In The Beginning by Maple Street Press

In the Beginning by John Bacon

ince 1901, Michigan has hired only four coaches outside the Michigan family. Three of those four— Fielding Yost, Fritz Crisler, and Bo Schembechler— happen to be the biggest figures ever to walk the Michigan sideline. The fourth, Rich Rodriguez, has only started his chapter of the Michigan football story. Still, we can already consider where all four came from, how they arrived in Ann Arbor, and how they started—a comparison which might provide a glimpse into the future.

HURRY UP At age 26, with his law degree from West Virginia in his pocket, Fielding H. Yost knew that football, not the law, had captured his imagination. “My main objective,” he said, “was to see America first, and coaching offered me the best chance to do it.” Yost made his first coaching stop in 1897 at Ohio Wesleyan, and wasted no time racking up a 7–1–1 record, including a tie against Michigan and a win over Ohio State. Despite Yost’s early success, he never dreamed of making a career out of coaching—because there were no careers in coaching. In 1897, only Chicago had a full-time coach on its faculty, and he happened to be Amos Alonzo Stagg. The Yost Express made its second stop at Nebraska in 1898. Yost’s Cornhuskers beat their archrival, Kansas, won the Missouri Valley championship, and finished with a 7–3 record. Kansas hired him, and in 1899, Yost turned right around and beat Nebraska, plus all nine other opponents on his way to another championship. Once again, Kansas couldn’t pay him much, so Yost headed all the way to Stanford. In Palo Alto, Yost set an unofficial record that probably still stands: He won four football championships in one year. Yost notched one title with the Stanford varsity, another with the freshman team, a third with

stories of Old Blue

Fielding Yost, seen here buying a Liberty Bond, presided over dominance never to be seen again.

Michigan kept up that incredible pace through 1905, racking up 55 wins against just one loss and one tie, outscoring opponents 2,821 to 42. That’s right. The average score of a Michigan game during Yost’s first five years was 50–1, and touchdowns were only worth five points back then. Michigan’s victories came in numbers like 119–0, 128–0, and 130–0. Yost offered no mercy, and only an uninformed opponent would have expected any. Yost notched that 130–0 waxing against West Virginia, his beloved alma mater. Yost’s defenses were disciplined, allowing not a single point in 1901, and his offenses innovative. He introduced the “no huddle offense” and popularized the forward pass—ideas Rodriguez would build on almost a century later. According to Yost biographer John Behee, “No other coach and no other football team ever so dominated their era as Fielding H. Yost and the Michigan teams for 1901–05.” And no other coach ever will. Because of the parity of the modern game, it’s highly unlikely the incredible records of Yost’s “Point-A-Minute” squads will ever be eclipsed. Before deciding “this is the place,” Yost coached at four schools, Crisler at three, Schembechler and Rodriguez at five each. How Yost recognized Ann Arbor was his Valhalla is anyone’s guess, but the others didn’t need much time to conclude Michigan was the place for them. After all, Yost had already been there. If Michigan football is a religion, its converts have been its most fervent believers.

THE LORD Herbert Orin “Fritz” Crisler grew up on a farm in tiny Earlville, IL, 70 miles west of Chicago, but before he left college athletics for good in 1968, this former farm boy became the first non-alumnus to coach at Princeton, developing a friendship with famous alum F. Scott Fitzgerald; he won three national titles at two different schools; he changed the game forever by inventing the platoon system; and he left his mark as one of the greatest athletes, coaches, and visionaries the game has ever seen. You would not have predicted any such greatness from Crisler as a boy, at least not in the field he chose. He was too scrawny to play high school football, but he was smart enough to earn an academic, not athletic, scholarship to the University of Chicago in 1917. The serious-minded young man couldn’t resist visiting a practice run by Chicago’s legendary coach, Amos Alonzo Stagg, “The Old Man of the Midway.” “I never before had seen the inside of a gymnasium or seen a college team practice,” Crisler recalled. “I was just a farm boy looking around. Mr. Stagg, backpedaling away from a play sweeping toward him, bumped into me and we both went down.”

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the San Jose Normal School and one more with a Palo Alto high school team. The man could coach. In December of 1900, Yost was out of a job for the third time in three years, so he wrote to Illinois to see if they had any openings. They did not, but the manager of athletics there was nice enough to pass Yost’s letter on to his counterpart at Michigan, Charles Baird. In 1900, the year before Yost arrived, Michigan had gone 7–2–1, but they also lost once again to archrival Chicago and finished fifth in the conference. Baird wrote Yost immediately. “Our people are greatly roused up over the defeats of the past two years,” Baird wrote, “and a great effort will be made.” Those were the words Yost longed to hear. Baird backed up his promise with free room and board, plus a $2,300 salary—the same money a full professor made—for just three months’ work. Yost had finally found a way to coach football for a living. When Yost got off the train in Ann Arbor, legend has it he grabbed his bags and ran up the hill. (They didn’t call him “Hurry Up” for nothing.) When he reached campus, a reporter asked him how the Wolverines would do that year. Without having seen the facilities, the AD, or a single player, Yost boldly predicted, “Michigan isn’t going to lose a game.” Sure enough, the closest any Michigan opponent came to beating the Blue in Yost’s first year was Ohio State—not yet in the league—which lost only 21–0. Chicago took one on the chin, 22–0. Yost finished the job in the first Rose Bowl by knocking out Stanford, his previous employer, 49–0. The Wolverines scored 550 points that season — an average of 55 per game, which inspired the “Point-a-Minute” title. (Since several games were cut short when the opponent conceded, Yost’s team actually averaged more than a point a minute that year, and the four seasons that followed.)

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In The Beginning wrote, “Michigan presents such a far-reaching opportunity that it was difficult for me to do anything but accept.” Crisler’s impact in Ann Arbor was both immediate, and eternal. He introduced the famed winged helmet, and worked his usual magic to turn around a once-proud team that had gone 10–22 the four seasons before he arrived, to 6–1–1 his first season. In Crisler’s first five seasons in Ann Arbor, Michigan averaged less than two losses a year, but five straight heartbreakers to Minnesota kept the Wolverines from winning a single Big Ten title until they finally turned the trick in 1943. While Crisler did not quite achieve the Fritz Crisler coached Tom Harmon, Michigan’s first Heisman winner. immediate success Yost and Schembechler enjoyed—both won four Big Ten titles in The two looked at each other for a moment, dazed. Then their first five years—Crisler notched an impressive 71–16–3 Stagg barked, “Why aren’t you out for football?” record at Michigan, complemented by two Big Ten titles and Crisler went on to set a Chicago record by winning one national title. nine varsity letters in football, basketball, and baseball. After Crisler accomplished all this with an unapologetically augraduating, Crisler served as Stagg’s assistant from 1922–1929. thoritarian approach to his players. His players joked it never He kept in close contact with his mentor throughout his stops rained in Ann Arbor before 6 p.m., when football practice at Minnesota, Princeton, and Michigan. Years later, Stagg was ended, because Crisler would not allow it. Their nickname for still talking up his star pupil. “Balance, judgment, dependability, him, if you can call it that, was “The Lord.” and loyalty are his predominant characteristics,” he said. “In my talks to young people, I have often used him as an illustration of these qualities well-supported by eloquent mental gifts.” Crisler used all his attributes to turn around a moribund Minnesota program in just two seasons. The Gophers finished 3–4–1 in 1930 and 7–3 in 1931, the first steps in a renaissance that would result in five national titles for Minnesota in the decade after Crisler left. When Princeton made a pitch for Crisler, Minnesotans made a desperate attempt to keep him, but he admitted, “I fell for the glamour of the Big Three”—Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, then the center of college football. “I was flattered as hell that Princeton came after me, a corn-fed yokel, to be its first non-alumnus head coach. What really clinched the decision for me, though, was the obvious fact that all business, publicity, and prestige faced East in the early 1930s.” Crisler took advantage of the spotlight by going 35–9–5 during his six seasons at Princeton, including undefeated campaigns in 1933 and 1935 that led to national titles, the last Ivy League school to be so honored. When the Michigan brain trust went shopping for a new football coach in 1938, they decided on Crisler, and they wouldn’t take no for an answer. Crisler believed the locus of power in college football was shifting west—and for Amos Alonzo Stagg’s influence on Michigan football was indirect but great. good. In his resignation letter to Princeton officials, Crisler

“BO WHO?” The question didn’t stand for long. “People insisted my conservative approach would never fly in Ann Arbor,” Schembechler said in his eponymous best-selling book with Mitch Albom. “We would see about that. I was either going to make it or I was going to leave, but I wasn’t going to bend.” His first team can attest to that. Schembechler worked them so hard, dozens quit, prompting him to coin the immortal phrase: “Those Who Stay Will Be Champions.” It seemed Schembechler’s promise might be a hollow one after his first team got whipped in their third game by Missouri, 40–17, then lost to Michigan State two weeks later, 23–12. Crisler brought the winged helmet to Michigan from Princeton. “We were 3–2, with two bad losses, and if “Both in appearance and in his flair for the dramatic,” we lost to anyone else in the next five games we would be out wrote New York Sun columnist George Trevor, “Crisler sugof the Big Ten race, with no chance to be champions. And I gests General Douglas MacArthur.” would have broken my promise.” The players’ blind devotion to their leader helped Crisler It was not an easy promise to keep. Michigan had capimplement his daringly original platoon system in 1945, tured just one Big Ten title in the previous 18 seasons. With which split the squad into offensive and defensive units for their backs against the wall, the Wolverines outscored their the first time, thus changing the game forever. next four opponents, 178–22. Thanks to Crisler, never again would a Big Ten head How’d they do it? Not with the kind of eye-popping coach “fall for the glamour” of the Ivy Leagues. When Crisler innovations that marked Yost’s and Crisler’s teams, but completed his coaching career in Ann Arbor in 1947, he had old-fashioned, blood-and-guts football—plus a surprisingly established the Michigan head coaching position not as a number of highly skilled players. stepping stone, but the ultimate destination. “One of the biggest myths of that ’69 team is that we took Since Crisler, no Michigan head coach has ever sought a a bunch of no-talent guys and turned them into champions,” head coaching position at another college. Bo said. “That’s just not true. From that team eleven players became All-American—eleven! While I like to think our KEEPING A PROMISE coaching staff helped them get there, brother, you can’t get In the l30-year history of Michigan football, only Fielding blood from a stone. And let’s be clear: I didn’t recruit any of Yost made a bigger splash than Bo Schembechler did in his those guys. Ol’ Bump Elliott had not left the cupboard bare.” first season. Like Yost, Schembechler arrived in Ann Arbor as a They still had to beat the defending national champion relative unknown—but Michigan got to know him very quickly. Buckeyes, who were riding a 16-game winning streak. But A native of Barberton, OH, Schembechler played offensive Schembechler’s team stunned the Bucks, 24–12, in the greattackle for Miami of Ohio. As soon as he graduated in 1951, he est upset of the decade—and the most important victory started his 12-year apprenticeship, serving for College Hall of in Wolverine history. That single contest re-established Fame coaches Doyt Perry at Bowling Green, Ara Paraseghian at Michigan as one of the premiere programs in the country. Northwestern, and Woody Hayes at Miami and Ohio State. Schembechler’s next five Michigan teams proved that it was “I always looked at Michigan as one of the really great no fluke, suffering a total of only four losses. schools, and always felt that would be a tremendous place to When Schembechler retired in 1989, he was the wincoach,” Schembechler said. “I never thought I’d ever coach ningest active coach in the land with a record of 234–65–8, at Michigan, but when I had the opportunity, I accepted it ranking fifth all time behind Bear Bryant, Amos Alonzo without asking too many questions.” Including, it turned out, Stagg, Glen “Pop” Warner, and Woody Hayes. Although what his salary would be. Schembechler never did win a national title, 17 of his 21 After Athletic Director Don Canham settled on the little teams finished in the top ten, 13 won Big Ten titles, and none known MAC coach in 1969, a Detroit News headline asked, suffered a losing season.

Photo: Joseph Scherschel//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

stories of Old Blue

In The Beginning Perhaps most impressively, as Schembechler promised before coaching his first game at Michigan, every single Wolverine who stayed owns a Big Ten championship ring. Bo had kept his promise.

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JUST A KID FROM GRANT TOWN When Michigan hired Yost, Crisler, and Schembechler, the searches were conducted quickly and quietly by a tight circle of insiders. None of that could be said for the search to find Michigan’s 10th head coach since Yost. From the moment Lloyd Carr announced his retirement two days after the 2007 Ohio State game, Michigan seemed to be caught off-guard. Most observers assumed the Les Miles-Michigan marriage was a foregone conclusion—until the search unraveled, right on national TV. The fact is, Michigan never offered Miles the job, and his close friends say he would have taken the post for almost any price. Michigan did offer the job to Rutgers’ Greg Schiano, who turned it down—a public embarrassment for one of the nation’s most esteemed programs. While this drama was unfolding, West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez had a golden opportunity to get his second-ranked team into the national title game, until lowly Pittsburgh knocked them out. Just days after the crushing defeat, Rodriguez got a surprise: Michigan was prepared to propose. The whirlwind courtship was consummated in nine days. You’d think the story might have ended there, but the helter-skelter hiring process raised more questions than answers, including: Who the heck is Rich Rodriguez? Raised in tiny Grant Town, West Virginia, Rodriguez knew from an early age he wanted to spend his life in sports. Just like Yost, Crisler, and Schembechler, as soon as Rodriguez’s college days were over, his coaching career began. In his first season leading Glenville State, Rodriguez posted an anemic 1–7–1 mark. Desperate, Rodriguez decided to have his team skip the huddle— a la Yost—use a shotgun snap, spread the receivers out, and keep it up for the entire game, every game. It worked. In a few years, Glenville State rattled off four league titles and pulled off a Division II national semifinal upset. Rodriguez worked the same magic for Tulane and Clemson as an offensive coordinator, before becoming the head coach at his alma mater in 2001—where he did it again, taking a 3–8 squad his first year and transforming them into a perennial January bowl team. There’s a catch, however: It takes time to develop and recruit the kind of players who can run the spread

offense—and that’s why Rodriguez’s teams tend to spin their wheels before they start rolling. At his first Michigan press conference, Rodriguez deftly handled a dozen dicey questions. When asked about not being Michigan’s top candidate, Rodriguez quipped, “I might have been my wife’s third choice, too.” The angst and anger generated by the messy search process has faded, but still colors almost everything that’s happened since, including a seemingly endless lawsuit over the $4 million buy-out clause in Rodriguez’s West Virginia contract. After months of public wrangling, the university paid $2.5 million, and Rodriguez the remaining $1.5 million—but not before Rodriguez’s name was dragged through the mud. There is a healthy debate over how full Michigan’s cupboard was when Rodriguez took over, especially regarding the three players who transferred and another couple who declined to come back for their fifth year. But no matter who Michigan hired, he would have struggled to replace a stellar senior class that included the school’s all-time leading rusher, Michael Hart; the NFL’s first draft pick, Jake Long; and starting quarterback Chad Henne, who set almost every Michigan passing record before being drafted in the second round. However it happened, there’s no debating that Rodriguez opened the season with 15 seniors, 14 juniors, only one returning starter on offense (and no seniors), and two quarterbacks who had never thrown a pass in college. According to ESPN, Michigan was the youngest team in Division I—and likely will be again in 2009. Given all this, it was not surprising to find Rodriguez so uncertain the night before his opening game in Ann Arbor. In college football, more than most sports, success breeds success—and failure breeds failure.

Bo, probably explaining to Gerald Ford how to handle this Nixon thing. Hail to the Victors 2009 | 127

all the students and alumni and fans combined. We have to live with this. We’re responsible for it. But trust me, we know what we’re doing, and we’re going to get this going. It’s not fun, but it’s happened this way every time.” When a writer asked legendary basketball coach John Wooden who the best coaches in the game were, he replied, “The ones with the best players.” By that measure, Michigan fans have reason for hope. Rodriguez and his staff landed Rivals. com’s seventh-ranked recruiting class—including quarterback Tate Forcier, defensive tackle Will Campbell, and five other freshmen who arrived in January. They didn’t stop there, getting verbal “People say it’s harder to be at the top than the bottom. But I guarantee commitments from 10 candidates for the 2010 recruiting class. you anyone who says that has never been at the bottom.” There are still more questions than answers, The 2008 Wolverines enjoyed some of the former, and a of course, including how quickly the young bucks can learn lot more of the latter. the complicated spread offense, and how Michigan’s defense The highlights included an upset over ninth-ranked will respond to its third coordinator in as many years. Wisconsin—following the biggest comeback in the 500-game “People say it’s harder to be at the top than the bottom,” history of the Big House—and a lot more low points, chief Rodriguez said. “But I guarantee you, anyone who says that among them a devastating 13–10 loss to Toledo at home, and has never been at the bottom.” a 48–42 defeat at Purdue, which had entered the game at 2–6. Of the four outsiders, only Rodriguez suffered a losing Along the way, a reporter asked Rodriguez what the season his first year in Ann Arbor. But it’s worth keeping this problem was. “Blocking, tackling, and getting to the ball,” he little exercise in perspective. said. “Ultimately, that’s coaching. That’s me.” Countless great coaches stumbled out of the gates before The Wolverines seemed ready to throw in the towel, hitting their stride. This long list includes Bear Bryant, who especially with 7–2 Minnesota heavily favored to beat went 1–9 his first year at Texas A&M and 5–4–1 his opening Michigan the next week. But a funny thing happened in the year at Alabama. Woody Hayes could only manage a 2–6 Metrodome that day: The Wolverines shocked the Gophers record in his debut at Denison, 5–4 at Miami, and 4–3–2 at with a resounding 29–6 victory. With almost everything lost Ohio State. And yes, all those fans were calling for their heads. for the season, they had not given up on their coaches, or Bet they’re glad they didn’t get their wish. their teammates. The opposite is also true. When it comes to great starts, Two weeks later, on a cold, gray day, Michigan’s 42–7 the man who ranks right behind Fielding H. Yost is not loss to Ohio State punctuated the team’s most trying season Crisler, Schembechler, or Carr—but Harry Kipke, whose in years—one that saw the Wolverines snap a seven-game teams went 36–4–4 in his first five seasons at Michigan, winning streak against Michigan State, a nine-game winning including two national titles. streak against Penn State, and a spotless 24–0 mark against He followed that, however, with four seasons totaling 10 the entire Mid-American Conference. wins and 22 losses—which qualified him only for a pink slip. Add it all up, and you have Michigan’s first year without a This proves a bigger point: It’s not how you start. It’s bowl game since 1974, its first losing season since 1967—both how you finish. the longest runs in the sport—and nine losses for the first “We’re going to get there,” Rodriguez said. “It won’t be time in Michigan’s 129-year history. Perhaps most surprising, tomorrow, and it won’t be easy, but we’re going to get there. the 2008 defense—which was supposed to carry the young And it starts right now.” MSP offense—set the school record for points allowed. “This year, we’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly,” John Bacon is the coauthor of the national best-seller Bo’s Lasting Lessons. Rodriguez, the die-hard Clint Eastwood fan said. “How do He also provides weekly commentary on The Bacon Blog, we feel about it? I guarantee you this: We feel worse than http://blog.johnubacon.com.

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stories of Old Blue