With Notre Dame facing Syracuse today at Yankee Stadium, here’s a recap of Michigan’s visits to the Bronx. The results didn’t turn out well for your beloved Wolverines, but the 1945 game in particular [coincidentally the topic of today’s edition of TWIMFbH] is a major milestone event in the history of all of college football:
1945
From an April 2009 post, here’s a bit about the trip to the Bronx to face Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis in 1945:
Michigan knew they had little chance heading into this game, as Army featured two of the finest ever to lace them up: Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis. Each man won the Heisman Trophy. From 1944 to 1946, Blanchard and Davis formed a nasty backfield that helped the Cadets roll to a 27-0-1 record.
Fritz’s Crisler’s Michigan men squared off against the Army machine twice, in 1945 in New York and again in 1946 in Ann Arbor.
The first battle at Yankee Stadium was played on October 13, 1945 and the Cadets rolled through Crisler’s men 28-7 in front of nearly 63,000 fans. The next day the Chicago Tribune declared, ‘ARMY WHIPS MICHIGAN’ and started the game summary like this:
Michigan sent its young football men on a man’s errand this afternoon in Yankee stadium..”
It’s a man’s game. And the two biggest men of all were Blanchard, who ran off tackle for a 69-yard touchdown in the second quarter, and Davis, who added a 70-yard score in the fourth. Between them, they covered 370 yards on the ground, with Davis adding 47 passing yards.
The Tribune’s account gives some credit to Crisler’s men for battling hard, in fact, Michigan nearly tied the score at 14-14 before fumbling away the possession. After that Army’s machine took over, rolling to the 21 point victory.
The game holds more historical significance than just two great football powers meeting in the House that Ruth Built. The battle against Davis and Blanchard prompted Fritz Crisler to employ a strategy of substituting or ‘platooning’ players, the first time in college football.
Sports Illustrated writer Gerald Holland wrote a wonderful piece on Crisler in its February 3, 1964 issue titled, ‘The Man Who Changed Football’. Holland talked with the old coach about the origins of his substitution strategy:
What made him decide to go to platooning in 1945?
“Sheer necessity. You see, almost all colleges were playing freshmen at the time, because the older boys were in the service. Now, before the Michigan-Army game I figured that I would have to start nine freshmen against Red Blaik’s great Blanchard-Davis team. By comparison with Michigan, Army had a team of mature men. I asked myself, ‘How are our poor, spindly-legged freshmen going to stand up against these West Pointers all afternoon?’ I knew I would have to spell them off during the game. So I picked our best defensive men and said, ‘When we lose the ball, you fellows automatically go in.’ Then I got my best offensive men and ball handlers together and said, ‘When we regain possession, you fellows automatically go in.’ As it turned out, I only platooned the lines, and the linebackers on defense. We lost the game 28-7, but it should have been much, much worse.
Crisler exploited a rule change, actually made four years earlier (1941). It was a subtle language change made to support the game during WWII that allowed substitutions to be made “at any time.” Crisler’s innovation was being the first to test this rule change to the letter of the law.
1950
The Wolverines made a return trip to New York five seasons later in 1950.
1950 was a special season in Michigan football history. Many M historians know this is the year that the Wolverines defeated Ohio State 9-3 in the epic Snow Bowl. That classic win earned the Blue a trip to Pasadena where they defeated Cal 14-6 on two late touchdowns.
All’s well that ends well, but things didn’t start well and included a trip to New York. Here’s a ticket stub from the October 14, 1950 game at Yankee Stadium:
Army was riding a twenty-two game winning streak heading into the game and dropped the Wolverines 27-6 in front of 67,076 fans including General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Gazing solely at the boxscore you might have figured the Victors prevailed or at least kept the score respectable:
The New York Times commended the Wolverines effort that day and reported that Bennie Oosterbaan’s men put a bit of a scare into the Black Knights, scoring early and threatening often. In the end, Army was too tough, capitalizing when they needed to pull safely away. Army’s streak eventually ended later that season in a 14-2 loss to Navy.
While the football squad took a bit of a beating in a hard-fought battle, the Michigan Marching Band made a few headlines with a legendary performance on the historic field. Their effort earned a few inches in the Times post-game coverage:
Brush away tear after reading that. My god, Revelli pulled out all the stops!
Conclusion: Given the two sound beatings Army put down, perhaps the players should hang in Ann Arbor and we should send the marching band to the Bronx to do their thing.
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