WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.419 Okay, so usually when I sit down to prep for 00:00:02.419 --> 00:00:05.360 these deep dives, I am looking for nuance. Right, 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:07.540 the gray areas. Exactly, the historical he said, 00:00:07.580 --> 00:00:09.400 she said. I am looking for the two sides of the 00:00:09.400 --> 00:00:12.099 story. But then I opened the file on Michigan 00:00:12.099 --> 00:00:15.519 football from the early 1900s. Specifically 1901 00:00:15.519 --> 00:00:18.199 to 1905. Yeah, that five -year period. Yeah. 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:21.920 And the numbers are just stupid. Stupid is honestly 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:24.359 a pretty fair word for it. I mean, I honestly 00:00:24.359 --> 00:00:25.859 thought there was a typo in the spreadsheet. 00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:28.800 Yeah. We are looking at a five -year stretch. 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:32.039 where one team played 57 games. And their record 00:00:32.039 --> 00:00:35.280 was 55 wins. One loss and one tie. But that is 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:37.359 not even the part that broke my brain. It is 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:39.939 the score differential. I have a feeling I know 00:00:39.939 --> 00:00:41.899 exactly which stat you're looking at. Over those 00:00:41.899 --> 00:00:44.280 five years, this team outscored their opponents 00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:48.979 2 ,821 to 42. It sounds like a glitch in a video 00:00:48.979 --> 00:00:50.799 game. Yeah. Like when you put the difficulty 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:53.020 on rookie and just mash the sprint button against 00:00:53.020 --> 00:00:57.399 a team of toddlers. Exactly. 2 ,821 to 42. They 00:00:57.399 --> 00:01:00.200 averaged nearly a point for every single minute 00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:02.520 of play. And the deeper we go into the source 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:04.859 material, the more it seems like this wasn't 00:01:04.859 --> 00:01:07.099 just some lucky run of good athletes. Not at 00:01:07.099 --> 00:01:10.640 all. This was one specific man dragging a chaotic 00:01:10.640 --> 00:01:14.540 and amateur pastime into the 20th century, basically 00:01:14.540 --> 00:01:17.099 by the scruff of its neck. And that is the key 00:01:17.099 --> 00:01:18.719 distinction for you to keep in mind as we go 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:21.500 through this. Today, we are unpacking the life 00:01:21.500 --> 00:01:24.260 and legacy of Fielding H. Yost. And if you just 00:01:24.260 --> 00:01:26.560 look at him as a football coach, you are really 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:29.400 missing the entire point of the sources. He is 00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:31.420 way more than that. Yost is the transitional 00:01:31.420 --> 00:01:34.040 figure in American sports history. He is the 00:01:34.040 --> 00:01:37.159 bridge between Football as a violent student 00:01:37.159 --> 00:01:39.739 brawl and football as the multimillion dollar 00:01:39.739 --> 00:01:42.140 industry you watch on Saturdays. He basically 00:01:42.140 --> 00:01:44.459 invented the modern concept of the program with 00:01:44.459 --> 00:01:47.640 a capital P. He did. He built the stadiums. He 00:01:47.640 --> 00:01:49.719 invented positions that literally did not exist 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:52.000 before him. And he professionalized the role 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:54.620 of the coach. But to understand how he built 00:01:54.620 --> 00:01:56.540 this empire at Michigan, you have to understand 00:01:56.540 --> 00:01:58.719 that he wasn't really a football guy first. He 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:01.819 was a lawman. Right. This is probably my favorite 00:02:01.819 --> 00:02:04.340 detail from his early life. We are talking about 00:02:04.340 --> 00:02:06.799 a teenager in West Virginia in the 1890s who 00:02:06.799 --> 00:02:08.780 was working as a deputy marshal. Think about 00:02:08.780 --> 00:02:12.020 the context of West Virginia in that era. It 00:02:12.020 --> 00:02:16.259 is rough. It is rural coal country. Yost is the 00:02:16.259 --> 00:02:18.879 son of a Confederate veteran, and by the time 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:21.120 he is a teenager, he is already six feet tall 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:23.699 and 200 pounds. Which in the 1890s makes you 00:02:23.699 --> 00:02:27.240 an absolute giant. A literal giant. He is enforcing 00:02:27.240 --> 00:02:30.300 the law, and he is earning a public school teaching 00:02:30.300 --> 00:02:33.680 certificate at 17. It creates this image of someone 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:36.960 who is just naturally used to imposing his will 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:39.300 on the world. He walks into a room or onto a 00:02:39.300 --> 00:02:42.050 field. And he expects to be the absolute authority. 00:02:42.389 --> 00:02:44.449 Absolutely. And that attitude did not change 00:02:44.449 --> 00:02:46.189 when he started playing football at West Virginia 00:02:46.189 --> 00:02:48.530 University. In fact, that is where we see the 00:02:48.530 --> 00:02:51.050 first glimpse of his, well, let's call it flexible 00:02:51.050 --> 00:02:53.169 morality when it came to winning. You were talking 00:02:53.169 --> 00:02:55.569 about the Yost Affair. I am. The sources highlight 00:02:55.569 --> 00:02:58.409 this as the moment that really defines his early 00:02:58.409 --> 00:03:00.770 career. But honestly, it sounds like the plot 00:03:00.770 --> 00:03:02.930 of a bad sports heist movie. It really does. 00:03:03.110 --> 00:03:06.469 So set the scene for a second. It is 1896. Yost 00:03:06.469 --> 00:03:08.469 is playing tackle for West Virginia. They play 00:03:08.469 --> 00:03:10.370 Lafayette College three times in three days. 00:03:10.569 --> 00:03:13.189 Which, just as a side note, is physically insane. 00:03:13.449 --> 00:03:15.550 Playing three football games in three days. It 00:03:15.550 --> 00:03:17.530 was a very different sport back then. Just a 00:03:17.530 --> 00:03:21.150 grinding... brutal game. West Virginia loses 00:03:21.150 --> 00:03:25.110 all three games, but Yost is so dominant individually, 00:03:25.509 --> 00:03:28.569 just this massive physical specimen, that the 00:03:28.569 --> 00:03:31.129 Lafayette coach notices him. Now, normally that 00:03:31.129 --> 00:03:32.870 is where the story ends. You shake hands and 00:03:32.870 --> 00:03:35.430 you go home. Right, you go back to class. But 00:03:35.430 --> 00:03:38.689 not fielding Yost. No, definitely not. One week 00:03:38.689 --> 00:03:42.719 later. Literally seven days. Lafayette has their 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:44.419 biggest game of the year against Penn. And guess 00:03:44.419 --> 00:03:46.740 who runs out onto the field wearing a Lafayette 00:03:46.740 --> 00:03:49.259 uniform? It's Yost. It is Yost. He transfers 00:03:49.259 --> 00:03:52.120 schools for exactly one week. Just to play one 00:03:52.120 --> 00:03:54.680 game. He plays the game and helps Lafayette win 00:03:54.680 --> 00:03:57.580 this historic 6 -4 victory over a powerhouse 00:03:57.580 --> 00:04:00.520 Penn team. And then two weeks later, he is right 00:04:00.520 --> 00:04:02.460 back in West Virginia. And he didn't even try 00:04:02.460 --> 00:04:04.819 to hide it. The notes say he flat out told people 00:04:04.819 --> 00:04:07.310 he went to Lafayette only to play football. He 00:04:07.310 --> 00:04:09.610 was completely engaging in what we would call 00:04:09.610 --> 00:04:13.389 ringing today, bringing in a hired gun. But here 00:04:13.389 --> 00:04:15.050 is the thing you have to remember about this 00:04:15.050 --> 00:04:17.670 era. There was no NCAA. There were no transfer 00:04:17.670 --> 00:04:20.970 portals. It was the Wild West. So if Yost saw 00:04:20.970 --> 00:04:23.449 an opportunity to win, he just took it. He took 00:04:23.449 --> 00:04:26.389 it, and he did not care about the spirit of amateurism. 00:04:26.649 --> 00:04:29.220 It sets a precedent, though. It shows he viewed 00:04:29.220 --> 00:04:33.019 players and games as assets to be managed, not 00:04:33.019 --> 00:04:35.839 just some fun school spirit activity. And when 00:04:35.839 --> 00:04:38.339 he moves into coaching, that mercenary spirit 00:04:38.339 --> 00:04:40.839 just goes into overdrive. Nomad is the word used 00:04:40.839 --> 00:04:43.759 in the biography. He bounces from Ohio Wesleyan 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:46.959 to Nebraska to Kansas to Stanford, four different 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:49.120 jobs in four years. And every single place he 00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:51.240 goes, they went immediately. Instantly. Kansas 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:53.220 went ten -a -wo right out of the gate. But there 00:04:53.220 --> 00:04:55.699 is a story from his time at Ohio Wesleyan that 00:04:55.699 --> 00:04:57.660 I really need you to explain because it sounds... 00:04:57.680 --> 00:05:00.740 Sounds illegal even for the 1890s. The trickery 00:05:00.740 --> 00:05:03.920 incident. Oh, this is classic Yost. It is 1897. 00:05:04.060 --> 00:05:06.319 He is the head coach of Ohio Wesleyan. They are 00:05:06.319 --> 00:05:08.399 playing against Michigan, which is ironic since 00:05:08.399 --> 00:05:10.120 that is the school where he would later become 00:05:10.120 --> 00:05:13.600 a legend. Michigan is the better team. So Yost 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:15.620 decides the best way to coach the team is to 00:05:15.620 --> 00:05:17.620 join the team. Wait, he actually put on a uniform? 00:05:17.879 --> 00:05:20.579 He put on a uniform and played left tackle. Against 00:05:20.579 --> 00:05:22.480 the team he was coaching against? Yeah. While 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:25.000 being the head coach? Yes. Michigan protested, 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:26.600 obviously. They were looking across the line 00:05:26.600 --> 00:05:29.560 saying, hey, that 200 -pound man crushing our 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:32.259 quarterback is your coach, not a student. I mean, 00:05:32.279 --> 00:05:35.220 how did he even try to justify that? Ohio Wesleyan 00:05:35.220 --> 00:05:37.060 tried to introduce him as a transfer student, 00:05:37.139 --> 00:05:39.839 but nobody bought it. It got so heated that Michigan 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:42.720 refused to schedule Ohio Wesleyan again for years. 00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:46.939 It is so brazen. Yeah. But it tells you he literally 00:05:46.939 --> 00:05:50.100 could not stand on the sideline. He had to control 00:05:50.100 --> 00:05:52.759 the outcome physically if he felt he had to. 00:05:52.819 --> 00:05:54.920 And that obsession with control is exactly what 00:05:54.920 --> 00:05:57.680 he brought to Ann Arbor in 1901. He actually 00:05:57.680 --> 00:05:59.620 applies for the job at Illinois first, but doesn't 00:05:59.620 --> 00:06:02.180 get it. So Michigan hires him instead. And this 00:06:02.180 --> 00:06:03.740 is where the point -a -minute legend actually 00:06:03.740 --> 00:06:06.500 begins. So let's talk about the how. Because 00:06:06.500 --> 00:06:09.519 a .550 to you scoring run in your first season 00:06:09.519 --> 00:06:12.600 doesn't happen just by yelling louder or being 00:06:12.600 --> 00:06:15.040 a good motivator. What was he actually doing 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:16.980 on the field that was so fundamentally different? 00:06:17.389 --> 00:06:19.610 It was a combination of extreme conditioning 00:06:19.610 --> 00:06:22.750 and simple physics. You have to remember, football 00:06:22.750 --> 00:06:26.310 in 1901 was essentially a giant scrum. Mass momentum 00:06:26.310 --> 00:06:29.910 plays right. Yes. Heavy, slow grinding plays. 00:06:30.089 --> 00:06:32.290 Everyone huddled up and took their sweet time. 00:06:32.449 --> 00:06:35.290 But Yost was obsessed with speed. And this is 00:06:35.290 --> 00:06:37.230 where the nickname Hurry Up Yost comes from. 00:06:37.290 --> 00:06:39.529 Exactly. He would scream it at practice constantly. 00:06:39.649 --> 00:06:41.689 Hurry up, hurry up. He wanted his team to line 00:06:41.689 --> 00:06:44.089 up faster than the defense could even react. 00:06:44.329 --> 00:06:46.910 He essentially invented the tempo offense. Why 00:06:46.910 --> 00:06:49.029 was this so devastating back then? Because of 00:06:49.029 --> 00:06:51.990 the substitution rules. Or really the lack thereof. 00:06:52.009 --> 00:06:54.290 You played both ways, offense and defense. And 00:06:54.290 --> 00:06:55.829 you rarely ever came off the field. If you were 00:06:55.829 --> 00:06:57.930 tired, you stayed tired. So Yost's teams were 00:06:57.930 --> 00:07:00.709 just in better shape. In way better shape. And 00:07:00.709 --> 00:07:03.149 by snapping the ball quickly, he was weaponizing 00:07:03.149 --> 00:07:05.310 fatigue. While the other team was still trying 00:07:05.310 --> 00:07:07.810 to catch their breath or figure out who was supposed 00:07:07.810 --> 00:07:09.670 to be where Michigan was already running the 00:07:09.670 --> 00:07:12.069 next play. So he is just running them into the 00:07:12.069 --> 00:07:14.970 ground physically and mentally. Precisely. And 00:07:14.970 --> 00:07:17.730 that 1901 season ends with the first ever Rose 00:07:17.730 --> 00:07:20.850 Bowl against Stanford. And this game, while it 00:07:20.850 --> 00:07:24.769 is infamous, Michigan wins 49 to 0. And didn't 00:07:24.769 --> 00:07:28.139 the game actually end early? It did. Stanford's 00:07:28.139 --> 00:07:30.600 captain straight up asked for mercy with eight 00:07:30.600 --> 00:07:33.319 minutes left on the clock. It was such a total 00:07:33.319 --> 00:07:35.120 disaster that the Tournament of Roses decided 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:37.379 football was simply too violent and uncompetitive 00:07:37.379 --> 00:07:39.519 to host again. They canceled it. They literally 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:41.360 replaced the football game with chariot races 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:43.980 for the next several years. Chariot races? Yeah, 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:46.680 actual chariot races. You know, you have dominated 00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:48.779 when the organizers say, you know what, let us 00:07:48.779 --> 00:07:51.800 try Ben -Hur next year instead. That is true 00:07:51.800 --> 00:07:54.480 dominance. But amidst all this scoring, there 00:07:54.480 --> 00:07:56.420 was a defensive innovation happening that I think 00:07:56.420 --> 00:07:58.459 is actually Yost's biggest contribution to the 00:07:58.459 --> 00:08:01.019 mechanics of football. And it happened completely 00:08:01.019 --> 00:08:04.040 by accident. You were talking about Germany Schultz 00:08:04.040 --> 00:08:06.120 and the invention of the linebacker position. 00:08:06.459 --> 00:08:09.339 Yes. So Germany Schultz is a center for Michigan. 00:08:09.959 --> 00:08:13.620 He is huge for the time. In 1904, the center's 00:08:13.620 --> 00:08:16.259 job was to snap the ball and then basically stay 00:08:16.259 --> 00:08:18.339 in the line of scrimmage and just push. You kept 00:08:18.339 --> 00:08:20.279 your face in the dirt. Just a wall of bodies. 00:08:20.420 --> 00:08:23.920 Right. But Schultz was getting frustrated. He 00:08:23.920 --> 00:08:26.240 could not see where the play was going because 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:28.240 he was constantly tangled up in the pile. So 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:31.100 he improvises. He decides to stand up and take 00:08:31.100 --> 00:08:33.399 a step back from the line. just so he can see 00:08:33.399 --> 00:08:36.059 over the linemen. And Yost, being the absolute 00:08:36.059 --> 00:08:39.059 control freak we have established, he must have 00:08:39.059 --> 00:08:41.860 hated that initially. Oh, he was horrified. He 00:08:41.860 --> 00:08:43.879 started screaming at Schultz to get back in line. 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:46.340 He thought it was breaking their formation discipline. 00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:49.580 But then Yost stopped yelling because he saw 00:08:49.580 --> 00:08:51.740 what was actually happening. By standing back, 00:08:51.980 --> 00:08:54.240 Schultz could see the ball carrier developing 00:08:54.240 --> 00:08:56.559 the play. He could see everything. He was suddenly 00:08:56.559 --> 00:08:58.960 making tackle sideline to sideline. Because he 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:01.159 wasn't being blocked in the trenches. He wasn't 00:09:01.159 --> 00:09:04.629 engaged in the pile. Exactly. And Yost, to his 00:09:04.629 --> 00:09:07.129 credit, realized the massive advantage immediately. 00:09:07.309 --> 00:09:09.190 He stopped correcting him and started coaching 00:09:09.190 --> 00:09:11.750 it. That gives you the modern linebacker. It 00:09:11.750 --> 00:09:14.129 changed defense from a blind shoving match to 00:09:14.129 --> 00:09:16.789 a reaction sport. So he has got the hurry -up 00:09:16.789 --> 00:09:19.490 offense, and he is inadvertently inventing the 00:09:19.490 --> 00:09:22.009 linebacker. And the notes also mention a play 00:09:22.009 --> 00:09:25.649 called Old 83. The source calls it a major innovation, 00:09:25.889 --> 00:09:27.870 but can we break down what it actually was on 00:09:27.870 --> 00:09:31.029 the field? Old 83 was basically the direct ancestor 00:09:31.029 --> 00:09:33.889 of the modern option play. Now think about how 00:09:33.889 --> 00:09:37.129 radical this is for 1904. In a normal play back 00:09:37.129 --> 00:09:38.850 then, you hand the ball off and the runner just 00:09:38.850 --> 00:09:41.919 runs. Very simple. But in Old 83, the blocking 00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:44.360 scheme was specifically designed to leave one 00:09:44.360 --> 00:09:46.639 defender completely unblocked. Which sounds like 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:48.519 a terrible mistake. It looks like a mistake to 00:09:48.519 --> 00:09:51.460 the defense, for sure. But Yost taught his ball 00:09:51.460 --> 00:09:54.940 carrier to read that unblocked man. If the defender 00:09:54.940 --> 00:09:57.580 stayed back, the runner kept going. If the defender 00:09:57.580 --> 00:09:59.220 committed and attacked the runner, the runner 00:09:59.220 --> 00:10:01.259 would pitch the ball or hand it off to a trialing 00:10:01.259 --> 00:10:03.740 teammate. So he is forcing a defender to make 00:10:03.740 --> 00:10:06.100 a decision in real time. And whatever decision 00:10:06.100 --> 00:10:09.129 he makes is mathematically wrong. Exactly. It 00:10:09.129 --> 00:10:11.549 is putting a heavy cognitive load on the defense. 00:10:11.990 --> 00:10:14.710 Yost was out there treating football like chess 00:10:14.710 --> 00:10:17.230 while everyone else was literally playing checkers. 00:10:17.350 --> 00:10:20.429 He realized that mental confusion was just as 00:10:20.429 --> 00:10:22.710 powerful as physical strength. But even with 00:10:22.710 --> 00:10:25.490 all this brilliant innovation, the point -of 00:10:25.490 --> 00:10:28.919 -minute teams did have one blemish. The 1903 00:10:28.919 --> 00:10:34.240 tie. Ah, the famous Minnesota game, 6 -6. It 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:36.779 snapped their massive winning streak. And in 00:10:36.779 --> 00:10:38.720 the chaos of the postgame, the Michigan team 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:41.240 rushed off the field and left behind a five -gallon 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:43.620 water jug they had bought at a local store. Because 00:10:43.620 --> 00:10:45.639 they did not trust the Minnesota water right. 00:10:45.860 --> 00:10:47.860 Paranoia was definitely a big part of Yost's 00:10:47.860 --> 00:10:50.519 toolkit, yes. He genuinely thought the opposing 00:10:50.519 --> 00:10:52.440 fans might try to poison their water supply, 00:10:52.600 --> 00:10:54.899 so they brought their own jug. Minnesota found 00:10:54.899 --> 00:10:56.840 it after the game and wrote a note to Yost saying, 00:10:56.919 --> 00:10:58.690 if you want it. back, you will have to win it. 00:10:58.750 --> 00:11:00.789 And just like that, the Little Brown Jug trophy 00:11:00.789 --> 00:11:03.690 was born. It is the oldest rivalry trophy in 00:11:03.690 --> 00:11:06.350 college football. It is incredible how much of 00:11:06.350 --> 00:11:08.669 the lore of college sports, the trophies, the 00:11:08.669 --> 00:11:10.950 bowl games, the positions, traces back to this 00:11:10.950 --> 00:11:13.629 one guy just being hyper competitive. But that 00:11:13.629 --> 00:11:16.210 competitive drive extends way beyond the field. 00:11:16.570 --> 00:11:19.009 And this is where the story gets a bit more complicated 00:11:19.009 --> 00:11:21.860 and frankly feels very, very modern. We need 00:11:21.860 --> 00:11:23.980 to talk about the money. We do, because Yost 00:11:23.980 --> 00:11:26.220 was not just coaching for the love of the amateur 00:11:26.220 --> 00:11:28.740 game. He was the first true professional coach. 00:11:29.019 --> 00:11:31.820 The source material is very clear about his salary. 00:11:31.980 --> 00:11:34.159 He wasn't being paid like a part -time gym teacher. 00:11:34.299 --> 00:11:37.039 No, not at all. He negotiated a salary that was 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:39.779 equal to, or in some cases, even higher than 00:11:39.779 --> 00:11:42.539 full -time academic university professors. You 00:11:42.539 --> 00:11:44.379 have to understand how scandalous that was at 00:11:44.379 --> 00:11:46.399 the time. Why was that such a massive deal to 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:48.720 them? Because of the Western Conference. This 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:51.419 was the precursor to the Big Ten. It was founded 00:11:51.419 --> 00:11:54.820 on this very strict, high -minded ideal of amateurism. 00:11:55.179 --> 00:11:58.000 The coaches were supposed to be alumni volunteers 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:01.200 or faculty members who maybe coached on the side 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:04.759 for a tiny stipend. They wanted football to be 00:12:04.759 --> 00:12:06.799 strictly subordinate to academics. They wanted 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:09.320 the prestige of sports without the ugly commercialism. 00:12:09.629 --> 00:12:12.590 Exactly. And Yost was walking proof that commercialism 00:12:12.590 --> 00:12:15.809 wins games. He was a lawyer by training. He treated 00:12:15.809 --> 00:12:18.090 coaching as a high stakes cutthroat profession. 00:12:18.570 --> 00:12:21.889 And this caused a massive rift. The conference 00:12:21.889 --> 00:12:24.610 eventually passed rules requiring coaches to 00:12:24.610 --> 00:12:27.509 be full time university faculty, essentially 00:12:27.509 --> 00:12:30.710 trying to force Yost out or force him to take 00:12:30.710 --> 00:12:33.129 a huge pay cut. And Michigan did not gave? They 00:12:33.129 --> 00:12:36.649 backed Yost completely. In 1907, Michigan actually 00:12:36.649 --> 00:12:39.710 left the Western Conference. Wow. They were voted 00:12:39.710 --> 00:12:42.289 out or chose to leave, depending on how you view 00:12:42.289 --> 00:12:44.629 the standoff, because they flat out refused to 00:12:44.629 --> 00:12:47.250 adhere to these new amateur regulations. They 00:12:47.250 --> 00:12:49.850 went independent for a decade rather than give 00:12:49.850 --> 00:12:52.309 up their superstar coach. That is just a massive 00:12:52.309 --> 00:12:54.350 power move. It shows that the football program 00:12:54.350 --> 00:12:56.450 had effectively become more powerful than the 00:12:56.450 --> 00:12:58.789 university's academic alliances. And during those 00:12:58.789 --> 00:13:01.409 independent years, Yost's power just went completely 00:13:01.409 --> 00:13:03.610 unchecked. And this brings us to the Notre Dame 00:13:03.610 --> 00:13:05.830 situation. If you are a college football fan, 00:13:05.929 --> 00:13:08.049 you know Michigan and Notre Dame have this historic 00:13:08.269 --> 00:13:10.909 bitter rivalry. And the sources suggest Yost 00:13:10.909 --> 00:13:13.629 is the primary architect of that animosity. This 00:13:13.629 --> 00:13:16.409 is the blackballing allegation. It is. So in 00:13:16.409 --> 00:13:19.470 1909, Michigan played Notre Dame and lost. It 00:13:19.470 --> 00:13:21.470 was their first ever loss to the Irish. Yost, 00:13:21.470 --> 00:13:23.629 while he did not handle it well. I am sensing 00:13:23.629 --> 00:13:26.629 a pattern here. He does not lose gracefully. 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:29.559 He does not. And the allegation, which is strongly 00:13:29.559 --> 00:13:31.639 supported by historians like Maurice Berber, 00:13:31.740 --> 00:13:35.200 is that used used his immense influence to block 00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:37.019 Notre Dame from joining the Western Conference. 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:39.120 He effectively kept them on the outside looking 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:41.899 in for years. And the sources point to something 00:13:41.899 --> 00:13:44.200 much darker than just him being mad about losing 00:13:44.200 --> 00:13:46.759 a football game. There is a lot of mention of 00:13:46.759 --> 00:13:50.279 anti -Catholic bias. We cannot ignore the era 00:13:50.279 --> 00:13:52.340 we are talking about. This is the early 20th 00:13:52.340 --> 00:13:55.269 century. Anti -Catholic and anti -immigrant sentiment 00:13:55.269 --> 00:13:57.870 in the Midwest was very real and very potent. 00:13:58.029 --> 00:14:00.570 And Notre Dame was the premier Catholic school. 00:14:00.730 --> 00:14:02.789 And Yost's background plays into this. Right. 00:14:02.850 --> 00:14:05.049 Yost was from West Virginia, the son of a Confederate 00:14:05.049 --> 00:14:07.529 and a devout Protestant. The sources suggest 00:14:07.529 --> 00:14:10.409 he viewed Notre Dame's rise not just as an athletic 00:14:10.409 --> 00:14:13.029 threat to his program, but as a cultural threat. 00:14:13.350 --> 00:14:15.330 We are just reporting what the historians have 00:14:15.330 --> 00:14:17.950 analyzed here. But the cultural clash was a massive 00:14:17.950 --> 00:14:20.190 part of the dynamic. But the notes also mention 00:14:20.190 --> 00:14:23.399 he had a very bitter personal. feud with Newt 00:14:23.399 --> 00:14:26.399 Rockne, the famous Notre Dame coach. A deeply 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:29.639 bitter feud. Rockne was the brilliant new genius 00:14:29.639 --> 00:14:32.259 on the block and Yost was the established king. 00:14:32.620 --> 00:14:35.960 So it was likely this toxic cocktail of religious 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:38.700 prejudice, professional jealousy, and massive 00:14:38.700 --> 00:14:42.279 ego. Rockne represented a direct threat to Yost's 00:14:42.279 --> 00:14:45.240 status as the greatest coach in the game. It 00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:46.700 is so interesting, though, because the source 00:14:46.700 --> 00:14:49.500 material also highlights that Yost wasn't this 00:14:49.500 --> 00:14:52.529 simple blanket bigot. For instance, he was one 00:14:52.529 --> 00:14:55.409 of the very first coaches to actively play Jewish 00:14:55.409 --> 00:14:57.370 players. Right. The Benny to Benny connection. 00:14:57.649 --> 00:15:00.470 Benny Friedman throwing to Benny Oosterman. Friedman 00:15:00.470 --> 00:15:03.529 was Jewish. And Yost actively championed him. 00:15:03.570 --> 00:15:05.350 He put him on the field when a lot of other coaches 00:15:05.350 --> 00:15:07.370 might not have. So you have this deeply complex 00:15:07.370 --> 00:15:10.330 figure. Very complex. He broke social barriers 00:15:10.330 --> 00:15:12.409 when it suited his team and helped him win games. 00:15:12.529 --> 00:15:15.029 But he erected massive barriers, like the one 00:15:15.029 --> 00:15:16.750 against Notre Dame, when it suited his personal 00:15:16.750 --> 00:15:19.340 power. Speaking of building barriers and structures, 00:15:19.659 --> 00:15:22.240 let us talk about his physical legacy. Because 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:24.220 if you go to Ann Arbor today, you are literally 00:15:24.220 --> 00:15:26.700 walking through Fielding Yost's imagination. 00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:30.080 You really are. In the 1920s... Yost transitions. 00:15:30.519 --> 00:15:33.299 He becomes the athletic director. And he goes 00:15:33.299 --> 00:15:35.940 on a construction spree that is just mind -boggling 00:15:35.940 --> 00:15:38.659 for the time. He builds the university golf course. 00:15:38.779 --> 00:15:41.340 He builds the Yost Fieldhouse. Which was a brand 00:15:41.340 --> 00:15:43.220 new concept, right? Completely revolutionary. 00:15:43.299 --> 00:15:45.840 It was the first building of its kind on any 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:49.059 college campus. A massive indoor facility so 00:15:49.059 --> 00:15:51.159 the team could practice during the harsh Michigan 00:15:51.159 --> 00:15:53.700 winters. No one else had that. It gave them a 00:15:53.700 --> 00:15:56.200 huge competitive advantage. But his masterpiece 00:15:56.200 --> 00:15:58.980 is, of course, Michigan Stadium. The big s***. 00:15:58.860 --> 00:16:01.320 The largest stadium in the United States. And 00:16:01.320 --> 00:16:03.759 you have to realize he planned and built this 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:07.259 in the 1920s. Why build a stadium for 70 ,000 00:16:07.259 --> 00:16:09.539 or 80 ,000 people back then? Did they even have 00:16:09.539 --> 00:16:12.379 the local population to fill those seats? People 00:16:12.379 --> 00:16:14.399 told him he was crazy. They said he was vastly 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:17.139 overbuilding. But Yost envisioned the future. 00:16:17.559 --> 00:16:19.480 He actually urged the architects to build the 00:16:19.480 --> 00:16:21.299 footings so that the stadium could eventually 00:16:21.299 --> 00:16:24.460 expand to seat over 100 ,000 people. You knew 00:16:24.460 --> 00:16:26.860 it would get that big. He understood before anyone 00:16:26.860 --> 00:16:29.460 else that college football wasn't just a fun 00:16:29.460 --> 00:16:32.059 game for the students and alumni anymore. It 00:16:32.059 --> 00:16:35.980 was a spectacle for the masses. He built a literal 00:16:35.980 --> 00:16:38.419 stage for the massive industry he had helped 00:16:38.419 --> 00:16:40.779 create. And he had this weird branding genius, 00:16:40.919 --> 00:16:43.419 too, like the way he pronounced the state's name. 00:16:44.179 --> 00:16:47.340 Yeah, Miishi. It became this trademark quirk. 00:16:47.500 --> 00:16:50.159 Fans and broadcasters just adopted it. He knew 00:16:50.159 --> 00:16:52.700 exactly how to market the product. He even coined 00:16:52.700 --> 00:16:55.659 the phrase football builds character, which is 00:16:55.659 --> 00:16:57.539 pretty rich coming from the guy who played as 00:16:57.539 --> 00:16:59.620 a runger for Lafayette and snuck onto the field 00:16:59.620 --> 00:17:02.269 in disguise against Ohio Wesleyan. History is 00:17:02.269 --> 00:17:04.430 full of irony, but that phrase was incredibly 00:17:04.430 --> 00:17:06.849 powerful. It gave the sheer violence of the sport 00:17:06.849 --> 00:17:09.349 a moral justification. It made it acceptable 00:17:09.349 --> 00:17:11.509 for these high -minded academic universities 00:17:11.509 --> 00:17:14.309 to invest millions of dollars into it because 00:17:14.309 --> 00:17:15.990 they could say they weren't just playing a game, 00:17:16.009 --> 00:17:17.950 they were building men. So we have the builder, 00:17:18.069 --> 00:17:19.970 the innovator, the controversial power broker, 00:17:20.150 --> 00:17:22.650 but we also have the teacher. His coaching tree 00:17:22.650 --> 00:17:25.509 is just absurd. It is a viral map of American 00:17:25.509 --> 00:17:29.589 football strategy. 77 men who played or coached 00:17:29.589 --> 00:17:32.490 under Yost went on to become head coaches. We 00:17:32.490 --> 00:17:34.589 are talking about the guys who literally built 00:17:34.589 --> 00:17:37.890 the programs at Texas, Nebraska, Kansas. Even 00:17:37.890 --> 00:17:41.089 Dan McGuigan at Vanderbilt, he was actually Yost's 00:17:41.089 --> 00:17:43.599 brother -in -law. Wait, really? Yes, Yost was 00:17:43.599 --> 00:17:45.859 the best man at McGorgon's wedding. They even 00:17:45.859 --> 00:17:48.920 tied in a game once. But this coaching tree means 00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:51.559 that the Yost DNA, the speed, the organization, 00:17:51.859 --> 00:17:54.920 the ruthless professional mindset, it just seeped 00:17:54.920 --> 00:17:57.519 into the groundwater of American sports. So if 00:17:57.519 --> 00:17:59.559 you look at a team today playing fast or using 00:17:59.559 --> 00:18:01.599 linebackers or just treating the sport like a 00:18:01.599 --> 00:18:04.160 cutthroat business, that all traces back to Yost. 00:18:04.200 --> 00:18:06.650 Exactly. He standardized the profession. Before 00:18:06.650 --> 00:18:08.930 Yost, a coach was often a guy who just showed 00:18:08.930 --> 00:18:11.430 up in the afternoon after his real job. After 00:18:11.430 --> 00:18:13.910 Yost, a coach was the CEO of a massive program. 00:18:14.289 --> 00:18:16.529 And he even proved his own longevity by returning 00:18:16.529 --> 00:18:18.630 to coaching briefly in the 1920s and winning 00:18:18.630 --> 00:18:21.690 two more national titles in 1923. But legacies 00:18:21.690 --> 00:18:24.049 evolve. Yeah. And we have to address the modern 00:18:24.049 --> 00:18:25.869 reevaluation that is mentioned in the sources. 00:18:26.009 --> 00:18:28.450 Because in 2021, there was a formal push to remove 00:18:28.450 --> 00:18:31.509 his name from the ice arena on campus. Yes. And 00:18:31.509 --> 00:18:33.349 this goes back to the racial history of the era. 00:18:33.769 --> 00:18:36.809 While he did play Jewish players. The University 00:18:36.809 --> 00:18:39.509 of Michigan and Yost specifically have come under 00:18:39.509 --> 00:18:41.890 heavy scrutiny for the segregation of the team 00:18:41.890 --> 00:18:43.789 during his long tenure as athletic director. 00:18:44.359 --> 00:18:46.559 There were no black lettermen in football during 00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:49.660 Ghost's entire time as coach or AD. There's a 00:18:49.660 --> 00:18:52.420 very significant gap in time. It is. And again, 00:18:52.500 --> 00:18:54.619 looking objectively at the sources, the modern 00:18:54.619 --> 00:18:57.539 critique is that he did not just passively inherit 00:18:57.539 --> 00:18:59.940 segregation, but that he actively enforced it. 00:19:00.039 --> 00:19:02.400 It is a stark reminder that we can acknowledge 00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:04.759 his architectural role in the sport without deifying 00:19:04.759 --> 00:19:07.339 the man himself. He was a man of his time with 00:19:07.339 --> 00:19:09.480 all the deeply ingrained prejudices and flaws 00:19:09.480 --> 00:19:12.299 that implies, but he also held enough unchecked 00:19:12.299 --> 00:19:14.279 power that he could have changed. things if he 00:19:14.279 --> 00:19:17.019 truly wanted to, and he didn't. He held that 00:19:17.019 --> 00:19:20.140 power until 1940. That is a long time to shape 00:19:20.140 --> 00:19:23.299 a culture. He died in 1946, so his career essentially 00:19:23.299 --> 00:19:25.799 spans the entire first half of the 20th century. 00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:28.660 He saw the game go from leather helmets and flying 00:19:28.660 --> 00:19:30.359 wedges right to the verge of the modern era. 00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:33.059 When you look at the whole picture, the 2 ,821 00:19:33.059 --> 00:19:36.380 points, the state of the conference fights the 00:19:36.380 --> 00:19:39.660 sheer force of his personality. What is the final 00:19:39.660 --> 00:19:43.059 headline for Fielding Yost? The headline is the 00:19:43.059 --> 00:19:46.079 first professional. He found a game that was 00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:49.279 a chaotic student activity and he single handedly 00:19:49.279 --> 00:19:52.000 turned it into a high stakes, high revenue business. 00:19:52.299 --> 00:19:55.220 He realized that if you win. You can make the 00:19:55.220 --> 00:19:57.119 rules. And you can make the money. And you can 00:19:57.119 --> 00:19:58.900 build the stadium. It really makes you think 00:19:58.900 --> 00:20:01.579 about the current moment in college sports. We 00:20:01.579 --> 00:20:04.180 are watching the Pac -12 dissolve. We are watching 00:20:04.180 --> 00:20:07.079 NIL deals worth millions of dollars. We see players 00:20:07.079 --> 00:20:09.539 transferring schools for better offers every 00:20:09.539 --> 00:20:12.599 single day. It feels chaotic to us. It feels 00:20:12.599 --> 00:20:14.559 like the sport is losing its way. But I wonder 00:20:14.559 --> 00:20:16.299 if Fielding Yost would look at today's college 00:20:16.299 --> 00:20:19.039 football, the professionalism, the massive money, 00:20:19.180 --> 00:20:22.200 the... mercenary transfers and think it is chaotic? 00:20:22.420 --> 00:20:24.059 Or would he just look at it and think, finally, 00:20:24.079 --> 00:20:25.900 you guys cut up? I think he would look at the 00:20:25.900 --> 00:20:27.819 modern transfer portal and just wish he had thought 00:20:27.819 --> 00:20:29.279 of it first. I mean, he was already doing that 00:20:29.279 --> 00:20:32.700 in 1896. He absolutely was. For better or worse, 00:20:32.779 --> 00:20:35.619 he was the prophet of commercialization. We didn't 00:20:35.619 --> 00:20:37.700 even get to talk about how this mindset laid 00:20:37.700 --> 00:20:40.059 the groundwork for the massive media rights deals 00:20:40.059 --> 00:20:42.339 we see today. But I will leave that for you to 00:20:42.339 --> 00:20:44.880 explore on your own. That's a wrap on the architect 00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:47.299 of Amy Shagan. Thanks for listening to this Deep 00:20:47.299 --> 00:20:49.279 Dives into Fielding Yoast. See you next time.