[Ed. The conclusion of the Bo Brackets – a guest post once again by Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis!] To celebrate the conclusion of the Bo Brackets, it was decided that the Championship Game would be played at the Rose Bowl. The 1973 squad was designated as the home team via coin toss and would wear their home blue jerseys. Conversely, the visiting 1980 M-Men would wear their white, road jerseys for this championship tilt. While both teams were directed by #1000SSS to wear commemorative patches below sewn on to their respective jerseys for this game…there was one slight problem.. …the 1973 team refused to put anything on their classic uniforms. U-M Equipment Manager, Jon Falk, balked at the idea of stitching the patch on the 1973 blues and told the media, “We don’t need a patch on that beautiful uniform. We didn’t wear one for our other bowl games in the ‘70s, so we’re not going to start now. No thank you.” The 1980 team had a different take on the patch. The same trail-blazing group that convinced Bo to have their names put on the back of their jerseys (see Uniform Timeline – 1979 and 1989 entries) and felt having a patch sewn on was no big deal. But General Bo wouldn’t be pushed too far. “Sure, I gave…
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The Bo Brackets | The Final Four Results
[Ed. Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis returns with the next round of the Bo Brackets. You can find background including how the teams were selected here, and a breakdown of the Schembechler 16 results here and the Elite 8 here.] Oosterbaan Region Champion – 1973 vs.Yost Region Champion – 1976Everybody expected this game to be a George Patton-like ground assault, but it didn’t start out that way. On the first play from scrimmage, 1976 sophomore QB Rick Leach called an audible and hit a wide open Curt Stephenson for a 76-yard touchdown pass to open the scoring. Just as surprising was how the 1973 UM squad responded. Dennis Franklin completed three straight passes to Paul Seal, Gil Chapman and Clint Haslerig to set up All-American Mike Lantry’s 33-yard field goal, and that’s how the first quarter ended, 7-3 in favor of Bo’s 1976 group. The second quarter featured more of what everyone was expecting to see – three yards and a cloud of dust. When the dust settled, Ed Shuttlesworth and Rob Lytle traded touchdowns in between another Lantry field goal. As Bo’s two best teams from the ’70s went into the locker room at halftime, the 1976 contingent was clinging to a one point lead, 14-13. In the third quarter, Leach overthrew a wide open Jim Smith and Dave…