Tuesday You Tube: Michigan Football Hangs 70 on Illinois Back in 1981

by Maize n Brew Dave on Jun 23, 2009 9:44 AM CDT in Michigan Football

With all the high powered offenses Michigan's had over the last few years it's amazing to think that none of them have come close to the shellacking the Wolverines put on Illinois back in '81. Think about that. in '81 we had the first shuttle launch, Muhammad Ali's last fight, the attempted Reagan assination, and Mettalica had just gotten together (yes, they're that old).

The game itself, outside of the score, had some meaning to the Michigan Football Faithful. Text and video from Wolverine Historian:

It was the first home game since the death of the legendary Bob Ufer who passed away just 12 days earlier. The fans payed tribute to Bob with a moment of silence.

Illinois stormed out to a 21-7 lead and was threatening to go up 28-7 with the ball in the Michigan red zone. But from there... well... enjoy.

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Bob Ufer

Thanks for the memories. I was at that game and remember it very well. Ufer really was the best.

We had never seen Bo run up the score on a team. In those days coaches didn’t show up other teams to get style points for rankings.

Rumor was that Bo was particularly mad at Illinois for the way they treated Gary Moeller (who coached at Illinois from 77 -79) and that’s why he left the first string in till the end of the game.

Very uncharacteristic of Bo.

by Chicago Bruin on Jun 23, 2009 7:11 PM CDT reply actions