Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Media & Entertainment Law Blogs -> Sports Biz

Media & Entertainment Law

: Sports Biz

Michigan Claims Northwestern Stole Signs to Win

This story in the Detroit Free Press relates the tale of two student managers/ball boys at the University of Michigan who discovered that Northwestern was "stealing" signs during the Northwestern-Michigan game in 1997. After relaying the information to Lloyd Carr on the sidelines in the third quarter, the Wolverines were able to regroup, and beat Northwestern 26-6 ending a two year losing streak against the Cats. Michigan would go on to an undefeated season, beating Washington State in the Rose Bowl 21-16 to win the national championship. Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald, a linebacker on those Northwestern teams, refused to comment on this story.

Now, before anyone gets too bent out of shape, let me point out that this was no Patriots spygate. The sign stealing, if you want to call it that, was of the baseball variety. One of the NU coaches was able to deduce from the way the Michigan center lined up whether the play was going to be a run or a pass and yelled to his defense accordingly. Apparently, the Michigan center changed hands on the ball depending on the play and placed one hand on his hip on some plays but not on others. The Cats were able to use these "tells", in poker parlance, to apparently such good effect that the 1995 defeat ranked as the biggest upset in Michigan history until Appy State came along last season. Leave it to the Big Ten's smart kids to be the ones to figure it out.

Here's a video clip of the 1995 game just to jog the memory banks of how special that win really was:

HT: Wizard of Odds

Full post as published by Sports Biz on June 18, 2008 (boomark / email).