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On February 2, 1870, Elizabeth (Madelon) Stockwell from Kalamazoo was the first female admitted to the University of Michigan.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in June 1872. Stockwell came to the University to pursue advanced worked in Greek.

Eary photo of University of Michigan students and faculty, including women students, courtesy of Bentley Historical Library

The University opened a dormitory for women in her honor, which by 1954 accommodated 426 female students in single, double and triple rooms.

Source : Michigan History.

For more information, visit Diversity at the University of Michigan

The First Women, University of Michigan.

Photo courtesy of WAKV, The Memory Station Facebook Page, Plainwell, Michigan

According to the book Wicked Women of Detroit, Nellie Pope was a good-sized woman: 6’4” and 250 pounds. Likened to the structure of an Amazonian woman, this is what attracted local barber William Brusseau. The two began a relationship, but the problem was – Nellie was already married to one of Detroit’s prominent doctors, Horace Pope. Whether Nellie actually had true feelings for Brusseau is questionable, as it appears in retrospect that she gave him sex in exchange for certain favors…..including murdering her husband. She fueled the fire by making up stories about how cruel her husband was, but what she really wanted was to collect on his insurance policy.

Dr. Pope had recently upped his life insurance. How convenient.

Since both Nellie and Brusseau had different versions about the murder and who was responsible, the actual act itself was pretty clear.

On February 2, 1895, Dr. Pope was home sitting in a chair when Brusseau came up from behind and swung an axe toward his head. The first swing sliced off the scalp of the doctor’s head; the second was a direct whack into the skull – so deep, that it was difficult to pull the blade out. The body fell to the floor, and the axe was swung a few more times, turning the doctor’s head into “nothing more than a bag of skin containing shattered shards of skull”.

After his arrest, Brusseau claimed he acted in self-defense after being attacked by the doctor. Trouble was, it was proven the doc was attacked with an axe from behind. Admitting his guilt, Brusseau also claimed he was under the hypnotic spell of Nellie – so enraptured, along with being mentally and physically addicted to her sexual favors.

The court decided both Nellie and Brusseau were guilty – he was given 25 years, she was given life at hard labor. Nellie was sent to Jackson State Prison for processing, and that’s where her reputation as a mentally unhinged, troublemaker began.

After being sent to the Detroit House of Corrections, she would occasionally go into hysterics, pretend to be insane, constantly get into fights with other inmates, and pretend to see ghosts. In particular, the ghost of her murdered husband. She wailed to the guards that the ghost of her husband “came every night and stood and looked at her until she nearly died of fright”. But they weren’t buying it.

Twenty years later, on New Year’s Day 1917, Michigan Governor Woodbridge Ferris gave Nellie Pope a parole. But where would she go? What would she do? How would she survive? She ended up living at the Salvation Army for twelve years until she passed away.

Nellie Pope – one of Michigan’s most infamous murderesses – claimed until her dying day she was innocent. She was given a full pardon in 1928 and died in 1929 at the age of 69.

Source : John Robinson, “Nellie Pope, the Detroit Axe Murderess of 1895“, 99.1 WFMK Blog, August 13, 2021.

Believe it or not, but Christie Brinkley was born Christine Lee Hudson in Monroe, Michigan on February 2, 1954, although she moved to California with her family as a child.

Brinkley gained worldwide fame beginning in the late 1970s with three consecutive Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue covers through 1981. She spent twenty-five years as the face of CoverGirl (the longest running cosmetics contract of any model in history), has appeared on over 500 magazine covers, and has signed contracts with major brands—both fashion and non-fashion.

Brinkley went on to work as an actress, illustrator, television personality, photographer, writer, designer, and activist for human and animal rights and the environment.

Brinkley has been married four times, most notably to musician Billy Joel, several of whose music videos she appeared in. Her fourth marriage, to architect Peter Cook, ended in a much-publicized 2008 divorce.

With a career spanning more than three decades, magazines such as Allure and Men’s Health have named Brinkley one of the most attractive women of all time. Her financial holdings in 2018 were worth an estimated US$250 million, primarily as the owner of several companies and real estate.

Source : Christie Brinkley wikipedia entry.

Doc Emrick takes a look back on the first outdoor game ever played by an NHL team, which was on Feb. 2, 1954 when the Detroit Red Wings played the inmates of Marquette Branch Prison in the recreation yard.

On February 2, 1954, the Red Wings were invited by Emery Jacques, the Marquette prison’s last politically appointed warden, to play an outdoor game – the first in franchise history – inside the razor wire-topped stone walls and armed watchtowers of the state’s most notorious maximum-security prison, the Alcatraz of the North.

Marquette’s inmate population comprised the worst of the worst, and their hockey skills weren’t much better, so some tried to build up the game by emphasizing the convicts’ crimes and the possibility of a real brawl when the Marquette Prison Pirates linedup against the Wings.

Wings legend Ted Lindsay wasn’t the least bit concerned about a prison yard fracas, saying, “I was viewed as a hero because I was leading the league in penalties, so I fit right in with the boys.”

The playing conditions in Marquette that day were perfect, prompting Gordie Howe to say that the ice was “the best he had ever played on.”

Lindsay agreed, saying, “Anytime you get nature doing the freezing you’ve got the best ice possible.”

But someone had to build the rink of dreams, and that was Oakie Brumm. The prison’s director of physical activity and a former University of Michigan hockey player, Brumm was tasked with creating a rink in the prison yard without the convicts using the materials as tools for escaping.

Brumm would later write about his experiences in the prison in a book entitled “We Only Played Home Games” where he recounted his memories, including the only time an NHL club played inside a penitentiary.

“The inmates and I saw all of this as a future hockey rink,” wrote Brumm, who died in 2006. “Most of the custodial staff considered this serious escape equipment, at least until it was nailed down.”

The game on prison ice was the greatest thrill most of the inmates and staff had ever experienced. Wings coach Tommy Ivan put his team through a series of big league drills and skills competitions, and then the Wings defeated the Pirates soundly by displaying some of the dazzling stick work that made them league champions for seven consecutive seasons.

“They were more curious because they had heard us on the radio and seen us on the television,” said Lindsay, of the inmates. “Now they were looking at the real person.”

To make things interesting, the Wings swapped a few players, trading goalie Terry Sawchuk, among others, and exchanged one set of defensemen, said Lindsay, who skated on the opposite wing as Howe with an inmate as their centerman.

Howe then skated the second half of the game with the prison’s wear a No. 16 Pirates’ jersey.

Believe it or not, but the Red Wings ran away with the game and the warden presented Wings General Manager Jack Adams with a honey bucket as a makeshift trophy. Lindsay doesn’t remember the final score, which he calls insignificant.

History was made on that day, history that no other NHL team has ever duplicated. The first Winter Classic of 1954.

For the full article, see Bill Roose, Wings’ first outdoor game was in prison; First ‘Winter Classic’ was 58 years ago in Michigan prison”, RedWings.com, February 9, 2012.

Recalling Red Wings vs. Prisoners.

For another, see Richard Bak, “Red Wings’ 1954 Prison Game Featured Pros and Cons“, Detroit Athletic Company, January 25, 2015.

Christopher Klein, “You Won’t Believe Where the First NHL Outdoor Game Was Played“, History.com, December 28, 2016.

Also see We only played home games : wacky, raunchy, humorous stories of sports and other events in Michigan’s maximum security prison / by Leonard “Oakie” Brumm. Oak Creek, Wis. : Brumm Enterprises, c2001. 228pp. MSU Library HV8860 .B78 2001b