Tough negotiations over ticket allocations and other issues among the Tournament of Roses, Big Nine, and Pacific Coast Conference concluded in an agreement for interconference competition in the next five Rose Bowl Games. California sportswriters leapt on the agreement for consigning to the Rose Bowl the "second rate" 7-2 Illinois team of 1946. The writers preferred Army. As Michigan knew from losses at Yankee Stadium in 1945 and at home in 1946, the Cadets were a powerhouse. Speaking at a Los Angeles banquet in December, 1946, Army's Glenn Davis remarked upon his dream of playing in the Rose Bowl. As Wilson rose to speak, the audience booed. The Illini overwhelmed UCLA, 45-14.

The Michigan sideline at the 1948 Rose Bowl. Shown are (l-r) Joe Soboleski, Dan Dworsky, Alvin Wistert, Pete Elliott and coach Fritz Crisler.

The next year, the Rose Bowl presented a team acclaimed as one of the greatest in the history of the game. The 1947 Wolverines had earned the Maize and Blue's first outright Big Ten championship since 1933 with an undefeated, untied season in which they shut out four opponents--including Michigan State, 55-0, and Ohio State, 21-0. Crisler as master of gridiron orchestration had invented platoon football (against Army in 1945), the two-point conversion, and ingenious plays too numerous to mention. Renowned for almost comically bewildering prestidigitations disguising the ball, the "Mad Magicians" of 1947 ran Crisler's ingenious single-wing and presented a fierce defense. "The greatest right halfback I ever saw" is how Crisler described Chalmers "Bump" Elliott, the team's and Big Nine's most valuable player and the only Wolverine to play offense and defense. Fellow All-American and left halfback Bob Chappuis was runnerup for the Heisman Trophy. In the 1948 Rose Bowl, the Wolverines presented a work of Crislerian precision as they defeated highly regarded Southern California, 49-0, and closed a perfect 10-0 season. "It was a remarkable group of people," Crisler later wrote, "who came as close to perfection as any coach could expect."

Retiring as coach, Crisler entrusted the single wing to assistant coach Oosterbaan. His 1948 team, including All-Americans Pete Elliott, Alvin Wistert and Dick Rifenburg, achieved five shutouts in another undefeated, untied season. By virtue of the "no repeat" rule, they did not play in the Rose Bowl. Various sports writers acclaimed them, as they had Michigan's previous undefeated teams, the national champions.

In later years when the Maize and Blue clinched an invitation to Pasadena, opinion polls seemed no match for the challenge evoked by the Revellians' exuberant postgame "California Here We Come." When the Wolverines attained victory in the Arroyo Seco, Elbel by his euphonious "champions of the West" seemed prescient. The Michigan teams of 1950, 1964, 1980, 1988 and 1992 won both the Big Ten and Rose Bowl championships. Save for the 1992 team, which played three ties, each of the foregoing champions entered the Rose Bowl with a loss. Michigan's Big Ten champions of 1976-78,1982, 1986, 1989 and 1991 also suffered at least one loss prior to losing in the Rose Bowl. Through the decades there have passed many other outstanding teams, hundreds of victories, and scores of award-winning players. But, after the Mad Magicians' remarkable feat, another perfect season was proving an elusive quarry. Since 1946, the Big Ten and Pac-10 together have witnessed a perfect season only slightly more often than once a decade.

Two Wolverine squads barely missed the prize. On October 17, 1964, in Michigan Stadium, a Purdue squad quarterbacked by sophomore Bob Griese was decisively outgained by the undefeated Wolverines. But by virtue of turnovers, the Boilermakers held a 21-14 lead with five minutes remaining. Michigan All-American senior quarterback Bob Timberlake, following his coach Bump Elliott to the honor of most valuable player in the Big Ten, set sail through the left side on a trademark option that ended 54 yards later in the end zone. Purdue now led 21-20. On a two-point conversion attempt, the lanky Timberlake carried on the option to the right. When felled, he came to rest one foot short of the goal line. This formidable Wolverine team went on to win every other game, including a 34-7 victory over Oregon State in the 51st Rose Bowl. The next year, Griese led Purdue over Michigan again, 17-15, and then again, 22-21, in 1966. If, in Michigan lore, the 1964 Wolverines are the team that finished one foot short of a perfect season, Griese's place is that of nemesis.

Michigan's first undefeated regular season since 1948 concluded in 1971 when Billy Taylor's touchdown sweep with 2:17 remaining achieved a thrilling 10-7 victory over Ohio State. Begun in a hailstorm, the game ended in a Hayes storm. After a leaping interception foiled OSU's last possession, Woody Hayes stormed to midfield, protested pass interference, provoked a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, and was dragged to the sideline by assistants. There he successfully counterattacked against those redoubtable foes, the down markers. The following day, a photograph revealed his receiver's helmet jerked upward on the play. It also revealed the culprit. Reaching for the ball, the receiver had inserted thumb in face mask.

The 11-0 Wolverines stood on the verge of a perfect season as they led Stanford, 12-10, with 1:48 remaining in the 58th Rose Bowl. A safety following a kick into the end zone--the same eventuality that snapped Michigan's 56-game unbeaten streak in 1905--had provided Michigan what appeared the winning margin. But this time Stanford used all the clock. As the Indians took possession following a punt, Michigan switched to a "prevent defense", a strategy said to prevent nothing but victory. From its 22-yard line, Stanford completed five passes to the Michigan 14, and, with twelve seconds remaining, kicked a field goal to win, 13-12.

Another team that missed by a whisker, or two whiskers, was the 1980 Michigan squad that lost two consecutive games on the final play. After John Wangler's touchdown pass to Craig Dunaway gave Michigan the lead with 41 seconds remaining, a pass interference call against the Wolverines allowed a 51-yard field goal with 0:04 remaining that snatched a 29-27 win for Notre Dame at South Bend. In Michigan Stadium the next week, at the conclusion of a heart-stopping closing drive, Wangler's pass from the South Carolina five-yard line bounced off a slanting Anthony Carter in the end zone as time expired. The Gamecocks prevailed, 17-14. The Wolverines won every remaining game, including a 23-6 Rose Bowl victory over Washington in which shone Wangler, arguably the greatest passer in Michigan history, Carter, arguably the greatest receiver, and Butch Woolfolk, the 67th Game's most valuable player.

Nearly a generation later, the Michigan faithful watched Lloyd Carr's young team having fun in its 1997 opener against Colorado. The defense repeatedly rushed the passer, an innovation following years of "bend not break." The offense ran unpredictable sequences, controlled the ball with midrange passing, and reintroduced a rushing fullback, an historic Michigan strength. As in 1947, Michigan clinched the Big Ten title in the penultimate game on a cold, blustery day in Madison, Wisconsin, and the Rose Bowl bid followed the next week in victory at home. The 1997 season concluded another string of three consecutive victories for a Griese-quarterbacked team against a single opponent--these by Brian Griese for Michigan against OSU.