Bow Down to 1970's Michigan Football
So I thought I'd share my favorite Wolverine Historian video today. It's the 1977 matchup in the Big House against Texas A & M here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4G3P0jhgsE&feature=channel_page
Why I love this video:
1. Keith Jackson
2. This is Michigan football at the peak of its intimidation. Where the helmets and the stadium and the fight song really did count for at least 2 touchdowns a game. First, watch the two teams take the field. A & M, as Jackson notes, has never played before a crowd of over 100,000. And you can tell. Their jog onto the field seems tentative, at best. I swear you can see some of them looking in amazement at the stands. Now check out at :30 when Michigan storm out of the tunnel like a pack of Barwisized wolves ready to kill. And the kicker: Jackson notes that the Aggies "gathered to watch Michigan come in. They applauded along with the crowd." This game is over before it starts.
3. An early fumble leads to A & M's awesome barefoot kicker booting a short FG to put the Aggies ahead. From there on, it's a massacre.
4. This video demonstrates the passing prowess of Rick Leach. Schembechler is transitioning away from 3 yards and a cloud of dust, and Anthony Carter isn't far behind.
5. We had a position called Wolfman. At 4:22 Dwight Hicks, #17, last seen leading the charge out of the tunnel, gets an easy pick, allowing for this awesome Jackson call: "The Wolfman picks it off and Michigan is back in business!" Hicks then does some pretty sweet highsteppin'.
6. Michigan absolutely smothers an Aggie punt at 5:50. Beamer Ball in the Big House!
7. Defensive domination. 7 TOs for A & M.
8. The crowd seems unusually raucous. This couldn't possibly be the younger version of the Down In Front crowd, could it? Maybe it's some post-Watergate/Vietnam, anti-disco, punk rock anger spewing into the athletics arena.
Last note: Did some quick counting, and I've got Michigan with a 59-4-3 record in Ann Arbor during the 70s. Kudos again to the Wolverine Historian, the best thing on YouTube, even better than Tom Brady's MarquisJet sponsored page.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:02 PM ^
Tony Franklin.
As awesome as he was, Texas had an even better kicker, Russell Erxleben, who also punted.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:04 PM ^
this nickname should he prove worthy: Stevie "Wolfman" Brown
August 12th, 2009 at 3:05 PM ^
Stevie Wonder Brown
August 12th, 2009 at 3:08 PM ^
I remember watching this game. It was 7-3 UM at the half and then the roof fell in on the Aggies. SI's article was entitled: "It was pure Aggie-ny" (or something close). 32 years ago, eh? Long, long ago, far, far away......
August 12th, 2009 at 3:08 PM ^
..for a non-conference, non-bowl matchup. Texas A&M was much-hyped at the time, and many thought it could be a blowout for A&M. Also, at that time, the Big Ten wasn't far removed from the "Rose Bowl or no bowl" days, and intersectional matchups between elite teams were rare.
I didn't go to this game, but it was so big at the time that I can remember where I was when I watched it.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:16 PM ^
We thought they'd never end,
We'd sit and laugh, ...
August 12th, 2009 at 3:22 PM ^
These are things that happened (the 70's Wolverines) anywhere between 8 and 18 years before I was born, which makes it all the more important that I watch them to fully appreciate our tradition. Can't wait to tell my kids about the '09 Wolverines and how they came back from the ashes to stun the nation.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:42 PM ^
until I saw him on one of Wolverine Historian's clips. He would have done well as our QB for this year. It is very cool to see all these players that I only knew before from my dad's stories. That Kattus was a beast of a tight end too, back in '85 I believe. Dude was like 6 foot 7.
Edit: To the OP, nice post.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:24 PM ^
Watching Wolverine Historian's videos can be painful, knowing that I missed out on the wild marshmallow-filled days of yore.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:30 PM ^
Agreed, as much as I love watching Wolverine Historian's videos it sucks that I missed watching Michigan football in the 70's, 80's, and 90's.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:30 PM ^
-The new, more intimidating look for the Big House, along with improved acoustics.
-Coach Barwis getting the team conditioned in tip-top shape, believing they are the best conditioned team on the field.
- New young coach with a drive to succeed
This year could prove the foundation of another great decade of success...
August 12th, 2009 at 3:40 PM ^
my expectation is a major step level improvement this year. I have always maintained that you need to have a firm grasp on history, especially the foundation building success items so you can understand the leverage it as a roadmap for future success.
I just want to see RR and his coaches bring out the yard stick. Talk about symbolism for discipline.
August 12th, 2009 at 5:51 PM ^
concept=win
grammar=/=win
August 12th, 2009 at 3:28 PM ^
when we started coming out of the tunnel first?
August 12th, 2009 at 3:36 PM ^
it was after 9/11. The team wanted to be on the field for the anthem. It is better when the opponents come out first and have to watch the reception, hear the Victors, see us hit the banner and quiver in fear at the 60 minutes of hell that await them
August 12th, 2009 at 3:50 PM ^
THOSE WERE THE DAYS......nice! Thanks for memory jog.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:53 PM ^
Great find.
Couple comments:
#3 - Why did so many old kickers kick barefooted? Why did they stop?
#4 - Leach improved as a passer by an unbelievable amount over his career. As a freshman, he was arguably a worse passer than Sheridan last year (though obviously a vastly better runner); he had a 32% completion percentage and threw 12 picks in 100 attempts. From that he went on to become a capable passer.
#6 - Carr had one team (2001) that was awesome at blocking punts. IIRC, he went to Va Tech to learn from them the prior offseason. But for some reason, we never seemed to try to block any after that year.
#8 - Tickets were easier to come by then than they are now. It's hard to believe, but we didn't start drawing 100K for every game until Bo's seventh season (1975). Canham had to spend tons on advertising to get people to come, and those who did buy tickets didn't have 30 years of priority in line. And of course, tickets were a lot cheaper. The result was a younger, more energetic crowd. Also, we won most of our home games by 40-50 points, which helped.
August 12th, 2009 at 4:47 PM ^
were both great at blocking punts IIRC. It was Marquise Walker that was the shit at it.
August 12th, 2009 at 5:56 PM ^
As a kid in AA in the early 1970's, I would go in and watch the second half. Things would clear out by halftime in most of the blowout home wins, and my father would walk over with me to the stadium. Attendance was therefore a bit higher then official totals!
August 12th, 2009 at 4:00 PM ^
Bo talks about this game in his autobiography - the team wasn't playing well and he went nuts at the refs, picked up a couple unsportmanlike conduct penalties, and the team took off
at least that's how he told it
A&M tried to hire Bo a few years later
August 12th, 2009 at 4:05 PM ^
Lots of people around the country thought that A&M would beat Michigan, even though at the time we were ranked #3 and the Aggies were ranked #5. They had a highly-touted fullback named George Woodard who was about 265 lbs or more, but all they had was a running game and we shut them down. Their attempts at the passing game were comical, as the INTs showed.
This game illustrates why I'm convinced that if Bo had had his Michigan teams in the SEC or the old SWC, he would have one at least one or two national championships before he was done. Back then those conferences ran pretty much nothing besides some variety of the wishbone or triple-option, and we generally had pretty good success against those kinds of offenses since they were so one-dimensional. The goddamn PAC10—with USC and UCLA and Washington with pro-set offenses with QBs who could throw downfield along with powerful running games, as well as quick defenses who found Michigan's option attack fairly easy to defend—made every Rose Bowl agony. It's no coincidence that the first RB victory Bo had was with his first team with an offense showing equal effectiveness running between the tackles and throwing it downfield.
August 12th, 2009 at 4:07 PM ^
The crowd was louder back in the 70's because alcohol was allowed in the stadium then. We didn't sell it, but you were allowed to bring it into the stadium. My uncle was a student at U of M in the late 70's and he would tell stories of frat houses carrying kegs into the stands for games.
August 12th, 2009 at 11:18 PM ^
they allowed alcohol up until like 2000 or 2001 didn't they?
August 12th, 2009 at 11:37 PM ^
No, they stopped long before that. Probably before 1990.
August 12th, 2009 at 4:52 PM ^
I just recently signed up for an account here.
Thanks for the compliment! I wish I were alive in the 70's to see blue play and win by 40 points every week. But, naturally, I always get a kick out of watching old footage.
One thing I forgot to include in this video when I uploaded it last year was the Big House crowd chanting, "We're #1" for several minutes which I've been told led to the crowd noise rule being implemented throughout the 80's and into the early 90's.
I wish more games from the 70's were available but unfortunately, all teams were only allowed around 2 televised games a year not counting your bowl game. That meant OSU and somebody else...not usually Sparty since they were on probation and weren't allowed to be shown on TV in the later part of the decade.
I found a Michigan fan online who has a copy of the 76-Minnesota game. (Blue won 45-0) And I'll be getting a copy of that soon. Though, I've been told the picture quality is average. I'll be sure to upload highlights of that one.
August 12th, 2009 at 5:00 PM ^
WolverineHistorian.
August 12th, 2009 at 5:01 PM ^
which stadium inspired the implementation of crowd noise violations, I don't think anyone would even guess Michigan
August 12th, 2009 at 5:11 PM ^
I know. The crowd noise rule was very strange. It took away from what having the home field advantage was supposed to be about.
In the 89 Ohio State game for example, there was a part of the game where Bo and all the players turned around and pleaded desperately for the UM crowd to quiet down before they got charged with a time out. Can you imagine that going on today?
August 12th, 2009 at 5:42 PM ^
wasn't it the '86 game at Columbus, the one where Harbaugh had guaranteed victory, that he really worked that rule to our advantage? I think I saw that game on Big Ten Network and it seemed like he was just using it to antagonize the home crowd
August 12th, 2009 at 5:51 PM ^
I don't remember seeing it much in that game. When Blue played Wisconsin earlier in the year, Harbaugh REALLY tried working the rule which pissed off the Badger fans.
Grbac tried it many times when we played in Columbus in 1990 and I believe OSU did get charged a time out.
When we played Penn State in Happy Valley in 1993, the crowd was given a warning. And ever since then, according to the PSU fans on rivals.com, there's been a pro-UM anti-PSU conspiracy.
I'm not sure when exactly the crowd noise rule was dropped. I think mid-90's.
August 12th, 2009 at 6:21 PM ^
Just think about how loud it would have been with RR's version of the Terrible Towel in place.
August 12th, 2009 at 5:42 PM ^
Bo forbid the players to watch Erxleben warm up before the game. That tidbit, Compliments of Melvindale's own, Michigan great corner, and former Packer Mike Jolly, who starred in that game for M.
I was a Junior in HS and was quite anxious for the juggernaut Texas A&M team coming into AA. I needn't have worried. What made it even more special, was the game being televised on ABC, what a treat!
August 12th, 2009 at 5:44 PM ^
Russell Erxleben was at Texas.
Mike Jolly, #13 was one of my all-time favorites.
August 12th, 2009 at 6:05 PM ^
Mike Jolly was my middle school principal.
That is awesome.
August 12th, 2009 at 5:51 PM ^
I was basing my post on a misreading of yours. Oops. Anyway I met Jolly a few years back and he told me the story pertaining to that game. Couple of my buddies went to St. Mary Magdalen in Melvindale and Mike Jolly's Mother drove the school bus, so we all felt pretty cool knowing that.
August 12th, 2009 at 5:54 PM ^
the same Mike Jolly who was AD at Warren De La Salle during the 90s?
August 12th, 2009 at 6:05 PM ^
Not Sure. I do know that he was in education, so quite possibly. Somebody will know
August 12th, 2009 at 5:57 PM ^
considering that the two premier kickers of the year, if not the decade, were those two, at Texas and Texas A&M.
Mike Jolly's Sr. year, 1979, was my freshman year, and I used to watch him in the secondary. A lot of really good players in the secondary in the 1970's with Randy Logan and Dwight Hicks two that come immediately to mind. That was back when we had a secondary worth watching.
August 12th, 2009 at 11:55 PM ^
Jolly was #16, wasn't he?
August 13th, 2009 at 12:01 AM ^
as UmFootballCrazy didn't get all the way down to the teens on his series of "Best Player to wear #" series.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:12 AM ^
I'm pretty sure he was #16 ... I was just reading The Wolverine's preview magazine and they had a similar feature on the best player to wear each number, and I'm pretty darn sure that Jolly was honorable mention #16 along with John Navarre. The supposed best to wear #16? Steve Smith. That one was a real puzzler to me.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:14 AM ^
Steve Smith.
Speed plus arm - he would have been a dream in RR's offense.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:29 AM ^
No question about it, he would have been great in a spread but in terms of actual on field performance, I would have given it to Navarre over Smith. I'd be curious to hear some other opinions on that one though...
August 13th, 2009 at 12:39 AM ^
whether his number was changed, I don't know but seems unlikely. I recall him being #13, but obviously I am probably mistaken.
I saw both Smith and Navarre play. The only player on the team faster than Smith was Anthony Carter. Smith could break tackles as well. Bo loved to run Smith on the option, and hence if Smith had to throw late in the game, due to all of the abuse he had to endure, tended not to do well.
For me I preferred Smith over Navarre as Smith really helped the offense with his rushing.