Every time coach Jim Harbaugh was introduced at Monday’s 95th annual Michigan football bust, there was applause.
Every time he spoke, the audience smiled and grinned and laughed at his jokes.
The sold-out crowd at Livonia’s Laurel Manor had what they dreamed of a year earlier at this banquet: Harbaugh in the building as coach and a successful season.
Over the past decade, the bust’s noteworthy moments have reflected the program’s roller coaster, from coach Lloyd Carr being the rare nonplayer to receive an M ring in 2007, to Rich Rodriguez’s swaying Josh Groban rendition at the podium in 2010, to a full house after Brady Hoke’s 10-win regular season in 2011, to Hoke conducting last year’s banquet after being fired.