Excerpt from “Overtime”: Equipping the Michigan football team requires a costly and laborious process.

This passage is taken from John U. Bacon’s most recent book, “Overtime: Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines at the Crossroads of College Football,” which will be released on Tuesday. On that day, Bacon will sign books, give a talk, and take questions at Hill Auditorium at 7 p.m. Bacon used to be a sports reporter for Detroit News.

Even though Jack Harbaugh ran a successful high school football program with just two footballs fifty years ago, it is not advisable to follow such austerity in the current Big Ten.

Gary Hazelitt, the equipment manager at Michigan, oversees 24 student managers who go through a rigorous tryout process in addition to two full-time assistants. Indeed, there are tryouts for willing equipment managers, and many don’t get in. To load and unload the truck for games, set up and take down drill equipment, and organize and maintain thousands of pieces of equipment customized to the players’ requirements and preferences, they need all those people.

Hazelitt uses traditional tape measures to custom fit 140 players from a stock of 250 helmets. Hazelitt clarified, “Coach Harbaugh and I are both a little old school and prefer one helmet,” in contrast to some teams that use multiple helmets. Plus, since they are familiar with it, players can spot issues early on.

Every two to three weeks, Hazelitt and his crew replace the face masks, as well as the hardware and the majority of the chin straps, and every Friday night, they repaint the entire set. The renowned wings are meticulously painted with maize paint rather than stickers. According to Hazelitt, since Harbaugh came back, they have made an effort to match the colors and decals on the current helmet to those from the Bo Schembechler era.