1934 Michigan. The Most Valuable Player on that Michigan team was Jerry Ford, only Division I player ever to eventually occupy the White House.

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1 PAGE 11 By Lyle E. Nelson 1934 Michigan As any college football fan knows Michigan is a big winner, year after year, decade after decade, for it often is, as one of its fight songs says, "the champions of the West." A stunning exception to this habitual success was the sad story of the inept 1934 team. Michigan that year scored only one touchdown from scrimmage. That lone touchdown from scrimmage oddly came not from a routine one-yard plunge, or even a five-yard sweep or long bomb. It came on a trick play good for 27 yards --a forward pass followed by a lateral to a trailing third man. The Wolverine record in 1934 was 1-7. The Most Valuable Player on that Michigan team was Jerry Ford, only Division I player ever to eventually occupy the White House. In contrast to Michigan's barren fortunes in 1934, Fielding H. Yost's teams at the turn of the century were the famed "Point-A-Minute" machines that posted 128 points against the University of Buffalo in 1901, 119 against Michigan Agricultural (now MSU) and 107 against Iowa, both in 1902, and 130 against West Virginia in Also by contrast Bo Schembechler's teams in recent years had no trouble in scoring 50, 60 or 70 points against Big 10 opponents. Fritz Crisler's razzle-dazzle buck-lateral teams ( ) could score quickly and in bunches. Against Frank Leahy's very good 1942 Notre Dame team Michigan scored three times within eight minutes of the third quarter and had another called back because of a penalty. But back to the bizarre futility displayed by the 1934 team. Michigan, under coach Harry Kipke, entered that season following four great winning years. The Wolverines were Big 10 co-champions in both 1930 and 1931

2 PAGE 12 and conference champs in 1932 and The '32-'33 teams were unbeaten in 16 games and gained National Champion laurels under either the Dickinson System or the Athletic Foundation rankings. The '30, '31 teams lost only one game out of 16. In the 1934 opener for the Wolverines, Michigan State won, Chicago Tribune writer Harvey Woodruff called it a "humiliating defeat" for the 27,000 on hand at Ann Arbor as the Great Depression was a factor in holding down attendance compared with today's routine home crowds of 105,000. Michigan State's record against Michigan at that juncture in history was Kurt Warmbein, Spartan halfback, was the hero. Michigan State dominated the first half but Warmbein missed three field goal attempts. But Sebo kicked a field goal from the seven in the third quarter for a 3-0 Michigan State lead. With eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter Warmbein found a hole at right tackle and scored from 29 yards out. Soon he intercepted a pass and ran it 18 yards to the Michigan 10. Three plays later he ran the same play to the right from the 13 for his second touchdown. Student spectators then fought it out in the north end zone for 30 minutes. Two State students managed to get up on the crossbar but their friends were unable to pull down the rights. There were fistfights and plenty of uptorn clothing. Michigan had made two first downs rushing and none passing. Wolverine yardage was 104 rushing and 32 passing. Coach Clark Shaughnessy of the University of Chicago sat in the press box that day to scout. "This defeat is the worst thing that could happen for our chances next Saturday," he said. "Michigan now will become fighting mad." But the following week at Stagg Field before 25,000 it was 27-0 Chicago. Shaughnessy's halfback Jay Berwanger was a year away from winning the first Heisman Trophy. Writer Edward Burns of the Chicago Tribune called the game a "rout" and the worst licking a Maroon herd ever gave the Wolverines...' Berwanger made a 43-yard run in the third quarter and averaged 3.8 yards in 21 carries; his average hurt when Michigan's black end, Willis Ward, threw Berwanger once for a 15-yard loss. Michigan rushed for eight first downs in their second consecutive shutout defeat. The next week 25,000 at Ann Arbor sat through a chilly rain as Michigan defeated Georgia Tech, 9-2. Michigan scored on a 64-yard punt return by substitute quarterback Ferris Jennings, a 138-pound native of Ann Arbor. Oddly both teams scored a safety. More than 40 years later this game was featured on the front page of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and in other newspapers around the country. The reason was that Ward, a judge in Detroit in the 1970's, revealed that President Ford had threatened to quit the team when it became known that Georgia Tech would

3 PAGE 13 not take the field against a black player. Ward was a 10-second sprinter on the track team and fastest man on the football team. The senior later was moved from end to halfback during the season in an effort to improve the offense. The Chicago Tribune said Michigan student organizations campaigned for two weeks to have Michigan use Ward against Tech but Wolverine athletic officials refused comment. Coach Bill Alexander of the Yellow Jackets, to even up matters, said he would not play Hoot Gibson, his regular right end. Ward watched the game from the press box. Michigan gained 159 yards against Tech while the Jackets settled for a minus 16 yards from scrimmage largely because they fumbled the wet ball seven times. This was not a very good Tech team either. Michigan's major thrill from scrimmage came when Cedric Sweet, a tall rawboned fullback built something like Jarrin' John Kimbrough of Texas A&M, ran 60 yards but was overhauled from behind on the Tech 17 yard line. The Wolverines failed to capitalize on this dash. (To interject here a trivia item: which team, UM or GT, was the first to field a black quarterback? The answer: Tech.) There were 35,000 in Ann Arbor for Homecoming, the fourth game of the season, the following week. The Illinois contest was played in alternating downpours and sunshine. The Illini won 7-6, and Michigan scored its only TD of the season from scrimmage. Yet Michigan finished the game with nary a first down. In fact neither team could make a first down in the first 23 minutes of the first half. Zuppke was as frustrated as Kipke as the defenses dominated on both sides of the muddy ball. Illinois won when John Theodore's short touchdown smash was followed by Les Lindberg's PAT. Michigan finally scored from scrimmage after recovering an Illini fumble on the Illinois 27. Fullback Johnny Regeczi passed to end Mike Savage who then lateraled to Ward. According to Woodruff of the Chicago Tribune getting the ball to Ward "enabled the fleet Negro to outfoot the Illinois secondary." Ward's PAT try was low. Woodruff said the ball was wet and the hold may not have been the-best. Either way Michigan lost. Michigan rushed for 28 yards and passed for 34 without a first down, according to Woodruff's account. One pass out of six was completed (for the touchdown) and two others were intercepted. Woodruff did not score the TD as a first down. At Minneapolis a week later, Michigan ran into the eventual National Champion and Minnesota ran into an inspired Wolverine defense headed by the linebacking combo of Ford and Sweet. Score at the half: 0-0. Then the dam broke and the Golden Gophers galloped through for a 34-0 win. Or as Wilfrid Smith of the Chicago Tribune wrote, 'Minnesota's mighty men, modern Vikings of the Northland," rode roughshod over "proud Michigan, once ruler of the West". An overflow crowd of 58,000 required temporary bleachers in one end zone, to

4 PAGE 14 show that depression or no depression, winning teams usually draw. Smith wrote that the Minnesota fans would never forget that Bernie Bierman's great team never reached midfield in the first half while being held to one first down. In the first quarter Michigan blocked a punt and gained possession on the Minnesota five. Michigan couldn't move the ball. In the second half Captain Pug Lund, the All-America halfback, pulled his team together (including guard Bud Wilkinson) as the Gophers scored five touchdowns and had another called back by penalty. Michigan ran only 15 plays in the second half. After Lund scored the first touchdown, hard kicked off for Michigan, a strategy that was common for Michigan, and especially by Yost in earlier years. On the next play Julie Alphonse ran 76 yards for a TD. Minnesota ended up with 306 yards from scrimmage compared with Michigan's 60 and two of Michigan's five first downs came from penalties. Michigan tried six passes, completed two for eight yards and had one picked off. The fourth shutout of the season came the following week in Ann Arbor as 20,000 shocked and wet fans, wet from snow, sleet and rain, saw Wisconsin halfback Lynn Jordan run back the opening kickoff 99 yards. Mario Pacetti kicked the extra point and followed with a field goal in the fourth period for a 10-0 final. After the kickoff run Michigan kicked off for a second time and Wisconsin fumbled. Michigan recovered and soon moved to the Badger one, then suffered an offside and finally turned the ball over on downs at the three. On this miserable day Michigan managed 11 first downs and hit on two of 12 passes. Michigan uncovered a new running back in the game, Chris Everhardus the sophomore brother of Herman, the best runner on the unbeaten '32 and '33 teams. Chris ran for 85 yards on 13 attempts but lost 21 on two other runs. Some 68,678 jammed into Ohio Stadium the next week hoping the Buckeyes could top Minnesota's 34 points against Michigan. The Buckeyes, however, could not, and the final was again Wilfrid Smith wrote that the delirious fans knocked down the goalposts for the first time in OSU history and "then swept through downtown Columbus in wild jubilation", and that the "scarlet clad played as one, a machine which moved steadily forward...' behind quarterback Tippy Dye. Smith said it was OSU's greatest win in 31 years. The Buckeye razzle-dazzle under Coach Francis Schmidt gained 460 yards and one play consisted of a forward pass, Dye to Busich, followed by a lateral to Boucher who then lateraled to the trailing Dye. The play gained 15 yards. Michigan gained 40 yards (only six on the ground). The first downs were 24-3 for OSU. The Woverines hit two of 15 passes and had two intercepted. The "sorriest season in its history", as Charles Bartlett of the Tribune put

5 PAGE 15 it, finally ended the following week in Ann Arbor before 25,000 as Northwestern won, Ward hit a field goal from the 13 in the second quarter to give Michigan a 3-0 halftime lead. Bartlett wrote that Michigan was obviously superior to the Purple in the first half while playing its best football of the season. Michigan made five first downs, all in the first half, and rushed for 74 yards compared with only two yards in the second half. Regeczi ran 43 yards with an intercepted pass in the second quarter but two plays later his pass was picked off by the Purple at their two. In the third quarter Steve Toth of Northwestern got off a quick kick that George Bolas returned 64 yards before being taken from behind at the Northwestern six by Bob Swisher, also a Big 10 sprinter (and later a star with the Bears.) The 23-yard TD run by Swisher early in the third quarter put NW up by three but Ward followed with his second field goal to tie the score at 6-6. In the last period Toth punted out of bounds at the Michigan two which set up a successful Purple drive soon after from the Michigan 35. Duvall scored the winning touchdown from the one. Final: Northwestern, Michigan had completed the worst season in a football history that dates to Ford, the snapper in the single wing system, was voted Most Valuable by his teammates. He later played in the All-Star game at Soldier Field and received inquiries about turning professional from both Green Bay and the Lions. But instead he opted for the Yale Law School and joined Ducky Pond's football staff as an assistant in The day after the Northwestern game Green Bay defeated Detroit, 3-0, in a game that drew only 12,000 fans to the University of Detroit Stadium. And both were good teams. The attendance figure either says something about the popularity of pro football in 1934 compared to the college game, or the economic plight of Detroit, or both. None of the Chicago 'Tribune stories on Michigan's 1934 season mentioned Ford although linemen rarely receive recognition in newspaper accounts even to this day. Ford saw little action during the winning '32 and '33 seasons since he was a backup to Chuck Bernard, All-America on the 1933 mythical team. College football teams today often score touchdowns with ease. Final scores can reach basketball figures like as defenses often are out-matched. And the team scored against never kicks off after giving up points. Michigan in the 1970's and 1980's frequently put up high numbers, and Yost's 1901 squad scored 550 points. But the 1934 Michigan team made only two touchdowns all season, one on a Punt return and none on the ground -- a strange reversal for one of football's annual powerhouses. Society member Wendell Givens still has copies of his excellent book Ninety- Nine Iron available, of iron men players, which covers the story of the famous 1899 Sewanee team for the total cost of $10 postpaid. Write to: Wendell Givens 107 Von Dale Drive Birmingham, Ala John C. Hibner recently had his book The Rose Bowl, published by the McFarland Company. Copies of the 216 page hardcover book are still on sale from the publisher for $29.95 plus $2 for shipping. Write to: McFarland & Company Jefferson, NC On Oct 30, 1994 the Associated Press reported that the Football Writers had named two teams of greatest All-Americans. Did an one see the complete team for the era of ? Write: Ray Schmidt Rockbluff Lockport, IL 60441