The LuLac Edition #5, 784, October 3rd, 2026

 

MAYBE I’M

AMAZED

Our “Maybe I’m Amazed” logo.

Football

Michigan

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…….Michigan began competing in intercollegiate football in 1879. The Wolverines joined the Big Ten Conference at its inception in 1896, and other than a hiatus from 1907 to 1916, have been members since.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……Michigan has won or shared 45 league titles, and since the inception of the AP poll in 1936, has finished in the top ten a total of 39 times. The Wolverines claim twelve national championships, including three (1948, 1997, 2023) from the major wire-services: the AP Trophy or Coaches' Trophy.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……Bo Schembechler coached the team for 21 seasons (1969–1989) in which he won 13 Big Ten titles and 194 games, a program record. The first decade of his tenure was underscored by a fierce competition with his former mentor, Woody Hayes, whose Ohio State Buckeyes squared off against Schembechler's Wolverines in a stretch of the Michigan–Ohio State rivalry dubbed "The Ten Year War".

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..Gerald Ford attended the University of Michigan, where he played center and linebacker for the school's football team and helped the Wolverines to two undefeated seasons and national titles in 1932 and 1933. In his senior year of 1934, the team suffered a steep decline and won only one game, but Ford was still the team's star player. In one of those games, Michigan held heavily favored Minnesota—the eventual national champion—to a scoreless tie in the first half. After the game, assistant coach Bennie Oosterbaan said, "When I walked into the dressing room at halftime, I had tears in my eyes I was so proud of them. Ford and [Cedric] Sweet played their hearts out. They were everywhere on defense." Ford later recalled, "During 25 years in the rough-and-tumble world of politics, I often thought of the experiences before, during, and after that game in 1934. Remembering them has helped me many times to face a tough situation, take action, and make every effort possible despite adverse odds." His teammates later voted Ford their most valuable player, with one assistant coach noting, "They felt Jerry was one guy who would stay and fight in a losing cause."

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……Michigan has played in 54 bowl games in its history, compiling a record of 24–30. Before missing a bowl game in 2008, Michigan had made a bowl game 33 years in a row. From the 1921 to 1945 seasons, the Big Ten Conference did not allow its teams to participate in bowls. From the 1946 to 1974 seasons, only a conference champion or a surrogate representative was allowed to attend a bowl, the Rose Bowl, and no team could go two years in a row until the 1972 Rose Bowl, with the exception of Minnesota in 1961 and 1962. 

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…….Michigan has been selected 19 times as national champions by NCAA-designated major selectors, including three (1948, 1997, 2023) by the major wire services (AP Poll and Coaches' Poll).[6] Michigan claims 12 (1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1918, 1923, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1948, 1997, and 2023) of these championships.[188][189][190] Before 1926, there were generally no contemporaneous selectors; most selectors emerged in the ensuing decades and named past champions retroactively.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……that Michigan inductees to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as of 2021.

Name	Position	Inducted
George Allen	Coach	2002
Dan Dierdorf	T	1996
Len Ford	DE	1976
Benny Friedman	QB	2005
Bill Hewitt	E	1971
Elroy Hirsch	HB/E	1968
Steve Hutchinson	G	2020
Ty Law	CB	2019
Tom Mack	G	1999
Ralph Wilson	Owner	2009
Charles Woodson	CB	2021

 

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……The University of Michigan has had 64 players selected in the first-round of the draft (AAFC, AFC and NFL), and had at least one player selected in any round in an NCAA record 88 consecutive NFL drafts dating back to 1938.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…….The rivalry between Illinois is one of Michigan's more historic, with the two schools having first played in 1898 and playing 73 consecutive years from 1924 to 1996. Michigan leads the all-time series, 72–24–2. The teams last played in 2024, with the Fighting Illini defeating the Wolverines 21-7 in Champaign; that university’s first win versus Michigan since 2009.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..Michigan's rivalry with Penn State is their newest, with the two schools having never played each other before the Nittany Lions joined the Big Ten in 1993. Many of the games have had Big Ten championship implications, with the two teams playing each season in the Big Ten east division, before the conference divisions were dissolved in 2024. Michigan leads the all-time series, 17–10. The two teams met most recently in 2023, when both teams came in ranked in the top ten in the College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings. Michigan went on to win 24-15 in Beaver Stadium under then-acting head coach Sherrone Moore, propelling the Wolverines to a national championship that season.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……Michigan has been selected 19 times as national champions by NCAA-designated major selectors, including three (1948, 1997, 2023) by the major wire services (AP Poll and Coaches' Poll). Michigan claims 12 (1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1918, 1923, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1948, 1997, and 2023) of these championships.[188][189][190] Before 1926, there were generally no contemporaneous selectors; most selectors emerged in the ensuing decades and named past champions retroactively.