The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/402034
coach ruined the other guy's chances for a national championship starting in 1969 when Bo did the honors to Woody. Bo always said that he would like to win "one of those suckers," but it was never one of the team goals. The focus would always be: Beat osu, win the Big Ten Title and win the Rose Bowl. You have to give Don Canham credit. The guy he wanted, Joe Pa- terno, won two more games during this era, so Bo proved to be the next best choice. The Wolverines were no longer "irrelevant" and they were definitely back in the conversations about the country's best football teams. Again, it didn't take five years, it took exactly 332 days, from the late December 1968 press conference to the last game of the 1969 season. BOWL GAMES Again, Michigan only played in two bowl games from 1948 to 1968 because they weren't that good most of the time and the Big Ten had a rule that only permitted the conference champion to play in the Rose Bowl. The Big Ten also had a no repeat rule so there weren't that many opportuni- ties to go bowling in the Pre-Bo Era. I could write an entire chapter on Bo and the bowls, but it would not be very much fun and who would read it? There was no doubt about it — bowl games did not bring out the best in Bo's football teams. The joke around Ann Arbor when I lived there (1985 to 1989) was that his wife, Millie, would not serve his cereal in a bowl because she was afraid he would lose it (I know that's cold, but that was the joke). Speaking of bowls, Bo did do the Big Ten a great service when he absolutely went crazy after his 1973 team had played the No. 1 buckeyes to a tie (10-10) and were denied the opportunity to represent the Big Ten by a special vote of the conference athletic directors. Bo was crushed and the story goes that he never spoke to any of the men who voted against his Wolverines again. He did everything to make them feel guilty about the injustice that was done to his team that finished with 10 wins, no losses and one tie and didn't go to a bowl game. Bo's public remarks plus the fact that the Big Ten was losing money by not allowing other teams to go to multiple bowl games eventually fixed the bowl problem. Bo always said it was a high price to pay and he was right. Thankfully, the conference finally got it fixed. Ironically, Bo's 1975 team was the first Big Ten team to go to a bowl game other than the Rose Bowl. Bo's reward was a matchup against third- ranked Oklahoma in the 1976 Orange Bowl. The fifth-ranked Wolverines played the No. 3 Sooners tough all the way, but lost by eight points (14-6) to the eventual national champions. Bo's teams would play in 15 straight bowl games starting with Team 96. For the record, Bo finished with a record of five wins and 12 losses in the 17 bowl games that his Wolverines played in. However, after losing the first seven bowl games, his teams won five of the last 10, but never more than two in a row. The bowl game results actually reversed in the Bo Era. Whereas, the Pre-Bo era was "low quantity," but