Indiana Football: Remembering 1987 and a win against Michigan

It has been 32 years since the Indiana football team beat Michigan. We take a look back and remember that win and how different things were.

A lot has changed since 1987. The show Full House debuted and left and came back again. The Simpsons debuted and have been going on 30 years strong. Stamps only cost 24 cents and a gallon of gas was just 89 cents on average.

Michael Jackson released his single and album titled “Bad” and Ronald Reagan was President of the United States. The Berlin Wall still separated Germany and would for four more years. Cell phones were still a thing of the future and the internet was still three years from really becoming the entity we know it is as now. And we don’t even want to get started on the fashion of the late 80’s.

The year might have been 1987 but the Hoosiers were on top of the world. Indiana would win their fifth national championship in basketball to further cement their legacy on the national stage.

But before that even happened the football team was ranked for five weeks in the AP Poll and won eight games in one of the best seasons in their history. They beat Ohio State and Purdue and made it to the Peach Bowl where they would come up just short against the 17th ranked Tennessee Volunteers.

Along the way, they would beat Michigan 14-10. It was their first win against the Wolverines since 1967 and would vault them to number 11 in the polls. The Hoosiers trailed 10-7 at the half but scored on their second possession in the second half and would hold the Wolverines the rest of the way.

It looked like it was the start of something good for the Indiana football team and they would follow it up in 1988 with another eight-win season and a bowl win. They would win eight games again in 1993 under Bill Mallory but haven’t won that many games since.

The Hoosiers also haven’t beaten Michigan since. They have lost to the Wolverines 23 straight times. It is the second-longest current losing streak by one team against another. Unfortunately, the top streak is also Indiana, as they have lost to Ohio State 24 straight times. They hope to not make it 24 against Michigan also on Saturday.

It hasn’t been for being close. The last two times the Wolverines have visited Bloomington the Hoosiers have taken them to overtime, only to come up short. Will this be the year they can finally get over that hump?

A lot has changed since 1987 except for Indiana beating Michigan. The Hoosiers hope to change that on Saturday.