Happy Anniversary, Rocket Ismail!
We shared some news regarding Michigan and Notre Dame that probably won’t leave many fans of the Domers laughing as a current Fighting Irish commitment appears to be pretty interested in the Wolverines.
Why not spend some time looking back at something regarding both Michigan and Notre Dame that makes us feel a bit happier than potentially losing a recruit.
The date was September 16, 1989 and No. 2 Michigan was playing host to defending champion, No. 1 Notre Dame. It was that afternoon in Ann Arbor that Raghib “Rocket” Ismail put on one of the greatest performances in college football history.
With Notre Dame holding onto a slim 7-6 halftime lead, Bo Schembechler decided to test his luck by kicking deep to Ismail, one of the most explosive players in college football at the time.
Bad idea, Bo.
Michigan was anything but done as they rallied behind Elvis Grbac to cut the Irish lead back down to five, 17-12 early in the fourth quarter. That’s when Schembechler again decided to kick it deep to Ismail.
And into the history books went the Rocket as the Irish would end up with a 24-19 victory over the second-ranked Wolverines.
1989 would be Schembechler’s final year at Michigan, a year he helped guide the Wolverines to another Big Ten title yet lost the Rose Bowl for the eighth time in 10 tries.
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