30-year Flashback: 1977 team remembered

The 1977 team is one of my all-time favorite Wolverine squads. A few weeks ago, the University celebrated the 10 year anniversary of the success of the 1997 National Championship team. In this series of posts, I am going to go back even further in time. I obtained a copy of the 1978 Michigan Football Gridiron Guide (Press/Radio/TV) which contains statistics and recaps from the 1977 season and I was ready to make the trip 30 years back to 1977. Like Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) in Back to the Future, I am going back in time. One of the problems with being a blogger, especially during the June/July doldrums, is that everything you post is second or third hand. (By the way, Cobrani Mixon is transferring.) To combat that problem, I thought I would go back in time to 1977 and relive that magical season (one of my favorites) as if it was the present year as opposed to blogging during the next week or two about the impending 2007 season. We will just have to see how this experiment in "time travel" works out. As the old saying goes, you can't tell the players without a program. To get you prepared for the trip back to 1977, here is the 1977 starting line-up:

Starting Lineups Offense:

wide receiver
Richard White (12)
left tackle
Mike Kenn (11) Jon Giesler
left guard
Mark Donahue (12)
center
Walt Downing (12)
right guard
Gerry Szara (9) Greg Bartnik (2) John Arbeznik
right tackle
John Powers (10) Jon Giesler
tight end
Gene Johnson (9) Mark Schmerge
quarterback
Rick Leach (12)
wing back
Ralph Clayton (8) Max Richardson (4)
fullback
Russell Davis (12)
tailback
Harlan Huckleby (12)

Starting Lineups Defense:

defensive tackle
Dale Keitz (8) Chris Godfrey (4)
middle guard
Steve Graves (12)
defensive tackle
Curtis Greer (9) Dale Keitz William Jackson Chris Godfrey
outside linebacker
Dominic Tedesco (12)
outside linebacker
John Anderson (12)
inside linebacker
Ron Simpkins (11) Mel Owens
inside linebacker
Jerry Meter (12)
ws cornerback
Mike Jolly (11) Mike Harden
ss cornerback
Derek Howard (10) Jim Pickens (2)
wolfman
Dwight Hicks (11) Derek Howard
safety
Jim Pickens (10) Derek Howard Mike Harden

Go Blue!