Michigan a Special Place for Elliott Family
9/27/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
1947: Bump Elliott returns a punt for a TD vs. Illinois (left) / Elliott vs. Pitt (right)
By Steve Kornacki
Chalmers "Bump" Elliott stood outside the golf course across the street from Michigan Stadium, where he once roamed as an All-America halfback before becoming the head coach of the Wolverines only a dozen years after playing for a national championship team in 1947.
Elliott, now 89 but still as sharp as a tack, is in town for the honoring of his 1964 Big Ten and Rose Bowl championship team on its 50th anniversary during Saturday's (Sept. 27) game with Minnesota. He'd just finished a leisurely lunch on the covered veranda with one of his successors as Michigan's coach, Lloyd Carr, and his nephew, Bruce Elliott, who just happened to be readying for a reunion of his 1969 team that upset Ohio State.
Bump is a man of distinction who is best defined by the Rose Bowl because he's the only one to participate both as a player and head coach of the Wolverines. And counting his Iowa years as an assistant coach and athletic director and his one year as an associate athletic director for the Wolverines, Bump is the only one to experience the Rose Bowl in those five different capacities.
"It's a very special event," Elliott said. "I really liked it when it was just the Big Ten and Pac-10. It was a fun and wonderful experience -- a reward for the teams that won and represented their conferences. It was a game you always remember.
"We always thought the Rose Bowl was the best, and I still do."
Bump and Bruce's father, Pete, a quarterback who also went on to win the Rose Bowl as the head coach at Illinois, starred for the Wolverines on teams coached by legendary Fritz Crisler. Bennie Oosterbaan, who had been Bump's backfield coach, replaced Crisler in 1948 and won another national championship with Pete having an All-America season and Bump becoming the new backfield coach.
The Elliotts were a pair of golden boys from Bloomington, Ill., helping lead Michigan to some of its greatest heights while playing with three other All-America players -- halfback Bob Chappuis, end Richard Rifenburg and tackle Alvin Wistert. The Elliotts also had star quality, and Crisler arranged to have them play golf with singing legend and movie star Bing Crosby at the Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles one week before their Rose Bowl game.
But now Pete is gone, having died at 86 last year, and Bump wanted a photo with his brother's son. Both of them squinted into the sun and smiled, arms around one another while the camera clicked.
Bump Elliott, left, and nephew Bruce Elliott at the Ann Arbor Golf & Outing Club with Michigan Stadium serving as the backdrop on Friday. Bump coached the 1964 Rose Bowl championship team being honored at Saturday's game, and the 1969 team Bruce played on is having a reunion this weekend.
Michigan has been such a special place for the Elliotts. But had it not been for World War II, it's unlikely either brother would've ever worn the maize and blue. They were all-state players at a school not far from the University of Illinois. But, during the early years of the war, both of the Elliotts signed up to become part of the V-12 Navy College Training Program.
Pete was assigned to Michigan, while Bump was sent to Purdue, where he played with distinction for two seasons before joining the Marines. Upon his discharge, Bump knew exactly where he wanted to play his remaining two seasons. It was Michigan. And the reason why?
"It was Pete Elliott," said Bump. "I finished my time in the Marine Corps and joined him there in '46."
A classic photo taken of the brothers after a practice, Pete holding the winged helmet and grinning, with Bump smiling next to him, was shown to Bump after lunch.
"Well, Pete looks very mindful," said Elliott. "I look dumb."
Everyone laughed. That was Bump, using self-deprecating humor to downplay his greatness. Nearly 70 years have passed since Elliott made a name for himself as a Wolverine, but he's never been comfortable taking bows or handling compliments for his accomplishments as a player, coach or athletic director at Iowa. Bump hired Hayden Fry on Pete's suggestion and turned Hawkeyes athletics into a powerhouse in not only football but basketball and wrestling as well.
"But that's the way it always was," said Elliott, smiling warmly at the remembrance of Pete after calling him the "mindful" one.
Was he the brains of the operation?
"Oh, was he ever," said Elliott, beaming at the memory of his younger brother.
Crisler called Bump the "greatest halfback he ever saw or coached," and he was voted the Big Ten's Most Valuable player in '47.
Bump immediately went into coaching after his senior season, and he came back to Michigan as the head coach in 1959. His Wolverines beat Oregon State, 34-7, in the 1965 Rose Bowl but held only a 12-7 lead at half time.
"That game, we struggled a little bit early," Elliott said. "And I can't remember what broke it. Maybe it was a pitch to Carl Ward, where he took it and ran (for a 43-yard touchdown and Michigan's first points). But we blocked a punt before the first half ended that turned the game around. And Mel Anthony had a long run, too (for an 84-yard touchdown and the second Michigan touchdown)."
Anthony recovered the blocked punt and scored three touchdowns, while rushing 13 times for 123 yards, to win that game's Most Outstanding Player award.
The '64 Wolverines were loaded. They had tackle Tom Mack, a first-round pick by the Los Angeles Rams in 1966, and two All-Americans in quarterback Bob Timberlake and tackle William Yearby.
Their only loss was by one point to Purdue and quarterback Bob Griese, and they clinched the trip to Pasadena with a 10-0 win at Ohio State on a windy, icy afternoon. Timberlake's 15-yard touchdown pass to Jim Detwiler was the game's only touchdown, and Timberlake added a field goal for the only other points.
"We set that play up a little bit," Elliott said, recalling the touchdown pass. "We found out that their defensive backs were going to play, at certain points, man-to-man defense. And so we set Detwiler up close as a wingback behind the left end. And we sent the left end through the safety and let Detwiler trail him in behind. And they lost Detwiler, and Bob hit him right in the middle of the field. And he took off for a touchdown."
Timberlake made the offense work.
"Bob was big and strong," Elliott said. "He could throw and was intelligent. He did all the things we wanted him to do, and he made some plays that other people couldn't make because of his size and strength. But he was a good leader, a really good leader.
"We had a lot of good players on that team. That was a fun team. And, you know, one thing people don't ever think about is that the best teams you ever have are injury free. And I don't think we had anybody hurt on that team."
The passer on the '47 team was Chappuis, a gunner who was shot down over Italy in a B-25 bomber during World War II and parachuted to find safe haven with a farm family that hid him out until he could make his way to freedom. Chappuis finished second in Heisman Trophy voting two years after the war while leading the Wolverines to the national championship.
"He was outstanding and could throw as well as anybody," Elliott said. "And the best thing about him was that he didn't throw the ball -- he cupped it. He could throw just as well in wet weather. At Wisconsin that year, we played in a wet snow, and he threw lights-out the whole game and didn't miss a throw."
Michigan beat No. 8 Southern Cal, 49-0, in the Rose Bowl to cap off a season in which they went 10-0 and outscored opponents, 394-53.
"Fritz Crisler was our coach," said Elliott, "and everything we did in that Rose Bowl seemed to be right -- even the entertainment and the fun, all the things that went with it.
"My brother Pete, who was quite a golfer, and I got to play golf with Bing Crosby. Fritz set that up. We played at Bel-Air, and Pete beat Bing. Bing beat me but couldn't beat Pete."
Bump chuckled, visibly showing great pride in his brother.
His nephew, Bruce, interjected that his uncle "was a streaky golfer who could play lights-out at times," while acknowledging his father's golf talent. Pete earned 12 letters as a Wolverine in football, basketball and golf. Bump also lettered as a basketball guard and a baseball center fielder for Michigan.
Those were different times in college athletics -- before specialization and weight training. Bump said nobody on his '47 team's offensive line weighed more than 198-pound tackle Bruce Hilkene, the team captain.
"Speed was everything then," said Bump. "And we were a pretty fast team."
They ran Crisler's single-wing formation with such ball deception that they were nicknamed the "Mad Magicians."
"Bennie was the closest to the players," Elliott said of his position coach, Oosterbaan. "And he was great fun -- really, really fun. And everyone wanted to play for him. He was just a great guy. And as a head coach he was the same way, having great fun. But he had more fun as an assistant.
 Bump with Fritz Crisler (1967) |
 Bump with Ron Johnson (1968) |
"But Fritz was the coach, and everybody just worshipped him. He was a very dignified guy. I don't think I ever heard anyone give a speech better than he did. His speeches were dignified and full of information and warmth."
Elliott said everything he did as a coach "was based on them, offense and defense."
He added in regard to Crisler and Oosterbaan: "They presented coaching in such a way that you thought you wanted to do it yourself."
Bump became Iowa's athletic director in 1970, two years after his final season as head coach of the Wolverines. He hired legendary Hawkeyes football coach Hayden Fry -- which had a similar impact to Don Canham hiring Bo Schembechler at Michigan.
"The best thing that happened in the Hayden Fry deal is that I got ahold of him by calling Pete Elliott," he said of his brother, who was the athletic director of the Miami Hurricanes, 1974-78. "He had just gone through the hiring process down in Florida the year before. And he said, 'The one I zeroed in on more than anyone was Hayden Fry.'
"Pete said, 'I would've liked to hire him, but it just didn't work out.' So, we called Hayden. I went down and visited him, and I hired him. If it hadn't have been for Pete, I'm not sure I would've thought of Hayden Fry."
Fry won 143 games in 20 seasons at Iowa, beginning in 1979, and led the Hawkeyes to three Rose Bowls. Those games in Pasadena all ended in losses but allowed Bump to run his Rose Bowl total to six, having also been there as a Hawkeyes assistant coach in in the 1950s.
Elliott has been elected to the Hall of Fames of the school where he played and coached as well as at Iowa. He's also in the college football and national athletic director Hall of Fames, as well as the Michigan Hall of Fame for all sports at all levels. And, of course, he's in the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame.
When you think of Bump Elliott, you think of gaining glory in Pasadena. And you think of Pete and how the two brothers born 20 months apart came to be a special pair of "conqu'ring heroes" together in Ann Arbor.
And when Bump turned to look at the stadium beyond the golf course after taking the photo with his nephew, the look in his eyes told you how special it all has been.
