Ridiculous Michigan Football record book error uncovers rare play

Would it surprise you to know that there are many inaccuracies with the official Michigan record books on MGoBlue?

Things have gotten to the point where I am double-checking the MGoBlue record book using other sources such as Bentley Historical Library, Michigan Daily archives and even Newspaper.com ($) archives when I am doing work for my Michigan SuperGuide. 

For example, I went game-by-game a couple years ago double checking the Michigan-MSU baseball series after a couple inconsistencies I noticed. U-M's records (at the time of the research I did which was completed on 1/29/2017) said the series was 195-105-2 Michigan. Thorough research using the Michigan Daily and Newspapers.com archives proved that to be WAY off. The series record was actually 197-109-1.

My findings included games entirely left out of U-M's record book, games that were recorded as Michigan losses but were actually WINS, inaccurate dates and scores.

Not even the Michigan Football Record Book is safe. Michigan Baseball is less surprising because there have been THOUSANDS of games played and not nearly the amount of press there is for Michigan Football. There are so many different places to find accurate information to make sure mistakes like this don't happen. 

After doing some research on kickoff return TDs and which ones throughout our history were on the opening kickoff, I decided to go case-by-case and research the history of Michigan punt return TDs. I mainly wanted to decipher which ones were straight-up returns and which were returned off of blocks. As well as what quarter each punt return TD took place in.

Come to find out that the U-M record book says Dave Elliott returned a 10 yard punt for a touchdown in Michigan's 56-0 rout of Virginia in 1971. That is COMPLETE bunk. I first checked the Bentley Historical Library box score archives and checked out the play-

It turns out that not only was it not a punt return but it was an extremely rare play. It was a recovered kickoff for a touchdown by Dave Elliott. The official box score reads-

Coin kicked off to the V endzone where V men let it roll and D. Elliott covered it for the M TD.  Slade held while Coin converted.  MICHIGAN 35  VIRGINIA 0  Time. 14m 46s

Now that's the official boxscore that was typed up via typewriter during that 1971 game. Here is the Michigan Daily account of the play-

Not only was an error in the official Michigan record book discovered but also a very rare play that--to my knowledge--hasn't been replicated since by Michigan.

BUT it was done by SMU-Tulsa earlier this season. This is exactly what happened in that 1971 Virginia game. There is no video or audio currently available on the internet of the play. This is the next best thing-