The 1923 Michigan football team was an American football team that represented the University of Michigan during the 1923 Big Ten Conference football season. In their 23rd year under head coach Fielding H. Yost, Michigan compiled an undefeated 8–0 record, tied for the Big Ten Conference football championship, and outscored its opponents by a combined total of 150 to 12. The season was part of a 20-game undefeated streak for Michigan that began on October 29, 1921, and continued until October 18, 1924. During the combined 1922 and 1923 seasons, Yost's teams compiled a 14–0–1 record.
Although no system was in place during this era to determine a national champion, the NCAA recognizes as official certain selectors who have sought to establish historic national championships. One of the official selectors, the Billingsley Report, recognizes the 1923 Michigan team as the sole national champion. A second official selector, the National Championship Foundation, recognizes Michigan as co-champion with Illinois. Illinois, led by Red Grange, and Michigan both had perfect records and, despite playing in the same conference, did not play each other during the 1923 season.
Michigan's backfield was led by halfbacks Harry Kipke and Herb Steger and quarterback Irwin Uteritz. Steger was the team's leading scorer, and Kipke, the team captain, developed a reputation as the best punter in college football and later was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. On defense, the 1923 team gave up an average of 1.6 points per game, held its first four opponents scoreless, and gave up only one touchdown during the entire season. Left tackle Stanley Muirhead played every minute of Michigan's 1923 season and was one of the team's defensive leaders. Center and placekicker Jack Blott was a consensus first-team pick for the 1923 All-America Team.
Highlights of the 1923 season included a 3–0 victory over Southern Conference champion Vanderbilt, a 19–0 victory over Ohio State before the largest crowd in Ferry Field history and a 10–0 victory over an undefeated Minnesota team that had scored 34 and 20 points against Northwestern and Iowa in the preceding weeks. A 6–3 victory over Wisconsin featured a game-saving "diving shoe-string tackle" by Edliff Slaughter on the last play of the game – a play that Fielding Yost later called "the greatest play in football I ever saw."
Schedule
Preseason Michigan's 1922 team finished its season undefeated with a record of 6–0–1 and tied with Iowa team for the Big Ten Conference football championship. Several key players from the 1922 team did not return in 1923, including fullback Franklin Cappon, right end Paul Goebel, and left end Bernard Kirk. Cappon and Goebel were lost to graduation, and Kirk had died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident in December 1922. There were, however, several starters returning from the undefeated 1922 team, including halfback Harry Kipke, quarterback Irwin Uteritz, center Jack Blott, and tackle Stanley Muirhead.In May 1923, the University of Michigan's Board of Control of Athletics announced that the new field house under construction would be named after Fielding H. Yost, who had been Michigan's head football coach for 22 years. At the time of its completion in the fall of 1923, Yost Field House was "the largest structure for competitive athletics in the world." The structure was designed to have a seating capacity of 12,500, an indoor track with a 75-foot straightaway, basketball courts, indoor practice facilities for the football and baseball teams, locker and shower facilities for 4,200, athletic association offices, and trophy rooms.
Game summaries Week 1: Case
Michigan opened its 1923 season on October 6 with a 36–0 victory over the Case Scientific School in front of a crowd of more than 15,000 spectators at Ferry Field.1924 Michiganensian, "Review of Season," page 225. Michigan had opened its season with a home game against Case 16 times between 1902 and 1923.
Michigan's first touchdown was scored by right halfback Herb Steger on a 15-yard pass from left halfback Harry Kipke. Steger missed the extra point kick. Then, in the second quarter, Steger scored his second touchdown on a 53-yard run through right tackle. Kipke's drop kick for the extra point was blocked, and Michigan led, 12–0. Kipke also missed a drop kick for field goal in the second quarter. Still in the second quarter, Steger scored his third touchdown on a pass from quarterback Irwin Uteritz. Kipke's drop kick for extra point was good, and Michigan led, 19–0, at halftime.
On Michigan's second play from scrimmage in the second half, William Herrnstein, substituting for Kipke, ran 28 yards for a touchdown. Jack Blott kicked the extra point, and Michigan led, 26–0. In the fourth quarter, Kipke kicked a field goal from the 45-yard line. Michigan's final touchdown was scored by Frederick Parker, substituting for Uteritz at quarterback, on a fourth down run from inside the one-yard line, and Kipke drop kicked for the extra point.
Michigan's starting lineup in the game was Philip Marion (left end), Stanley Muirhead (left tackle), Harold Steele (left guard), Jack Blott (center), Harry Hawkins (right tackle), Ed Vandervoort (right guard), Louis Curran (right end), Irwin Uteritz (quarterback), Harry Kipke (left halfback), Herb Steger (right halfback), and James Miller (fullback).
Week 2: Vanderbilt
On October 13, 1923, Michigan defeated the Southern Conference co-champion Vanderbilt Commodores, 3–0, at Ferry Field. Michigan's victory snapped a 20-game unbeaten streak for Vanderbilt that dated back to November 1920. Vanderbilt was coached by Dan McGugin, who had played for Yost's Michigan teams in 1901 and 1902 and had been an assistant coach for Michigan in 1903. During McGugin's tenure at Vanderbilt, Michigan played nine games against the Commodores from 1905 to 1923, with Michigan winning eight games and playing to a tie in 1922. Vanderbilt returned nine of eleven starters from its 1922 team that held Michigan scoreless in the prior year's game and was regarded as having as strong a team as it had in 1922.
The game's only points were scored on a field goal in the second quarter. After Michigan drove to the Vanderbilt seven-yard line, the Wolverines lost yardage on first and second down. On third down, Jack Blott was called into the backfield from his normal position at center. Blott kicked a field goal from the 15-yard line. A wire service account of the game noted, "Both played crafty football, the fumbling that tended to mar the game being more than offset by swift, dashing interception of passes while the work of the linesmen on both sides was at top form." The Michigan Alumnus summarized the game thus: "Never surely was a game more lacking in spectacular features and thrills. For a good part of the time it gave one the same sort of feeling which was so common during the Great War, when a gain of a few yards was a matter for rejoicing, and it was hard to believe that even the most dashing attack could accomplish any lasting results."
The game featured few penalties, no injuries, and few substitutions. Michigan made only three substitutions, and Vanderbilt none. Michigan completed five out of 16 passes for 90 yards. Vanderbilt completed just one of five for a nine-yard gain. Two field goal attempts by Kipke failed. One was blocked and another rolled under the cross bar. The one other long gain of the day was a 20-yard run late in the third quarter from Herb Steger. The run came just after Vanderbilt had advanced its furthest into Michigan territory and had its drive ended by a Steger interception. Vanderbilt never advanced far enough to attempt a field goal.
Vanderbilt's best player that day was Hek Wakefield, showcasing his skill in tackling Michigan's runners. "I never saw a greater exhibition of end play," said Fielding Yost, referring to Wakefield.Russell, Fred, and Maxwell Edward Benson. Fifty Years of Vanderbilt Football. Nashville, TN, 1938, p. 42
Michigan's starting lineup against Vanderbilt was Philip Marion (left end), Stanley Muirhead (left tackle), Edliff Slaughter (left guard), Jack Blott (center), Harold Steele (right guard), Ed Vandervoort (right tackle), Louis Curran (right end), Irwin Uteritz (quarterback), Harry Kipke (left halfback), Herb Steger (right halfback), and James Miller (fullback).
Week 3: Ohio State
On October 20, 1923, Michigan defeated Ohio State, 23–0, in the 20th installment of the Michigan–Ohio State football rivalry with Michigan having compiled a 14–3–2 record in the previous games.
The game attracted between 45,000 and 50,000 spectators, setting a new record as "the greatest throng that ever jammed historic Ferry field." The crowd included an estimated 15,000 Ohio State fans with thousands having driven to the game by automobile and thousands more in special trains from Columbus. At least six airplanes were also employed to bring spectators to Ann Arbor, including two brothers flying to Ann Arbor from Denver and several Marines from Quantico, Virginia, flying in four airplanes to scout the Michigan team for the upcoming match against the Quantico Marines. Tickets sold for prices as high as $50, and 16 persons were jailed for ticket scalping. The Michigan athletic department reported that 55,000 ticket applications had been denied, requiring "the entire time of four men for the past three weeks to return money for which tickets were not available."
Coach Yost announced on October 18, two days before the game, that he would retire as Michigan's football coach at the end of the year, though he would remain the school's athletic director. After Yost's announcement, sports columnist Billy Evans called Yost "one of the greatest mentors in the history of the game" and "one of the pioneers in Western Conference football."
The only points scored in the first half came on a field goal by Jack Blott. The score followed a drive that started at Ohio State's 49-yard line and featured a 24-yard gain on Michigan's first pass, a ten-yard toss from Irwin Uteritz to Harry Kipke who ran the ball to the Ohio State 23-yard line. On the next play, Michigan ran a triple pass with Kipke carrying the ball to Ohio State's 11-yard line. The Buckeyes' defense held, and Blott kicked a field goal from placement from the 17-yard line.
In the third quarter, Blott missed a field goal on Michigan's first drive, with the ball going right of the crossbar. Later in the third quarter, Michigan extended its lead after blocking a punt by Hoge Workman in Ohio State territory. Michigan took the ball to the Ohio State 16-yard line on a pass from Uteritz to Louis Curran. On the next play, Uteritz completed a pass to Herb Steger who ran the last 15 yards for a touchdown. Blott place-kicked the extra point. Early in the fourth quarter, Michigan scored its second touchdown on a pass from Uteritz to Kipke that netted 37 yards. Blott again place-kicked the extra point. Michigan's final touchdown followed an interception by Steger that gave the Wolverines the ball at Ohio State's 42-yard line. On a series of running plays, Michigan drove the ball inside Ohio State's ten-yard line. Charles Grube, substituting for Jim Miller, ran on fourth down and gained four yards to Ohio State's one-yard line. On first down from the one-yard line Grube fumbled, but recovered the ball. On the next play, Steger ran through the right guard for a touchdown. Michigan tried a pass for the extra point, but the pass from Uteritz was incomplete. Ohio State never advanced the ball inside Michigan's 40-yard line.