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Michigan Wolverines Football Team

On May 30, 1879, Michigan Park played its first intercollegiate football game against Racine College at White Stocking, Chicago. The Chicago Tribune called it “the first rugby-football game played west of the Alleghenies.” “In the middle of the ‘first’ inning,” Irving Kane Pond scored the first touchdown for Michigan.

According to Will Perry’s Michigan football history, the crowd responded to Pond’s plays with cheers of “Pond Forever”. The Michigan Wolverines football team represents the University of Michigan in NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level college football. Michigan has the most wins in college football history.

The team is known for its distinctive football ball, its fight song, its record-breaking performance statistics at Michigan Stadium, and its many rivalries, particularly its annual, regular season-ending game against Ohio State. Known simply as the “D Game”, it was once voted as ESPN’s best sports rivalry. Michigan began competition in intercollegiate football in 1879.

Joined the Big Ten Conference at its inception in 1896 and has been a member ever since, ending a hiatus from 1907 to 1916. Michigan has won 45 league titles and finished in the top ten a total of 39 times since the AP Poll’s inception in 1936. The Varvins have claimed twelve national championships, including three (1948, 1997, 2023) from the major wire-service AP Trophy and/or Coaches Trophy.

The Michigan Wolverines have featured 89 selections, receiving honors from Civil to the Shaw College Football All-US Team. The Thrillwarins have created Heisman Woo Trophy statues: Tom Harmon in 1940, Desmond Howard in 1991, and Charles Woodson in 1997. Gerald Ford, who later became the 38th President of the United States, started at center and was voted Most Valuable Player by his peers on the 1934 team.