By By SCOTT NOVAK / Niles Daily Star
DOWAGIAC - Dowagiac sports fans are used to having Notre Dame and Michigan State athletic personalities speak at the annual Dowagiac Booster Club All-Sports Banquet.
Not this year.
Mchigan Wolverine fans will be in "Maize and Blue" heaven as head football coach Lloyd Carr will speak to what is expected to be an overflow crowd.
The 56th annual banquet will be held on Thursday, June 2 beginning at 6 p.m.
Tickets are available at the athletic office, the high school office and at Hannapel Home Center. Tickets are $8 (in advance until May 27) for the meal and the awards program and $5 for just the awards program. Meal ticket sales will be limited to the first 375 sold. Meal tickets, if available, are $10 at the door.
Carr is set to begin his 11th season as head coach of the Michigan football program.
The Wolverines, who are coming off a 93 season, are college football's all-time winningest program.
Michigan went 7-1 in the Big 10 Conference in 2004 to share the league title with Iowa.
The Wolverines lost a dramatic 38-37 decision to Texas in the Rose Bowl.
Carr, who is a graduate of Northern Michigan University, is fourth among active Division I-A coaches with a .766 winning percentage.
Carr has a record of 95-29 at Michigan and had led the Wolverines to five 10-win seasons. Michigan is 63-17 in the Big 10 under Carr.
Carr is the all-time leader in Big 10 victories among active coaches.
The Wolverines have won five Big 10 titles under the direction of Carr, who is the eighth coach to accomplish that feet and the third at Michigan (Fielding Yost, Bennie Oosterbann and Bo Schembechler.
Michigan, which has been to a bowl game in each of Carr's 10 seasons, has four Big 10 championships.
Carr is the first Michigan coach to record four consecutive bowl game victories (1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001).
Michigan claimed a share of the National Championship with its win in the 1998 Rose Bowl.
The Wolverines have been ranked 20th or better in the final Associated Press rankings during Carr's tenure and have been ranked in the top 10 four times.
Michigan finished No. 14 in the 2004 final poll.
Carr is a graduate of Riverview High School where he was a three-sport standout.
Carr was an All-State quarterback in 1962 and spent three years at Missouri as a back up quarterback.
The Tigers won the 1966 Sugar Bowl in Carr's final season at Missouri.
He then transfered to Northern Michigan where he was the starting quarterback for the Wildcats, who went undefeated.
Carr graduated from Northern in 1968.
Carr began coaching as a high school assistant at Nativity High in Detroit and at Belleville.
He became a head coach at John Glenn High School in Westland in 1973. He coached John Glenn until 1975.
Carr moved to the collegiate ranks in 1976 when he coached at Eastern Michigan. In 1978 and 1979 he coached at Illinois before coming to Michigan as an assistant coach under Schembechler.
arr, who has been on the Michigan staff for more 26 years, also was an assistant coach under Gary Moeller.
Carr was named head coach after Moeller resigned.
Carr is married and has six children.
Two of Carr's children have played collegiate sports.
Jason Carr was a quarterback with the Wolverines, while Emily Carr lettered in volleyball.