$500 bought a lot, I mean, a lot, of water in October 1975.

Until the City of Ann Arbor found the meter cheater at the SAE house that year, it had been free.

The device was annually hooked up the week prior to the Mud Bowl; scheduled that year for 10:00 a.m. October 25,  Homecoming, back in the day when toe met leather at 1:30.

(not sure how to place jpg files now, mudbowl 75 pic should be here)

The garden hose would be turned on late Sunday or early Monday, and left on all week.

The Mud Bowl, the vacant lot adjoining the SAE house on the corner of Washtenaw and South University, did not exactly provide a symmetrical field of play.

It was narrower at the Washtenaw end zone, and both widened, and deepened, as it spread out toward the apartment building atop the other end zone.

Jaws was the blockbuster flick that summer.

My roommate found a big piece of plywood somewhere, and spray painted it black

He then cut it in the shape of a giant dorsal fin, and planted it in the middle of the Bowl.

The Ann Arbor News was so impressed it ran a photo of it on the front page.

He declared he would take on the task of killing the Great White Shark, solo, with the appropriate golf club, before it could wreak havoc on some unsuspecting maiden, or, worse, disrupt the Mud Bowl game.

(shark pic)

The flooding was the second big step in field preparation .

Pledges, as I had been in 1974, assembled the Sunday morning before the game, and, before the hose was turned on. 

Well, OK, maybe not the morning, but, sometime on Sunday, with picks and hoes and shovels, from whatever source, and turned over and plowed by hand all the turf, so that it would be more receptive to the imminent inundation.

The stories of much of the lives of myself and my contemporaries from this era begin with

“The drinking age was 18  . . . . “ and conclude with “it seemed like a good idea, at the time.”

In later years, the breweries vied to sponsor the Mud Bowl, buying shirts for both the SAE brothers and the Phi Delt opponents across the street, as well as the two sororities that were the real crowd attraction with their halftime soccer contest.  But more of that anon.

In addition, the SAE house held the beer distributors up for a number of kegs of beer, all for the right to display a banner across the second floor of the House “197_ Mud Bowl sponsored by Annheuser Busch,”

We weren’t that smart, and paid for our own shirts.  And out own beer.

One of many Mud Bowl legends is that Tom Mack, legendary U of M guard and NFL Hall of Famer, sneaked out of the team hotel the morning of Homecoming in 1964 to play in the Mud Bowl.

So, being that SAE literally owned the Mud Bowl, we voted for the two sororities that would play the halftime soccer game.

This prestigious honor was highly sought after by the ladies, who courted our vote and were all extra nice to us – until the two teams were selected.

Neighbor pressure being what it was, the Thetas next door always secured one of the slots.

Only intensifying all the more the competition to be their opponent.

In 1975, the Kappas got permission from their national office to host a kegger for us after a home game, apparently sensing we would view that favorably.

When the time came for us to leave, so they could have their dinner served, the keg still had some usable fluid in it.

So we liberated it and took it back to the House with us.

I assume it was returned at some point.

It was unseasonably warm the day before the game that year, mid 60s.

By this time, the water at the wide , deep end zone was close to three feet deep, which was necessary just to get the other, higher end zone wet.

So the brothers decided to have a “touch” game that afternoon.

(Splash Bowl pic)

It was a blast.

(water game pic) 

All good things must come to an end, and the drain plug in the wide end zone had to be pulled late Friday or early Saturday morning so the water could drain to leave behind a playable field.

Someone had to dive in the cold water, in the dark, and pull the plug.

As Mark Twain said of being tarred and feathered, if it weren’t for the honor of it, it would hardly be worth undergoing.

Steve “Wild Man” was unintimidated, volunteering for the task, which he accomplished after consuming sufficient anti-freeze, to the applause of those brothers not yet getting their pre-game rest.

Game day morning started with the traditional beer and pancake breakfast, which I somehow slept through.

There were some actives who lived outside the House, several dozen residents, and only 7 players at a time, so there had been a meeting to determine who would play which position and for how long.

We had A and B touch football teams that year in the IM league, both undefeated.

In those years, the University rented rooms in the SAE House for baseball players, whose season ended several weeks after classes.

Lots of them ended up joining and moving in, so we had more than our share of athletes.

The B team quarterback was later an All Star major league pitcher.

I was a blocker, and was to split time with the president of the House, 1st and 3rd quarters for me, 2nd and 4th for him.

I said Duff, I need to clean up and get to the Stadium to hustle the rest of my tickets, so, OK with you if I play the first half and you play the second?

Sure, he said.

As part of the buildup that  year, the student radio station had asked him for a history of the game.

Duff was unable to find much, so felt free to invent several stories of past SAE victories.

I think they broadcast the game that year.

I vaguely remember calling for Phi Delt blood into a microphone before kickoff.

I had already immersed myself in the mud, smearing it all over.

It is not the Clean Bowl.

For some reason, the University assigned a photographer that year, who took some awesome black and white photos.

If you google “SAE Mud Bowl”, his pictures inevitably appear.

(TD SAE pic)

This is after the TD pass thrown by the future All Star to the then center fielder.

That score put us up 6 to zip at the half, when I hosed off outside before finishing changing into my scalping clothes.

Then the event the crowd really came to see, the girls soccer game.

Goalposts were carried onto the field, and the scrum began.

In those conditions, it more resembled group mud wrestling than a soccer game, but the ladies had some athletes as well, and were into it.

(real attraction pic)

In the second half, I watched us score another TD to go up 12 to zip, before the Phi Delts rallied for their own TD.

They made the 2 point conversion to make the final score 12 to 8.

Off to sell the rest of my inventory on the street and earn my tuition before watching us pound Indiana 55 to 7.

In those days, Carl Grapentine announced the score of the Mud Bowl during the football game.

“In the annual Mud Bowl, played this morning, the men of SAE vanquished their Phi Delt foes, (pause)12 to 8.”

Touching off a lot of cheering in our section.

Ahh, Brian would have liked this one.

Kick off 1:31 p.m., finished at 4:02 p.m.

This game is best known as the last crowd under 100k, 93,857 being the official count for the contest versus Lee Corso’s Hoosiers.

 

EPILOGUE

 

Several years later, still recovering from the night before, watching Michigan Replay, Larry Adderly was talking about the Mud Bowl tradition, and they played a clip from the 1975 game, in which I briefly saw myself.

I sat bolt upright, but that was it, one play.

A cousin of mine ended up marrying a guy who worked on Michigan Replay,

Eventually, I figured out which week they showed that clip, and, eventually, was rewarded with a videotape of the complete show from him, decades after the game took place.

Eager to find that play, I popped it into the VCR, and could not believe what I saw.

My Phi Delt opponent pancaked me, knocking me on my ass.

Well, that’s not the way I remember it.