With all the stadium and tunnel talk, this week is a perfect opportunity to discuss Fielding Yost and his quest to build Michigan Stadium (yes, with its coliseum-like tunnel entrance in the center of the arena). We also discuss a prime example of someone who didn’t get his–namely Chicago’s iconic coach Amos Alonzo Stagg–as well as the consequences. Go Blue.
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Go Blue! You’ll hear this live on the WTKA 1050AM KeyBank Countdown to Kickoff Saturday night around 5 pm EDT!
Good evening! Tonight’s opponent Rutgers famously won the first college football game ever played in 1869. But did you know Michigan won the first game in “the west”? Indeed your Team 1 prevailed by a narrow score of 1 to nothing over Racine College in 1879.
As the MEECHIGAN football program grew in both success and prowess, the Wolverines played on many different fields over the first several decades. As we headed into the 1920s we started to consider building a new structure to house our home games. We were relatively late to the notion of building a stadium—as Illinois, Minnesota and even Ohio State already had built their largescale pigskin cathedrals on campus.
At first, then-coach AND athletic director Fielding H Yost was reluctant to invest in a whole new stadium. He supported just expanding old Ferry Field to add more seats. But in his role as AD he found himself responding to letter after letter of angry fans not able to buy the tickets they wanted. In modern terms, Yost was surrendering millions of dollars in lost potential ticket sales. So he changed his mind — and decided to go after a stadium. And when Yost put his mind to something – WATCH OUT.
But Yost battled the academic establishment in Ann Arbor who despised the football program and detested the notion of U-M entering an athletics campus “arms race”. Yost went toe-to-toe with concerned Michigan Regents, and he rallied students and alums about the idea. With his artfully crafted words, he persuaded powerful newspaper and media voices. On top of all of this Yost financed the build with public money – he issued 3% bonds that provided investors with premium seats in the proposed stadium.
Yost got it done and his Big House was completed in 1927. It was on THIS DAY in Michigan Football History that season that we traveled to the Windy City and defeated the University of Chicago and their famed coach, Amos Alonzo Stagg. Like Yost, Stagg was facing grumpy alums and was unable to meet the ticket demand of his fans. But while Stagg was a great coach, he didn’t possess Yost’s superpowers of persuasion and he failed to get support for a new Chicago stadium. Eventually, Stagg was forced to retire and as far as Chicago – well – they eventually quit football and left the Big Ten entirely.
Michigan survived, thrived and tonight is ready to put a beatdown on the team that played the first college football game. So Go Blue, Beat the Scarlett Knights! – for the KeyBank Countdown to Kickoff this is Prof. Greg Dooley
