Previous meeting with SMU
Just noticed something interesting, besides the fact that there is only one previous meeting between the two schools, Michigan beat SMU 27-16 on Sept 28th 1963. The coach of SMU was none other than one Hayden Fry. in his second year of being a head coach.
September 12th, 2018 at 12:59 AM ^
I'm praying for you.
September 12th, 2018 at 1:01 AM ^
Those were some dark times. 1963 season opener after a 2-7 season in 1962 during the Big Ten title drought.
Only 63,659 were in attendance and it was Band Day where Canham had a bunch of high school bands come in and fill the field at halftime for the halftime show.
This game was the first start for QB Forest Evashevski, Jr.
September 12th, 2018 at 1:41 AM ^
His Father played QB for Michigan during the 1938 to 1940.
September 12th, 2018 at 1:48 AM ^
Sr beat OSU all 3 years he started. Almost went to the Rose Bowl in 1940 but lost to them Gophers 7-6.
September 12th, 2018 at 6:58 AM ^
Why would Don Canham have had bands at Michigan Stadium while he was still the head track coach and five years before becoming the athletic director?
September 12th, 2018 at 8:55 AM ^
Good catch!
September 12th, 2018 at 9:49 AM ^
Band Day LONG predated Canham. The first one was in 1949.
September 12th, 2018 at 10:10 AM ^
*Crisler
September 12th, 2018 at 7:30 AM ^
Tom Cechinni (pictured above, #53) was my Phys. Ed. teacher when I was in 8th or 9th grade in '65 or '66. He was an All Big Ten linebacker who sometimes played center earlier in his career at Michigan. Nice guy, but dealing with a bunch of junior high kids was a pretty tall order for him.
September 12th, 2018 at 8:42 AM ^
I was 8 at the time ... and I'll bet I was there !! haha
Go Blue!
September 12th, 2018 at 9:15 AM ^
More stats from that day - September 28, 1963
Forest Evashevski Jr. was 7/10 passing for 104 yards and a touchdown (to Bill Laskey)
Rushing combined for 282 yards, led by Jack Clancy's 74 yards and Dick Rindfuss' 58.
Joe O'Donnell had one carry for 50 yards. Maybe they should have given him more carries?
September 12th, 2018 at 1:35 AM ^
Wow, that was the year I was born. I wish my parents would have taken me to that game as a 2mos old kid. I doubt I would have remembered it. I say we win like 45-9 this second meeting.
September 12th, 2018 at 1:39 AM ^
happy 55th birthday 2 u!!!
September 12th, 2018 at 1:43 AM ^
Thanks Big Boutros!
September 12th, 2018 at 8:05 AM ^
How are they going to score the 9 points? They get close enough three times to kick field goals? They score a field goal and a touchdown, and then they're stopped when they go for two? Or three safeties and a field goal?
September 12th, 2018 at 10:08 AM ^
Blocked extra point.
September 12th, 2018 at 6:37 AM ^
ok...
September 12th, 2018 at 9:19 AM ^
Fun fact: SMU likes to claim that this game was what inspired then-Ford VP Lee Iacocca to name his company's new sports car "The Mustang"
From their game notes this week:
Legend has it that when Ford Motor Company was preparing to introduce the sports car that would gain fame as the Mustang, it was considering other names such as Cougar, Bronco, Cheetah and Colt.
But during the 1963 football season, SMU took an undersized but quick team to Ann Arbor to play a massive Michigan Wolverine squad. Michigan gained the early advantage but had to fight off the feisty Ponies for a 27-16 win.
After the game, Ford's Lee Iacocca entered the SMU locker room and addressed the disappointed Mustangs. "Today," Iacocca said, "After watching the SMU Mustangs play with such flair, we reached a decision. We will call our new car the Mustang. Because it will be light, like your team. It will be quick, like your team. And it will be sporty, like your team."
Ford's new car got its name, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Yeah, that may not be true.
September 12th, 2018 at 11:45 AM ^
I cannot stop laughing at this absolute bullshit fairy tale.
September 12th, 2018 at 1:02 PM ^
Light, quick and sporty? Only a man with balls the size of church bells could walk into a locker room full of college football players and "compliment" them with those words.
September 12th, 2018 at 12:33 PM ^
Well of course it's not true. The actual fact is that Iacocca said this:
"Iacocca said, "After watching the SMU Mustangs play with such flair, we reached a decision. We will call our new car the 5 Dead Hookers. Because it will be hookers, like your team. It will be dead, like your team. And it will be five, like your team."
September 12th, 2018 at 9:26 AM ^
Oddly, this will be the third time I have been to a game with SMU. I saw SMU beat Arkansas in 1984 at Texas Stadium as a high school kid when I lived in Dallas. I also saw Texas beat SMU in Austin in 1986. That was SMUs last year before the "death penalty" ended the program for 3 years. SMU was an uppity school then, maybe they still are. The visiting fans had shirts that said something along the lines of "Our gardeners and maids went to Texas".
Really a huge fall for SMU. From almost winning the national title in 1982 (finished #2 at 11-0-1) to the death penalty to falling out of a Power Conference.
Michigan should roll
September 12th, 2018 at 10:28 AM ^
Are we sure Sonny Dykes isn't a dipshit? He seems like he might be a dipshit. He had Jared Goff and won nothing.
September 12th, 2018 at 10:30 AM ^
You want to know something else interesting?
CJK5H
September 12th, 2018 at 10:42 AM ^
As I recall, Michigan did have SMU scheduled for a game in 1987, but due to the death penalty, they couldn't play the game.
Michigan was then able to replace SMU with UNLV, but prior to the year, UNLV decided that the money wouldn't be worth the beating that they'd receive. They asked Michigan if they could drop the game, and Michigan relented under the condition that UNLV find a replacement.
Hence Long Beach State, the day Bo called the worse game/day of his life in one of his books. An uninspired Michigan team beat them 49-0.
September 12th, 2018 at 12:24 PM ^
Indeed. That was LBSU's worst loss in football since Cal Poly SLO (San Luis Obisbo) 65-12 back in 1959.
http://articles.latimes.com/1987-09-27/sports/sp-10553_1_michigan-stadium
That offensive line, like the crowd, left a lasting impression on 49er nose tackle Nate Deaton.
"They don't hit you that hard, but they're so big they just get in your way like a wall of humanity," Deaton said.
After the goal-line stand, the 49er offense set the ineffective tone it would have throughout the game.
Quarterback Jeff Graham was erratic with his passes, and the team's early nervousness resulted in three illegal procedure penalties on one series.
The second time Michigan got the ball it drove 57 yards, with quarterback Demetrius Brown running four yards for the touchdown.
September 12th, 2018 at 12:16 PM ^
Former UM Coach Bump Elliott on Hayden Fry and the 1963 SMU @ Michigan game:
"I coached against him in 1963 when I was at Michigan and Hayden was at SMU," said former Iowa athletic director Bump Elliott. "We won the game, but his team was very organized, respectful and very hard to defend. I remembered that game when it came time to hire a new coach."
Source: http://data.desmoinesregister.com/hall-of-fame/single.php?id=365
Fry returned to Ann Arbor in 1981 as Iowa HC for the first time with a great defense that had already knocked off No.7 Nebraska and No. 6 UCLA. Iowa then beat No. 5 ranked Michigan 9-7. Hawkeyes went to the Rose Bowl that year for first time since 1959.
By the way, some of the best and funniest stories about Bo Schembechler are told through the eyes of Hayden Fry.
September 12th, 2018 at 12:37 PM ^
"Fry, who later coached at Iowa for 20 seasons, told the Iowa City Press Citizen newspaper in February that Iacocca even sold him the first Ford Mustang -- painted in SMU's colors, red and blue -- for just $1."
Something tells me that Hayden Fry was a world-class bullshitter.
September 13th, 2018 at 9:19 PM ^
SMU is MSU rearranged. Therefore, they gon die.