The Liberty Touring Car

The two images shown above are from a self-made Christmas card that was sent to my grandparents from the Podesta's. The image of the Podesta Liberty was shot behind the University of Michigan Football Stadium. About the time that car was built, Fielding H. Yost was lobbying the U of M Regents to build a football Stadium that would hold between 100,000 and 150,000 fans. Yost eventually got his wish. The stadium behind the car probably held 101,701 when this photo was shot sometime in the middle 1970s.

I remember that during the 1970s, at U of M's homecoming game, they would highlight former U of M All American's by driving them around the field in a car that matched the time period in which the player played. For years, my grandfather chauffeured a guy named Edliff "Butch" Slaughter (great name for a football player) who was an All American in 1924. I still have a cardboard sign in my garage that reads "Slaughter 1924" on it. As I recall, my grandfather's car was one of the last cars in the parade because even at the time, Edliff Slaughter was one of the oldest surviving Michigan All-Americans. My dad and I had season tickets back then and for a 10 year old it was a real thrill to sit in the stands and see my grandfather driving around on Michigan's football field.



As long as I'm on the topic of Michigan Football and the Liberty Motor Car Company, I should mention that the banner photo of this blog, the one of the blue 1920 sitting in front of the red barn, well the barn is made out of old bleachers from the Michigan football stadium. My girlfriend's father used to work as a small engine mechanic at the U of M golf course and would also get involved with a variety of other maintenance activities usually related to the athletic department. One day he was told to dispose of "all that wood over there." It was a bunch of old planks from when they were replacing the football bleachers with newer fiberglass covered planks. Well, my girlfriend's resourceful father disposed of "all that wood over there" by carting it home and building a rather sizable barn in the back of his lot. The outside is red, the inside looks like a bunch of old bleachers.