Pasadena or Purgatory: The Game, 1964
The stakes are as high as they get.
Michigan prepares for a winner-take-all game in Columbus. Led by an All-American player-turned-coach, the Wolverines and their fans carry more optimism into The Game than they have in years. Ohio State has previously seemed unbeatable under their highly regarded coach but the momentum has shifted north over the past year.
It’s 1964.
The Coaches
After serving as a lieutenant in the Marines at the end of World War II, Chalmers “Bump” Elliott starred at halfback in Michigan’s famed “Mad Magicians” backfield alongside his brother, quarterback Pete Elliott. Despite playing only two seasons in Ann Arbor because of a pre-war tenure at Purdue, Bump left an indelible mark.
Elliott’s two-way exploits helped propel U-M to the 1947 national championship. He led the ’47 team in scoring, finding the end zone as a rusher, receiver, punt returner and defender. He was the second Wolverine since 1943 to record a 100-yard receiving game and the first to do it twice. To this day, he’s fifth in career interception return yards with 174.
The Western Conference controversially denied Elliott a wartime-related extra year of eligibility for 1948, a choice Michigan Daily sports editor Dick Kraus wrote was intended “to hamstring the champions” in his recurring column Just Kibitzing. Bump joined the coaching staff for a year, spent a decade as an assistant at Oregon State and Iowa, returned to Ann Arbor under fellow legend Bennie Oosterbaan in 1957 and ascended to the head job for the ’59 season.
Wayne Woodrow Hayes requires little introduction. He arrived in Columbus from Miami (OH) in 1951. By 1964, he’d won four Big Ten titles and claimed three national championships. The more colorful pages of his lore had yet to be written.
Meanwhile, Elliott struggled to get Michigan on level footing. Oosterbaan went 2-6-1 in his final season. From 1959-63, Elliott’s teams went 20-23-2 overall and never placed higher than a tie for fifth in the Western Conference. U-M had lost four straight to Ohio State after beating an uncharacteristically bad Buckeyes squad in Elliott’s debut season, tying their worst skid in rivalry history (1934-37).
The Buildup
In 1964, Hayes’ Buckeyes spent eight weeks in the AP top five, including two at No. 1, before a shocking 27-0 home loss to unranked Penn State knocked them down to No. 7 entering The Game. Since PSU was still decades from joining a conference, however, OSU sat atop the West heading into the final week of the regular season.
Three Buckeyes would be named 1964 All-Americans: defensive back Arnold Chonko, left tackle Jim Davidson and linebacker Ike Kelley. Two more future All-Americans, guard Doug Van Horn and center Ray Pryor, anchored the offensive line with Davidson. Chonko and Kelley later made OSU’s All-Century team.
For the first time since the mid-50s, Michigan remained in the conference title race to the end, only a 21-20 defeat against third-place Purdue away from a perfect record. Star QB Bob Griese’s Boilermakers had since lost two conference games, so the winner of Michigan-OSU would go to the Rose Bowl.
Michigan Daily, 20 Nov. 1964.
The Wolverines had a pair of soon-to-be All-American of their own: quarterback Bob Timberlake and defensive lineman Bill Yearby. Sixteen players from the 1964 team went on to play in the NFL or CFL, not including star halfback Jim Detwiler, who never played a down after getting drafted in the first round by the Baltimore Colts because of a knee injury.
The Detroit Free Press reported a new-found feeling in Ann Arbor: optimism.
They talked of Michigan-Ohio State football games—which is normal enough since those old enemies play this week—but there was a difference.
There wasn’t that worrisome air that preceded defeats at the hands of the Buckeyes for the last four autumns.
At moments, the conversation almost had a ring of confidence in the face of an impending Saturday visit to Columbus.
They were even questioning Bump Elliott about whether he would go for one-point or two-point conversions after touchdowns.
Even though Michigan hadn’t won in Columbus since 1956, Elliott gave a straight answer to the conversion question: if U-M felt confident they’d score again, they’d “probably” kick the one-point conversion.
The Game
Not only is Michigan-OSU the greatest rivalry in sports, it may be the best-documented. If you’re so inclined, you can watch this entire game:
Although both offenses were well-regarded, the vaunted defenses controlled the cold, wind-swept game from the outset. This was the most stressful type of rivalry game: one resting on the knife’s-edge of turnovers and scant few scoring opportunities.
The first six drives ended in punts as neither squad could advance closer than 38 yards from the opposing end zone. Michigan blinked first. Timberlake was stripped from behind trying to convert a third-and-two and OSU end Thomas Kiehfuss recovered at the U-M 29-yard line.
