The Top 10 Michigan Running Backs Before Bo Arrived! Pre-1969 Presented by OLIPOP!

[Hail Media presents the Top 10 Michigan running backs before Bo took over in 1969.

A Hail Media original presented by OLIPOP.

Hey everybody, Doug Cohen here, co-founder of Hail Media, with a fun one for you. Today, we are going to rank the Top 10 running backs in Michigan history before Bo arrived.

You could say that the modern era of Michigan football started with the arrival of Coach Bo Schembechler, my coach, in 1969. That’s when Bo brought the program back to prominence and started winning Big Ten championships on the regular again. We’ve won a couple of national championships since then as well, as you know.

But before Bo arrived, not only did we still have the greatest tradition in the country, going back to the turn of the century with Fielding H. Yost and Fritz Crisler, but we also had some pretty good teams in the ’50s and ’60s. We weren’t the dominant program, and we had a couple of not-so-good teams in the ’50s and ’60s, but we had a few really good ones.

And we had a handful of great running backs. I feel like if you aren’t familiar with them, you should be. We’re going to have some fun showing highlights of them and some of the better moments in our history from those decades. We’re going to take it all the way back to the beginning as well.

It’s the Top 10 Before Bo. Let’s do this.

Before we get into it, I want to give a shout-out to our new sponsor. We are extremely proud to be sponsored by OLIPOP.

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Cheers to a new kind of soda and a new kind of Hail Media sponsor, OLIPOP Ginger Ale. Let’s go.

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So let’s get to it, huh? Let’s get to these Top 10 running backs.

Starting at number 10, Dave Raimey.

Dave Raimey ranks 50th in career rushing yards for the University of Michigan with 1,173, and he scored 17 career touchdowns. He’s also known as the grandfather of Mila Holloway, who is Michigan women’s basketball’s fantastic point guard.

Dave Raimey carried the ball for the Michigan Wolverines from 1960 to 1962 for Bump Elliott’s teams. From Dayton, Ohio, standing 5-foot-10 at 195 pounds, that’s pretty good size for a running back, especially back in the day. He was second-team All-Big Ten in 1962.

Here we see a nice 20-yard run from Dave Raimey against Iowa in his junior season in 1961 at the Big House.

Then there’s this run against Army in 1962. It’s an 11-yard run, but he makes something out of nothing. There’s nowhere to go. He gets around the edge, and as he’s going around the edge, an Army defender seems to reach up and grab either his helmet or kind of his chin strap. As he’s running with the ball, he adjusts his helmet and keeps running. Eventually he gets hit and the helmet pops off.

It’s an incredible run.

At number nine, Bennie McRae.

Bennie McRae comes in at 56th all-time in career rushing yardage for the Michigan Wolverines with 1,037 yards. He averaged 4.5 yards per carry for his career, and he also had 411 receiving yards. He returned a ton of kickoffs and punts. He was a do-it-all guy.

Oh, and he was a four-time Big Ten hurdling champion at Michigan. Talk about a heck of an athlete.

Hailing from Newport News, Virginia, standing 6 feet and 180 pounds, he was long and lean. He was voted first-team All-Big Ten in 1961 and third-team All-American.

Here’s a nice touchdown run by Bennie McRae in the 1961 home opener against No. 9-ranked UCLA, in a game where we throttled UCLA. I like the way he keeps his balance and gets into the end zone on this one.

But it was the following week, on this 47-yard touchdown against a pretty good Army team, where he showcases all of his talents, taking an inside handoff, breaking three tackles and pulling away from everybody for the 47-yard touchdown.

Next up, coming in at number eight, Mel Anthony.

Out of Cincinnati, Mel Anthony was a home-run hitter and a vicious blocker, crushing guys out of the fullback position. He led the team in rushing in 1963 and 1964 and is known for his legendary performance in the 1965 Rose Bowl.

Mel Anthony scored three touchdowns in that Rose Bowl game, including an 84-yard touchdown, which was the longest in Rose Bowl history at the time. At 5-foot-11, 195 pounds, that’s a pretty good-sized back. He was the MVP of that game with 123 yards.

He went on to play in the CFL for a couple of years, winning a Grey Cup in 1965 with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

We also see him here as a junior in the 1963 Ohio State game, in a pretty close, hard-fought loss, with a nice 27-yard run.

He finished his Michigan career with 1,144 yards, averaging 4.3 yards per carry with 14 touchdowns.

Next on the list, Tony Branoff.

Tony Branoff was a bad dude. He was the MVP of the team in 1953, and he was a first-team All-Big Ten running back in 1955.

In between, in 1954, he had a devastating knee injury and missed most of that season. It’s not like they had the greatest medical advances in the ’50s, but he came back, played in 1955 with his knees taped up, still led the team in rushing and was first-team All-Big Ten.

Here he is from that 1953 MVP season as a sophomore with a 20-yard run in the home shutout victory, 20-0 over Ohio State.

Next, we have a 31-yard touchdown against Iowa from that 1955 season to seal a comeback victory, with his knees taped up like a mummy.

According to the newspaper, Tony Branoff believed that he was the first running back to ever receive a shot of cortisone to be able to continue playing.

Next up on the list, number six, Dave Fisher.

A big, bruising fullback that Woody let get away from Kettering, Ohio, Fisher was first-team All-Big Ten in 1966 with 672 yards, which was fourth-most in the conference. He averaged 5.1 yards per carry, which was second-best in the conference.

At 5-foot-10, 210 pounds, he was a load.

First, we start with this beautiful 11-yard run in the victory down in Columbus against Ohio State in 1966.

Here we have him with a 31-yard run in a close 22-21 loss against Bob Griese and Purdue. Bob Griese, whose son would win a national championship in that same stadium in Ann Arbor a few decades later.

That brings us to number five on the list, Carl Ward.

Carl Ward was born in Alabama, but he went to high school in Cincinnati. At 5-foot-9, 180 pounds, he wasn’t a huge back.

He got into the act in that 1965 Rose Bowl with 10 carries for 88 yards as a sophomore. He was also second-team All-Big Ten in 1964 and 1966, and in 1965, he was first-team All-Big Ten.

Talk about a backfield in that Rose Bowl between Carl Ward, Mel Anthony and Dave Fisher, not to mention Bob Timberlake at quarterback, who also ran for about 600 yards that season.

Here’s Carl Ward’s 43-yard touchdown in that Rose Bowl against Oregon State. A thing of beauty.

The following season, in 1965, we lost a close one at home to Ohio State, 9-7. Here’s a Carl Ward 55-yard run—a freaky one that you’ve got to see.

A little footnote on Carl Ward: As a rookie with the Cleveland Browns in 1967, he returned a kickoff 104 yards, the longest play in Cleveland Browns history.

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All right, number four on the list, Jim Pace.

Jim Pace was born in Arkansas, but he was raised in Grand Rapids. Six feet, 195 pounds. Big, physical—what a great player.

Jim Pace was a first-team All-American running back for Michigan in 1957. He was the Big Ten Conference MVP that season.

He’s featured prominently in our Throwback Film Review from the 1957 Minnesota game, with Jim Scarcelli as the host and Dick Kettmann, who was on that team. You should check it out. It’s worth a watch.

Jim Pace accounted for about 800 total yards in 1957, and he was also the Big Ten indoor 60-yard champion in track and field.

Let’s look at a couple of Jim Pace highlights, shall we?

How about this 48-yard run down in Columbus in a No. 9 versus No. 12 matchup in which we shut them out down there, 19-0? The 1956 Michigan team finished ranked seventh in the country, one of Bennie Oosterbaan’s best teams.

And a beautiful play here by Jim Pace.

Then there’s this catch from Jim Pace in the 1957 game up at Minnesota, showing his ability out of the backfield as a receiver and making something out of nothing, reversing field.

Incredible stuff.

Jim Pace died tragically at the age of 47. But what a player, and he should never be forgotten in Michigan football lore. An All-American running back and one of the best we’ve ever had.

Okay, number three. This was a tough one.

I have to tell you, I consulted with Greg Dooley, Michigan football historian and professor at the University of Michigan for three different classes. He will also be teaching a Michigan football history course online that you should check out. The link is in the description below.

The first thing Greg said to me when I told him I was doing this list was, “I hope you have Willie Heston on there.”

Willie Heston is number three.

Willie Heston played after he transferred from San Jose because Fielding H. Yost knew about him when he was out at Stanford. Heston came to Michigan and played from 1901 to 1904.

He was a four-time All-Western selection and a two-time All-American, in 1903 and 1904. If there had been a Heisman Trophy, undoubtedly he would have been a runaway winner.

He scored 72 touchdowns in his career, we think, and had over 2,000 yards in the games for which we have statistics. It’s a little sketchy.

That was obviously before the modern era of college football. So while he was lightning fast and widely recognized as the best player in the country, it’s hard for me to put him ahead of the guys I have at number one and number two because the game was so primitive.

But I didn’t want to penalize him too much because he’s clearly one of the all-time greats and was a great Michigan man who hung around campus and was a friend of the program until he passed in 1963. He went on to be a judge.

None of that has to do with where I rank him as a running back, per se. I get that. I’m just trying to give you what I’ve got on Willie Heston.

We don’t really have highlights.

Or do we?

There is footage from the 1904 game at home against Chicago, and they believe that the final play of the footage—with the running back carrying the ball around the end and off the screen—is Willie Heston.

Heston rushed for 170 yards in the very first Rose Bowl, and he’s definitely a legend in Michigan lore. He was a cornerstone of those national championship teams at the turn of the century.

Okay, number two on the list. We’re getting up here to the top. These are a couple of legendary guys.

Number two, Ron Johnson.

Ron Johnson was the complete package. Homegrown out of Detroit, 6-foot-1, 205 pounds, and the perfect combination of size, strength, speed, balance and agility.

He could do it all.

He still ranks 18th on Michigan’s all-time career rushing yardage list. He rushed for 2,524 career yards and was Michigan’s first African American captain.

He also holds the single-game rushing record with 347 yards against Wisconsin in 1968.

He was a second-team All-American in 1967, then a first-team All-American and Big Ten Conference MVP in 1968.

He also ended up being the first New York Giant to rush for more than 1,000 yards, and he did that twice. He’s one of the Top 100 New York Giants of all time and had a really good pro career.

We’ve got a handful of really nice highlights of Ron Johnson for you here.

Here’s a nice 38-yard touchdown from 1968 in the home victory, 28-14, over the 12th-ranked Michigan State Spartans.

Here’s a 67-yard touchdown against Wisconsin in the game in which he rushed for 347 yards at home.

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Here’s an 18-yard touchdown against the defending Big Ten champion Indiana Hoosiers in 1968.

And here’s a nice 26-yard catch showing his ability to be a good receiver out of the backfield against Ohio State at home in 1967.

Which brings us to number one.

You know who it is.

It’s Old 98, Tom Harmon, Michigan’s first Heisman Trophy winner.

At 6-foot-1, 197 pounds, Harmon played his high school ball in Gary, Indiana. He was a two-time All-American and a three-time All-Big Ten player.

He finished second in the Heisman voting as a junior to Iowa’s Nile Kinnick.

Tom Harmon finished his Michigan career with 2,134 rushing yards and 33 touchdowns, which back in those days was a lot.

Harmon played at Michigan from 1938 to 1940. He finished his career averaging 5.4 yards per carry, and he also threw for 1,399 yards.

He kicked. He did it all.

You may know the legendary story of his last game in 1940 down in Columbus, where he ran for three touchdowns, threw for two more, kicked all the extra points and left the field to a standing ovation in Columbus.

It seems to me, from what I’ve read, that it was the game that got Ohio State coach Francis Schmidt fired. Whether or not it’s fair to say that was the game that did it, it happened after that game.

A 40-0 loss at home against Michigan never goes over well in Columbus.

Crazy enough, after Tom Harmon won his Heisman, he went on to serve in World War II. He was shot down, survived, and was awarded a Silver Star and Purple Heart.

We have a few Tom Harmon highlights, starting with the 1940 touchdown against Cal that he took all the way, only to have to evade a drunken Cal fan before he walked into the end zone.

Crazy.

We also have a very famous and insane touchdown where he completely reversed field and took it to the house against Penn.

Tom Harmon also ran the 100-yard dash, winning the Indiana state championship in high school. So the guy could fly.

Here’s one of those touchdowns in Columbus—a 17-yard touchdown against the Buckeyes in 1940 during that 40-0 victory.

We also have a nice touchdown pass here from Tom Harmon to All-American Ed Frutig, and I thought this would be a good one to show as well.

So there you have it.

I hope you enjoyed this historical lesson and these Top 10 running backs from the pre-Bo era.

Thanks again to Mr. Greg Dooley for a little bit of historical input and context, as well as OLIPOP, our sponsor.

And as always, Go Blue.

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