Wolverine great Don Dufek Sr. joins Bo, Fritz, Fielding and past UM heroes
Don Dufek Sr., MVP of the 1951 Rose Bowl for the victorious Wolverines, participant in the legendary Snow Bowl victory over OSU, and father of Bill Dufek '78 and Don Dufek Jr., '75, has passed away. From Wikipedia:
"A native of Evanston, Illinois, Dufek was a fullback for the University of Michigan Wolverines football team from 1948-1950. He won the Meyer Morton Award in 1949 (given to the player who shows the greatest development and most promise as a result of the annual spring practice) [1] and was chosen as Michigan's Most Valuable Player and All Big Ten in 1950.[2]
In 1950, the Wolverines won the Big Ten Conference championship and beat Ohio State 9-3 in the famed Snow Bowl on November 25, 1950. The Snow Bowl was played in Columbus in a blizzard, at 10 degrees above zero, on an icy field, and with wind gusting over 30 miles per hour. U-M did not get a first down or complete a pass in the blizzard and rushed for only 27 yards, but won 9-7 on a touchdown and a safety, both off of blocked punts. Dufek recalled: "It was very cold. We kept our hands under our armpits in the huddle. Our center (Carl Kreager) didn't wear any gloves. You couldn't get up a head of steam for anything. It was bad news, period."[3]
The 1950 Wolverines then advanced to the Rose Bowl where they beat the previously undefeated University of California Bears (9-0-1) by a score of 14-6. Michigan was held scoreless and trailed 6-0 after three quarters, but Dufek took over in the fourth quarter. Dufek ran for 113 yards in the game and scored two touchdowns in the final six minutes of the game.[4] Dufek was named MVP of the 1951 Rose Bowl game and was selected by the Chicago Bears in the 17th round of the 1951 NFL Draft."
My condolences to Bill, Don, and the Dufek family.
December 11th, 2014 at 9:14 AM ^
So sad. The Dufeks were a big part of M football. RIP
December 11th, 2014 at 9:21 AM ^
December 11th, 2014 at 11:00 AM ^
Thoughts and prayers to the Dufek family.
Family friends.December 11th, 2014 at 9:29 AM ^
Awesome achievements at Michigan.
When I was that same age, I think I got a raise at McDonalds so I was no longer making minimum wage.
December 11th, 2014 at 9:30 AM ^
The Dufeks were the Moellers before the Moellers were the Moellers. The Dufeks were the Mallorys before the Mallorys were the Mallorys. Just a tremendous legacy for the program.
Thanks for posting this.
December 11th, 2014 at 9:50 AM ^
but I was a huge fan of Don Jr. as a kid. He was the first pro I cheered for because he went to Michigan.
December 11th, 2014 at 10:01 AM ^
I have fond memories of watching Don Jr. play in my childhood.
Hail to the Dufeks!
RIP
December 11th, 2014 at 9:50 AM ^
and saw Bill play. The Dufeks had a huge impact on Michigan football, and my condolences go out to the family for their loss.
Thank you for all you've done.
December 11th, 2014 at 9:59 AM ^
I would occasionally run into Don Jr. through my work at Detroit Edison actually because of some projects with Dufek Wolverine Construction. Sadly, it wasn't until I was in a meeting room there once that I made the connection between Don and Don, if you will, but to be in the room with Wolverine history was awesome.
Condolences to the Dufek family.
December 11th, 2014 at 10:05 AM ^
December 11th, 2014 at 10:08 AM ^
December 11th, 2014 at 10:21 AM ^
Both for the tribute to Don Dufek and for sharing Michigan history.
December 11th, 2014 at 10:29 AM ^
RIP and forever
Go Blue.
December 11th, 2014 at 11:25 AM ^
December 11th, 2014 at 11:35 AM ^
Great guy, and we normally end up talking as much or more about Michigan football than we do about the business at hand. I regret I didn't have the opportunity to meet his dad.
December 11th, 2014 at 11:33 AM ^
Don Jr. and Bill were on the team. They were key players for Michigan at that time. I met Don Sr. when he came into the retail store I owned at the time. Seemed like a great guy. RIP Don and I send condolences to the Dufek family.
December 11th, 2014 at 12:49 PM ^
I think one of the underappreciated athletic feats in the history of Michigan is that Don, Jr. was as good a hockey player as he was a football player.
Can you imagine today a Wolverine playing football and hockey?
December 11th, 2014 at 1:09 PM ^
December 11th, 2014 at 3:43 PM ^
Watched Don Jr as a wolfback and on the ice at Yost. He could really deliver a hit in either role. Billy was one of the original "road grader" offensive lineman. All classic Wolverines. Too young to have seen Don, Sr. but a great career topped of by beating the Bucks and the Bears. RIP
December 10th, 2017 at 11:48 PM ^
Well I just ran across this via a search on something else. I wasn't a reader or memeber when this happened.
But just for posterity and maybe somebody else will still stumble on this so I'll chime in.
Mr. Dufek, Don Sr., was my first coach in any sport I'm pretty sure, when I was 9 in T-League baseball. He was coaching because his youngest, Joey was on our team. He was a great man! Mrs.Dufek was a good friend of my mom's. Donnie and Billy watched all, or a lot of our games.
We played a lot of our games at the tiny field that used to be behind the portables at Pioneer and there was a little pond wayyy out past right field, and being the only left hander (but also the littlest and skinniest) on the team, gigantic Billy, who also batted left, would tease me and ask why I didn't hit home runs into the pond like he used to do? Haha. Because I smashed line drives up the middle between the outfielders and outrant the throws and got my home runs that way!
One night at about 2am when I was about 20 my friends & I stopped into the Domino's that used to be by The Big Dick (Ypsi water tower) and who in the fuck was standing behind the counter in a Domino's clown uniform wearing his giant Rose Bowl MVP ring other than my old coach Mr Dufek!
WTF? How on earth was the great Don Dufek, successful business man with all the connections in the world, working as a counter boy for fucking Domino's? How bizarre, awkward and embarrassing! I didn't know what to say!
Well, it turned out he was starting some big executive job with them and part of the process was that you worked at a store and learned every job in the place first hand! PHEW! HAHA.
So between my coach, my teammate and friend Joey, and his 2 big brothers, although only Don Sr. as of that time, at our little T-ball games for 9 year olds, we had 3 Michigan All American's & 4 NFL players!!!
I don't remember for sure in T-League or not, but at least in later years in baseball and basketball we'd play against another future M All American and NFL'er Keith (Plastic) Bostic (my softball teammate while he was at M) and Eric Santifer who starred for Syracuse basketball and David Elliot, younger bro of ASU All American Bob, who played Bball for Western.