From 1901 to 1905, his "Point-a-Minute" squads had a record of 55–1–1, outscoring their opponents by a margin of 2,821–42. The
1901 team beat
Stanford, 49–0, in the
1902 Rose Bowl, the first college football
bowl game. Under Yost, Michigan won four straight national championships from 1901 to 1904 and two more in 1918 and 1923.
In 1921, Yost became Michigan's
athletic director and served in that capacity until 1940. He was inducted into the
College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1951.[1] Yost was also a successful business person, lawyer, and author; but he is best known as a leading figure in pioneering the development of college football into a national phenomenon.
Early life
Yost was born in
Fairview, West Virginia, in April 1871. Yost's family had settled in West Virginia, in 1825. He was the oldest of four children of Parmenus (sometimes Permenus) Wesley Yost (1845–1920) and Elzena Jane (Ammons) Yost (1852–1943), both natives of West Virginia. His father was a farmer and a Confederate veteran.[2] His family had been in Fairview since 1825 when his second great grandfather, David Yost, settled there and took up a grant of over 2,000 acres.[3]
Yost was educated in the local schools and became a deputy marshal in Fairview as a teenager.[4] At seventeen, he earned a public-school teaching certificate.[5]
He next enrolled at the Ohio Normal School (now known as
Ohio Northern University). Yost played for the Ohio Normal baseball team.[6] After three years at Ohio Normal, he returned to West Virginia to work in the oil fields.
In 1895, Yost enrolled at
West Virginia University where he studied law, earning an
LL.B. He also played football for the West Virginia University football team.[7] A 6-foot, 200 pounder, Yost was a standout at
tackle at West Virginia into the 1896 season.
"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
In October 1896, after his team lost three home games to
Lafayette, played on three different fields over the course of three days,[8][9] Yost became a remarkable personification of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." He transferred in mid-season to join Coach
Parke H. Davis's national championship team at Lafayette. Just a week after playing against Davis in West Virginia, Yost was playing for Davis in Lafayette's historic 6-4 win over the
Penn Quakers.[9]
The fortuitous timing of his appearance on the Lafayette roster did not go unnoticed by Penn officials. They called it "the Yost affair." The
Philadelphia Ledger quoted Yost as saying that he came to Lafayette only to play football. The fact that he appeared in a Lafayette uniform only once, in the Penn game,[10] and that he returned to West Virginia within two weeks of the contest did not help appearances. He assured all concerned that he would return to Lafayette for at least three years of study.[11]
Coaching career
Ohio Wesleyan
Yost began his coaching career at age 26 as head coach of the
1897 Ohio Wesleyan football team. Yost's team compiled a 7–1–1 record, shut out six of its nine opponents (including a 6–0 victory over
Ohio State and a scoreless tie with
Michigan), and outscored all opponents by a total of 144 to 32. Yost played at left tackle against Michigan, leading to a protest that Ohio Wesleyan had assured Michigan that Yost, a paid coach and non-student, would not play and had engaged in trickery by introducing another individual as Yost. One week later, Michigan announced that it would no longer schedule games against Ohio Wesleyan.[12][13]
Nebraska
In 1898, Yost was hired to coach the
Nebraska football team with compensation of $1,000 for 10 weeks of service.[14] The 1898 Nebraska team compiled an 8–3 record, including victories over Iowa State (23–10), Missouri (47–6), Kansas (18–6), and Colorado (23–10), and losses to Drake (6–5) and Iowa (6–5).
Kansas
In June 1899, the University of Kansas Athletic Association offered Yost $350, and an additional $150 conditionally, to coach the school's football team.[15] After spending the summer in Colorado, Yost arrived in
Lawrence, Kansas, on September 4, 1899.[16] During the 1899 season, the Kansas football team "lived separate from the rest of the students and ate specially selected and prepared food . . . with Coach Yost as their only mentor".[17] The team compiled an undefeated 10–0 record, outscoring opponents 280–37. The season included victories over the Haskell Indians (12–0 and 18–0), Nebraska (36–20), and Missouri (34–6). During the 1899–1900 academic year, Kansas had Yost as its football coach and
James Naismith as its basketball coach. Naismith also served as an assistant football coach during the 1899 season.
Stanford
In May 1900, Yost was hired as the football coach at
Stanford University,[18] and, after traveling home to West Virginia, he arrived in
Palo Alto, California, on August 21, 1900.[19] Yost led the 1900 Stanford team to a 7–2–1, outscoring opponents 154–20.
Yost coached at Michigan from 1901 through 1923, and again in 1925 and 1926. He was highly successful at Michigan, winning 165 games, losing only 29, and tying 10 for a winning percentage of .833. Under Yost, Michigan won four straight
national championships from 1901 to 1904 and two more in 1918 and 1923.
Point-a-minute
Yost's first
Michigan team in 1901 outscored its opposition by a margin of 550–0 en route to a perfect season and victory in the
inaugural Rose Bowl on January 1, 1902, over
Stanford, the team Yost had coached the year before. From 1901 to 1904, Michigan did not lose a game, and was tied only once in a legendary game with the
Minnesota Golden Gophers that led to the establishment of the
Little Brown Jug trophy. Yost's teams used the
short punt formation.[22] He also developed a play called "Old 83" resembling an
option.[23]
Before Michigan finally lost a game to
Amos Alonzo Stagg's
Chicago Maroons squad at the end of the 1905 season, they had gone 56 straight games without a defeat, the second longest such streak in college football history. During their first five seasons under Yost, Michigan outscored its opponents 2,821–42,[24] earning the Michigan team the nickname "Point-a-Minute."[25] The team featured running back
Willie Heston, who Yost called the greatest player he ever saw.[26][n 1]
In 1904,
Germany Schulz stood up from the center position and created the position of
linebacker. Yost was horrified at first, but came to see the wisdom in Schulz's innovation.[28]
Independent
In 1908, Michigan lost to Penn 29–0, the worst defeat suffered by a Michigan team during the Yost era.[29] Yost said of Schulz's performance: "He gave the greatest one-man exhibition of courage I ever saw on a football field."[30]
In 1909, Michigan suffered its first loss to
Notre Dame.[31] In 1910, Michigan was led by All-Americans
Albert Benbrook and
Stanfield Wells and played its only undefeated season of the independent years, compiling a 3–0–3 record.[32]
In 1916,
John Maulbetsch led Michigan to one of its finest records. The Wolverines won seven straight games.
Return to Western Conference
Led by fullback
Frank Steketee, the 1918 team went undefeated in the war-shortened season. The
1922 and
1923 teams went undefeated, led by punter
Harry Kipke. The only blemish was a
tie with Yost protege and brother-in-law
Dan McGugin's
Vanderbilt.[n 2]
At the end of the season, Yost called the 1925 Michigan team "the greatest football team I ever coached" and "the greatest football team I ever saw in action".[34] The team featured quarterback
Benny Friedman and left end
Bennie Oosterbaan, sometimes referred to as "The Benny-to-Bennie Show".
In tribute to the school where Yost began his coaching career, he arranged for Michigan to play its first game at
Ferry Field (September 30, 1905) and its
first game at
Michigan Stadium (October 1, 1927) against Ohio Wesleyan.[35]
Athletic director
After retiring from coaching, Yost remained at Michigan as the school's
athletic director, a position he held until 1940, then held the title of athletic director emeritus. Under his leadership,
Michigan Stadium, Yost Fieldhouse (now
Yost Ice Arena), and the university's golf course were constructed.
Later years and death
Yost was in poor health for several years before his death and was hospitalized at the
Battle Creek Sanitarium in May 1946.[36] He reportedly suffered from a stroke, but was released after two weeks and returned to his home in
Ann Arbor, Michigan.[37] In August 1946, Yost died of a
gall bladder attack at his home. He was survived by his wife, whom he had married in 1906, a son, Fielding H. Yost, Jr., two brothers, Ellis and Nicholas, and a sister, Mrs. Charles Barry.[38] Yost was buried at Ann Arbor's
Forest Hill Cemetery near the University of Michigan campus.[39]
Personal
A native of West Virginia, Yost's unusual pronunciation of the school's name, "MEE-she-gan," copied by long-time Michigan football broadcaster
Bob Ufer, is affectionately carried on by many Michigan football fans and often referenced by
ESPN sportscaster
Chris Fowler.
A devout
Christian, he was among the first coaches to allow
Jewish players on his teams, including
Joe Magidsohn and
Benny Friedman. However,
Murray Sperber's book Shake Down the Thunder places principal responsibility for the Big Ten blackballing and boycotting of Notre Dame on Yost. It also claims this was motivated by anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant prejudice common in the early 20th century, though John Kyrk's book Natural Enemies points out that there was a bitter feud between Yost and
Knute Rockne, head coach of the
Notre Dame football team.
Legacy
Yost had a profound impact on the Michigan athletics department. "No other man has ever given as much heart, soul, brains, and tongue to the game he loved—football" said
Grantland Rice.[40] A longtime football coach and athletic director, his career was marked with achievement. Yost was among the inaugural class of inductees to the
College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.
Yost invented the position of
linebacker with center
Germany Schulz; co-created the first ever
bowl game, the 1902 Rose Bowl, with then legendary UM athletic director
Charles Baird; invented the fieldhouse concept that bears his name; and supervised the building of the first on-campus building dedicated to intramural sports.[42]
Hurry up
Yost was also known for a series of admonitions to his players beginning with the words, "Hurry up," for example, "Hurry up and be the first man down the field on a punt or kick-off." This inclination earned him the nickname, "Hurry up" Yost. He was also an innovator of the
hurry up offense.[43]
Professional coach
Yost initiated the concept of coaching as an actual profession near the turn of the century when he was paid as much as a UM professor. The professionalization of coaches that started with Yost and later,
Walter Camp at
Yale University, symbolized how serious college football was becoming, and Yost symbolized this more so than any of his peers. It was he who first articulated the now accepted premise about student-athletes in the sport that: "Football builds character."
Coaching tree
No fewer than 77 men who either played for Yost, or coached under him as an assistant, went on to become head coaches in college football; two,
Benny Friedman and
Tommy Hughitt, helmed teams in the
National Football League (NFL). In addition
Dan A. Killian, who was the head coach for the
LSU Tigers (1904–1906), reportedly played
quarterback on the Michigan football team[44] under Yost,[45] but if he did, he apparently did not qualify for a letter[46] and is not listed below. Yost's
coaching tree includes:
Dave Allerdice: played for Michigan (1907–1909), assistant for Michigan (1910), head coach for
Butler (1911),
Texas (1911–1915)[47]
Franklin Cappon: played for Michigan (1920–1922), assistant for Michigan (1925, 1928–1937), head coach for
Luther (IA) (1923–1924) and
Kansas (1926–1927).[55]
Otto Carpell: played for Michigan (1909–1912), head coach for
Albion (1913)
Abe Cohn: played for Michigan (1917–1918, 1920); head coach for
Whitworth (1922–1923).[56]
The
Yost Ice Arena was named in his honor. In 2021, an eight-member panel of university historians made the unanimous recommendation to remove his name from the building due to his racist actions as coach.[96]
^
abcThe
NCAA football record book credits Yost with a 7–4 record coaching Nebraska in the 1898 season, incorrectly noting a 24–0 loss to
William Jewell. Nebraska's records show a 38–0 victory over William Jewell on October 22, 1898, in
Kansas City, Missouri, and credit Yost with an 8–3 record for the season; see
1898 Nebraska Bugeaters football team. Additionally, the NCAA does not officially credit Yost for serving as interim head coach in 1900 at State Normal School (now
San Jose State University), whereas San Jose State records and numerous other sources credit Yost with a 12–0 victory over
Chico State and a 1–0 record at the school. The NCAA, thus, lists Yost with a record of 196–36–12, two fewer wins and one more loss than indicated in the table above.[97]
^Malcolm Bingay, "A Little About This and That: How Schulz Entered Michigan Still A Mystery," The Morning Herald, May 1, 1951; ; "Frankly Speaking: Schulz' Great Grid Exploits Reviewed," The Long Beach Press-Telegram, April 17, 1951.
^"Need Yost's Approval to Clinch Line Coach Position for Bernard: Local Athlete Expected to Replace Jack Blott". The News Palladium (Benton Harbor, Michigan). February 27, 1934.
^C.E. M'Bride (January 17, 1926). "Yost Pupil Takes Reins As Grid Coach at Kansas: Frank Cappon, Assistant Mentor at Michigan, Steps In to Fill Vacancy Made by Recent Resignation Of 'Potsy' Clark; His First Aide, Steele, Also Hails From Ann Arbor Institution". The Lincoln Sunday Star.