Under the leadership of head coach Bump Elliott, the 1964 Wolverines won Michigan’s first Big Ten championship since 1950 and their first Rose Bowl since 1951, and finished fourth in the national college football polls. They defeated four top-ten ranked teams: Navy, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Oregon State, their Rose Bowl opponent. The Wolverines also defeated Minnesota for the first time since 1960, and reclaimed the prized Little Brown Jug.
Despite its impressive record, the 1964 team failed to attract the national attention it deserved. At the beginning of the season, few football observers expected Michigan to contend for the Big Ten championship. But by the end of the season it was clear that the Wolverines were one of America’s elite teams—perhaps the best in the country.
This book chronicles for the first time the exploits of Michigan’s 1964 team and gives them long-overdue recognition.

E. Bruce Geelhoed is a professor of history at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana where he teaches courses in the Honors College and also a course in American business history.

E. Bruce Geelhoed
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 248
Bibliographic Info: 34 photos, appendix, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2014
pISBN: 978-0-7864-9605-1
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1767-1
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments vii

Preface 1

Introduction: 1964, a Season of Breakthroughs 5

One Quickness and Agility: Building the ’64 Michigan Team 25

Two A Solid Start 43

Three One Step Forward, One Step Back 69

Four Two Steps Up the Ladder 98

Five Back in the Big Ten Race 115

Six “We gotta beat Ohio! We gotta beat Ohio!” 138

Seven “We came to win and we did” 166

Afterword: Beyond Michigan Stadium 190

Appendix: The 1964 Michigan Wolverines Roster 203

Chapter Notes 207

Bibliography 229

Index 231

“Geelhoed delivers a masterfully chronicled tribute to one of the great (and unappreciated) U-M teams of all-time. This is required reading for Michigan football fans.”—Greg Dooley, Michigan Football Historian