That was a good one. I believe first team in NCAA history to win the Rose Bowl and the Men's Basketball National Championship!
Good year
That was a great year.
I remember the T-shirts publicizing those two achievements (which, to put it mildly, are not on the same plane) and thinking "Yes, this is definitely a football school."
I have one of those. It always seemed cool but odd at the same time.
I was there so I missed Keith's broadcast.
No worries, football season is right around the corner...God-willing, we'll all have our fill of Keiths sweet, sweet broadcasting voice before long.
So was I. I took my dad and we had a great tailgate on the golf course right near the stadium. He only lived 6 years after that after declining health, so it was a great memory.
That 1988 team was so close to contending for an NC. Lost to eventual National Champion ND by 2 pts in the opener and defending NC Miami by 1 the next week (still too soon to discuss... we had that game won). Went 10-0-1 the rest of the way with only that weird tie vs. Iowa. I don't even remember what happened in that game but weird, stupid things happen at Kinnick.
I remember a goal line fumble in that Iowa game. I’ve blocked the other two games out completely.
Miami ‘88 was one of the all-time most painful non-rivalry losses. (It was exceeded, though, by Minnesota ‘86.)
That Miami game was one of the rare times that I don't regret missing a game (I think I had to work). I did watch the Notre Dame game the next week.
I have to say I was impressed at how they turned the season around, though.
Yes, I still get pissed off at the memory of Jimmy Johnson mimicking a juggler, inducing an official to call an obvious catch a non-catch.
Victory through a perfectly lucky bounce on an onside kick. Chances of this occurring <7%. Miami got it. Without that, the game is 30-28 and finished. Of course, it would have been nice to not let them come back from 30-14 down with 7 minutes left.
I was at that game and the Southeast Regional basketball final vs UVA. One of the best years in Michigan sports history.
What a great senior year I had!
I actually felt sorry for UVA in that game. Rice and Higgins couldn't miss all night. My best man was a UVA grad and we decided we would both go to Seattle for the Final 4 regardless of the great 8 outcome.
He was a good sport and rooted for UM, but the fantastic Illinois semi final just about put me in sports cardiac shock and then Seton Hall was no picnic either. What a year it was.
My question to ask UM bball fans is you got a favorite U of M basketball player not named Glen Rice? Think of his best offensive game. Glen Rice did that 6 games in a row on his way to leading us to our only basketball championship. He is our Charles Woodson of basketball.
Rice still holds the record for most points scored during the tournament with 184.
The closest anybody has come to that record since 1989 is Juan Dixon of Maryland, who scored 155 in 2002.
Rice was in my Sociology class. He never showed up though.
I remember him showing up a few days after the championship with a brand new white Jeep Cherokee with "Rice is Nice" in gold on the side. I'm guessing he was waiting for the right time to drive around campus in it. (Maybe his agent lined it up for him since if I'm correct he didn't come from a wealthy family? Kids in those days, including me, didnt usually have that kind of cash hanging around.)
He and Sean Higgins were on fire during that tournament. What a team and good group of guys!
See you soon Nick!
That must've been awesome. I think Rice and Higgins shot about 70 percent from range on many attempts.
UNC was a fun one as well. There was some amazing shooting that tournament.
Pretty much all their shots didn't even draw iron. They were up by 35 points and straight laced interim coach Fisher was on the bench not trying to smile but must have been thinking " holy shit this is fun" .Yeah it was a run and gun showtime against a very good Virginia team. And who could forget JP Oosterbaan and Rob Pelinka off the bench?, Rob became the first player whose UM teams reached the championship game three of his first four years. Great great times.
I was also at Rupp that day. It was such a buzzsaw. Maybe as dominate a performance I have seen live.
I didn't remember that it was so chippy but I guess UVA was frustrated in the second half.
Check out Bo and his facial expressions at the 1:26:00 mark.
Just call it 102-65. I'm guessing there haven't been many Michigan games with that score.
I'd call the other game in Rupp 92-87, but the first game of the tournament against Xavier had the same score. (Yes, the t-shirt with the scores from the NCAA run is still somewhere in my house.)
Both regular season games over Iowa with Marble, BJ Armstrong and Ed Horton that year were NBA type scores. 108-107 at Carver Hawkeye and 119 -96 at Crisler.
I had good seats at Crisler and was fun heckling Les Jepsen their back up center telling him he played like George Jetson and where was his boy Elroy? He turned around and was sort of cracking up but then Dr Tom was not so amused as they were down 20+ points.
Karma came back and Illinois destroyed us on Senior Night, just before the whole Bill Frieder/ Bo Schembechler fiasco.
Here's to hoping Michigan's visit to the LA Coliseum next fall (2024) yields a result similar to the Rose Bowl in '89.
Go Blue!
Hoping Keith Jackson will be the announcer for that game too!
Tune in immediately to see our team win The Granddaddy of all Bowl Games.
A spoiler alert would've been nice, Rob. Jeez...
True, but most Rose Bowls were somewhat less than rewarding for the Michigan team and fans.
I've long felt Demetrius Brown is an under-appreciated QB. For a lot of folks, that horrendous 1987 game @staee (7 interceptions last I checked) is the first or only thing that they remember about Brown.
I prefer to remember him for leading us to two bowl victories (besides this Rose Bowl, a HOF Bowl win over Alabama after the '87 season) in two attempts. He always had a strong arm, but he also could scramble very well and showed great improvement over his Michigan career.
And when the alternative was Michael Taylor ... ai-yi-yi.
My friends and I played a pick-up basketball game at CCRB against a team including Demetrius later that year. He knocked my friend down (accidentally) at one point, and reached down to help him up. We were all so star-struck that my friend talked about it happily for a couple months.
The other anecdote was that we had a mutual friend that year, who told me that every time D started talking smack, my friend would look at him, shake his head, and just say, "7 interceptions, D? Seven interceptions???" Put him right into grumbling silence, every time.
He was (is?) by all accounts a good guy. And yeah, that HOF ending to Kolesar (an absolute all-time favorite player of mine — how many big plays was he involved in???) was pretty awesome too, with — weirdly — Bob Costas doing the play-by-play.
I agree overall as that one horrendous game (young and inexperienced) does come to mind but, gladly, the first thing I always think of is the long TD pass to win the HOF game. A thing of beauty.
One of my favorite Michigan QBs of all time. He threw a great long ball. He would be awesome in today's game.
Haven't heard from Keith Jackson in a while. What's he been up to?
M always wins BTN Michigan Classic games. Rob F spoiled nothing. They should flash the Michigan Classic screen before every game this season just to be safe.
In case anyone only wants to spend 38 minutes watching the whole game without commercials:
That was the one away game I went to as a student. Picked a good one! Leroy Hoard is still one of my favorite players! I still have the merch from that year for the Rose Bowl win and MBB National Championship. (I'm too old to use "natty".) I do not think that was much of an upset as Rodney Pete was overrated, both losses were winnable and should have been wins.