This Week In Michigan Football History, as played during the WTKA 1050AM ‘Countdown to Kickoff’ held November 14, 2020 before the Michigan-Indiana game.
Topics: We discuss the on-again, off-again, on-again history of the Notre Dame rivalry from the 1910 cancellation, up to the resumption of the series in 1942:
This post is brought to you by my friend Nick Hopwood, CFP at Peak Wealth Management.
Full script:
Today we head back to November 14, 1942, a very special day for the TWO most storied programs his college pigskin HISTORY – namely your beloved Wolverines and our friends from South Bend, Notre Dame.
To understand the significance of this day seventy eight years ago, we first have go all the way back to an incident 1910 that impacted the college football landscape for decades to come.
Michigan was set to face the Irish on a football Saturday November 5, 1910 – but there was a problem as game day approached. The folks in Ann Arbor took a hard look at Notre Dame’s roster and learned that 2 key players were in their 7th year playing college football, and another was ineligible in his 4th season.
The Wolverines filed an official protest to Notre Dame, and in the week leading up to the game the athletic authorities at both schools debated the rules— first with each other, and then in the press. On the Friday afternoon the day before the scheduled battle, the athletic directors met for one last try to settle the issue. Neither side backed down, and Michigan’s Athletic Director cancelled the game literally HOURS before kickoff.
Years later the rivalry simmered OFF THE FIELD between icons Fielding Yost and Knute Rockne, fueling the fire and the refusal to schedule each other despite the proximity. The bad blood between the schools wouldn’t heal for over three decades and that bring us THIS WEEK IN MICHIGAN FOOTBALL HISTORY, namely November 14, 1942 – when the rivalry resumed. Michigan athletic director and head coach?Fritz Crisler?arranged with Notre Dame’s?Elmer Layden?for two games to be played with Irish during the 1942 and 1943 seasons.
The 1942 game was played in South Bend and pitted #4 ranked Wolverines against the #6 Irish
Over 57,000 watched Notre Dame strike first, scoring a pair of TDs in the first half. Michigan countered with a pair of scores, including a wily TD on a fake field goal, but trailed 14-13 midway through. But the 2nd half was all Meeechigan and the maize and blue rallied for 19 points in the third. All told the Irish surrendered the ball 6 times on turnovers and the visitors from Ann Arbor rushed for over 300 yards in the 32-20 win for THE VICTORS VALIANT.
Once again the axis of the college football world was restored, as the team who taught Notre Dame how to play football back in 1887 once again delivered a lesson, this time with a 32-20 beating as the regular meeting on the NATURAL ENEMIES resumed.
Go Blue, TO HELL WITH NOTRE DAME, Beat the Badgers, and For more, checking MVictors.com and WTKA.com – for the KeyBank Countdown to Kickoff this is Greg Dooley.
