1977 Rose Bowl Game on Youtube - No 2 Michigan vs. No. 3 USC

Submitted by markusr2007 on

The 1977 Rose Bowl game has been posted to Youtube today.

USC 10-1 vs. Michigan 10-1.

Michigan's only loss was 14-16 at Purdue.

USC's only loss was 25-46 to Missouri

Great game with tons of great stars on both sides.

USC tailback Ricky Bell (42), quarterback Vince Evans (8), FB Mosi Tatupu (36), Charles White (12) and DB Dennis Thurman (7).  Bell got knocked out of the game at 7 minute mark by DB Jimmy Bolden (22). Jack Harbaugh coached the UM secondary in 1976.

Michigan fullback/tailback Rob Lytle (41), tailback Harlan Huckleby (25), wingback Jim Smith (37), quarterback Rick Leach (7) and All American OG Mark Donahue (60), OT Bill Dufek (73) OT Mike Kenn (78) and C Walt Downing (72) and more.

Michigan ran the option I offense, and I believe featured the top scoring and rushing offense in the nation that year, a feat Michigan football has not repeated since.

Curt Gowdy did a great job, per usual, but I'm pretty sure color analyst and former Dallas Cowboy quarterback Don Meredith was stoned and drunk during this NBC broadcast.  That's the 70s for you.

Some eerie foreshadowing: Charles White fumbles the ball at the 1 hour 12 minute mark. It's recovered by Michigan at the 7 yard line by DL Mo Morton (77).  White had an otherwise impressive game.  Two great defenses.

It was hard-hitting defensive games like these that probably impressed John Robinson the most about Bo and his teams. 

 

M-Dog

April 8th, 2015 at 2:21 AM ^

Quintessential Bo Rose Bowl.  The team played very tight.  The emphasis was on ball control and gaining short chunks of yardage.  
 
It was all about execution, which worked very well against teams of lesser or near equal talent.  But it fell short against teams like USC with greater talent (a good chunk of that USC team went on to the NFL, not so much for Michigan).  The scheme did nothing to give Michigan an extra edge.  
 
If you watched the video, it's not like USC played a dynamic wide-open game.  Nor was their talent phenomenally better.  But they did just enough scheme-wise to give themselves an extra edge and take advantage of the one or two areas where they had a talent edge, such as Evans to Diggs all day long.
 
We love Bo, but he was a stubborn, stubborn man, born in the Woody Hayes mode.  Nobody could tell him anything.  As the game changed in the 70's, first in the AFL, then trickling down to college, he struggled to adapt.  He eventually did in his later years, but it cost him a bunch of Rose Bowls in the meantime.
 
The 1977 Rose Bowl reminded me of the 2007 (2006 season) Rose Bowl, also against USC.  Both teams wanted to run in the first half.  Neither could.  The score was 3-3 at halftime.  Like 1977, USC adapted and went to the air in the second half.  Like 1977, Michigan kept trying to run.  Game over.  
 
Sadly, 2007 did not need to be like 1977.  In 1977, Michigan kept trying to run because we had to.  We had no passing game to speak of, and when we did try to throw, the results were predictable.  In 2007, we actually had a QB that could throw . . . but we turtled up under Lloyd.  *sigh*
 
We have not done ourselves much of a favor in Rose Bowls over the years.
 

Sam1863

April 8th, 2015 at 5:44 AM ^

Back in those days, my old man used to love to give his teenage son shit for Bo's stubborn adherence to the "three yards and a cloud of dust" offense. All it would take was "When is that coach of yours gonna learn that there's this thing called the forward pass?", and I'd leave the room. (Better that than admit he was right.)

M-Dog

April 8th, 2015 at 4:44 PM ^

When I watch the Michigan coaching staff in 1970's Rose Bowls, I feel like I am watching British generals at the battle of the Somme.  
 
All they can do is line up another bayonet charge into a wall of machine gun fire.  Everyone knows it's doomed, but it's all they have.

Zarniwoop

April 7th, 2015 at 5:14 PM ^

Ricky bell was fully unconscious being dragged off the field and he "just had his bell rung".

I know it's 20/20 hindsight, but how did we watch that and not know or even imagine the damage that was doing?

markusr2007

April 7th, 2015 at 5:46 PM ^

This 1977 article in SI sort of blew things open the next year. 

http://www.si.com/vault/1978/08/14/822885/an-unfolding-tragedy-as-footb…

Pretty effed up that it took decades before rules changes were made to address concussion issues (miss plays when helmet comes off, extra med attention in cases of helmet trauma, game ejection for helmet first/spearing tackling).

Interesting point about high schools and liability issues, as well as the lack of ambulances to attend weekend football games. I've not attended a high school football without an ambulance being present.

markusr2007

April 7th, 2015 at 10:28 PM ^

but didn't believe they could do anything substantial to address it.

Bear in mind like 90% of college football at that time was trying to gain yards running the veer or wishbone, so their 5'11", 180 lbs quarterbacks and tailbacks were getting annihilated on the option by 6'5"240 - 260 lbs defensive ends lineman (big for that time) and hard hitting safeties like Dennis Thurman, Dwight Hicks and Ronnie Lott. Tons of fun.  The remark that No. 1 ranked Texas was operating the wishbone in 1977 with like their 4th or 5th string QB Randy McEachern comes to mind.  It's a nothing short of a freaking miracle that Rick Leach even managed to start 48 games in a Michigan uniform.

Evil Empire

April 8th, 2015 at 1:37 PM ^

1. California governor Jerry Brown - just like today

2. Coach Joe Paterno, "who is widely respected for his honorable approach to the game." - that is not just like today.

Good article, M-Dog is right in that much of it could be written today. 

I find it interesting that the unadjusted dollar price of a top-of-the-line helmet is not that different.  Described as "costing up to $100."  The high-end ones these days cost $150-$250.  Not that big of a shift in 36+ years.

Don

April 7th, 2015 at 5:45 PM ^

sharpened pencils into my eyes then breaking them off while they're still in the sockets.

Just one of a seemingly endless string of heartbreakingly close bowl game losses under Bo. It's too bad for him that the very worst conference matchups he could have gotten were with the PAC10, esp. USC. If Bo's teams had been playing the Big 8 or SEC or SWC champs in the Orange or Cotton or Sugar Bowls on New Year's Day instead of the Rose Bowl, he'd have had a fistful of bowl game victories and very possibly a NC by 1980.

M-Dog

April 7th, 2015 at 7:17 PM ^

For everybody who thinks our "maize" used to be a golden-mustardy yellow, watch the video and compare the color to USC's yellow.  

Our maize has always been a bright yellow, very much like today.

cali4444

April 7th, 2015 at 8:01 PM ^

The 76-77 season.  The year Michigan football stold my heart.  Also the first of three straight years of Rose Bowl losses.  As soon as the game concluded my mom would yell, "Your Christmas vacation is over, school starts tomorrow so get to bed!"  It seems it happened exactly this way each of those three years. Talk about a double dong punch to a 10 year old.