1887 Michigan Wolverines football team
| 1887 Michigan Wolverines football | |
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| Conference | Independent |
| 1887 record | 5–0 |
| Head coach | no coach |
| Captain | John L. Duffy |
| Home stadium | Ann Arbor Fairgrounds |
| 1887 college football records | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | W | L | T | W | L | T | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yale | – | 9 | – | 0 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Michigan | – | 5 | – | 0 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| California | – | 4 | – | 0 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minnesota | – | 2 | – | 0 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Harvard | – | 10 | – | 1 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Princeton | – | 7 | – | 2 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Navy | – | 3 | – | 1 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dartmouth | – | 3 | – | 1 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Virginia | – | 0 | – | 0 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rutgers | – | 3 | – | 6 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Massachusetts | – | 2 | – | 3 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indiana | – | 0 | – | 1 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Purdue | – | 0 | – | 1 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cornell | – | 0 | – | 2 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notre Dame | – | 0 | – | 3 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 1887 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1887 college football season. The team compiled a 5–0 record and outscored its opponents by a combined score of 102 to 10. The 1887 season capped three consecutive undefeated seasons in which Michigan won its games by a combined three-season total of 258 to 10. The captain of the 1887 team was John L. Duffy.
On November 12, 1887, the team opened its season against Albion College at the Ann Arbor Fairgrounds. The Chronicle of Ann Arbor reported: "The weather was fine, and the contest was witnessed by a fair crowd of spectators, but one that might have been larger." The game was preceded by the continuation of a wrestling match between two heavyweights named Malley and Jackson. Three-hundred spectators watched the wrestling match, which lasted for between 30 and 45 minutes. The football game began between 3:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Albion kicked off to start the game and Duffy immediately kicked the ball back to the middle of the field. In a scrimmage that followed, John Duffy "slipped through", scored Michigan's first touchdown, and kicked the goal from touchdown to give Michigan a 6-0 lead. Michigan scored two additional touchdowns and a safety in the first half (or "inning"), with the scores being made by Jim Duffy, Royal Farrand and Ernest Sprague. After a ten-minute break between halves, neither team scored in the first 18 minutes of the second half. John Duffy scored Michigan's fourth touchdown, and the kick for goal was successful. James Duffy scored Michigan's fifth touchdown, "the ball coming to him on the bound from the punt-out."
The Michigan Argonaut summarized Michigan's play as follows: "On the whole the boys played a good game. Their passing and running were excellent. Some of the new material is a great strengthening to the eleven. The inability to hold the rush line well was the greatest fault but they will take away with them a stronger one."
Two of the players on Michigan's 1887 team, George Winthrop DeHaven, Jr. and William Warren Harless, had previously attended the University of Notre Dame. In October 1887, DeHaven wrote to Brother Paul, who ran Notre Dame's intramural athletics program, telling him about the new game of football. Michigan had planned a game in Chicago on Thanksgiving Day, and the three men, DeHaven, Harless and Brother Paul, persuaded their respective schools to play a football match on the Notre Dame campus on the day before Thanksgiving.
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