110,000 attendance game in the 70's
Anyone know about this?
It's from Don Canham's book From the Inside...
People have come to expect 100,000-plus crowds for every Michigan home football game, and the NCAA record is 106,867 for a game against Ohio State in 1993. But, unofficially, more than 110,000 spectators packed Michigan Stadium for a game against Purdueduring the heyday of Schembechler's teams. How's that? It's another funny story, although it wasn't particularly so at the time and there's no way we can take credit for that "record" turnout.
It was a situation brought about by a miscalculation concerning which game was going to be free-admission Boy Scout Day. Prior to sellout years we had 10,000 to 20,000 empty seats in the stadium and we'd pick a day to give free tickets to various scouting groups. Historically, Northwestern had the smallest draw, but two years earlier, Purdue had been the opponent on Boy Scout Day. With that in mind, they had printed the complimentary tickets for the Purdue, not the Northwestern, game.
By this time Schembechler's teams were in the habit of having outstanding seasons and the crowds were growing, with some sellouts. Purdue had a new coach, it was Jim Young, former member of Bo's staff. The Boilermakers were becoming a formidable rival. On game day it was bright and sunny and as I pulled up to the stadium I saw long lines of people trying to buy tickets. We had a tremendous gate sale, maybe the best ever.
Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts were pouring into the stadium. I didn't think much about it until I got to the press box and looked down. The scouts had arrived early with their sandwiches and Coke and apples, and they were seated in the seats we'd sold to paying customers. Some of the Boy Scouts wouldn't move and as I walked in one guy, who must have had a few belts, yelled out at me, "Canham, get these little bastards out of our seats!' Some others had a few choice words for me and my promotions. Immediately I realized what had happened and went off to find Bob Flora, who was in charge of building and grounds. I found him in Gate 2 and said, "Bob, get some people and take these Boy Scouts and spread them out through the stadium or seat them in the aisles. Just be creative."
It eventually worked out beautifully. Most people moved over to make room and some of the Cub Scouts sat on people's laps. They can look back now and say they attended the football game with the largest crowd in the history of the pro or college football. Of course, if the fire marshal had walked in he would have closed us down. We were so oversold it was comical.
November 11th, 2014 at 12:03 AM ^
the NCAA record is 106,867 for a game against Ohio State in 1993.
LOL that really shows how old this book is. I've actually been wanting to get a copy of this. I know it's from 1996.
Do you recommend it, OP?
November 11th, 2014 at 12:17 AM ^
Fielding Yost's legacy by John Behee is another great old book. I actually found it at the Garden City library.
November 11th, 2014 at 12:16 AM ^
Who dare neg WD?
I don't even read blogs, but I know who he is
November 11th, 2014 at 12:17 AM ^
November 11th, 2014 at 12:20 AM ^
Heh. I just noticed you were awarded 1,000,000 Mgopoints. Brian must've very happy about the e-mail thing or you have posted an unrealistic amount. Probably the first one. Too bad 1,000,000 Mgopoints can't be traded in for a Jim Harbaugh.
November 11th, 2014 at 1:38 AM ^
7-8 million MgoPoints/year to get Harbaugh. I think we can swing it....!
November 11th, 2014 at 9:55 AM ^
I got it for being one of the early Hoke critics on this site. after the Nebraska game where we had nobody ready to play after Denard got hurt, I was pretty sure Hoke was in over his head......but coming off his magial 11-2 debut, nobody wanted to hear that.
Today, I am proud to carry the scars of being correct.
November 11th, 2014 at 10:54 AM ^
Oh man I wanna see that thread. Missed it at the time.
November 11th, 2014 at 12:22 AM ^
this deserves a "Cool Story Bro"
November 11th, 2014 at 12:56 AM ^
November 11th, 2014 at 12:48 AM ^
It was in 1975, my freshman year. There were scouts everywhere, many forced to sit in the isles. I don't know where their ticketed seats were, but I think there was an effort to dispurse them throughout the statdium with thier leaders.
I was in the north endzone with the rest of the freshmen. I'm sure many scouts got an eye full of college life as it was the norm to BYOB to the game in 1975. You did not even have to sneak it in, you just put a 12-pack in in a bag and carried under your arm. Remember the legal drinking age was 18 then.
We did our best to accomadate them, but I'm sure many Cub scouts were bummed they did not get their seats. We did not find out until later what had happened. I probably read about it in the Daily (or the Freep before they were evil).
It would have been better if they had made the mistake for the Northwestern game. That one was 69-0. We missed an extra point, argh. NU did not have a first down until the 3rd quarter, and I believe Harlan Huckelby was the leading rusher because Bo took out Bell and Lytle after each had gone over 100 yards. By the 4th quarter, there were plenty of seats.
November 11th, 2014 at 12:58 AM ^
November 11th, 2014 at 1:21 AM ^
If they did, it was a mainframe, and they probably had to use punchcards. One of my friend's mom was a NU grad, so I sat with them in the NU section. NU was in the midst of a long losing streak (34 games IIRC) so they did not take it too seriously. I do remember they had a great cheer.
Seduce them, seduce them, lay 'em all over the field!
That was LOL before we knew what LOL was.
November 11th, 2014 at 6:02 AM ^
If they did, it was a mainframe, and they probably had to use punchcards.
The original Twitter ... limited to 72 characters per card (the cards were 80 column, but 8 were reserved for control characters so 72 was what was available for programming).
The use of punched cards long ago faded away, but their legacy lives on -- there's still a lot of 72-column JCL (Job Control Language) and COBOL programs out there. Still running and doing their thing.
November 11th, 2014 at 8:30 AM ^
My HS had a data terminal, located in a small broom closet sized room, that used paper punch tape. We used an acoustic coupler (modem) to connect to UofMs mainframe. Oh, yeah, we were of the computer age.
November 11th, 2014 at 9:03 AM ^
I used to have a Northwestern T-shirt from that period that I picked up in Evanston. It was sold after the epic losing streak ended and read "Here we go, one in a row"
You have to admit they had a sense of humor.
November 11th, 2014 at 1:23 AM ^
Even Canadians know the "there, their, and they're" trifecta. C'mon brother!
November 11th, 2014 at 8:33 AM ^
Still prone to using too many vowels, prefering to use two when only one is necessary in words such as colour and honour.
November 11th, 2014 at 2:00 AM ^
or M-00-N. My how times have changed.
November 11th, 2014 at 11:36 AM ^
There's a TWSS in this post somewhere.
November 11th, 2014 at 5:28 AM ^
as my brother played for NU. other brother went to mich at the time. as a 13 yr old, i can attest that alcohol was available in the stands....even to 13 yr olds. oh my.
November 11th, 2014 at 5:58 AM ^
By the 4th quarter, there were plenty of seats.
I was there ... a gloriously miserable day for football. Cold, rainy, windy and wet.
I loved every minute of it. Stayed to the very end.
November 11th, 2014 at 12:24 PM ^
573 rushing, 32 passing, 1 Bo smiling
November 11th, 2014 at 9:02 AM ^
I listened to that NU game on the radio, and I think it still ranks as one of the most one-sided Michigan football games in the modern era. Bo actually pulled many of the starters by early in the 2nd half and the second and third stringers continued to run up the score. NU was more like a high school team in those days with very little talent.
November 11th, 2014 at 11:39 AM ^
November 11th, 2014 at 4:47 AM ^
Al Ackerman on Channel 4 ripping Canham for screwing the poor Boy Scouts, saying he should make it up to them by giving them seats to another game. They were all over the place.
November 11th, 2014 at 6:05 AM ^
The Boilermakers were becoming a formidable rival.
Those rat bastards beat Michigan in 1976, ruining a perfect regular season.
I will never forgive them. :-)
November 11th, 2014 at 6:48 AM ^
1. The normally reliable Jim Smith dropping a sure TD pass from Leach in the final minutes.
2. Ufer's call of the field goal attempt at the end of the game: "it's good!...wait...wait...no good....no good....no good....no good"
November 11th, 2014 at 6:51 AM ^
November 11th, 2014 at 7:01 AM ^
I think Alex Agase was the coach of Purdue in 1975, not Jim Young. Agase was fired after the 1976 season, so the game in question had to be after that. Either that or Canham mixed up his facts on who the coach of Purdue was.
November 11th, 2014 at 2:04 PM ^
According to Wikipedia, you're right on the coaches. But, it looks like it was the '75 Purdue game. Bentley lists the attendance for that game at 102,415 (OSU in '75 was 105,54). The next time Purdue played in AA, in 1978, all home games were 100,000+. Strange that Canham would get that wrong.
November 11th, 2014 at 7:10 AM ^
The scouts were sitting on the steps in Section 4. Seemed to be having a great time.
November 11th, 2014 at 7:26 AM ^
For shame! They were allowed to bring food into the stadium? What a missed revenue opportunity. Those sandwich, Coke, and apple lunches could've netted an extra $20 per scout (adjusted for inflation).
November 11th, 2014 at 7:57 AM ^
November 11th, 2014 at 11:23 AM ^
outside of gate nine, in what was then the muddy parking lot north of the stadium. I don't recall taking anything through the turnstiles but our bundled up little bodies. I don't know anything about having tickets but we were told to sit on the steps.
When it would rain or snow we would work ourselves around the stadium to sit under the press box. You can't imagine how possessive of seating people can be until its 38 degrees and raining.
November 11th, 2014 at 8:46 AM ^
if Brandon had oversold the stadium by 10,000 putting all those young lives at risk.
November 11th, 2014 at 10:47 AM ^
The concessions were pretty lacking back in the 1970s. I don't know what was in the hot dogs then, but I'm sure it was something other than meat.
There really was not any limitation as to what you could bring in. If you weren't bringing in beer you were probably bringing in apple cider. There were always various groups selling cider from one of the local mills.
November 11th, 2014 at 8:12 AM ^
November 11th, 2014 at 10:40 AM ^
I never knew that Jim Young was one of Bo's old coaches. The tree keeps getting impressive for me.
November 11th, 2014 at 11:39 AM ^
Time to replant that sucker.