Author: Jeff Cummins

The era of the late ‘90s was arguably the most recent golden era of Michigan football. The Wolverines were winning big, the national economy was roaring, and in North Jersey, a young couple had a baby girl who may someday study at the University of Michigan. Maybe.

What is certain is that the girl’s father was in Michigan Stadium for the 1999 game against Ohio State, the fifth and final installment of the series. Over the course of the season, senior Tom Brady had won a quarterback duel with local legend Drew Henson, fueled largely by his ability to lead the team to dramatic comeback victories. Brady led the Maize & Bleu to comeback wins over Notre Dame, Indiana, Penn State, Ohio State and Alabama that season. Against Ohio State, the Wolverines started out very slowly on a cold, rainy day in Ann Arbor. The Bucks took the early lead when Steve Bellisari threw a short touchdown pass to Kevin Houser. In the second quarter, Brady found Anthony Thomas on a screen pass, and Thomas rumbled 30 yard. A few plays later, Thomas followed the offensive line into the end zone for the tying score, but Ohio State recaptured the lead quickly when Bellisari threw a short scoring pass to Jamar Martin. The Michigan defense came out strong in the second half and DeWayne Patmon intercepted a Bellisari pass to put the Wolverines in scoring position. Still, the Michigan offense sputtered, and Hayden Epstein salvaged the drive with a field goal. Shortly thereafter, Ohio State extended the lead to 17-10. Then Jonathan Wells spun out of a tackle and took off for a 76-yard run to the Michigan 5 yard line, and only a Todd Howard tackle prevented a touchdown. On the surface, Michigan appeared to be in serious trouble, but this proved to the turning point of the game. The Wolverines stopped Ohio State three times, and when the snap was high on an field goal attempt, the kick sailed wide of the goal posts, taking Ohio State’s momentum with it. Suddenly, Michigan started to wake up.

Ian Gold then intercepted a Bellisari pass and Michigan was threatening. On first down, Brady found Shawn Thompson with a short pass, and Thompson stretched the ball across the goal line for the tying score. On Ohio State’s ensuing possession, defensive back James Whitley hit Vaness Provitt right in the gut, sending the ball high into the air. Once the ball came down, Michigan defensive back Cato June landed on the ball, and now things were all going Michigan’s way. Brady began to mix the run and pass perfectly, and the Michigan offensive line started to wear down the beleaguered Buckeyes. With 5:01 left, Brady connected with wide receiver Marquise Walker along the Michigan sideline, and Walker stuck the ball in the end zone for the go-ahead score, giving Michigan a 24-17 lead. The scoring was done, but Ohio State got one more chance. On third down and 2 yards to go, linebacker Dhani Jones wrapped up Bellisari’s legs and the Buckeye quarterback went down. Now it was fourth down. One more play for Ohio State. Bellisari threw an incomplete pass over the middle, and Jones waved his arms, indicating an incomplete pass. After a tremendous struggle, Michigan took possession of the ball, gained a first down and ran out the clock.

The win sent Michigan to the Orange Bowl, where the Wolverines came from back from a pair of 14-point deficits to beat Alabama in overtime, 35-34. Michigan finished 10-2, and ranked No. 5 in the national polls. Brady’s performance in his final year caught the eyes of the NFL, and he went on to lead the New England Patriots to three Super Bowl

championships. Few historians mention the 1999 season in Michigan history, but this was undoubtedly one of the most underrated teams of the past 50 years. Many historians even wonder if Michigan would have beaten Michigan State had Lloyd Carr replaced Drew Henson with Brady sooner than he did. If Michigan had won the Michigan State game, there’s a good chance the Wolverines would have won the next game against Illinois, and Michigan might just have won its second national championship in three years.

Thanks to ABC and youtube poster WolverineHistorian for the footage of the game. As always, I own nothing related to the game.

The Michigan Wolverines suffered a ton of disappointment in the 1960s, but even in those most discouraging of days, there were reasons for optimism.

Take Gary Moeller. In the fourth installment of the series on the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry, Moeller was the captain of the 1962 Buckeyes team that thrashed Michigan, 28-0. Ohio State finished the season with a record of six wins and three defeats, while Michigan finished with two wins and seven defeats. On the surface, there’s nothing good for Michigan fans to take from that game. But as we learn in life, sometimes, you have to look beyond the surface.

Moeller was a true student of the game who played both center and linebacker for the Buckeyes, giving him a thorough knowledge of the game. 1962 was his senior year, and he went into coaching afterward, and got a job Miami University (Ohio) in 1967, serving as an assistant on head coach Bo Schembechler’s staff. When Schembechler moved to Michigan in 1969, Moeller moved with him. After Schembechler retired following the 1989 season, Moeller took over as head coach at Michigan, the school he had worked so hard to defeat less than a decade earlier. Moeller coached the Wolverines for only five years, but during that time, he did much to develop the Michigan roster. In 1997, three years after Moeller resigned, Michigan won the national championship, completing an incredible 12-0 season against arguably the toughest schedule in the country. Moeller recruited many of the players who starred on that ’97 team, and the Wolverines won the national championship that season, 25 years after Moeller served as an Ohio State captain. Sometimes, you never know who your allies will be.

Oh yes, The Game in 1962. Ohio State held Michigan to 142 net yards of total offense. The bright spot for Michigan? The Wolverines eventually recovered from this defeat. Even when things look bleakest, there is always hope for the future.

Thanks to the Bentley Historical Library for the box score below. As always, I own none of this material.

http://www.umich.edu/~bhlumrec/athdept/fbstats/1962osu.pdf

There have been several memorable ties in the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry, and a couple of times when Michigan finished the season undefeated, but ended with a tie against Ohio State. That was the case in 1992, the third installment of this year’s series on the rivalry. The rivals finished the game tied, 13-13, with different perspectives from each side.

Make no mistake; the Michigan faithful were not wild about the tie. Michigan came in with a team that probably should have beaten Ohio State. The Buckeyes had already suffered defeats to Wisconsin and Illinois, and the critics in Columbus were already barking for coach John Cooper’s hide. Still, Cooper had the Buckeyes steadily improving, setting up a classic matchup between the two rivals.

Michigan entered the game having only given more than 20 minutes on two occasions, and coach Gary Moeller’s coaching staff featured a pair of assistants (Lloyd Carr and Les Miles) who each went on to win a national championship, and another (Jim Herrmann) who went on to win a Super Bowl. The Wolverines had three All-Americans in Joe Cocozzo, Chris Hutchinson and Derrick Alexander. Aside from the stars on the team, the defense led the Wolverines. Moeller had amassed a stellar secondary featuring Corwin Brown at free safety and Shonte Peoples at strong safety, with a promising young backup at cornerback named Ty Law. By the time The Game rolled around in 1992, Michigan had already clinched the Big Ten championship, but Ohio State had won five consecutive games, and the Bucks were red hot – or scarlet hot, if you’re an OSU fan.
The day was warm, but wet. Late in the first quarter, Ohio State got on the board first with a field goal from Tim Williams, but it wasn’t long before the Wolverines responded, with senior quarterback Elvis Grbac, dropping back to pass, but then quickly sprinting forward to scored on a quarterback draw play, giving the Maize & Blue a 6-3 lead. Unfortunately, OSU defensive lineman Dan Wilkinson hit Grbac hard as he crossed the goal line, knocking him out of the game. Todd Collins stepped in to ably replace Grbac, but Michigan fans will always wonder how the game might have turned out had Grbac not been injured. Still, Collins made his present felt, scoring in the third quarter on a naked bootleg to put Michigan ahead, 13-1. Against most opponents, that would have been a safe lead, but not against Ohio State. Williams narrowed the deficit to 13-6 when he kicked a 29-yard field goal for the Buckeyes, which led to the critical drive. Quarterback Kirk Herbstreit, who went on to considerable success on television, completed a 5-yard touchdown pass to Greg Beatty, leaving Cooper with a decision. Should he kick the extra point, or go for two? Well, Cooper kicked the extra point, a choice that wasn’t sexy, but was built on sound reasoning. If the Bucks went for two points and failed, Cooper would have been blamed by an entire state. So Michigan got the ball back with more than four minutes remaining. The Wolverines made a drive of it, but incompletions on the final two plays of the game ended Michigan’s hope for victory.

For Ohio State, the tie might have saved Cooper’s job. For Michigan, a couple of questions will always haunt the Wolverines. First, would the Wolverines have won if Grbac had been able to stay in the game? Second, what possessed Lloyd Carr to wear one of the ugliest sweaters in history? Fortunately for Lloyd, there was no need for winter weather gear in the Rose Bowl, where Michigan topped Washington, 38-31. Ohio State went on to the Citrus Bowl and lost to Georgia, 21-14.

Many thanks to ABC and to youtube poster WolverineDevotee for the video clip below. As always, I own none of the material presented.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik4-xC8XPWU

The second installment of the Michigan-Ohio State series takes us to 1960. Bump Elliott was in his second year as Michigan’s head coach, and a nicer guy you couldn’t find. Unfortunately, his teams often reflected that, and as we know from recent events, that isn’t always a good thing. It wasn’t very good in 1960, either.

Contrast that with Woody Hayes, who was in his 10th season as Ohio State’s head coach in 1960. Hayes had a tendency to ruffle some feathers from time to time, and he seemed to take pleasure in ruffling all things maize and blue. In 1960, it was the Ohio State defense that did most of the ruffling.

Still, the Wolverines weren’t in the habit of letting their rivals walk all over them, and for more than three quarters, their defense matched the Buckeyes, and with only minutes to go, there was still no score. That’s when Hayes turned to his fullback, Bob Ferguson. In the early ‘60s, fullbacks did more than just block, and Ferguson’s bulldozing style fit the Bucks’ offense perfectly. With a little more than two minutes left, Ferguson rumbled 17 yards for the only score of the game, and the Buckeyes went on to win, 7-0, the exact reverse of the score they lost by in the first game that Hayes coached against Michigan.

Oddly enough, it was the final game of the season for both teams. Michigan finished 5-4, with a record of 3-4 in the Big Ten, while Ohio State finished with a record of 7-2, and 5-2 in the Big Ten. The Big Ten champions? The Minnesota Golden Gophers, who finished the regular season with a record of 8-2, and a 6-1 mark in Big Ten play. The folks in Columbus might not be too happy with that, since Minnesota didn’t play Ohio State in 1960. Following the season, the Gophers made their way to Pasadena, where they were soundly defeated by Washington in the Rose Bowl, 17-7.

I’d like to thank the folks at the Bentley Historical Library for their capsule on the 1960 Michigan football team. As always, I own none of the material presented.

http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/fbteam/1960fbt.htm