Marty Gitlin - Michigan Football

Published in 2014 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010

Copyright 2014 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gitlin, Marty.

Michigan football/Martin Gitlin.First edition.
pages cm.(Americas most winning teams)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4488-9397-3 (library binding)

ISBN 978-1-4488-9423-9 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-1-4488-9426-0 (6-pack)

1. Michigan Wolverines (Football team)HistoryJuvenile literature.

2. University of MichiganFootballHistoryJuvenile literature. I. Title.

GV958.U52863G58 2014

796.332630977435dc23

2012045525

Manufactured in the United States of America

CPSIA Compliance Information: Batch #S13YA: For further information, contact Rosen Publishing, New York, New York, at 1-800-237-9932.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1
Fielding a Great Team

CHAPTER 2
Continuing to Roll

CHAPTER 3
Oosterbaan Ousted, Bumped by Bump

CHAPTER 4
Upset of the Century

CHAPTER 5
Carr Drives Wolverines to a Title

INTRODUCTION

T he greatness of a college football team is not measured solely by win totals. It is not determined only by championships won. It is not evaluated simply by the number of all-Americans that have graced its uniform. It is not judged merely by the passion of its fans. The finest programs in America boast all of those features. One could argue that the University of Michigan is perched atop that list.

The Wolverines entered the 2013 season leading the nation with 904 victories all-time. They have captured eleven national titles. They have won forty-two Big Ten crowns, more than any other team, including archrival Ohio State. They have placed thirty-four players and coaches into the College Football Hall of Fame.

And their fans? Their average attendance of 112,179 in 2011 set an all-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) record, and in 2012 they beat their own average attendance record with 112,252 fans, according to ESPN.com. Michigan Stadium has been nicknamed The Big House for its huge seating capacity and sellout crowds.

The history of Michigan football has been marked by consistent success for more than a century. The Wolverines wasted no time emerging as a force in college football.

A crowd of 110,343 packs the Big House on September 17, 2011, to watch the Wolverines dismantle in-state rival Eastern Michigan, 313.

One reason for their immediate achievement on the field was continuity in coaching. Michigan was unlike other programs, which changed coaches frequently around the turn of the twentieth century. Legendary coach Fielding Yost established the most powerful team in the country upon his arrival and maintained greatness for nearly three decades.

Nearly every coach that followed well into the 2000s was given time to create his own winning environment. The result was success in recruiting the finest players throughout the nation. For more than one hundred years, some of the greatest talent in the history of the sport passed through Ann Arbor on the way to stardom in the National Football League (NFL).

CHAPTER 1

FIELDING A GREAT TEAM

M ichigan football was born on a scorching hot afternoon in Chicago, Illinois, on May 30, 1879. As if to proclaim themselves a national power from the very beginning, the Wolverines dominated their rivals from nearby Racine College.

Play was rough, especially for a Racine player named A. C. Torbert. A Chicago Tribune article the following day told the story: No bones were broken, but Torbert was stretched out on the turf, it read. A bucket of water however revived him.

The Wolverines broke no bones that day, but they broke the spirit of many a foe in their early years. They played just ten games between 1884 and 1887, but they won them all. During the last three years of that period, they outscored their opponents, 2220. They had begun to forge an era of dominance that lasted until the Great Depression gripped the country in 1933.

The program had yet to establish the continuity in coaching that would distinguish itself in later years. But it did not matter before the turn of the twentieth century. Every coach won. During one five-year stretch beginning in 1894, Michigan earned a record of 39-7 with three different coaches. The 1898 team finished 10-0 and posted six shutouts.

Fielding Yost coached the most dominant college football teams in the country during the earliest years of the twentieth century. His Wolverines were known for their explosive offense and stifling defense.

FINALLY FINDING A FULL-TIME COACH

The Wolverines had captains, but no coaches from 1879 to 1890. Seven coaches came and went over the next ten years. In 1901, however, the school attracted a dedicated, competitive thirty-year-old coach named Fielding Yost. He immediately formed what many still believe is the finest team in college football history.

The Michigan teams of the early 1900s did not merely win. They were virtually perfect in performance. They lost just one game during their first five years under Yost, during which time they outscored their opponents by a combined score of 2,82142.

Yost earned the nickname Hurry Up for the way his offenses scored points so quickly. His defenses were equally powerful. The 1901 team did not surrender a point.

Perhaps his most satisfying triumph came that year in the first-ever Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, California, played against Stanford, the team he had coached the previous season. The Wolverines emerged from that showdown with a 490 victory. The game was never even completed. The Cardinals were so thoroughly beaten that they walked off the field in the third quarter and never returned! The game was so lopsided that another Rose Bowl was not played for another fourteen years.

THE STORY OF WILLIE HESTON

The Michigan teams of the early 1900s were nicknamed Point-a-Minute for their ability to score quickly. Nobody was scoring them faster than halfback Willie Heston.

Heston came all the way from San Jose State in California to join the Wolverines in 1901. He had played the year before against Stanford, whose coach Fielding Yost was about to take the same job at Michigan. His talent caught the eye of Yost, who convinced him to join the Wolverines and study law.

It worked out perfectly. Heston starred on four Michigan teams that compiled a combined record of 43-0-1. He was 5 feet 8 inches (1.7 meters) tall and weighed 190 pounds (86 kilo-grams), but he could run the 100-yard dash in ten seconds. His speed devastated defenses. He was a mere freshman when he exploded for 170 yards rushing against Stanford in the Rose Bowl on New Years Day 1902. He went on to score seventy-one touchdowns in his four years with the Wolverines.