The Teams: 1976
2 hours and 52 minutes
Michigan historian Dr. Sap and I have started a new podcast on the lore of Michigan football. And this time we were extraordinarily lucky to have as our guests the defensive captain of the 1976 Wolverines, Calvin O’Neal, and Bo Schembechler’s right hand man and greatest offensive line coach in football history (@ me!) Jerry Hanlon.
Previously: 1980, 1999, 1901, 1964
THE SPONSOR:
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1. GIMMICKY TOP FIVE: YOU KNOW IT’S A BO SEASON WHEN…
(starts at 1:00)
Seth & Sap set the stage for the Most Bo season of the Bo era. Lots of running, and a loss on natural grass to a future Big Ten West team. Nationally: Pitt had Tony Dorsett, USC, Alabama, and Ohio State were the other contenders. Oklahoma and Texas were great teams too.
2. SETTING THE STAGE
(starts at 11:22)
Preseason #1 to some. Bring back most of the offense, and a fair bit of the defense too, though there’s concern on the defensive line. Bo has open heart surgery in the spring. Coming off the disappointment of 1975. Run through the roster. Story of Mike Kenn: had to wait most of a week after signing day for his LOI because he was 6’6"/205—tried to make him a tight end but according to Hanlon: “It was like throwing the ball against that wall.” Story of O’Neal’s recruitment: Moeller worked him out of heading to MSU, MSU showed up with a limo.
3. THE GAMES PART I
(starts at 48:19)
We go through every game, from the one that Calvin O’Neal got an interception on to the many, many, many games when he did not. Sap plays us some clips from inside the locker room at halftime of the Wake Forest game. Bo gets hollered at for running up the score by putting 70 on the President’s Navy the week after the President visits. Fake punt takes the air out of MSU.
4. THE GAMES PART II
(starts at 1:34:06)
What happened against Purdue? What happened to Illinois when they came for senior day after that? What happened to all the record books after that game, and what was the record for passing touchdowns in a season before? Which Michigan player told Jerry Hanlon he guaranteed not just a win but a shoutout over Ohio State? Which quarterback did they have in Columbus anyway? Who took Ufer’s horn?
5. ROSE BOWL & WRAP
(starts at 2:09:21)
The players are all given hideous blue jerseys to go on the Tonight Show. Also hideous injuries during that game. Hanlon wonders what they could have done to better prepare their teams for those Rose Bowls, because they never had a good performance—Sap suggests it was getting an indoor facility so they could, you know, practice before the bowl games. We talk about where this team fits in the pantheon of teams, MVPs, most overlooked players, and how the players felt when the maize (not yellow) pants came back.
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MUSIC
- "The Rubberband Man"—The Spinners
- "The Boys Are Back in Town"—Thin Lizzy
- "Tie Your Mother Down"—Queen
- “Something He Can Feel”—Aretha Franklin
- “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?
You want to beat your friends
Rob Lytle! My all-time favorite Michigan Wolverine. No idea why ... just is.
Same here. I've "loved" many other players since--Anthony Carter made me giddy, even. But Lytle is still my all-time favorite.
It's always amazing to see how light the linemen were back then. Imagine Maizen hearing about a 6'6" 205# offensive tackle recruit.
Also, why do all the players look like they're in their early 30s?
mustaches
The chart lists Downing as a 250 pound center. By comparison, Cesar Ruiz is 319 pounds.
If memory serves, the weights back in the 1950's were even less, with linemen under 200 pounds.
By comparison, today's players are huge. It makes me wonder whether there's a limit. Will we one day routinely see 400 pound offensive linemen?
The more you add weight the slower those guys are going to go, except modern training can make up some of that difference. With these guys I think if you put them in a modern weight program a lot of them end up about the same size as the players in their current positions today. I don't know if you can actually get them up to the same speed.
The big difference is really in the offensive linemen and the corollary difference on defense. As teams passed more they needed left tackles to protect from edge rushers, and teams found they could give up a lot of speed if they had length. That was already starting by 1976. Michigan had Mike Kenn on this team. Bubba Paris and Ed Muransky were in the next wave. If you look at the rosters it will say that Bubba and Ed were under 275. That was because Bo had a weight limit and they messed with the scales; both were over 300.
Another major change during this time was that beginning in the 60s linemen were allowed to use their hands. They used to have to put their fists together and block with their forearms. That selected for more agile guys.
The heyday of power football and pocket passing created an arms race for bigger OL and DL, but stretch zone offenses in the 1990s and 2000s punished those slow DL and put a premium on big and fast guys, often over more important attributes. But keep that in perspective. What was so exciting about Gary physically was that he could move like a 1970s tackle (what that position was called back then) but have the size and strength of a modern one.
To a degree the game was just slower. I think the difference between 1976 and 1956 was actually bigger than the difference between 1976 and now, that difference being the game was not actively discriminating against its best players.
Never really thought about this before, and it's too late to ask him now, but I wonder if my father was disappointed that the OL got so much bigger between 1976 and 1988 (my first semester at Michigan) that I went from being prime OL size to nearly impossibly small? I played high school tackle at 6'1" 240lbs, did well at the class B level, but by the time I was going to college I clearly wasn't big enough to play line for Michigan.
I knew that "in the old days" my size would have been pretty routine for Big Ten OL... but I didn't have any idea until today that those old days were when I was in elementary school! Would be interesting to construct a chart of my growth vs the size increases in the OL to see if there was a point where I conceivably could have played. I'll bet there was a point around 1982 when he was cautiously optimistic -- already 6' at 12yo, finally interested in sports -- and then I stubbornly stopped growing taller.
The specialists in your roster diagram are wrong.
The placekicker was #3 Bob Wood (Sr., 5-8, 170), and the punter was #86 John Anderson (Jr., 6-3, 208)--the same John Anderson who started at defensive end.
Oops. Just forgot to update those.
Finally, a team from back when I was in school. Thanks, Seth.
A study needs to be done on the 1976 Missouri team. They beat 5 top 25 teams (3 top 10 teams on the road in USC, Ohio st, and Nebraska) only to be slaughtered at home by the likes of unranked Illinois and unranked Kansas to finish the year 6-5.
This is insane. The underdog won 8 of the 11 games that Missouri played that year; that has to be a record. Upset wins at USC, at Ohio State, at Nebraska, at Oklahoma State. Upset losses to Illinois, Kansas State, Iowa State and Kansas.
The Illinois, Ohio State, Kansas State, Nebraska and Kansas games were all upset wins by double-digit underdogs. Thanks for pointing this out, Motown. I have never seen a season like that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Missouri_Tigers_football_team
I remember listening to the Purdue game on the radio. I was a Junior in High School and #1 ranked Michigan was struggling against Purdue for reasons unknown. I remember late in the game Leach hitting Jim Smith on a deep pass that would've given them the lead only to have the normally sure-handed Smith drop the ball.
But mostly I remember Ufer's call of the field goal attempt at the end of game for the win.
"The kick is up and it's good!.
No. It's no good. No good. No good. It's no good. Michigan loses. No good....no good....no good."
I was in elementary school. That Purdue loss shook me to the core. This game rattled my belief in all of reality. This Michigan team was wrecking everyone. How could they possibly lose to Purdue? It's just not possible. Something has gone fundamentally wrong with the universe.
I remember in the week afterward my older sister constantly trying to put a positive spin on it. "This is good. Now they won't be overconfident and they will win the rest of their games." I also remember thinking she was crazy and that I was completely irritated with her.
You and I must be the same age.
I recall Ufer radio call of that field goal. I was in the car listening to it.
I was pretty upset by the loss. I had visions of a juggernaut team going all the way.
On a positive note, the 22-0 drubbing of Ohio State at Columbus was pretty sweet.
1976 was my freshman year at UM. My unsung hero on that team was Kirk Lewis - such an impressive person as a football Co-Captain, student in the 6-year Inteflex program at the Med School and a mentor to regular kids like me as he was also the RD of West Quad. I ended up with a bunch of friends on that team, both scholarship and walk-on guys. That 1976 team was really a big part of the fabric of the school experience for all students, they were involved in everything on campus. Lunch at West Quad with the players was really an event that I will never forget.
Thanks to Seth and Dr. Sap for the podcast with Calvin and Coach Hanlon. A great trip down memory lane and I hope the 2019 team can catch some of that 1976 glory ... Go Blue !!!
I wish we'd gotten into Lewis. Just so much to cover for this team. For those who who don't know what the Inteflex program was, Michigan had a high-intensity medical program to turn you from a high school graduate into a doctor in 6 years. The fact that a guy could do that and play football was insane. And to be the captain too! The Daily ran a full-page feature on Lewis in its 1976 preview edition.
And as the RD of West Quad in 1976, Kirk always had time to talk with the Freshman in the dorm as his door was always open. I was considering pre-med at the time and he had some great advice. Plus he liked to talk football.
Here is an article about Kirk's dual-life Seth is referring to above:
https://digital.bentley.umich.edu/midaily/mdp.39015071754522/115
Thank you for this. I love "The Teams" feature in general, and I loved the 1976 team. I have often thought that this was the best Michigan team of my lifetime. It's debatable, of course, for multiple reasons. But when this team was right, they just destroyed their opponents. I favor 76 over 77 and 78 because this team still had Lytle and Smith. Thanks again.
What a great team that was. I was a senior in H.S. and already a huge Michigan fan. That team, and the 1977 one were incredibly good. But they got derailed by weak teams on the road (Purdue and Minnesota) somehow.
Dwight Hicks was a DUDE on this team too. Of course he played for years for the 49'ers and in several Pro Bowls. I remember seeing Walt Downing at a Safeway in San Diego ( where I had moved to) in 1982 when he was with the Chargers. He was an excellent center on one of the best offensive lines Michigan has had in the last 45 years.
Downing's son TJ played for the Buckeyes '04-'06 then was arrested on felony drug charges in Ohio in '08. Sad story but seemingly those are more likely down south of us.
If I remember correctly, the Northwestern game was NOT a shutout. I believe the final score of that game was 38-7 with Yelvington scoring late in the 4th for Northwestern.
We don't count that touchdown. It was a shutout.
A moral shutout, I like it!
Yeah I had that in my notes to talk about with the Stanford week and then we were moving on to the Navy game and I wanted to make sure we included the FOrd visit so I brought it up. I guess the context got confused.
Stanford was right before Navy.
Oh it's correct in the podcast just not in the summary. I hadn't listened yet when I (double) posted that.
'74 is a year I'd love to hear a podcast on. - my first game at the Big House. My uncle brought me and my cousin down (was living in Davisburg then) for my 9th birthday for the Colorado game. Only have fleeting memories of the day it was so long ago and would be great to hear the perspective of the team on what was a hell of a season. Looking on wiki, we went undefeated then lost The Game by 2. Damn.
It was more akin to 2016. They went undefeated, went to Columbus, and got hosed by the officials. Winning field goal was good, and called no good. Toughest loss on record.
The B1G owes us one ? With Delany on his way out it might happen ... or at least we will get a fair shake in that game which would be good enough. Delany hosed UM numerous times in key games and Bo called him out on it vs Illinois ... Bo proved from an out-going official that Delany was a basically a snake-oil shit trying to rig the game.
I am not a Delany fan - his integrity sucked in my opinion. Tainted everything our conference stood for just to make a cheap $Buck. He sucked Buck Nuts his whole career and UM took the short end of his stick.
New B1G leadership is very welcomed.
Edit: Jim Delany never took OSU to task for its multitude of transgressions. I mean he said nothing about Urban Meyer assisting a wife beating coach who was also a recruit cheat. Zack Smith beat his wife and paid for high school coach sessions with call-girls at strip clubs. I mean that was in Urban's email exchanges with Zach on his expense report and then the revelations from his wife Shelley's texts were proof of the wife beating shit and sex offenses on campus in the football office ... all were proven by University records. Just Pathetic. Jim Delany is the ultimate shithead for taking no league action on the OSU football program.
Was looking at where some guys from '74 are now:
Dennis Franklin, 74 Captain - Santa Monica, Real estate
Steve Strinko, 74 MVP - Missouri, FAN, Inc founder
Don Dufek, 74 all-B1G, Ann Arbor, Construction
Seth - it seems it could be a blast to get in touch w these guys. Do you find most receptive to contact for the podcast?
I was at the Purdue game. Sitting low in SE corner about 5-10 yard line. Right in front of me late in game a perfect pass to Jimmy Smith who had beaten his man by a few yards. Ball went right through his hands...M never scored. I swore I could have reached out and caught the ball myself. ?
Tom Seabron made one of my favorite plays of all time the previous year as a freshman against Northwestern.
Late in a blowout win over hapless Northwestern, Bo called off the dogs and actually inserted, a freshman DE, Tom Seabron. Northwestern hands off, Seabron runs up to the guy and makes no real move to tackle him. Rather, he just rips the ball out of the guys hands and takes it in to score.
We win 69-0. Missed an extra point, I think.
That Purdue game gave me the first inkling regarding the power of sports over a group psyche. The entire campus felt sick all week after that game. I think it was worse than the screw over after the 10 -10 tie
Loved this. Thank you!
Hanlon,,,,2019 team sounds good on paper.
Block and Tackle better than other guy..
Right Coach.
August 5th, 2019 at 10:09 PM ^
Maybe I'm misunderstanding your nomenclature, but your designation of Huckleby as "bench" is crazy—he was an integral part of the offense, starting 9 games at TB with 155 carries.
August 5th, 2019 at 10:11 PM ^
"Hanlon wonders what they could have done to better prepare their teams for those Rose Bowls, because they never had a good performance—Sap suggests it was getting an indoor facility so they could, you know, practice before the bowl games."
The Michigan program never seems to accept the fact that the Pac 8/10/12 has always had as much or more talent, especially USC.
August 5th, 2019 at 10:29 PM ^
SI's cover jinx at work: September 6, 1976
August 14th, 2019 at 9:38 PM ^
The college players in the 70s looked so much older than the college players of today do, for the most part. There is a theory that testosterone levels have dropped in recent years, due to bpas and chemicals in the water supply etc. Its either that or the mustaches, but they looked a hell of a lot older, like men not kids back then.
December 12th, 2020 at 7:56 AM ^
A number of them were actually older. Going to college on the GI Bill after serving in Vietnam. UM kicker Mike Lantry was one of them.
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