The cost associated with Michigan bowl trips has been watched closely over the years. According to 1964 team captain Jim Conley, then-athletic director Fritz Crisler tried to seize some funds donated to the team that was designated to give the players a football charm celebrating their championship year. Why did Crisler want to do such a thing? The team racked up some serious phone bills on their trip to Pasadena and the old man wanted to recoup the cost.
Check out this letter including the estimated budget for the trip then-Coach Crisler and his Mad Magicians would take to Pasadena to pummel USC in the Rose Bowl. First, the letter describing the logistics of the nearly two-day trek to the west coast involving stops in Chicago, Colorado, New Mexico:
Next, here is the budget for the contingent including 44 players, breaking out to about $750 per player:
We can only speculate on what “Special Equipment” meant! Whatever it was it worked as U-M pummeled USC so bad it prompted the Associated Press to cast an unprecedented post-bowl vote to name the Wolverines national champions. I love how TIME Magazine described the beating Crisler’s men put down on the Trojans:
Southern Cal’s beefy bruisers, the West Coast champs, were not clubbed to death. They were just hoodwinked and whipsawed by Michigan’s slickers. Jack Weisenburger, Crisler’s sturdy spinning fullback, started most of Michigan’s backfield ballet and ball-handling hocuspocus, and chewed through the center of Southern Cal’s bewildered line for three Michigan touchdowns.
Southern Cal never really had a chance:
I’m sure they enjoyed the train ride home.
