The Teams: 1964
2 hours and 52 minutes
Michigan historian Dr. Sap and I have started a new podcast on the lore of Michigan football. For this one we got two members of the '64 team, starting defensive tackle John Yanz, and backup receiver Tom Parkhill.
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1. The Setup
(starts at 1:00)
The world of college football in 1964. 1962 was so bad they needed a banner to feel better. 1963 was better but didn't look like it. And then everything came together while the greater college football world was turning the game into a battleground for the Civil Rights Movement.
2. Where Did They Come From, wsg John Yanz
(starts at 19:14)
We talk to starting defensive tackle John Yanz about who these guys were. The first truly platooned Michigan team (where the defense didn't even learn the offense's plays). They came from Ohio and Chicago, mostly—recruits who signed on for Bump Elliott's rebuild of the flagging Oosterbaan program. Also a discussion on TV money, the NFL, and the Civil Rights Movement, and how these factors were all changing the college football landscape.
Here's the Daily article Yanz mentioned.
3. The Games, wsg Tom Parkhill
(starts at 1:11:55)
Parky was a deep bench offensive end (wide receiver) who got to sit in the booth with Bob Ufer for a game. A third of the team was from Ohio, including the entire starting backfield. Season begins by losing their best player, Jack Clancy, who's the oddball 1,000-yard receiver 40 years before Braylon in this chart:
The games:
- Air Force (W, 24-7): Jim Detwiler finds out he's starting the morning of the game, breakout star.
- Navy (W, 21-0): Shut down reigning Heisman winner Roger Staubach and the best backfield in the country
- Michigan State (W, 17-10): State, the "Underground Railroad" team, just lost in the first integrated game in the South, beat #2 USC. Michigan down 10-3 with 7 minutes left. Then Michigan got funky.
- Purdue (L, 21-20): Bump would go for two again but his great regret is he asked Timberlake to muscle his way for a two-point conversion after a 54-yard run. One inch short of perfection. Also Dave Fisher fumbles the ball (still claims he didn't, but he did), Break for some Conley stories. Michigan doubled up Purdue in yards but three turnovers, missed XP: fluke.
- Minnesota (W, 19-12): Homecoming, Jug hadn't been home for five years. Big goal line stand ends with an amazing Yearby stop.
- Northwestern (W, 35-0): You can't pass against Rick Volk.
- Illinois (W, 21-6): Literally little brother! Bump's younger brother Pete did what 1964 Michigan did with Illinois in 1963, and brought the literal Dick Butkus. Also the first team to use helmet decals. Conley and Butkus have a Woodson-Boston moment.
- Iowa (W, 34-20): Gary Snook.
- Ohio State (W, 10-0): Know your guys down to their molars. Motivational speech is right out of Bo's book. The Buckeye who muffed away the game wanted to go to Michigan but his dad was going to lose his job if he did.
- Rose Bowl, Oregon State (W, 34-7): Oregon State's coach said it was the greatest team he's ever faced. The Beavers scored first, and the game was over. Tom Mack wrecked 'em. The third team had a troll of Oregon State planned but never got to run it(!!!)
End of the season: Alabama and Notre Dame claim fake national championships because they were undefeated until they lost their bowl games. Heisman went to ND's quarterback (who wasn't the least deserving Heisman ever). SEC fans think it should have gone to Namath even though the All-American first teamer was Timberlake and Huarte (the ND guy) was better that year. Our votes: Michigan is 2nd to Arkansas, Butkus is the Heisman.
4. Wrap, Superlatives
(starts at 2:25:52)
One inch from perfection: where do they fit in the great Michigan teams in history? MVPs of offense and defense. Bob Timberlake as the guy we want Dylan McCaffrey to become. Jim Conley/Jim Harbaugh throwdown.
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MUSIC
- "Where Did Our Love Go"—The Supremes
- "I Don't Want to be a Loser"—Lesley Gore
- "Little Old Lady from Pasadena"—Jan & Dean
- “Across 110th Street”
THE USUAL LINKS
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link (right-click/save-as)
- What's with the theme music?
We're going to have to throw out a parental advisory because there's no way to quote Jim Conley without f-bombing U.S. 23 from one end to the other.
I thought Paul Jokish was a WR and not a TE. I also remember John Kolesar being a WR and not a back.
Hours working on a podcast on '64 and you go right for a couple of Bentley quirks in the viz.
Both were tweeners; I think Bentley listed them at their opening day positions that year because they only put out one roster.
Jim Smith was listed as a back, but I may be confused re the classification of old-timey positions like "wingback" and "flanker". I definitely remember him catching passes as something resembling a receiver on those rare occasions that Leach would heave the ball upfield.
Jim Smith was a tight end however you want to put it. He played end his first two years then moved to wingback, which in the '76 offense was an H-back or off-tight end. Bottom of the formation here:
If you look at the season stats for the early Rick Leach years Jim Smith had more than half the total receptions! 24 out of 41 in 1975, 26 out of 54 in 1976.
Come ON guys.
You do a deep dive into the 64 team and your music somehow doesnt include the greatest car song ever written to herald the introduction of the greatest muscle car Detroit ever built?
Choosing a year with good music was a new experience for us. I thought the music choices reflected the themes. "Where Did Our Love Go" reflects the 40,000 empty seats at home games. "I Don't Want to be a Loser" is something the team actually used that year. And c'mon, the Jan & Dean song has "Pasadena" in the title.
This was gold. Love the interviews with the former players and the explicit content
That was a great year to attend UM. As an international exchange graduate student, I knew little about American sports when I arrived on campus, but was not long getting caught up in the excitement. Little did I realize that such success in both football and basketball were not to be taken for granted.
First sit-in at a university campus (against the Vietnam War), racial tensions in the South, folk music revival (Bob Dylan . . . The Times They Are A-Changin') . . . .
Good days, good memories. (Wanders off to check there is enough malt whisky for nostalgic celebration this evening.)
Great podcast discussing a team that I didn't know a lot about. I really enjoyed listening to the Jim Conley stories. Conley (if he's able) needs to address the current team at some point this year.
Minor correction-Ara Parseghian was the Northwestern coach through 1963 and coached at Notre Dame in 1964.
We got that correct. I even brought up the fact that he went to Notre Dame in 64 in the podcast but it was the team he built in Evanston still.
Late to the comments but a good year to do. Thanks. All I really knew about Bump was he was the guy who got fired for Bo.
Don Canham was adamant that he never fired Bump and would not have. Don was not going to spend very much on a coach so he had no concept that he could do better.
We will get into this in Hail to the Victors this year because Sap has an article on the Game gameplan for 1969. According to Bump, Canham asked if he wanted to stick around in Spring 1968 and Bump said no he wanted that to be his last year.
April 10th, 2019 at 10:32 AM ^
Thank you for the memories! This was my sophomore year, my first OSU away game (sitting in the south end zone bleachers with 20 mph wind and 20 or so degrees), and my first Rose Bowl. What a great year! I remember that Rose Bowl game, of course, which was especially memorable because it is probably the only game I will ever witness when the opposing team kicked multiple times on third down. Also memorable because of Mel Anthony's lightning run. It was another beautiful day in Pasadena!
Great stuff- My dad was at Michigan before this team (late 50's/early 60's) and he did tell stories of being able to walk up to the stadium and get tickets on game day and the stadium being pretty empty. I will have to share this with my uncle who was there. The Conley/Butkus stories had me laughing out loud at work and a couple of my co-workers were shocked to hear the f-bomb so much!
I would love to see some links to some of the videos and photos you reference in the podcast. Searching around Dr. Sap's you tube page is good but direct links would really add
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