Fielding H. Yost

Fielding Harris Yost (April 30, 1871 – August 20, 1946) was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Ohio Wesleyan University (1897), the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (1898), the University of Kansas (1899), Stanford University (1900), San Jose State University (1900), and the University of Michigan (1901–1923, 1925–1926), compiling a career college football record of 198–35–12. During his 25 seasons as the head football coach in Ann Arbor, Yost's Michigan Wolverines won six national championships, captured ten Big Ten Conference titles, and amassed a record of 165–29–10. From 1901 to 1905, his "Point-a-Minute" squads went 55–1–1, outscoring their opponents by a margin of 2,821 to 42. The 1901 team beat Stanford, 49–0, in the 1902 Rose Bowl, the first college football bowl game ever played. 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. Yost was also a lawyer, author, and businessman.

Early life and playing career
Yost was born in Fairview, West Virginia. He enrolled at Ohio Normal School (now known as Ohio Northern University) in 1889. Yost played for the Ohio Normal baseball team. He later enrolled at West Virginia University where he began playing football in 1894 at the age of 23. A 6-foot 200 pounder, Yost was a standout at tackle at West Virginia into the 1896 season. There he was also a member of the Mu Mu chapter of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

"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, 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.

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, 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. But 1897 found him no longer a student or a player, but a coach.

Coaching career


After four single-season stints at Ohio Wesleyan, Nebraska, Kansas, Stanford and San Jose State (as interim coach), Yost was hired in 1901 by Charles A. Baird as the head football coach for the Michigan Wolverines football team.

Yost coached at Michigan from 1901 through 1923, and again in 1925 and 1926. Yost 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. 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, college football's oldest trophy.

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 to 42, earning the Michigan team the nickname "Point-a-Minute." 

Legacy
After retiring from coaching, Yost remained at Michigan as the school's athletic director, a position he held until 1940, thereafter holding 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.



Yost invented the position of linebacker, 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. Arguably no one has left a larger mark on University of Michigan athletics and college football itself than Fielding Yost. A longtime football coach and athletic director, his career was marked with great achievements both on and off the field. Yost was also a successful business person, lawyer, author, and a leading figure in pioneering the explosion of college football into a national phenomenon. A devout Christian, he nevertheless 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, as well as the charge that this was motivated by anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant prejudice common in the early 20th century. Although 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.

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 earlier, 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 Yost who first articulated the now accepted premise about student-athetes in the sport that: "Football builds character." 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. 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.

Yost was among the inaugural class of inductees to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.

Coaching tree
No fewer than 64 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 NFL. Yost's disciples include:


 * Dave Allerdice: played for Michigan (1907–1909), assistant for Michigan (1910), head coach for Butler (1911), Texas (1911–1915)
 * George Babcock: played for Michigan (1923–1925), head coach for Akron (1926) and Cincinnati (1927–1930)
 * Roy Beechler: played for Michigan (1904), head coach for Mount Union (1905)
 * Jack Blott: played for Michigan (1922–1923), assistant for Michigan (1924–1933), head coach for Wesleyan Cardinals (1934–1940)
 * Thomas A. Bogle, Jr.: played for Michigan (1910–1911), head coach for DePauw (1913–1914)
 * Stanley Borleske: played for Michigan (1908–1910), head coach for North Dakota Agricultural (1919–1921, 1923–1924, 1928), Fresno State (1929–1932)
 * Alan Bovard: played for Michigan (1926–1929), head coach Michigan Tech (1947–1956)
 * Franklin Cappon: played for Michigan (1920–1922), assistant for Michigan (1925, 1928–1937), head coach for Luther (IA) (1923–1924) and Kansas (1926–1927)
 * Otto Carpell: played for Michigan (1909-1912), head coach for Albion (1913)
 * William C. "King" Cole: played for Michigan (1902), assistant for Michigan (1904), head coach for Marietta (1903), Virginia (1905–1906), Nebraska (1907–1910)
 * James B. Craig: played for Michigan (1911–1913), head coach for Arkansas (1919)
 * Joe Curtis: played for Michigan (1903–1906), head coach for Tulane (1907–1908), Colorado Mines (1909)
 * James DePree: played for Michigan (1903–1904), head coach for Tennessee (1905–1906)
 * Prentiss Douglass: played for Michigan (1907–1908), assistant for Michigan (1909–1910), head coach for Kentucky (1911)
 * David L. Dunlap: played for Michigan (1901–1903, 1905), head coach for Kenyon (1906), North Dakota (1908–1911), Allegheny (1912)
 * William P. Edmunds: played for Michigan (1908–1910), head coach for West Virginia (1912), Washington University (1913–1916), Vermont (1919)
 * Benny Friedman: played for Michigan (1925–1926), head coach for New York Giants (1930) and Brooklyn Dodgers (1932) of the NFL, head coach for Brandeis Judges (1951–1959)
 * Joe Gembis: played for Michigan (1926–1929), head coach for Wayne State (MI) (1932–1945)
 * Herb Graver: played for Michigan (1901–1903), head coach for Marietta (1904)
 * George W. Gregory: played for Michigan (1901–1903), head coach for Kenyon (1905)
 * Thomas S. Hammond: played for Michigan (1903–1905), head coach for Ole Miss (1906)
 * Albert Hansen: played for Yost at Nebraska (1898), head coach for Kansas State (1899)
 * Albert E. Herrnstein: played for Michigan (1899–1902), head coach for Haskell Institute (1903–1904), Purdue (1905), Ohio State (1906–1909)
 * Willie Heston: played for San Jose State Normal under Yost in 1900 and for Michigan (1901–1904), head coach for Drake (1905), North Carolina A&M (1906)
 * Tommy Hughitt: played for Michigan (1912–1914), head coach for Maine (1915–1916) and Buffalo All-Americans/Bison of the NFL (1920–1924)
 * Emory J. Hyde: played for Michigan in 1901, head coach for TCU (1905–1907)
 * Paul Jones: played for Michigan (1901–1903), head coach for Western Reserve (1904–1905)
 * Harry Kipke: played for Michigan (1920–1923), assistant for Michigan (1924–1927), head coach for Michigan State (1928), Michigan (1929–1937)
 * James C. Knight: played for Michigan (1901), head coach for Washington (1902–1904)
 * Jesse R. Langley: played for Michigan (1904–1907), head coach for TCU (1908–1909)
 * Belford Lawson, Jr.: played for Michigan (1921–1923) head coach for Jackson College (1925–1926, 1928)
 * George M. Lawton: played for Michigan (1908–1910) head coach for Detroit (1913–1914)
 * George Little, assistant for Michigan (1922–1923), head coach for Michigan (1924), Wisconsin (1925–1926)
 * Frank Longman: played for Michigan (1903–1905), head coach for Arkansas (1906–1907), Wooster (1908), Notre Dame (1909–1910)
 * Jay Mack Love: played for Michigan (1904–1905), head coach for Southwestern (KS) (1906–1907)
 * Joe Maddock, played for Michigan (1902–1903), head coach for Utah (1904–1909), Oregon (1924)
 * Paul Magoffin: played for Michigan (1904–1907), assistant for Michigan (1909), head coach for North Dakota Agricultural (1908), George Washington (1910)
 * John Maulbetsch: played for Michigan (1914–1916), head coach for Phillips (1917–1920), Oklahoma A&M (1921–1928), Marshall (1929–1930)
 * Thomas L. McFadden: played for Yost at Stanford (1900), head coach for Pacific (1901-1902), Oregon Agricultural (1903), DePauw (1904)
 * Dan McGugin: played for Michigan (1901–1902), assistant for Michigan (1903), head coach for Vanderbilt (1904–1917, 1919–1934)
 * Bo Molenda: played for Michigan (1925–1926), head coach for Menlo College (1950–1969); also an assistant coach in professional football for the New York Giants 1936–1941 (interim head coach for the 1939 NFL Championship Game); Green Bay Packers (1947–1948); Chicago Hornets (1949)
 * Wade Moore: played for Yost at Kansas (1899), head coach for Kansas State (1901)
 * Fay Moulton: played for Yost at Kansas (1899), head coach for Kansas State (1900)
 * Fred Norcross: played for Michigan (1903–1905), head coach at Oregon Agricultural (1906–1908)
 * Bennie Oosterbaan: played for Michigan (1925–1927), assistant for Michigan (1928–1947), head coach for Michigan (1948–1958)
 * Bennie Owen: played for Yost at Kansas (1899), assistant for Michigan (1901), head coach for Bethany (KS) (1902–1904), Oklahoma (1905–1926)
 * Andrew G. Reid: played for Michigan (1901), head coach for Monmouth (IL) (1907–1909)
 * Walter Rheinschild: played for Michigan (1904–1907), head coach for Washington State (1908), St. Vincent (CA) (1909), Throop (1913), Occidental (1916–1917)
 * Thomas J. Riley: played for Michigan (1908), head coach for Maine (1911–1913), Amherst (1914–1916)
 * Tod Rockwell: played for Michigan (1923–1924), head coach for North Dakota (1926–1927), Louisiana Tech (1928–1929)
 * Frederick Schule: played for Michigan (1903), head coach for Montana (1905–1906)
 * Henry Schulte: played for Michigan (1903–1905), head coach Eastern Michigan (1906–1908), Cape Girardeau (1909–1913), Missouri (1914–1917), Nebraska (1919–1920)
 * Germany Schulz: played for Michigan (1904–1905, 1907–1908), assistant for Michigan (1913–1915), head coach for Detroit (1922–1923)
 * Bruce Shorts: played for Michigan (1900–1901), head coach for Nevada (1904), Oregon (1905)
 * Andrew W. Smith: played for Michigan (1909), assistant coach under Yost (1911–1912), head coach at Throop College of Technology, now California Institute of Technology (1914–c. 1917)
 * Theodore M. Stuart: played for Michigan (1904–1905), head coach for Colorado School of Mines (1910–1911)
 * Everett Sweeley: played for Michigan (1899–1902), head coach for Morningside (1903), Washington State (1904–1905)
 * Leigh C. Turner: assistant for Michigan (1905), head coach for Purdue (1907)
 * Irwin Uteritz: played for Michigan (1921–1923), head coach for Washington University (1949–1952)
 * George F. Veenker: assistant for Michigan (1926–1929), head coach for Iowa State (1931–1936)
 * Billy Wasmund: played for Michigan (1907–1909), head coach for Texas (1910–1911)
 * Boss Weeks: played for Michigan (1900–1902), head coach for Kansas (1903), Beloit (1904)
 * Elton Wieman: played for Michigan (1915–1917, 1920), assistant for Michigan (1921–1926), head coach for Michigan (1927–1928), Princeton (1938–1942)
 * Eben Wilson: played for Michigan (1899–1901), head coach for Wabash (1902–1903), Alma (1904–1905)

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. He reportedly suffered from a stroke, but was released after two weeks and returned to his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In August 1946, Yost died of a gall bladder attack at his home. He was survived by his wife, who he married in 1906, a son, Fielding H. Yost, Jr., two brothers, Ellis and Nichola, and a sister, Mrs. Charles Barry. Yost was buried at Ann Arbor's Forest Hill Cemetery near the University of Michigan campus.