Michigan Football Trivia
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48 free Michigan football trivia questions with answers, built for Wolverines fans who know the winged helmet is more than a paint job. It starts with the essentials: the first game in 1879, the Big House and its 107,601 seats, maize and blue, and The Victors, written on a train home from Chicago in 1898. From there it works through the eras. Fielding Yost's Point-a-Minute teams and the 49-0 Rose Bowl, Fritz Crisler's helmet, Tom Harmon's Old 98, Bo Schembechler and the Ten Year War against Woody Hayes, Desmond Howard's pose, Charles Woodson beating Peyton Manning to the Heisman, Tom Brady's Orange Bowl, the Appalachian State disaster, and the 15-0 run to the 2023 national championship. The rivalry trophies are all here too: the Little Brown Jug bought for 30 cents, Paul Bunyan, and The Game. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia before publishing and each question links to its source. Difficulty runs from easy questions any Saturday tailgater can get to expert ones on attendance records and coaching records, so it works for a family watch party or a Michigan alumni trivia night.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the nickname of Michigan Stadium?
The Big House
The Big House hides its scale: most of the stadium was built below ground level, so its 107,601 seats are hard to judge from the street.
Q 02What are Michigan's official colours?
Maize and blue
Maize and blue were chosen by students in 1867, but with no standard set the shades varied across campus, so in 1912 the regents had the exact colours fixed with sample ribbons.
Q 03Which school did Michigan players teach football in 1887, then beat 8-0?
Notre Dame
Notre Dame's team was only weeks old, so the two squads were first mixed for a practice session to show the hosts the rules; the Fighting Irish count the match that followed as their first game.
Q 04Which team shared the 1997 national title with unbeaten Michigan?
Nebraska
Nebraska edged past Michigan in the final coaches' poll after a 42-17 Orange Bowl win in Tom Osborne's last season as coach, while the AP writers kept the Wolverines first.
Q 05Michigan holds which all-time distinction in college football?
Most wins of any programme
Most wins of any programme, and the first to reach 1,000: the milestone came against Maryland in November 2023, with head coach Jim Harbaugh suspended and away from the sideline.
Q 06Which Michigan defensive end was the 2021 Heisman runner-up?
Aidan Hutchinson
Aidan Hutchinson set Michigan's single-season sack record that year, and the Lions used the draft's second pick to keep the Michigan-born star in his home state.
Q 07Which coach introduced the winged helmet at Michigan in 1938?
Fritz Crisler
Fritz Crisler brought the design with him from Princeton, adding Michigan's colours because he thought the bold wings would help his passers spot receivers downfield.
Q 08Which team did Michigan beat 49-0 in the first Rose Bowl, played in 1902?
Stanford
Stanford, coached a year earlier by Michigan's own Fielding Yost, asked to stop early; the Tournament of Roses then staged chariot races instead, and football did not return until 1916.
Q 09Which coach's team ended Fielding Yost's 56-game unbeaten run at Michigan in 1905?
Amos Alonzo Stagg
Amos Alonzo Stagg's Maroons scored the only points Michigan allowed all season, a safety, after the Wolverines had won their first 12 games by a combined 495-0.
Q 10Fielding Yost's nickname came from which phrase he kept barking at his Michigan players?
Hurry Up
'Hurry Up' Yost later became athletic director and built Michigan Stadium, insisting on footings that would let it grow past 100,000 seats.
Q 11Fielding Yost's 1901-05 Michigan teams, who went 55-1-1, were known by which nickname?
Point-a-Minute
Point-a-Minute was barely an exaggeration: across those five seasons Michigan outscored its opponents 2,821 to 42.
Q 12Which Michigan student composed the fight song The Victors in 1898?
Louis Elbel
Louis Elbel had paraded behind the band singing 'Hot Time in the Old Town' after a 12-11 win sealed the title, and decided such a victory deserved something more elevating.
Q 13A win over which university inspired the writing of The Victors in 1898?
Chicago
Chicago was the favourite and the conference championship was on the line, so the 12-11 upset on Thanksgiving Day sent Michigan students parading in the dark behind their band.
Q 21After retiring from coaching in 1989, Bo Schembechler became president of which baseball team?
Detroit Tigers
Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell was dropped during his presidency, a decision Schembechler defended in public; the club's next owner brought Harwell back to the microphone.
Q 22Bo Schembechler came to Michigan in 1969 from which Mid-American Conference school, where he had played?
Miami of Ohio
Miami of Ohio is where Schembechler played tackle under the very coach who later became his great rival at Ohio State; he then coached Miami to two conference titles.
Q 23Bo Schembechler's duels with his old Ohio State mentor are remembered as what?
Ten Year War
Q 14Michigan Stadium, built in 1927, was modelled on which Ivy League school's stadium?
Yale
Yale's bowl was the model, though Fielding Yost had wanted room for well over 100,000; the regents settled on 72,000 seats at a cost of $950,000.
Q 15Michigan Stadium's announcer traditionally reads out which small Pennsylvania school's scores?
Slippery Rock
Slippery Rock became such a crowd favourite that it has since played at Michigan Stadium itself, drawing 61,143 fans in 1979, a record for its division.
Q 16Which Michigan halfback known as 'Old 98' won the 1940 Heisman Trophy?
Tom Harmon
Tom Harmon twice survived the loss of his plane as a wartime pilot, earning the Silver Star and Purple Heart, then played professionally for the Rams; his son Mark became an actor.
Q 17Which future US president played centre on Michigan's undefeated 1932 and 1933 national title teams?
Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford was voted the team's most valuable player in 1934, then turned down offers from two NFL teams for a coaching job that could put him through law school.
Q 18What was Bo Schembechler's real first name?
Glenn
Glenn Edward Schembechler was 'Bo' for life because his sister, trying to say 'brother' as a small child, could only manage that.
Q 19Which sign did Bo Schembechler famously hang in the Michigan locker room?
Those Who Stay Will Be Champions
'Those Who Stay Will Be Champions' held good: many players quit during his brutal first off-season in 1969, but everyone who stayed four years under him left with a conference title.
Q 20Which prize eluded Bo Schembechler at Michigan?
A national championship
A national championship is the one honour Michigan does not claim from his 21 seasons: in 1973 his unbeaten team tied Ohio State 10-10, and the conference's athletic directors sent the Buckeyes to the Rose Bowl instead.
The Ten Year War ended with the pupil ahead: Schembechler went 5-4-1 against the man who had coached and employed him, with the conference title usually at stake.
Q 24Which Ohio State coach, Bo Schembechler's former mentor, lost to him 24-12 in 1969?
Woody Hayes
Woody Hayes brought the top-ranked Buckeyes and a 22-game winning streak to Ann Arbor as 17-point favourites, then watched Michigan intercept six passes for a first-year coach he had trained himself.
Q 25Decades before their football rivalry began, Michigan and Ohio sent militias to contest which city?
Toledo
Toledo went to Ohio after the 1835 stand-off, and Michigan accepted most of the Upper Peninsula in exchange as the price of statehood.
Q 26Michigan beat Ohio State 9-3 without a first down in which 1950 game?
Snow Bowl
The Snow Bowl was played in a blizzard: Michigan punted 24 times and scored all nine points, a safety and a touchdown, off blocked Ohio State punts.
Q 27In 2000, which network ranked Michigan-Ohio State as the greatest North American sports rivalry ever?
ESPN
ESPN made that call in 2000; the fixture had been played every year since 1918, a run broken only in 2020, when a COVID-19 outbreak in Michigan's squad forced a cancellation.
Q 28Which Michigan running back scored five touchdowns in the 42-27 win over Ohio State in 2021?
Hassan Haskins
Hassan Haskins tied a Michigan single-game record that had stood since 1968, and the win ended an eight-game losing run against the Buckeyes.
Q 29Michigan and Minnesota play for which trophy when they meet?
The Little Brown Jug
The Little Brown Jug began as a 30-cent water jug that Michigan left behind in Minneapolis in 1903; Minnesota kept it, and the two have played for it since 1909.
Q 30Which Michigan receiver beat Indiana in 1979 with a 45-yard touchdown catch on the game's final play?
Anthony Carter
Anthony Carter's score came moments after Indiana had tied the game at 21; the All-American receiver went on to 37 touchdown catches for Michigan and the Hall of Fame.