain the white patch with the blue number 11s inside the cuff that we have matched to Brendan Warren during the outdoor game.

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The “7” pair of pants that came with the Nick Blankenburg “Winter White” package appear at first glance to be properly tagged. There is a blue patch with a maize “7” in the waist of the pants. Directly to the left of the patch, there is a “7” written in black Sharpie. Unfortunately, the “7” patch was applied over a sharpie 4 meaning that the pants belong to the 74 Nicholas Boka “Winter White” set. Was placing the “7” patch over the sharpie “4” a deliberate attempt to deceive the bidders in the auction?

Based on the above 2 examples, it is apparent that the equipment staff did not make the necessary effort to ensure that the “altered” gloves and pants were updated with the correct numbers.

Sideline Swap

At least 6 pairs of outdoor gloves with the original blue numbers have appeared on Sideline Swap.

• 6 – Summers
• 18 – Winborg
• 19 – Olmstead
• 28 – Randl
• 74 – Boka
• 91 – Pastujov

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The following pants were also found on SidelineSwap:

• 5 – Luce (has been removed from Sideline Swap, but see screenshot below)
• 18 – Winborg
• 30 – Lavigne
• 31 – Mann
• 37 – Leavy

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It is not clear how the gloves and pants ended up on SidelineSwap rather than in the correct Winter White package. Were the items inadvertently included in the annual Hockey Garage Sale? Were the items sold via a backdoor deal to an equipment dealer?

Photo-matches

We have been able to photo-match some of the gear that has appeared on SidelineSwap to game photos. The Luce pants have a horizontal mark on the left leg that shows up in the photo on SidelineSwap and also on a game photo from Alamy.

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The pants worn by number 21 Michael Pastujov are photomatched-matched via the spot on the left leg above the Nike Swoosh to the pants that have number 51 placed over the sharpie 21.

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Socks

Every jersey (white, blue, maize, blue alt and Winter White Package) in the auction was suppose to include a pair of game socks. Unfortunately, when the auction was over and invoices were sent, they included the following text “A mistake was made on the auction site. Game socks are only available with the outdoor white package. Please accept our apologies.”

In addition, at least 2 winners of the Outdoor Winter White packages did not receive their socks since somehow they were “lost” by the Hockey Department.

Conclusions

Based on the original auction description, it was expected that one would obtain the gear and jersey all from the same player. No one was expecting to receive a jersey and then random pieces of gear. There appears to be a number of concerns here:

• At some point after the game, some of the gear was altered and no attempt was made by the Hockey Department to properly identify who wore the gear. The numbers appear to be added mostly at random.
• The alterations to the gear were not disclosed before the auction.
• The random nature of the gear was not disclosed before the auction.
• Some of the gloves and pants that should had been included in the auction packages appeared on SidelineSwap. How did these items get to SidelineSwap? Was there a backdoor deal where the gloves and pants were sold to an equipment dealer?

Based on the above, it was irresponsible for the University of Michigan Hockey Department to include an outdoor Stadium Series package with the altered and random gear. The memorabilia value of the “Winter White” packages has been greatly diminished by including random pants and gloves in every set.  There was a $500 premium above the normal jersey auction starting bid for the “Winter White” packages.

FINAL DRAFT – FINAL DRAFT