Fielding H. Yost

Yost (left) with teammate c 1895 or 1896

In October 1896, after his team lost three home games to Lafayette, played on three different fields over the course of three days,[8][9] 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.[9]

The fortuitous timing of his 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 he appeared in a Lafayette uniform only once, in the Penn game,[10] 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.[11]

Yost began his coaching career at age 26 as head coach of the 1897 Ohio Wesleyan football team. Yost's team compiled a 7–1–1 record, shut out six of its nine opponents (including a 6–0 victory over Ohio State and a scoreless tie with Michigan), and outscored all opponents by a total of 144 to 32. Yost played at left tackle against Michigan, leading to a protest that Ohio Wesleyan had assured Michigan that Yost, a paid coach and non-student, would not play and had engaged in trickery by introducing another individual as Yost. One week later, Michigan announced that it would no longer schedule games against Ohio Wesleyan.[12][13]

In 1898, Yost was hired to coach the Nebraska football team with compensation of $1,000 for 10 weeks of service.[14] The 1898 Nebraska team compiled an 8–3 record, including victories over Iowa State (23–10), Missouri (47–6), Kansas (18–6), and Colorado (23–10), and losses to Drake (6–5) and Iowa (6–5).

In June 1899, the University of Kansas Athletic Association offered Yost $350, and an additional $150 conditionally, to coach the school's football team.[15] After spending the summer in Colorado, Yost arrived in Lawrence, Kansas, on September 4, 1899.[16] During the 1899 season, the Kansas football team "lived separate from the rest of the students and ate specially selected and prepared food . . . with Coach Yost as their only mentor".[17] The team compiled an undefeated 10–0 record, outscoring opponents 280–37. The season included victories over the Haskell Indians (12–0 and 18–0), Nebraska (36–20), and Missouri (34–6). During the 1899–1900 academic year, Kansas had Yost as its football coach and James Naismith as its basketball coach. Naismith also served as an assistant football coach during the 1899 season.

In May 1900, Yost was hired as the football coach at Stanford University,[18] and, after traveling home to West Virginia, he arrived in Palo Alto, California, on August 21, 1900.[19] Yost led the 1900 Stanford team to a 7–2–1, outscoring opponents 154–20.

Yost from the 1915 Michiganensian

After first applying at Illinois,[20] Yost was hired in 1901 by Charles A. Baird as the head football coach for the Michigan Wolverines football team.[21]

Yost coached at Michigan from 1901 through 1923, and again in 1925 and 1926. He 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 trophy. Yost's teams used the short punt formation.[22] He also developed a play called "Old 83" resembling an option.[23]

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 2,821–42,[24] earning the Michigan team the nickname "Point-a-Minute."[25] The team featured running back Willie Heston, who Yost called the greatest player he ever saw.[26][n 1]

In 1904, Germany Schulz stood up from the center position and created the position of linebacker. Yost was horrified at first, but came to see the wisdom in Schulz's innovation.[28]

In 1908, Michigan lost to Penn 29–0, the worst defeat suffered by a Michigan team during the Yost era.[29] Yost said of Schulz's performance: "He gave the greatest one-man exhibition of courage I ever saw on a football field."[30]

In 1909, Michigan suffered its first loss to Notre Dame.[31] In 1910, Michigan was led by All-Americans Albert Benbrook and Stanfield Wells and played its only undefeated season of the independent years, compiling a 3–0–3 record.[32]

In 1916, John Maulbetsch led Michigan to one of its finest records. The Wolverines won seven straight games.

Yost from the 1928 Michiganensian

Led by fullback Frank Steketee, the 1918 team went undefeated in the war-shortened season. The 1922 and 1923 teams went undefeated, led by punter Harry Kipke. The only blemish was a tie with Yost protege and brother-in-law Dan McGugin's Vanderbilt.[n 2]

At the end of the season, Yost called the 1925 Michigan team "the greatest football team I ever coached" and "the greatest football team I ever saw in action".[34] The team featured quarterback Benny Friedman and left end Bennie Oosterbaan, sometimes referred to as "The Benny-to-Bennie Show".

In tribute to the school where Yost began his coaching career, he arranged for Michigan to play its first game at Ferry Field (September 30, 1905) and its first game at Michigan Stadium (October 1, 1927) against Ohio Wesleyan.[35]

Yost (on the sideline at right) coaching Michigan against Minnesota in 1902

Yost invented the position of linebacker with center Germany Schulz; 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.[42]

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. He was also an innovator of the hurry up offense.[43]

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 later, 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 he who first articulated the now accepted premise about student-athletes in the sport that: "Football builds character."

No fewer than 77 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 National Football League (NFL). In addition Dan A. Killian, who was the head coach for the LSU Tigers (1904–1906), reportedly played quarterback on the Michigan football team[44] under Yost,[45] but if he did, he apparently did not qualify for a letter[46] and is not listed below. Yost's coaching tree includes: