The season of 1904 featured a Michigan team that continued its reign of terror on opponent finishing a perfect 10-0 and outscoring opponents 567-22. The highlight was another great win over Chicago: a hard fought 22-12 victory on November 12 that aided Michigan’s resume to claim the national championship.
Mountaineer Track Meet: In October of 1904 the Wolverine squad faced off with the team that every college football fan would love to see visit Ann Arbor in the next few years…the West Virginia Mountaineers. On October 22 coach Fielding Yost took on the team from his home state and beat them like they just sued him for $4 million. Make that $5 million. The Wolverines won 130-0 in front a sparse home crowd. Here’s the deep coverage from the New York Times:
Apparently that’s all that was fit to print. Michigan scored over 43 points for each WVU net yard. Perhaps coach Yost was battling a few demons that day maybe reflecting some issues from his West Virginia childhood [pan to Zoolander black lung scene]. But memo to the late Yost: it’s ok to take your foot off the pedal once the scoreboard guy hangs up both 9s.
Fortunately the coverage didn’t end with the Times. I stumbled on some more on the game from Time magazine, as they did a piece 35 years later on Michigan football. It leads with the greatest quote ever:
When the West Virginians returned home the Daily New Dominion of Morgantown interviewed them and reported:
“It was declared that every player on Yost’s team weighed eight tons and had an average speed of 96 miles an hour. . . . One player said he was plucked up in the air and thrown over the head of a creature which was at least 100 feet high and had eight pairs of arms. …”
This remains the only time that Michigan and West Virginia have met on the field and suffice it to say the Mountaineers won’t be returning to Ann Arbor anytime soon. The 130 points narrowly overtook the 128 Yost’s 1901 squad dropped on Buffalo and will remain the most scored by a Michigan football team.
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2 Comments
Sinn Fein
WVU has more than enough guts to come back to Ann Arbor and return the 1904 favor…but, Appy State already did it for us. :) Looosahs!
C’mon Victors Deadbeats, make out that check for $4M payable to WVU and be done with this penny ante matter…or, do you full well believe that RR will not pan out, hence, saving your dough?
Tim
I’ve heard that “The Victors” was in fact a tune that was ripped off (at least in part) by Elbel. As resident historian of the Michigan blogosphere, do you have any insight on the matter?