It's Friday!
And the final day of Michigan Week. The President of the United States will have words on the issue later
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| Seriously? You thought there would be a picture of President Obama here? |
What kind of man was Mr. Yost? Well, an interesting one, to say the least. He was born in the backwoods hollows of West Virginia, the son of a Civil War soldier who, in our nation's darkest hour, took up arms and risked his life. To join the rebellion and fight for the Confederacy. Yost pater likely thought the country had taken a turn for the worse with the Emancipation Proclamation. And may have taken a shot at Father Corby, C.S.C., once or twice.
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| Not afraid of fielding punts, grape shot, General Lee, or Michigan Men. |
Young Fielding soon found he was good at football, and achieved quite a bit of notoriety for his loyalty, or lack thereof: quoting from the greatest of sources, wikipedia:
"The Yost affair"
In October 1896, after his team lost three times to Lafayette in home games played on three different fields over the course of three days,[3][4] 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.[4]
The fortuitous timing of Yost's 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 Yost appeared in a Lafayette uniform only once, in the Penn game,[5] 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.[6] But 1897 found him no longer a student or a player, but a coach.
Mr. Yost eventually found his way to Michigan, where he began a long and storied coaching career. Yost was by far the most influential person in the history of Michigan athletics. And he had some strong opinions about Notre Dame, thanks largely to Notre Dame's 1) Catholicism and 2) being full of immigrants. So Yost got to work, bringing the power of an entire university to bear to carry out his prejudices. The full list of Yost's actions over thirty years can be found here, in a splendid chronicle by One Foot Down. If you look at it and think 'No! There's no way a college football coach could be that bigoted and petty!' I suggest you pick up a copy of the book they got their information from: Natural Enemies, a book on the Notre Dame-Michigan rivalry written by a Michigan alumnus.
For those of you who have skipped the excellent summary, let me hit a high point. After losing to Notre Dame in 1909, Yost cancelled the following 1910 game less than 24 hours before kickoff. His campaign against Notre Dame angered many of the team's players, most importantly a senior from the class of 1914 who lost his chance to play and beat Yost thanks to the blackballing, cancellations, and general pettiness. That senior's name? Knute Rockne. Rockne viewed Yost as
"a hillbilly" who was forever grinding a religious ax against Notre Dame, who was crooked as a dog's hind leg, who was selfish and vain beyond comprehension, who was blindly jealous of Rockne's own success and ascension to national stardom and who coached boring, neanderthal football."
Well, as you know, Notre Dame football grew by leaps and bounds, with Yost fighting it at every turn, urging the rest of the Big Ten to boycott Notre Dame in all sports. True, Yost kept Notre Dame out of the Big Ten. But it was an error of gargantuan proportions. To replace a planned tilt with Michigan in 1913, Notre Dame headed east where they played, and crushed, the Army Cadets by unleashing the full glory of the forward pass upon college football. With Yost masterminding a Big Ten boycott of Notre Dame, Rockne's teams traveled all over the country to play, building an army of fans from Massachusetts to California. At the end of the day, Rockne became the prototype of coaches and an American cultural icon, the winningest coach in the history of football with towns, buildings, stamps and movies named after him and the most legendary of all team exhortations to his credit: Win one for the Gipper.
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| The Gipper. |
Yost's name is generally known only to Michigan fans. But perhaps that is for the best. You see, Yost was not a quitter, and never stopped fighting for what he believed in. Sometimes, that is a very good thing.
In Yost's case, not so much.
linked here, relevant portion printed below:
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/
The date was Oct. 20, 1934, and the opponent was Georgia Tech. It was a rare occurrence in those days for Michigan to play a team from outside the Midwest, but Fielding H. Yost— the legendary coach who was then U-M's athletic director — had been looking for a Southern squad to fill out the 1934 schedule. Georgia Tech got the invite.There was one big problem, though. In those days, Jim Crow was a sad fact of life in college football, and teams from the South generally refused to play against any team that fielded a black player.U-M's best player that year was an incredible athlete from Detroit named Willis Ward. He was tall and strong and very fast. He was also black.Georgia Tech was well aware that Michigan had an African-American on the roster. From the outset, the Yellow Jackets told Yost they would refuse to play the game if Ward were allowed to take the field.Yost's feelings on matters of race were no secret. The son of a Confederate soldier, he had never allowed an African-American to play for Michigan during his 25 seasons as coach. Still, as 1934 dragged on, Yost refused to say what he was going to do about Willis Ward and Georgia Tech.Despite Yost's silence, word leaked out a couple of weeks before the game that Ward might be benched. This caused a firestorm the likes of which the Ann Arbor campus had never seen.Angry letters were written to Yost and Coach Harry Kipke, virtually all of them demanding that Ward be allowed to play. The story was front-page news across the country. Petitions were circulated. Rallies were held.And at the center of it all was a 21-year-old college kid who simply wanted to play football.No official announcement was made, but a few days before the game, Yost made his decision: Willis Ward would be benched against Georgia Tech. For the first and only time in the proud history of the University of Michigan, a player was going to be sidelined solely because of his race.
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/
Leaving nothing to chance, Yost even hired Pinkerton Detectives to spy on his own students and ensure an orderly game.
Now, there are many words people have used to describe Fielding Yost over the years: bigot, hillbilly, nativist, hilljack, petty, racist, et cetera. But remember that at the end of the day he was a
It's a tough legacy to grapple with, I'll admit. But Michigan, to my everlasting respect, has found a way to move on from . . .
On second thought, screw 'em. Let's grind them to paste by any means necessary. Which leads to our second Fight Scene of the Week!
And of course, a Song of the Week. Sure, Michigan is favored by 3.5. And sure, their stadium seats 110,000. But, quite frankly, I'm not afraid:
And of course, a Song of the Week. Sure, Michigan is favored by 3.5. And sure, their stadium seats 110,000. But, quite frankly, I'm not afraid:
Nice Detroit link with the story and song.
ReplyDeleteInteresting note to add is that the Fair Catch Corby statue is actually a statue of Fr Corby absolving his fellow (remaining) troops post battle.