Photoshop Phriday: Bump Elliott
Bump Elliott played and coached at Michigan in the mid 20th century. He took the long route through college, but not because he couldn’t decide on a major or needed to fulfill distribution requirements. Bump enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1943 and after completing a year of school and football at Purdue was called into service. Upon his return in 1946 he enrolled at U of M, where he would play for two years. He was a member of the 1947 team that beat USC 49-0 in the Rose Bowl, matching the record for most points scored and largest margin of victory in a Rose Bowl game. The records they tied had been set by Michigan’s 1901 team, who beat Stanford by that same score.
Elliott held several coaching jobs in the decade after his graduation and ultimately in 1959 returned to Ann Arbor as the head coach for Michigan. Considering Michigan’s record breaking seasons of the early and mid 20th century Elliott’s career record of 51-42-2 is lackluster by comparison to others, but he did lead a team to the 1964 Big 10 title, and stuck around to help transition the team to Bo Schembechler when he became head coach in 1969. Elliott was clearly a visionary; nearly half a century before I was born and longer still until the movie was made, Elliott was photographed carrying a Despicable Me minion cake during a game.
