What was the mood on campus back in the day?
Disclaimer: I am tired and have had a beer or two and I am literally about to go to bed, but hear me out… I come from a Michigan family (my mother and father met as students there) and I grew up a rooting for the Maize and blue, but my genuine fandom didn’t start until I was about 11 years old. I picked a bad year to enter the fray. The first Michigan game I had an emotional interest in was the Spartan Bob game, and I can still remember crying, alone on the couch, as I watched Jeff Smoker desperately heave a backfoot lob over the secondary and into the hands of T.J. Duckett… A few months later I spent the evening watching the Michigan OSU game with my dad and a few of his older friends… Everyone had assured me Michigan would win, they hadn’t lost in Ann Arbor in 15 years after all. But we all know what happened next. Tressel did the unthinkable, and then he did the unthinkable again by beating Michigan and winning the national championship in ’02. Overall Tressel went 6-1 against Carr in The Game, including, of course, the game of the century… courtesy of a late hit call against Shawn Crable.
I do consider myself lucky to have seen one great victory over Ohio State - in 2003 - which I attended in person. On that day it seemed the world would be set to rights, and everything would be okay. Michigan had dashed OSU's National Championship hopes just as they had throughout the 90s. Since then though, it has all gone to hell. Michigan has been a laughingstock post-2006. I was lucky to be a student during the miracle/illuionsary year of 2011. I cheered as much as anyone else and stormed the field after the win over OSU, but somehow the victory still felt ominous. They had come in with an interim coach and a true freshman QB and were one incomplete pass from making it 8 in a row. Little did I know that my fears would turn out true, and another 3 years later Hoke would be fired after going 0-3 against Meyer and 1-3 against Dantonio.The 2013 game was the most roller coaster emotional ride I'd ever been on with football but it still ended in utter misery.
So I tell this story to express that throughout my 14 year fandom, I have known nothing but utter dominance by OSU in The Game. Will it ever change? What was it like back in the Golden Age of the 70s, 80s, and 90s?
I have conceded that our chances of Harbaugh are slim at best. I expect Whittingham or Bill Sheridan or Teryl Austin to be our next coach. And if so what then? Does Michigan have any chance of beating OSU for the next 10 years, let alone MSU? Let alone being in the hunt for the division title in November?
December 17th, 2014 at 8:09 AM ^
I grew up on Michigan football in the 70's, which meant listening to Bob Ufer every Saturday and watching the Wolverines twice per year on TV, one of which was always the OSU game. The Game was treated like a holiday by me, I never missed it. When I entered UM in the early 80's, the good times continued. One Mr. Harbaugh was our QB, and I even had an accounting class with him (smart dude and cocky as hell). My first Rose Bowl was the 1987 scrum with ASU and their steroid fueled team. That loss stung, but the Maize and Blue were always in the national conversation. Bo, as much as I loved him, had a bad habit of dumping a game at the wrong time (Purdue 1976, Minnesota 1977 and 1986 come to mind), but once again, every Michigan fan went into every game thinking we would win, and likely dominate. Even when we lost, we exacted a pound of flesh. Heady times, to be sure. It was just a blast to be a Michigan fan, and the state was ruled out of Ann Arbor.
The last decade of Michigan football, save 2006 and maybe 2011, has been atrocious. The swagger is gone. The fear our opponents felt when Michigan was next up on the schedule has been lost. It was decided by our leaders that the Michigan experience needed to be monetized, destroying the Michigan football experience in the process.
I yearn for the days of Canham and Bo. I'm stuck with much less than that. It will take a major hire to turn this ship around. Getting rid of DB was step one. Hiring Jim Harbaugh is the second step in the recovery. We need a return to attitude and swagger. We need administrators, coaches and players who bleed Maize and Blue.
With all that being said, I just hope the wrongs can be righted and we can return to our roots.
Hail!
December 17th, 2014 at 8:17 AM ^
The last decade of Michigan football, save 2006 and maybe 2011, has been atrocious. The swagger is gone. The fear our opponents felt when Michigan was next up on the schedule has been lost.
Couldn't agree much more. We aren't special and haven't been for a minute now. When I was a kid, shit, there was that aura still there. Ever since maybe '03 / '04 now (except for 2006, which was the greatest Michigan team I've seen), it's been gone.
December 17th, 2014 at 8:47 AM ^
I'd like to underline what the Yard Dog said. In my time as an undergraduate we knew that even if Michigan lost, the opponent would would stagger away knowing they had been in a game.
I came to Ann Arbor from a suburb of Syracuse, NY as a fan from watching M on tv. Before long I was immersed in many of the "bonus features" of the program like Ufer, tailgaiting, etc. we could even bring in jugs of spiked cider to the games.
Rick Leach was quarterback my freshman year and John Wangler my senior year. I was privileged to watch a certain home game against Indiana while listening to the call on the radio.
December 17th, 2014 at 8:12 AM ^
My time at school was the same as a certain Michigan QB named Harbaugh, and it was a fantastic time to be a fan. The '84 team was probably Bo's worst, but even so came within a couple points of defeating national champion BYU in our bowl game. (Holiday? Shows that for all the crying about the BCS and today's playoff system, it's miles better than it used to be. BYU narrowly beat an 8-4 Michigan team to win the NC.)
'85 might have been Bo's best team-certainly in the top three or four. A narrow loss to Iowa, who had their best season in the last 70 years, cost us a shot at the NC.
The thing I remember is that during the 70's, 80's, and 90's, I never went into a game thinking we had no chance. We were good enough to match up with anyone on any Saturday, and almost never got blown out. If we lost, it often turned on one play or bounce. Also, hard to believe, but we were the most physical team on the field in 95%+ of the games.
That's been the most dispiriting change-how many games over the past 7 years I've gone into thinking we had no chance at all of winning. We've almost pulled a couple out, but usually my pessimism has been well-warranted.
I'm hoping we can get back to national prominence, but at the very least I'd like to get back to competing for the Big Ten championship most years and beating our two major rivals over half the time.
December 17th, 2014 at 8:44 AM ^
I was there from 94-98, so my first three seasons were 4-loss seasons. I was new to college football but it didn't take long to get hooked. My first game at the Big House was against BC. Remy Hamilton saved the day a week later and Kordell Stewart broke my heart the week after that. The mood I remember was feeling like we should win them all but would somehow find a way to lose a couple we definitely shouldn't lose.
I remember the run-up to the '95 OSU game. My family had flown in for Thanksgiving and I managed to procure tickets for all of them since many of my friends had gone home for the holiday. The Daily had a preview and my favorite line from it was, "Break out the SAT chants early and often because that's about all we have over OSU this year." What a fun game that was. Biakabatuka running all over the place, sad Buckeye fans being sad--I even have a picture of the sad Buckeye fans in the stadium behind me. Still makes me laugh.
I kept expecting something awful to happen in '97, especially in the OSU game because it seemed like payback would be a bitch. But OSU was the bitch. I was among the students who rushed the field after beating OSU and I remember seeing Woodson with the rose in his mouth. I went to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. It was amazing.
Maybe I'm just a depressive sports fan but I do recall feeling like we were better than our record most years and that some slip, some stupid stumble, was inevitable. Now I'm largely resigned to most of the season being made up of some stupid stumble. It feels like it's the rule rather than the exception.
December 17th, 2014 at 8:46 AM ^
I was also there during the Harbaugh years and I agree - the difference is confidence. When we were down at half, you knew that they would come back. The one disappointment was losing to Arizona State at the Rose Bowl my senior year.
December 17th, 2014 at 8:54 AM ^
December 17th, 2014 at 9:18 AM ^
December 17th, 2014 at 9:51 AM ^
My first year of Michigan fandom was 2008, so, yeah ... it's been a bumpy ride. I enjoy hearing the stories of good athletics from long, long ago though.
December 17th, 2014 at 9:54 AM ^
Truthfully, we were spoiled. Like Alabama fans are now.
We still found things to bitch about like our Rose Bowl record and the shared National Championship.
We took Big Ten Championships for granted, as well as beating MSU and OSU. I once went shopping during the first half of a Michigan-Ohio State game in the 90's because I already knew what the outcome would be, so why spend a full three hours watching to find out?
Rich people problems.
December 17th, 2014 at 12:56 PM ^
December 17th, 2014 at 10:16 AM ^
I spent 4 1/2 years at Michigan, and so had 5 seasons of student tickets. My freshman year was a Rose Bowl win. And a Basketball National Championship. My final term was a Rose Bowl win. In between were two Rose Bowl losses, a Gator Bowl win and a Heisman Trophy. That's a hell of a run right there.
Football Saturdays really were holy. There was never a concern that the student section wouldn't be overflowing. I couldn't understand how any student couldn't take one day to break from studying and go to the game. You didn't even have to care about football. You went because that was The Event. If you wanted to hang with your friends, you had to go to the game because that's where they would be.
We did take it for granted, but we didn't. know. anything. else.
It kills me that students today won't get that experience. One day, as alums, they will get to see Michigan football at its finest and enjoy it as long suffering fans. But they never got it as a student. They didn't get those memories of a fully engaged student section, or a campus that was so electric on Game Day. That's a damn shame.
December 17th, 2014 at 10:26 AM ^
Back in the day? Which day?
My first year of Michigan fandom was 1958. The team didn't do so well, 2-6-1. I remember my father talking about the old days of NCs and such when we sat in the stands. The 50s weren't stellar years for M football. The stadium was often comparatively empty, even when OSU rolled in. You modern guys have never sat in such a quiet Michigan stadium during a game.
Also, men sat in the stands in sports coats and ties, women wore dresses and high heels. Weird to think of that now.
I was a sophomore when Bo was hired. We had been good, but not great in 1968. I remember a lot of students saying that Michigan wasn't a "football school" like MSU and OSU around that time. Most didn't think that was a bad thing; there was a lot of emphasis on academics and late 60s politics. The era of 100,000 at every game hadn't started.
One of my best friends was freshman tight end for Bump, and when Bo was hired, he thought Bo was a maniac and left the team to become a regular student. In fact, student transfers to other football teams were unusual.
I was at the game when Bo upset Woody. We weren't spoiled. We were ecstatic. The energy that had built up in the stadium over the hype surrounding the Woody team was palpable. It was the most exciting football game I've ever attended, and I remember feeling shocked that I felt so elated over a football game!
Ten Year War games were exciting. OSU had a knack for winning at the very end when they did win. Michigan seemed to have a knack for grinding OSU down and building a win more gradually, and then making key interceptions to prevent OSU comebacks. At least that's how I remember the games of that era. It may be just my faulty memory.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:20 AM ^
My first year at school was 1998, and we began with a road loss at ND, then Donovan McNabb (Syracuse) jail sexed us in the Big House. So, it's been a downward spiral ever since.
December 17th, 2014 at 12:08 PM ^
We're the same age. I wouldn't describe 1998-04 as a downward spiral, though. There were four Big Ten titles in that stretch.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:46 AM ^
So, I was a student in the late 70's and early 80's. From 1977 through 1983, my time in Ann Arbor, Michigan went 4 - 3 versus Ohio State. I didn't bother checking versus Michigan State, because we dominated them at that point in time.
In my time, Michigan and Ohio State were competitive with each other. I was there during Bo vs. Woody. It was a great rivalry. Yes, I wanted Michigan to win every game, but for the most point, there was parity between the Wolverines and Buckeyes. Either might be favored by a bit, but from year to year, they were largely equals. It was much more frustrating to lose trap games that Michigan should have won.
Of course, I have followed Michigan ever since, and have been to a couple Rose Bowls. The current state of affairs is unimaginable to me: Michigan has not really been that competitive with Ohio State for a while.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:50 AM ^
was my first game and the things I remember the most. Bo was a god, AC was a very close 2nd, toliet paper was awesome to throw after a score, the smell of pot was everywhere in the student section, after beating OSU on the road my dad would drive to the campus and the streets were nuts, watching Michigan reply was my Sunday religion, and my all-time favorite memory was when I turned 16 and got my license I drove to the stadium with about 10 friends in the car and all of a sudden the entire team comes out and walks right past the car. Bo walks by and sees us packed into the car and starts laughing. I had always known him to be a hardass so it was cool to see him laughing over a bunch of kids packed in a car wanting to see the stadium.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:54 AM ^
We ended up 8-4 including a ridiculous loss in Madison that prompted the incident where a bunch of students got crushed up against a fence trying to rush the field. Yes, beating Michigan was a "rush the field" event for Wisconsin back then.
Instead of the Rose Bowl we went to the Hall of Fame Bowl that year and crushed NC State. The bowls got progressively worse each year; Holiday the following year, Alamo the next, Outback (renamed from Hall of Fame) after that. That was my last year as a manger. The next year we won the national title in the Rose Bowl. I was there, but not on the sideline.
Those years between Rose Bowls all consisted of four losses and Michigan was being called "mediocre" by everyone. Then we bounced back and everyone thought that those years were a blip... That they represented "the down years" for the program; that THAT was as far as Michigan could sink. The fact that 4 consecutive four loss seasons was thought to be the nadir tells you what we used to think of ourselves.
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December 17th, 2014 at 12:06 PM ^
We were very, very spoiled. Many were unhappy despite the sustained success. Consider: Gary Moeller won or shared the Big Ten title each of his first three seasons, yet it only took a pair of 8-4 seasons for him to face major criticism (which may or may not have contributed to his drunken episode). Many fans were happy to see him forced out.
December 17th, 2014 at 1:40 PM ^
The latter stages of the 10 year war. The Big 2 vs. The Little 8 in the Big Ten that really had 10 teams. We went to the Rose Bowl 4 of the 5 seasons I was a student. [Engineering student. Needed that 9th semester and it paid off with Bo's first Rose Bowl win.]
We expected to play for the Big Ten championship each year vs. Ohio State in The Game. It was usually our only televised game that season. It was great. I didn't expect to win every year. I knew we could win if the team played well. It was always a tough and competitive game. Home field advantage loomed large in The Game.
Michigan was expected to kick butt in all other games on the schedule. We were disappointed when we lost and multi-game losing streaks were very rare. We'll be back on top next week.
Those expectations didn't change through the 80's and 90's into the 00's, but the conference did get stronger with Iowa, Wisconsin, and others (even Northwestern) rising up and grabbing a championship every now and then. It did make things more interesting, but I liked steamrolling the rest of the Big Ten. Can't deny that.
Given that, I took the 2008 season very poorly. Come'on, 3-9? 2011 was great, but it was a fleeting thing. I didn't have the same feeling that each year, we would definiely play for the conference championship. My level of apathy has gone up to the point I really don't like it. MGrowOld recently said we are like Purdue and I think that is spot on. Hey, maybe we'll pull an upset or find some way to win the game is not how I want to feel when I walk into the stadium on game day.
I pray for the return of Harbaugh and the feeling that Michigan will always be competitive, no one will push us around on the field, and that we should be in a position to play in the conference championship every year.
Go Blue!
December 17th, 2014 at 1:55 PM ^
...our first three Big 10 games in 1962 (28-0, 37-0, and 17-0) but it was still "great to be a Michigan Wolverine". I'd never been to a Michigan game before that and I just loved going to the games and everything that went with it. Losing made winning the Big 10 and Rose Bowl a couple of years later that much more special.