WWII era footage of Michigan Stadium IN COLOR
Someone sent this to me earlier last week. Quite an amazing find.
The world was at war but Michigan Football was still going strong. Won the game 40-14.
Take a look at the shots of the scoreboards. This was before the upward expansion above the original below-ground bowl, so section "entrance" is at level with the visible stadium parking lot across E Stadium.
Incredible stuff.
At 6:03 of the first video..the "cornerback" (lined up on the LOS) really makes a great play. Six (!!!) defensive linemen with their hand on the ground. Safety plays where a linebacker would line up today.
At 5:19 things are even weirder.
Michigan has 8 defensive players within 5 yards of the LOS (with 7 of the 8 right on the LOS, plus a LB at about 4.5 yards). The other three Michigan defenders are not in the picture frame at all.
Purdue, however, has all 11 offensive players in packed in close with a T formation. No receiver for Purdue. Yeah, so I guess it will be a run (like every other play).
So where are Michigan's, other three defenders? Who are they defending?
When the play starts the camara moves and shows that M had three (!!!) deep safeties. With an 11 on 8 advantage near the LOS, why isn't Purdue getting 7 or 8 yards on every running play? Especially when Purdue's left guard comes out of his stance and begins to pull way before the snap (no flag; refs terrible in the '40s too) to create the initial hole.
As it turns out Purdue did get a big gainer on that particular play, mostly becasue 2 of Michigan's 3 deep safties in the play took terrible angles and over-pursued.
The first pass wasn't until the 7:20 mark. This is the era when Woddy and Bo were players.
They came by "Three yards and a cloud of dust" honestly.
9:18 into the first video. There's about 11:05 to go in the second quarter, Purdue just went up 7-6, and they are kicking off.
Purdue kicks off not from a tee, and not with a holder. The ball is just sitting flat on the ground as the kicker kicks it (nose-on, it seems) about 30 yards to the M 30 yard line, and M returns about 10 yards to start the drive at their own 40.
Michigan's kickoffs all are with a holder. I assume tees weren't allowed in 1944, or else we would see them here, but Purdue's kickoff strategy doesn't really work, does it?
I didn't realize Tony Gibson had been coaching that long.
The KGB was founded in 1954.
Previous to its founding the Soviets only screened highly edited versions of early Serge Eisenstein films. Everything was just a montage of black and white.
they detail the outbreak from black and white to technicolor. It was an amaizing evolutionary leap.
a little more lateral speed on defense.
Awesome find!
The offensive formations and pre-snap motions are actually really cool. Harbaugh would approve.
I'm sure Don Brown would like that 6-2 defense that they are running as well.
I would have liked to see Denard run some of those plays.
but I would've dropped out and enlisted. Not sure how you don't join when the world is at war.
The draft was taking players off the team at a moments notice.
They listed players by their military status on the roster during those years instead of class year.
C- civilian, N- navy, M- marine, R- reserve
My kids once asked me what the world was really like when it was just black and white.
Reminds me of one of my fave calvin and hobbes strips:
http://calvin-and-hobbes-comic-strips.blogspot.com/2011/11/calvin-asks-dad-about-old-black-and.html
The vast majority of these players had signed up, and were in Michigan's military training program. The team captain at the start of the season (and leading scorer, IIRC) was sent off to war mid-season.
This is the era where I recall an old UM-OSU rivalry documentary stating that "six of the nation's top ten teams were service teams."
Ironically, the part of life that most resembled what we know today was the fans in the stands and the football game on the field. In most other respects it was a different world whose realities and pressures we can no longer comprehend.
It just doesn't feel right.
Those T formations & shifts are a thing of beauty. General Patton himself would salute that.
Love that play where the QB shifts to a sort of inside wingback, outside wingback breaks in motion across pre snap, snap to FB, fake to RHB going outside power, hands to LHB going counter trap with the QB following the outside WB to seal the 2nd level defender or kick out 3rd level if no ugly shows crossing his face. I'd love to see Harbaugh run that vs. OSU. Epic that would be.
Precision. Deception. Execution. Even Carnack the Magnificent couldn't help Purdue guess which ball carrier had the rock.
Coach Crisler! Exciting football with non-athletic-scholarship players. True student athletes before big money influences. . Pure love for the game in action. .
Penalty flags had just been invented in '41 and weren't officially adopted until '48. The refs blew little horns (like old bike horns) to signal a penalty.
The rules were a bit different back then, too.
that weren't called....
Enjoyed seeing the old cars in the parking lot behind the scoreboards.
That's awesome! Pro-tip: Run it at 1.25 speed. The player's movements and the physics of the ball look a lot more natural sped up a little.
Thanks man. I enjoyed it. Funny watching the referees and having no idea what some of the signals mean.
I'd love to believe that clock is in somebody's garage somewhere waiting to be re-discovered.
Enough with the trick plays Burt.. Run the dang ball!
So what's up with the uniforms that year WD? Give us the deets. Also, that shade of maize has got to be correct, and it looks fairly pale yellow not orangey yellow to me.
I got to get ready for work and I can't stop watching this.
by Mattison with that D-line!
Doubt it... It doesn't look fake enough, to me, to be colorized after the fact. Plus, when the reel runs out at the end of each segment, the colors are real. Zero fakes out of five, for me.
That Mad Magician offense was something else! More combos out of that than Air Force dreams of running today... But was it me, or was there an awful lot of illegal procedure from both teams in that?
Pretty weird for an alleged Michigan fan to downvote something historical like this.
WD has only been back a couple of days and they are back to the gratuitous negs already.
This is going to be a short make up.
C'mon guys, if he posts something neg-worthy then fine, neg it. Neg'ing something like this just to bully him should get you banned.
that was a cool find. Always love watching those old videos to see what the game was like back then and seeing the stadium was pretty cool also.
Good Oline and RB blocking.
Thanks for sharing. I wonder what it would look like to get something like this in HD or, conversely, today's game in old timey format. Seeing Denard's run vs ND in grainy format, (or any format) would be really awesome. If only I had time/skills to creat a hieroglyphic of that...