The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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60 THE WOLVERINE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2024 ❱ MICHIGAN HISTORY BY ANTHONY BROOME W hen toe meets leather in the 2024 football season, Mich- igan will be led by its sev- enth head coach since Bo Schembechler took over the program in 1969. All but one of them had success right out of the gate, which could bode well for Sherrone Moore in his first season on the job. He also inherits a program in much better shape than the three head coaches that preceded him, which could set the foun- dation for Wolverine football's next era. U-M enters the 2024 campaign as the winningest program in college football history with 1,004 victories to its name. Several had a hand in getting the Maize and Blue to that point from Fielding Yost to Fritz Crisler, but most recognize Schembechler's arrival in 1969 as the start of the modern iteration of U-M football. In the 10 years B.B. (Before Bo), Bump Elliott's tenure (1959-68) ended with only a single Big Ten title, highlighted by a win in the Rose Bowl in 1964. Elliott moved into a role with the athletic de- partment following the 1968 season. The team won 8 of 9 games that year before a humiliating 50-14 defeat at the hands of Ohio State, where Woody Hayes infa- mously went for a two-point conversion with 1:23 to left in the game. Schembechler was hired after the 1968 season following a 40-17-3 run at Miami (Ohio), preceded by four years under Hayes as an assistant in Colum- bus. His first season in Ann Arbor saw him have immediate success, going 8-3, winning the Big Ten Championship and pulling off one of the signature victories in program history, a 24-12 win over the top-ranked Buckeyes, which kicked off The Ten-Year War. Schembechler retired from his coach- ing post in 1989 after 194 wins, still the high mark in Michigan history, with 13 Big Ten championships and 5 bowl wins to his name. He remained as athletic direc- tor for another year and was succeeded as head coach by Gary Moeller in 1990, who had spent the previous decade as Michi- gan's quarterbacks coach (1980-81), de- fensive coordinator (1982-86) and offen- sive coordinator (1987-89). Moeller's first season at the helm saw the U-M program finish tied for first in the Big Ten, though Iowa went to the Rose Bowl. The Wolverines finished with a 9-3 record, but capped off the season with a 35-3 blowout win over Ole Miss in the Gator Bowl. Moeller would go on to lead Michigan to a pair of Big Ten Championships in 1991 and 1992 with a 1-1 record in the Rose Bowl, followed by consecutive 8-4 seasons in 1993 and '94. He resigned abruptly in May 1995 after tapes emerged of a drunken outburst at a restaurant in Southfield, Mich. His exit paved the way for Lloyd Carr, who was an assistant under Moeller at Il- linois, and at U-M from 1980-94, to as- sume head coaching duties ahead of the 1995 season. Carr's first season in the big chair saw the Wolverines finish with a 9-4 record and a tie for third place in the conference, before losing to Texas A&M in the Alamo Bowl. The 1996 campaign was more of the same with a four-loss season and bowl game loss, this time to Alabama in the Outback Bowl. The 1997 season was a major turning point in program history with a 12-0 record, Big Ten championship and a Rose Bowl win over Washington State, MOORE MOORE OF THE SAME? SAME? Michigan Looks To Replicate Previous First-Year Head Coaching Success Head coach Sherrone Moore follows Jim Harbaugh as the U-M head man this season and is look- ing to build on the program's championship foundation in Year 1. Since Bo Schembechler in 1969, five of U-M's six head coaches have posted a winning season in their first campaign. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL