Most Wolverine fans know that Tom Harmon was Michigan's first Heisman Trophy winner but after winning that trophy Tom Harmon became a war hero. Today is Veterans Day and took a break from the normal Wednesday post to back at WWII hero and the Michigan legend, Tom Harmon
Tom Harmon wore #98 at Michigan and I think that number stood for the number of positions he played for the Wolverines. Tom played for the Wolverines from 1938 -1940 and finished with 33 touchdowns (at the time a record). He also rushed for 2,134 yards, threw for 1,304 yards, kicked 33 extra points and two fields in his time at Michigan. Fitz Crisler his head coach must of had a rule: that if you score a touchdown, you had to kick the extra point!
Tom was pretty well known during his time as a Wolverine. He was on the cover of Time in 1939 and Life magazine in 1940. I never saw Tom play but it seems he was the Barry Sanders of his time. Opponents would have a hard time tackling the allusive Harmon who would go through a number of tear-away jerseys each game.
Two of Tom's best games came when the spotlight was the brightest. Michigan opened the 1940 season at California and those days teams used trains for travel but for this trip Michigan took a historic cross country flight. Michigan was the first college football team to travel cross country via an airplane . The plane had to stop three times (Des Moines, Denver, and Salt Lake City) and it took two days to get there. Michigan won the game 41-0 and Tom returned the opening kick 94 yards for a touchdown, returned a punt 72 yards for another TD, had an 86 and 8 yard touchdown runs, and threw for another score.
Of course Tom's last game as a Wolverine came against Ohio State. In Columbus, Tom ran for 3 touchdowns, threw for 2 more, and kicked 4 extra points for a 40-0 win. A couple weeks later he won the Heisman trophy which he finished as the runner up the year before. Tom lead the NCAA in scoring in both 1939 and in 1940 and also won the Maxwell Award in 1940. Tom's #98 jersey was retired when he graduated in 1940.
Tom wasn't done dominating the opposition after his time at Michigan. Tom decided to enlist in the Army Air Corps on November 8th, 1941. Planes he piloted went down twice during the war and both times Tom parachuted out to safety. His most famous flight that went down happened in early 1943 when Tom's plane flew into a tropical storm and he parachuted out into a South American Jungle. When his plane was reported missing the Army sent out a large search partybut the team was not able to find the Heisman trophy winner. Four days later he walked out jungle into Dutch Guiana.
As you know, Tom married Elyse Knox and is the father of actor Mark Harmon and actress Kelly Harmon. After football and the Army Tom had a nice career in sports broadcasting. He passed away at the age of 70 in 1990.
So on this day, when we are thinking about the state of our beloved Wolverines. It's good to think back about a Michigan legend that beat the Buckeyes single handily and then enlisted in the Army to fight in the Great World War.
Michigan could use a few guys like Tom Harmon these days.
Good Night and God Bless.
*portions of this post came from the book: 100 Things Michigan Fans Should Know Before They Die by Angelique Chengels
9 comments:
Would you please post original ideas/concepts/etc. If we wanted to read excerpts from 100 Thing Michigan Fans Should Know..., we'd buy the book. Another example of you "rehashing" other peoples work...UNBELIEVABLE!!! How about tracking down some veterans on Veterans Day that are Michigan fans and asking them about their experience with UM while serving. There's a novel concept...an original story.
Hey, Anonymous @ 10:03am, why would you criticize anyone for reprinting a story like this? Sounds like your more interested in forgeting history instead of remembering and honoring it. Maybe not all of us are as "well read" as you seem to be and enjoy stories like this one. What a sad state of mind you must be in every day.....if you don't like a story like this, just go somewhere else instead of being an a$$ about it..
It's not that I don't find this story interesting, I just want BOB to come up with something original.
Is that too much to ask?
If you don't like it, then don't read it. it's that simple.
I enjoyed the story, and I could care less where he got it from.
If you think you can do a better job, then actually do it.
Who are you, Bob's dad or something?
"It's not that I don't find this story interesting, I just want BOB to come up with something original. "
Who appointed you the "gatekeeper of all things original"? If you read it before, congratulations. For someone who had not read the story before, it's original to them. Regardless of your opinion, it's a great read.....AGAIN!
Most likely Tom kept his parachute for shelter & warmth at night in the out of doors. Nice rememberance of a hero on the football field and WWII
Anonymous #1: I know your all knowing Michigan fan but I'm guessing many fans didn't know about the plane trip to CAL, Tom enlisting in WWII, being shot down twice and finding his way to safety both times, and even the story about his parachute. Sorry if you didn't enjoy the post.
BTW: If you have some other post ideas please feel free to share them or even better yet, put together a post of your own and email it me and I will put it on the site.
Well done Bob.....
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