Ron Simpkins knows all about Michigan State week, rivalries and getting where you want to be. He’s aching for the Wolverines to make his day on Saturday.
Simpkins finds himself already working on an excellent week. Forty-five years after he first roamed the Rose Bowl turf, he’s has been named to the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame.
The tackling terminator played in three Rose Bowls (1977, ’78 and ’79) during his record-setting career as a Michigan linebacker. When he put his meat hooks into a ball carrier, they went down — hard.
That scenario occurred 516 times over his four-year U-M playing career, a Michigan tackles record that still stands. He set a Rose Bowl record with 16 stops against Washington in the ’78 Rose Bowl, and posted a dozen against USC the following year.
Some 4.5 decades later, the Rose Bowl gave him a nod.
“I’m shocked, to be honest with you,” Simpkins said. “After so long, you don’t even think about it. You don’t think about getting honors 40 years later … you appreciate it, but it’s not something you hope for.”
In those days, the Rose Bowl harbored all of the Wolverines’ hopes and dreams. Simpkins’ 3-1 records against Michigan State and Ohio State became stepping stones to the biggest college football contest of them all.
“Oh, when they say the Granddaddy Of Them All, it was like the college Super Bowl, really,” Simpkins recalled. “All of those games, we had a chance to be in competition for the national championship. We were playing for a chance to win the national championship every time we went to the Rose Bowl.”
The times Simpkins ventured to Pasadena, the Wolverines couldn’t quite get over the top — twice against USC, once against Washington. Never mind that the odds were stacked against them, the Wolverines playing in USC’s backyard, traveling across the country, etc.
Simpkins says forget all that.
“We never even thought about that,” Simpkins assured. “That was not even a factor. The crowd cheering for them or cheering for us? We always had support. I heard our Michigan fans as much as I heard anybody else during those games. It really never was a factor.”
A Michigan offense that averaged 12.0 points per game in those three losses certainly was a factor, but not one Simpkins would ever dwell upon.
The ’79 Rose Bowl, which USC stole on Charles White’s famed “Phantom Touchdown?” Oh, Simpkins will talk about the theft, without hesitation.
“When the guys get together, we still get mad about that,” he noted. “I’ve always said, I hate instant replay, because it slows the game down so much. But that play in particular would have given Michigan a victory.”
USC led 7-3 in the second quarter when White made his infamous leap into Rose Bowl history.
“USC had the momentum,” Simpkins recalled. “They had the ball, driving down the field. If we turn the ball over at that particular time, the whole momentum of the game shifts. Everything changes.
“We weren’t scoring a whole lot of points on offense. That would have changed the whole procession. If we could have turned the ball over there, and gotten the ball back for our offense — just kept it neutral for another quarter — it would have made all the difference in the world.”
Michigan did turn it over. Simpkins met White in mid-air, obviously short of the goal line, causing a fumble that should have given the Wolverines the ball.
“Yeah,” Simpkins said. “The ball came out. Before the play, I knew what they were going to run. I was calling out the play, telling the guys what they were going to run. That’s what they ran in that situation most of the time.
“My thing was to get over the defensive linemen and make sure I could get in the air to make contact with him while he was in the air. That was the play they ran all the time on the goal line.
“I knew he didn’t have the ball. I never thought they’d call it a touchdown. Our guy, Jerry Meter, ended up with the football!”
No matter. USC “won,” 17-10, and the Wolverines came away empty handed. But Michigan fans and the Rose Bowl itself have never forgotten his sterling play.
Recognition is wonderful. But Simpkins would like something else. This week in particular, he’s beyond fired up, like he was 45 years ago.
“Especially against Michigan State, because they’re in our state,” Simpkins stressed. “You’d see those guys off and on, playing basketball or working out during the summer. We didn’t want them talking stuff in the summertime, put it that way.
“They were real humble when they lost. But when they didn’t lose, they were not humble at all. And we weren’t the humblest either [laughs], but…
“We didn’t have to listen to it when we won. That was always a big thing.”
Simpkins told his daughter — a Michigan grad who recently gave him a picture of White diving into the Rose Bowl end zone, sans football — a loss to MSU ruins a perfectly fine weekend, and impacts the following 365 days.
“It’s just not a good weekend, and I don’t want to go through that,” he said. “If they could do anything, just make my weekend better for me.”
Simpkins knows the Wolverines could make it much better for themselves as well.
“This is going to put one of us possibly in contention for the playoff,” Simpkins said. “Then you’ve got to go play Ohio State. Regardless of what happens, you’ve still got to play Ohio State. You at least want to be on par, and still be undefeated, when you play them.”
Michigan’s tackling machine of the mid-to-late ‘70s concurs with many assessments of the MSU rivalry.
“It’s very nasty, and not a lot of respect,” he said. “I’ll be honest with you. I just don’t think these guys like each other that much.”
When he played under Bo Schembechler, the Wolverines carried their coach’s respect for Ohio State into The Game.
“Michigan State, it was like, no!” Simpkins offered. “We just want to punish these guys and beat them, any way we can. Again, it was always win. You ain’t got to win by a hundred. Just win.”
Some things haven’t changed much in 45 years.
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