Indiana University Athletics
Great Games - 1987 Michigan (Crowds Help Win Games)
7/22/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
July 22, 2005
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Over the month of July, IUHOOSIERS.com shines the spotlight on five unforgettable games in IU football history. This set of five contests came from an incredible interview with long-time radio personality Don Fischer. Each week, we will include not only the game recap from that season, but also thoughts straight from the Fischer interview. The fourth in our series is IU's 1987 triumph over Michigan.
1987 INDIANA 14, MICHIGAN 10
Oct. 24 - Bloomington, Ind.
Attendance: 51,240
Indiana ended a 20-year winless skein against Michigan with a come-from-behind 14-10 win, a victory that assured a winning season for the second consecutive year and put the Hoosiers in the record book as the only team to defeat both Ohio State and Michigan in the same season. IU took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter after a blocked punt by Bill Reisert - IU's first blocked punt in five years - set up a Dave Schnell to Ernie Jones touchdown throw. Michigan came back to lead 10-7 at half, but the second half belonged to the Hoosiers. IU had a 14-play, 65-yard touchdown march in the third period that consumed eight minutes of the clock with Schnell scoring from three yards out. IU's defense did its part, holding the Wolverines to 88 total yards in the second half. IU had its lowest output of the year with only 190 total yards, while Michigan had 300, including 152 yards rushing from Jamie Morris. Anthony Thompson ran for 77 yards for IU, while Schnell passed for 108 yards, hitting Jones with four passes for 68 yards.
DON FISCHER'S THOUGHTS
We are 5-1 going into the Michigan game. We hadn't beaten Michigan in 20 years. We never beat Ohio State and Michigan in the same year in the history of the program. We beat them on a day when it rained the whole time. It rained the entire game. It was kind of a drizzle at the beginning and as the day wore on, it got worse. In this particular game, our defense played, I don't want to say superlative, but every big play the defense had to make, they made.
In the first half, on Michigan's first opportunity to score, there was a five-minute delay because of crowd noise. Demetrius Brown kept backing away, our crowd was so loud. We had 51,000-plus fans in the stands this day. Our crowd was so loud, that every time Brown called signals, our crowd roared up. He had to step away. The official never made a loud-speaker announcement. He just stood back there waiting for the crowd to quiet. Our crowd didn't shut up. Finally, they went to the sidelines and talked to Bo Schembechler. The official never made an announcement that the crowd needed to quiet down. Finally, when they did snap the ball - they scored. Our crowd was booing like crazy. They thought the official ruined the momentum of the game. That is how Michigan scored that first touchdown.
In the first quarter, our first touchdown was scored because Billy Reisert had blocked a punt. First blocked punt in five years. He was responsible for our first touchdown. He had three huge plays that year. He made a hit in the Illinois ballgame that was phenomenal and jarred the ball loose on a kick return and we recovered it and took it in. That was the difference. He also had another blocked kick in the Purdue game that year. This is the first of three huge plays he made that season. He was a special teams player. That was all he did. He wasn't a starter in any other area in the game.
 Schnell passed for 108 yards in the victory.  |
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Bo Schembechler, after this game, criticized our crowd for being too loud. He was rankled because they got beat. He criticized our crowd for being too loud in a 50,000-seat stadium and he has had a 104,000 stadium in Ann Arbor.
