Fielding Yost

College coach infobox
Name = Fielding Yost


ImageWidth =
DateOfBirth = birth date|1871|4|30|mf=y
DateOfDeath = death date and age|mf=yes|1946|8|20|1871|4|30
Birthplace = flagicon|West Virginia Fairview, WV
Deathplace = Ann Arbor, Michigan
Sport = Football
College =
Title =
CurrentRecord =
OverallRecord = 197-35-12
BowlRecord = 1-0
Awards =
Championships = 6 National Championships
10 Big Ten titles
CFbDWID = 2594
Player =
Years =
Team =
Position =
Coach = Y
CoachYears = 1897
1898
1899
1900
1901-23, 1925-26
CoachTeams = Ohio Wesleyan
Nebraska
Kansas
Stanford
Michigan
FootballHOF = 1951
CollegeHOFID = 20

Fielding Harris Yost (April 30, 1871–August 20, 1946) was an American football coach best known for his long tenure at the University of Michigan. He was born in Fairview, West Virginia. Yost was a lawyer, author, and businessman in addition to being a well known football coach.

Coaching career

After four single-season stints at Ohio Wesleyan, Nebraska, Kansas, and Stanford, Yost served as the head football coach for the Michigan Wolverines football team 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 1901-04 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 school 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 University of Minnesota 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 University of Chicago 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 nickname "Point-a-Minute."

Legacy

After retiring from coaching, Yost remained at Michigan as the school's athletic director, a position he held until 1942. 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 star Benny Friedman. However, Sperber's "Shake Down the Thunder" places principal responsibility for the Big Ten blackballing and boycotting 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.

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, 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," is affectionately carried on by many Michigan football fans and often referenced by ESPN sportscaster Chris Fowler. Yost was also a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.

Yost died at age 75 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was among the inaugural class of inductees to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.

Coaching record

*Claimed national championship.

Note: from 1907-1916, Michigan did not compete in the Big Ten Conference, then called the Western Conference.

Note: The NCAA credits Yost with having a 7-4 record with Nebraska in the 1898 season. The NCAA incorrectly has Nebraska with a 0-24 loss to William Jewell. Nebraska now credits Yost with an 8-3 record. The NCAA lists Yost with a record of 196-36-12.

ee also

* University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor

External links

* [http://collegefootball.org/famersearch.php?id=20 College Football Hall of Fame]
* [http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/coaches/fhyost.htm Profile at University of Michigan Athletics History]