1971 Big Ten Big Time Football Highlights, Bill Fleming narrates

Submitted by markusr2007 on

New video posted today is a must see for fans of classic Michigan football, and affords viewers an interesting snapshot in time of what Big Ten football was like in the early 1970s.

This was Bo Schembechler's 3rd team, and his first outright Big Ten title (8-0, 11-1) as Michigan coach. Bo would not win another outright title until 1980, but would sharing the Big 10 crown multiple times in between with Ohio State or Michigan State..

Some interesting footage as well of Michigan players like WR Bo Rather that I had not seen before.

There's some interesting sideline reactions and banter from BigTen coaches as well, like the old NFL films. Indiana's John Pont complaining about player mistakes, etc.

Michigan grad Bill Fleming adds the voice and Purdue's band adds the music.

I can't embed, so here's the link below.

Enjoy:

https://youtu.be/07GvaEWoHjg

 

 

MGoATC

May 24th, 2016 at 6:35 PM ^

Bill Fleming was the voice of college football highlights. The nostalgia of his voice, it's like hearing Curt Gowdy do an old Raiders-Dolphins playoff game.

Bando Calrissian

May 24th, 2016 at 7:00 PM ^

For the life of me, I will never understand why people stretch a 4:3 image to widescreen format when they upload to YouTube. Renders a great video like this virtually unwatchable...

LSAClassOf2000

May 24th, 2016 at 8:11 PM ^

It's just a preference thing with me, but stuff that was taken from pre-digital film or television is stuff that I would actually rather just watch in its original aspect ratio. I mean, if someone can clean it up, that's great, but sometimes it seems like the image gets pixelated or everyone appears shorter and fatter. It's really kind of a minor thing with me, but I do understand where you're coming from there. 

MGoATC

May 24th, 2016 at 7:04 PM ^

I was hoping I would find multiple seasons of this. Right about this time is when my appetite for college football was born. I was surprised at how many names I recognized

25dodgebros

May 24th, 2016 at 9:18 PM ^

Sad watching Purdue's Darryl Stingley running past people knowing that his pro career ( and ultimately his life0 would be ended by a huge hit from Jack Tatum that resulted in a spinal cord injury and quadriplegia.  

WolverineHistorian

May 24th, 2016 at 10:25 PM ^

Some notes: 

- Minnesota's QB Craig Curry led the conference in passing.  His 72 yard TD pass against Michigan was his longest of the year....but it was the only points the Gophers put on the scoreboard against us the entire day.  

- Tom Campana's 85 yard punt return for a TD against Michigan was the conference's longest.  But that, also, was the only points OSU scored against us all day.  As Bo would later say, "Their offense couldn't cross the street against us."

- MSU running back Eric Allen led the conference in scoring and averaged 6 yards a carry.  When they played in East Lansing that year, Michigan outgained MSU on the ground 322-59.  Eric Allen's claim to fame that day was a 1-yard TD run in the 4th quarter to make the final score look more respectable when MSU was down 24-7. 

- There's a sideline rant by Indiana coach John Pont.  His demeanor at the Big House was probably much worse because IU lost that day 61-7.  Bo told the press after that game, "I hate to beat anybody that badly, especially someone I like." 

- That's an impressive 66 yard touchdown Gary Danielson threw against us in the Purdue game.  But why no footage of Dana Coin's game winning field goal with 40 seconds left in the game? 

- Too bad there's not much footage of Michigan's season opener against Northwestern, who ended up finishing 2nd in the conference that year.  UM's first touchdown was on an 18 yard scoring run by Bo Rather, made possible thanks to a key block by Jim Brandstatter. 

- Boo for showing highlights of the 1 point loss to Stanford in the Rose Bowl to screw up a perfect season.  I'm surprised the video didn't feature the fake punt that Stanford used for a critical first down.  Bo said all the coaches were screaming, "They're going to fake!  They're going to fake!"  Stanford faked and STILL picked up the first down.  *sigh*

xtramelanin

May 25th, 2016 at 10:09 AM ^

and if you want to have some great alternate/throw-back uni's for the various teams to wear now, just take a stroll through that video.  minny, iowa, state, northwestern had some great stuff there.