After the 1900 season, Charles A. Baird, Michigan's first athletic director, wrote to Fielding H. Yost, "Our people are greatly roused up over the defeats of the past two years," and gave Yost an offer to come to Michigan to coach the football team.[17] Upon arriving at Michigan, Yost famously ran up State Street and proclaimed to a reporter, "Michigan isn't going to lose a game."[17] Yost certainly delivered, with the 1901 Michigan team demolishing its opponents. In the first season under head coach Yost, a lopsided victory over Buffalo drew national attention and marked the arrival of Yost's "Point-a-Minute" teams. The Buffalo team beat Ivy League power Columbia earlier in the year and was favored over a Michigan team the Buffalo newspapers had dubbed "Woolly Westerners."[18] Michigan scored 22 touchdowns in 38 minutes of play, averaging a touchdown every one minute and 43 seconds. Buffalo quit 15 minutes before the game was scheduled to end.[18] The New York Times reported that Michigan's margin of victory was "one of the most remarkable ever made in the history of football in the important colleges."[19] At the end of the season, Michigan participated in the inaugural Rose Bowl, the first bowl game in American football history.[20] Michigan dominated the game so thoroughly that Stanford's captain requested the game be called with eight minutes remaining. Neil Snow scored five touchdowns in the game, which is still the all-time Rose Bowl record.[21] The Tournament of Roses Association held chariot races and other events in lieu of a football game for the next 15 years.
The next year, 1902, featured a contest between Michigan and the Wisconsin Badgers. The two teams were undefeated since 1900, and the crowd (20,000–22,000) was the largest in western football history. Michigan won, 6–0, leading the Detroit Free Press to call it "the greatest football game ever played on a western gridiron."[22] The undefeated 1902 team outscored its opponents 644 to 12 on its way to an 11–0 season. In 1903, Michigan played a game against Minnesota that started the rivalry for the Little Brown Jug, the oldest rivalry trophy in college football. Yost sent a student assistant to purchase a five-gallon water jug from a local store. After the game ended in a tie, Yost forgot the jug in the locker room. Custodian Oscar Munson discovered it and brought it to L. J. Cooke, who painted the jug brown and wrote "Michigan Jug – Captured by Oscar, October 31, 1903. Michigan 6, Minnesota 6." When Yost requested that the jug be returned, Cooke responded that "if you want it, you'll have to win it."[23] The game marked the only time from 1901 to 1904 that Michigan failed to win. Michigan finished the season at 11–0–1. In 1904, Michigan once again went undefeated at 10–0 while recording the most lopsided defeat in college football history, a 130–0 defeat of the West Virginia Mountaineers.
From 1901 through 1904, Michigan didn't lose a single game. The streak was finally halted at the end of the 1905 season by Amos Alonzo Stagg's Chicago Maroons, a team that went go on to win two Big 9 (as the Western Conference was now being called with the addition of Iowa and Indiana) titles in the next three years.[13] The game, dubbed "The First Greatest Game of the Century,"[24] broke Michigan's 56-game unbeaten streak and marked the end of the "Point-a-Minute" years. The 1905 Michigan team had outscored opponents 495–0 in its first 12 games. The game was lost in the final ten minutes of play when Denny Clark was tackled for a safety as he attempted to return a punt from behind the goal line. Michigan tied for another Big 9 title in 1906 before opting to go independent for the 1907 season.
The independent years were not as kind to Yost as his years in the Big 9. Michigan suffered one loss in 1907. In 1908, Michigan got battered by Penn (a team that went 11–0–1 that year) in a game in which Michigan center Germany Schulz took such a battering as to have to be dragged off the field.[25] In 1909, Michigan suffered its first loss to Notre Dame, leading Yost to refuse to schedule another game against Notre Dame; the schools did not play again until 1942. In 1910, Michigan played their only undefeated season of the independent years, going 3–0–3. Overall from 1907 to 1916, Michigan lost at least one game every year (with the exception of 1910).
Michigan rejoined the Big 9 in 1917, after which it was called the Big Ten. Yost immediately got back to work. In 1918, Michigan okated the first game against Stagg's Chicago Maroons since Chicago ended Michigan's winning streak in 1905. Michigan defeated the Maroons, 18–0, on the way to a 5–0 record. The next three years were lean, with Michigan going 3–4, 5–2, and 5–1–1, in 1919, 1920, and 1921. However, in 1922 Michigan managed to spoil the "Dedication Day" for Ohio Stadium, defeating the Buckeyes 19–0. Legend has it that the rotunda at Ohio Stadium is painted with maize flowers on a blue background due to the outcome of the 1922 dedication game.[26] Michigan went 5–0–1 in 1922, capturing a Big Ten title.[13] In 1923, Michigan went 8–0, winning another conference championship.[13] The 1924 Wolverines, coached by George Little, saw their 20-game unbeaten streak end at the hands of Red Grange. After the 1924 season, Little left Michigan to accept the head coach and athletic director positions at Wisconsin, returning athletic director Yost to the head coaching position.[27] Although the 1925 and 1926 seasons did not include a conference title, they were memorable due to the presence of the famous "Benny-to-Bennie" combination, a reference to Benny Friedman and Bennie Oosterbaan. The two helped popularize passing the ball in an era when running held dominance. Oosterbaan became a three-time All-American and was selected for the All-Time All-American team in 1951,[28] while Friedman went on to have a Hall of Fame NFL career.[29] Also during 1926, Michigan was retroactively awarded national titles for the 1901 and 1902 seasons via the Houlgate System, the first national titles awarded to the program. Other major selectors later retroactively awarded Michigan with titles in the 1903, 1904, 1918, 1923, 1925, and 1926 seasons. Michigan currently claims titles in the 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1918, and 1923 seasons.[30]
Yost stepped aside in 1926 to focus on being Michigan's athletic director, a post he had held since 1921, thus ending the greatest period of success in the history of Michigan football.[31] Under Yost, Michigan posted a 165–29–10 record, winning ten conference championships and six national championships.[13][30] One of his main actions as athletic director was to oversee the construction of Michigan Stadium. Michigan began playing football games in Michigan Stadium in the fall of 1927. At the time Michigan Stadium had a capacity of 72,000, although Yost envisioned eventually expanding the stadium to a capacity well beyond 100,000.[32] Michigan Stadium was formally dedicated during a game against the Ohio State Buckeyes that season to the tune of a 21–0 victory.[33]
New head football coach Jim Harbaugh is on the cover of the February issue of The Wolverine. This issue includes our complete package covering the hiring of Jim Harbaugh, with the inside story of how Michigan landed its No. 1 candidate, reactions from current and former players and the media to the hiring of Harbaugh, a look at the assistant coaching staff Harbaugh has put together, analysis of how the Wolverines might shape up on the field, a feature about Jack Harbaugh, and more!
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