“You’ve got to remember, we were a bunch of losers.” That’s how 1964 Michigan team captain Jim Conley labeled his team before summer training camp. But somehow this group of losers, who won just 5 games in 1962 and 1963 combined, captured Michigan’s first Big Ten title since 1950 then pummeled Oregon State 34-7 in the Rose Bowl. Bump Elliott’s team transformed into a powerhouse that put away four top-10 squads, including powerful rivals Michigan State and Ohio State on the road. They crushed teams led by a returning Heisman-winning quarterback in Roger Staubach (Navy), and a squad (Illinois) that featured Dick Butkus, arguably the greatest linebacker in football history.
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History of the GO BLUE Banner (1962) | This Week in Michigan Football History
Saturday’s edition of This Week in Michigan Football History drops back to exactly five decades ago to November 10, 1962 as Bump Elliott’s struggling 1-5 Wolverines took on Illinois. It was that day, according to John U. Bacon, that one of the greatest traditions in college football was hatched: the coveted Michigan GO BLUE banner. This week head back to this day exactly five decades ago in 1962, as head coach Bump Elliott and his struggling Wolverines were about to get a boost as they faced Illinois in Ann Arbor. Team 83 had but a single win in 6 tries, and was shut-out 3 times. They clearly needed a lift, and they got it from an unlikely source: head Michigan hockey coach Al Renfrew and his wife Marge. According to Meechigan historian John U. Bacon, in an effort to raise the spirits of Bump’s men, Marge sewed a maize ‘M’ on a large sheet and presented it at the Friday practice. The players liked it so coach Coach Elliott agreed to have it propped up in the stadium tunnel before the game played on this day 50 years ago. After Bump’s men prevailed 14-10 over the Illini– the banner, needless to say, was here to stay. According to Bacon it moved to midfield the following season where it has become…
