Wow the band played the Victors a LOT slower back then. If we extrapolate, we can safely assume that in 1898, it took the better part of a quarter just to get through one complete rendition.

Sums it up well. Thanks.

Those goal posts look a mile apart now.

#4 - Michigan Man, Michigan Legend

I was there. My picture is my 3 kids at UofM opener 2021

I was at that game. Student section, sophomore year. Gotta love the toilet paper streamer floating down in the crowd shot. I threw that one - LOL!

Like you, that play has stuck in my memory.  Arguably Bo's best team despite having a loss to #1 Iowa (on 4 FG's) at Kinnick and a frustrating 3-3 tie with Illinois. It finished with Bo's highest national ranking (#2) at the end of the season. That team's defense was crazy stout as well, not allowing a TD until the 7th game of the season, or a PAT until the 4th quarter of the 10th game!

Remember it well. I was sitting in a bar with a friend. Great play; great day.

Strong sentiments.

Was playing HS football in those days and the thing that stood out me the most in that clip was....... wow have shoulder pads and all the other pads ever come a long way since then.  Woulda been a much better player with todays equipment - in my mind at least.  None of that shit ever fit quite right.

Great play and a wonderful memory.

Only Bo who knew Jim as a kid would say "little Jimmy Harbaugh ..."

Thankfully, I started an engineering co-op assignment in early 1984 that resulted in three 4-month internships in Houston, scattered over semesters in 1984 and 85. I would have graduated the school year (1984-85) that we went 6-6 (1984).

Instead, I graduated in December 1985 and had great seats with a friend in Section 25, straddling the 40-yard line (KO's were from that yard line in 1985). I remember that game so well. We needed Iowa to lose at home to Minny (they won instead) in order to be able to go to the Rose Bowl. The winner was going to play the Okie/Nebraska loser in the Fiesta, while our game loser was going to a lesser bowl.

It had snowed the day/night before (you can see the snow along the walls in the replays). I remember NOT dressing for the game well enough (tennis shoes without wool socks). It was fricking freezing, as Dr. Evil would say.

This was the first UM game that started during the daylight and ended under the lights. I believe the prime-time CBS KO games started at 230 PM (not the 330 PM of today). 

That stadium actually erupted twice - the rollout pass TD to Eric Kattus to make it 20-10 in the 3rd brought a frenzy over the stadium. 

For the 77-yd TD, the pass also seemed like a slow-motion guided missile that flew and hung in the air until John caught it right in his breadbasket. It was right down in front of us (we were in about Row 60, Section 25. It wasn't until years later (Desmond's and Charles' PR TDs vs. Ohio) that I ever remember a crowd that loud and delirious as that one.

Jimbo will always be remembered for the last 3 years (40-3) and that play!

Truly one of the great plays in Michigan history.

Great write up, SHS. I think this is a great reminder of how lucky we were to have such a great QB and head coach. He did the unthinkable job of turning the program around and, ultimately, win the national championship.

Harbaugh took the hit, but only because he can take it. He sacrificed himself for the greater good (the greater good) of Michigan football. No man is more important than the team.

Go Blue!

I was at that game.  The 2021 game was my all time favorite in person Michigan experience, but this game in 1985 was second.  My first year in Ann Arbor, seats were in Row 6, north end zone.  I remember that ball arcing through the steel gray November sky, and it felt like it was going to land in my lap. Kolesar outran the safety and caught it in perfect stride, racing into our end zone.  Thats 26 year old me in that clip in the green jacket….

As a young Lieutenant I listened to that game on Armed Forces radio while my ship was in-port Subic Bay Philippines on yet another 6 month deployment. At 0330 or thereabouts, I listened to the call as Kolesar crossed the goal line, yelling, jumping up and down on the deck of the bridge. Next morning while eating breakfast, the XO comes in, sits down across from me, stares at me through his cigarette smoke and says " Mr. McAllister, I take it Michigan won?"

I forgot that his stateroom was right below where I was jumping up and down and going crazy. But he just smiled and said he was happy for me.  I'll never forget either of those moments.  

Never saw the play until years later. He took the hit indeed. Full circle, those who stay.

Thanks OP.

Bo's interview, LOL.  He sure has a way of talking like a general.  He was a badass.

Beautifully written and so true. Jim MF Harbaugh took all those hits and taught Team 144 how to do the same. How to lift up your teammates no matter how you were feeling at the time.

And then on  November 25th, when Zak Zinter took the hit and the entire team looked sad and out it, a new force came forth. The fans in the stadium. They were all so down, but they were all in it together. And the team heard them, rose up as one. Blake Corum grabbed the lead back.  For 65. For Coach Moore. For Coach Harbaugh. For Michigan.  

"Let's Go Zak! Let's Go Zak!"

Some trivia about that play -- Kolesar played with contact lenses, and when he looked up for the ball the lens on one of his eyes slid out of place off the pupil, and he couldn't see clearly. He kept running just hoping the lens would slide back into place so he could see, and fortunately, it did.  A little detail that nobody in the stadium would have known, but it could have been disastrous.  

Fantastically written. You have a gift.

For me, Harbaugh will go down as Michigan's best coach ever.

He broke the Carr issue to beat basically all the teams he "should have beat" -- yes, 2021 MSU counts. We won that game and no one can convince me differently.

He made changes and found ways to solve his "big game" issues.

He won the National Championship in an era where it takes more games -- and more games against high-level teams -- to win it all.

He helped mold legions of high-quality leaders of good character. This cannot be emphasized enough.

He achieved his greatest success in a year where everything was purposefully stacked against him and the team, orchestrated for maximum effect and damage.....talk about taking the hit.

He took the hit. For his players. Champions. Victors. Leaders and Best.

“Or die trying!”

Cool story - my daughter was born a couple days before that 1985 game, and came home from the hospital 5 minutes before kickoff. My wife and I took turns holding her while we watched the game. That little girl is now a UM graduate and she and her son joined us for this year's win over the Buckeyes.

Great memories - thanks for reminding me!

I played against OSU DT #55 Ray Holliman (Holland West Ottawa) in High School. We beat them 22-6 but man that guy was a one man wrecking crew.

Amazing how much better TV camera coverage is now.  

Great piece.   Extremely well said.  Thank you.

I got chills and goosebumps.

One comment on the call: I've never been a huge fan of Musburger, but the way he let that play breathe - phenomenal. The crowd noise and celebration was the story. We didn't need analysis to get in the way of revelry, and he knew it. Then, after the XP, the analysis, then an epic close going into the commercial.

Today's commentators could learn a lot from that one clip.

This is a great piece of writing and it is saying something that is true. Great writing often does.