The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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24 THE WOLVERINE OCTOBER 2020 Americans Dave Gallagher and Dave Brown paced a staunch unit that sur- rendered only 6.2 points an outing. For 10 games, no opponent got within more than two touchdowns of the Wolverines. But on the final day of the season, Michigan and Ohio State played to an infamous 10-10 tie in Michigan Stadium. Woody Hayes' Buckeyes took a 10-0 halftime lead, but Schembechler's Wol- verines fought back, tying the game on Franklin's 10-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. All-American place- kicker Mike Lantry missed a 58-yard field goal that could have won it by inches. He missed a shorter attempt later, resulting in the tie. Hayes had thrown repeatedly late in the game, convinced a tie would send Michigan to the Rose Bowl. But Big Ten athletic directors voted for OSU in- stead, ostensibly because of Franklin's broken collarbone, suffered late. Michigan wound up No. 6 in the nation, at 10-0-1. Franklin threw snow- balls on Jan. 1 for photographers, dem- onstrating what might have been. 7. 1933 CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS, NATIONAL CHAMPIONS This national championship squad featured something no other on our top 10 list can boast — a President of the United States. President Gerald R. Ford served as the backup center on the '33 squad, coached by U-M football alum Harry Kipke. Kipke's crew won the Western Conference and national champion- ships a year earlier, surging through with an 8-0 record. The '33 Wolverines were about to match the title sweep, with just one dent in an otherwise perfect record. They went through the season 7-0-1, outscoring opponents 131-18, while posting five shutouts along the way. The 1933 squad featured five All- Americans — center and MVP Chuck Bernard, halfback Herm Everhardus, ends Jack Petoskey and Willis Ward, and tackle Francis Wistert. They helped execute Kipke's defense-first style of play, which earned the tag line "A punt, a pass and a prayer." U-M never yielded more than six points in a game, opening up with a 20-6 win against Michigan State and beating Ohio State 20-0 in the season's third contest. The Wolverines survived close encounters with Illinois (7-6) and Iowa (10-6), before playing ever-tough Minnesota to a 0-0 tie. Some 188 radio stations — the most ever for a football game — aired the game, including national networks CBS and NBC. The defenses kept the ball away from the end zones, and the Gophers missed a chance to win on Bill Bevan's missed field goal attempt from the 24-yard line late in the fourth quarter. With that tie against an extremely rugged Minnesota squad, U-M stayed unbeaten and was eventually seen as the best in the land by several services. 8. 1971 CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS Schembechler's third team in Ann Arbor came within two points of per- fection in Michigan's dream bowl set- ting. Along the way, the Wolverines took care of everyone in sight. The 1971 squad featured All-Ameri- cans Billy Taylor at tailback, Mike Tay- lor at defensive end, Reggie McKenzie at guard and Thom Darden at safety. Quarterbacked by Tom Slade, the Wol- verines outscored opponents on the season, 421-83. The Wolverines rumbled through the Big Ten season unscathed, capped by a 10-7 triumph over Ohio State at home. U-M, ranked fourth nationally, needed to take down Stanford in the Rose Bowl to finish the year 12-0, but the Cardinal won 13-12. The Wolverines led 10-3 on Fritz Seyferth's one-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, but the Cardinal responded with a crucial fake punt, setting up a touchdown, and Stanford won the game on Rod Garcia's 31-yard field goal with 16 seconds remaining. 9. 1904 CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS, NATIONAL CHAMPIONS Yost's 1904 crew rolled to a fourth straight national championship, finish- ing 10-0 and outscoring opponents by a 567-22 margin. The Wolverines went through the first eight games of the year allowing only six points, including a 130-0 stam- pede past West Virginia. They handled Ohio State (31-6) and Wisconsin (28-0), setting up the toughest test of the year against Chicago, in the season-ending Homecoming contest. Michigan won it, 22-12, on the strength of two Tom Hammond touch- downs. Heston set up one of those with a 45-yard run, closing out his four-year career for teams that went 43-0-1. He earned All-America status in each of his four seasons, and came away with four national titles. 10. 1964 CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS Bump Elliott's 1964 Wolverines pro- duced another almost perfect cam- paign, taking a 9-1 record to the Big Ten championship, a dominating Rose Bowl victory and a final ranking of No. 4 nationally. The Wolverines found themselves on a 13-year Big Ten title drought, but the '64 squad smashed through that wall, led by consensus All-American quarterback Bob Timberlake and de- fensive tackle Bill Yearby. Timberlake, the team MVP, also gar- nered conference MVP honors and finished fourth in the Heisman Tro- phy voting. He guided a crew that out- scored foes, 235-83; won a tough game at Michigan State, 17-10; and shut out Ohio State in Columbus, 10-0. Michigan's only slip occurred in the season's fifth game, against Bob Griese-led Purdue. The Boilermakers snuck past U-M in Ann Arbor, 21-20. Timberlake bolted away on a 54-yard touchdown run to pull the Wolverines within a point late, but Purdue rose up to stop him just shy on the two-point conversion attempt. The Wolverines stormed past its fi- nal six foes, blasting Oregon State in the Rose Bowl, 34-7. Mel Anthony's 84-yard touchdown run — the longest in Rose Bowl history at the time — sparked Michigan's rout. ❏ Bo Schembechler's 1973 team never lost a game, but it did not win a vote of Big Ten ath- letic directors, who decided to send Ohio State to the Rose Bowl after the Wolverines and Buckeyes tied. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY