It’s back! Never left!
To open season 11 of TWIMFbH, it’s the story of how Michigan’s Fielding H. Yost returned to the head coach position. For a year Yost planned, schemed, and devised a strategy to stifle Illinois’ great Red ‘The Galloping Ghost’ Grange on October 24, 1925. This segment appears on the WTKA 1050AM Countdown to Kickoff, starting four hours before each game.
Go Blue! Beat the Gophers and RETAIN THAT JUG!
script:
1925 was a special year in Wolverine football lore as it featured the return, after taking a season off, of Fielding Yost as head coach. His timing could NOT be better and he led his beloved Meeechigan and one of the finest squads in his brilliant coaching career.
The 1925 season opened with 39-0 and 63-0 drubbings of Michigan State and Indiana respectively, followed by a 21 to nothing beat down of Wisconsin.
But the perfect Wolverines now faced their biggest challenges against one of the grandest names in the RICH HISTORY of college pigskin…
Indeed it was on this day in Meechigan football history, October 24, 1925, the eyes of the nation turned U-M’s trip to Champaign, Illinois to watch Yost square off against the Illini and the great Red Grange. As a junior in 1924, Grange tallied one of the greatest performances in football history as he single-handedly crushed the George Little-coached Wolverines after the dedication of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium.
In an iconic performance The Galloping Ghost tallied 6 touchdowns in that 1924 tilt, including four in the first 12 minutes on runs of 95, 67, 56 and 44 yards.
People talk about that game today, but they really don’t talk about what happened when Yost took back the reins and returned to Champaign in 1925.
For 12 months, Yost planned and Yost schemed on how to stop the great grange Grange. He settled on throwing down a seven-man front and a diamond-shaped secondary.
It worked. Twenty-five times the Galloping Ghost carried the ball, and 25 times he was sent to the turf by bone-crushing hits. Not only did he not find the endzone – he barely got passed the line of scrimmage.
The only score of the game came just before the first half ended when Benny Friedman converted a 25-yard field goal. Michigan prevailed 3 to nothing and the Ghost legend was taken down a peg.
Michigan finished the year 7 and 1, claimed the Western Conference and outscored opponents 227-3.
So Go Blue, Beat those Gophers and BRING HOME THE LITTLE BROWN JUG!
