Paul W. passes along an interesting story from the Detroit Free Press, which apparently only came to light recently. Two Michigan ballboys discovered that Northwestern was stealing Michigan’s football signals during a game in 1997 and alerted coach Lloyd Carr. Though the suggestion that it “saved the national title” might be a little strong, since the Wolverines were still leading 13-3 in the game at the time, there are some compelling elements. Here are a few key pieces:

The Wolverines were ranked sixth in the country. Northwestern was 2-4. But Michigan was struggling to move the ball, holding only a 13-3 lead at halftime. Northwestern had upset Michigan the previous two seasons. Now Datz and Youtan had an idea why. “There was a guy on their sideline that day, and he had our signals down pat,” Datz said. “Every time, he would scream into the defense what we’re going to do — pass or run — and he was almost always right. … They were blowing up draws, calling our counters and destroying our screen passes — all a big part of our plays that year. I was just screaming mad. Youtan and I are thinking to ourselves, ‘This guy has us.’ “

Best part? The story tracks down the Northwestern assistant and he confirms everything:

Until Appalachian State knocked off Michigan last September, the Northwestern games in 1995 and 1996 rated among the biggest upsets in U-M history. While those Wildcats had talent, it seemed improbable that a program that hadn’t beaten U-M since 1965 would take out the Wolverines two years in a row. Having an idea about U-M’s plays certainly helped. “That was what I would do,” said David Hansburg, a Northwestern graduate assistant those years. “If I could see them signal in plays, I’d watch. This was no Spygate, and there was no video of anybody. I equated it to being like baseball when you’ve got a runner on second base; it’s part of the game.”

In any event, check out the entire story. It’s well worth it. Also, consider whether we should do some investigating into the Michigan vs. Gophers game that year. The Wolverines only won by three touchdowns, and the Gophers did lead 3-0 at one point. Something seems fishy.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 11:13 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.