Michigan Football Canceled or Moved – A History

With Saturday’s game against Maryland canceled, here’s a look at past seasons when games were either moved or completely canceled.

Adapted from previous posts:

1963 – Kennedy Assassination – Schedule Change
The assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963 moved out the Ohio State game which was scheduled to be played in Ann Arbor the next day.

The game was rescheduled to after Thanksgiving (the team actually attended the Lions-Packers game), and played on Saturday November 30, 1963. Barry Dehlin, a member of that squad, shared his thoughts on that strange week here.

2001 – 9/11 – Schedule Change
The September 11, 2001 attacks took place right in the beginning of the college football season and caused a few ripples throughout the schedule. Michigan pushed games against Western Michigan and Illinois out one week.

1918 – WWI, Flu – Cancellations and Schedule Changes
In 1918 football took a backseat to WWI and a massive flu outbreak. The schedule was a complete mess and the Bentley Library added a note to help sort out all the shifts/cancellations:

Scheduled games with Camp Custer (10/12), M.A.C. (Michigan State – 10/19), Ohio State (10/26 at Columbus), Northwestern (11/02), Cornell (11/16), Syracuse (11/16 in place of Cornell) and Minnesota (11/23) were canceled in response to the influenza epidemic and war-related travel restrictions. Only the Michigan State and Ohio State games were rescheduled.

Fielding Yost’s Michigan squad ended up playing and winning five games that season and claimed the national championship.  Here’s a look at the M.A.C. stub:

You’ll note that the ticket has the date of the day the game was actually played, not when it was originally scheduled. Assuming the Bentley’s facts are correct on the date shuffle, they either printed new tickets (possible) or they were aware of the changes before they printed the 1918 tickets (likely).

1910 Notre Dame – Cancellation.

On Friday, Nov. 4, 1910, Michigan authorities cancelled the showdown football game scheduled for the next day between the Wolverines and the University of Notre Dame on old Ferry Field, now site of UM’s track and field oval.  In a nutshell, the Wolverines contended that at least two Fighting Irish players were ineligible under the rules of the game contract, and when Notre Dame refused to sit them out, Michigan pulled the plug on the contest, and, as it turned out, on the series for the next 32 years. Full story here.

1991 and 2003 – The Twins – Schedule Change
A late add for posterity – yes, on a couple occasions the game at Minnesota has been moved to avoid a conflict with the MLB playoffs.

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