The Victors

Not looking it up but I believe it was 17-10. I was there, it was sort of a dull rainy day, and an incredibly boring game, with the only highlight being freshman punter Don Bracken appeared to be able to actually punt, which was a big upgrade for Michigan's special teams if anybody else remembers the late 1970s,

This was when Northwestern was at its absolute nadir, which is as bad as a major conference program has ever gotten. ETA: Looked it up, and they went 3-62-1 between 1976 and 1981, including 0-11 in 1980. That game was immediately followed by the Miracle FG loss in South Bend, and then another loss to South Carolina at home. At that point the season was shaping up as a complete disaster, and this was coming off the heels of Bo's worst season up to that point (1979 when the team went 8-4 but lost its last three games, so at that point we were 1-5 in our last six).

I can't remember what happened during the rest of 1980 but it was probably a bloodbath. Too bad the board wasn't around back then, as I'm sure it would have handled the first three games of the season with the calm rationality for which it is so famous in the midst of early season struggles.