The 1892 Michigan Wolverines football team was an American football team that represented the University of Michigan in the 1892 college football season. In its first season under head coach Frank Barbour, the team compiled a 7–5 record and outscored its opponents by a combined score of 298 to 170. With 298 points scored, the team held the record for the most points scored in a single season by a Michigan football team until 1901.
The 1892 season was Michigan's first in the newly-formed Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the Northwest consisting of the Universities of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and Northwestern University. The season also included: (i) a road trip through four states in which the team played five games in 15 days; (ii) Michigan's inaugural matches against Wisconsin, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Amos Alonzo Stagg's Chicago Maroons; and (iii) a controversial game with John Heisman's Oberlin team which both teams claim to have won.
Fullback George Dygert was the team captain and started all 12 games for Michigan. Right halfback George Jewett led the team on offense and was described by coach Barbour as the best halfback he had ever seen. In 1890, Jewett became the first African American to play football at Michigan; after 1892, it was 40 years before another African American played football for the team.
Schedule
Season summary
Preseason
In April 1892, representatives of several Western colleges met at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Chicago where they formed the Western College Athletic League to compete in football, baseball and track. The members of the new league were the University of Wisconsin, University of Michigan, Northwestern University, and the University of Minnesota. The Western College Athletic League laid the foundation for what later became the Big Ten Conference. With the new alliance in place, Michigan played several teams that would become its long-time rivals. The 1892 season included Michigan's first-ever games against Wisconsin, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Chicago.
Before the season began, Michigan hired Frank Barbour of Yale as its new head football coach. Twenty men showed up for practice in mid-September. Barbour spent weeks teaching his players the fundamentals of the game. George Jewett, the first African-American to play football at Michigan, was described as the "phenomenon" of the pre-season practice. After the 1892 season, it took 40 years before another African American (Willis Ward) played for the Michigan football team.
Game 1: Michigan Athletic Association
On October 8, 1892, Michigan opened its season with a 74–0 victory over the Michigan Athletic Association team from Detroit. The game was played in 25-minute halves at Regents Field in Ann Arbor. George Jewett, credited with playing his "usual brilliant running game," scored Michigan's first touchdown and kicked the goal. Michigan's second touchdown was scored by George Dygert with Jewett kicking the goal. On Michigan's next possession, Jewett ran 75 yards for a touchdown and kicked goal. Later in the first half, Jewett returned a kick for another touchdown and again kicked goal. Michigan led, 30–0, at halftime.
In the second half, Michigan scored 44 points. Jewett scored four more touchdowns and kicked four more goals. While contemporary accounts do not record who scored each touchdown and goal, the account in The U. of M. Daily attributes at least 44 points to Jewett on seven touchdowns (four points each) and eight kicks for goal (two points each).
Michigan's lineup against M.A.A. was Ralph Waldo Emerson Hayes (right end), Willard W. Griffin (right tackle), Charles Thomas (right guard), Frank F. Harding (center rush), Virgil Tupper (left guard), Frank Henry Decke (left tackle), Woodruff [Paul Woodworth?] (left end), Edmond L. Sanderson and McAllister (quarterback), Lawrence Grosh (left halfback), Jewett (right halfback), and Dygert (fullback).
Game 2: at Michigan Athletic Association Four days after the season opener, Michigan traveled to Detroit for a Wednesday night game against the Michigan Athletic Association. Michigan won the rematch, 68–0. Michigan scored seven touchdowns (four points each) and five goals (two points each) in the first half to take a 38–0 lead. The Wolverines added to their lead with five touchdowns, four goals, and a safety in the second half. The Detroit Free Press wrote afterward that the Michigan team "seems pretty well equipped this year" and added: "From the looks of some of them in the dressing room they have been tackling locomotives and other tough obstacles around the college town, but, like the veterans in the army, they only seem to relish it all the more when once bruised and broken up." The Michigan Athletic Association team was trained by Keene Fitzpatrick, who later gained fame as the trainer and track coach at Michigan and Princeton.
Michigan's starting lineup for the second game was Hayes (right end), W. W. Griffin (right tackle), Thomas (right guard), Harding (center), Tupper (left guard), Decke (left tackle), Woodruff [Woodworth?] (left end), McAllister (quarterback), Crozier [Grosh?] (left halfback), Jewett (right halfback), and Dygert (fullback). Sanderson replaced McAllister at quarterback in the second half.
Game 3: at Wisconsin
From October 15 to 29, 1892, Michigan conducted a five-game, 15-day road trip through Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, and Illinois. The trip began on October 15 with the inaugural meeting between the Wolverines and the Wisconsin Badgers. The Wolverines won the game by a score of 10–6 before a crowd of 800 spectators at Randall Field in Madison, Wisconsin. The receipts from the game totaled approximately $300.
Michigan ran in a "V" formation in the game. According to the account published in the Chicago Tribune, George Jewett accounted for all 10 of Michigan's points with a long touchdown run and a kick for goal in the first half and a second touchdown in the second half. Wisconsin scored on a touchdown by left tackle Freeman with fullback Sumner kicking the goal.NOTE: The account of the game in the Detroit Free Press credited Decke with scoring Michigan's second touchdown.
The game account published in the Wisconsin State Journal repeatedly referred to Jewett as "the negro". The newspaper described the crowd's reaction to a tackle of Jewett: "Diving in between two of the Michigan men, he grasped the negro by the legs and brought him down. The crowd went wild, and even several of the oldest and most staid professors were seen to cheer and wave their hats." In its account of the game, the Detroit Free Press credited Jewett with "some brilliant runs."
Michigan's starting lineup against Wisconsin was Paul Woodworth (right end), W. W. Griffin (right tackle), Charles Thomas (right guard), Frank Harding (center), Virgil Tupper (left guard), Frank Henry Decke (left tackle), Ralph Waldo Emerson Hayes (left end), Edmond Sanderson (quarterback), McAllister (left halfback), Jewett (right halfback), and George Dygert (fullback). Ten of Michigan's eleven starters played the entire game. Starting center Harding was "knocked insensible" near the end of the first half and was replaced by Frederick W. Henninger.
Game 4: at Minnesota
Two days after playing Wisconsin, Michigan faced Minnesota at the Minneapolis Base Ball Park in Minneapolis. The game was the first of more than 90 meetings in Michigan's oldest football rivalry. Minnesota won the game, 14–6. After the Saturday afternoon game in Madison, the Wolverines arrived in Minneapolis at 8 o'clock on Sunday morning. The team spent Sunday afternoon with alumni in St. Paul and visited Minnehaha Falls on Monday morning.
The game was played on Monday afternoon during a hard rain that made the field wet and muddy. Despite the rain, The Minneapolis Tribune reported that the game was played before "the largest crowd that ever witnessed a football game in the Northwest." The Saint Paul Daily Globe, on the other hand, estimate the crowd size at 800 persons. Michigan's starting center Frank Harding was unable to play due to the injury he sustained against Wisconsin. The Detroit Free Press'''s account of the game reported that Michigan was "badly outclassed at center and could not withstand Minnesota's rush."(The Detroit Free Press reported the game's final score as 16–6, the difference in the accounts being the goal after touchdown on Minnesota's final touchdown in the second half.) At the end of a 45-minute first half, Minnesota led 10-0.
Michigan's only touchdown came on a long run by George Jewett in the second half. Jewett and Ralph Hayes were also praised for making "great tackles." The Minneapolis Tribune noted that "Jewett, Ann Arbor's colored phenomenon at half-back, could win the game alone with half a chance." Jewett made gains for Michigan throughout the game, and Michigan coach Frank Barbour, who played at Yale, called Jewett "the best half-back he has ever seen."
Michigan's starting lineup against Wisconsin was Woodworth (right end), Griffin (right tackle), Thomas (right guard), Henninger (center), Tupper (left guard), Decke (left tackle), Hayes (left end), McAllister (quarterback), Grosh (left halfback), Jewett (right halfback), and Dygert (fullback). The only substitutions for Michigan were McAllister (replacing Grosh at left halfback in the first half), Sanderson (replacing McAllister at quarterback), and Southworth (replacing Woodworth at right end in the second half).
Game 5: vs. DePauw
On October 21, 1892, Michigan defeated , 18–0, before a crowd of 1,500 spectators at the old Y.M.C.A. ball grounds in Indianapolis. The game began at 4:00 p.m., having been delayed by the city's Columbian parade. Right halfback George Jewett scored 14 of Michigan's 18 points. On the opening drive, he ran around the end for 40 yards, McAllister scored on the next play, and Jewett kicked goal to give Michigan a 6–0 lead. On the next drive by DePauw, Jewett twice tackled DePauw's back, the latter time for a 10-yard loss. Michigan regained possession on a fumble, and on the first play of the drive, Jewett ran some 50 yards for a touchdown and kicked goal to give Michigan a 12–0 lead. On Michigan's third possession, Jewett "skated across the field as he pleased", scoring the third touchdown and kicked the goal to put Michigan ahead, 18–0. Darkness made play difficult in the second half, and the game was ended soon after the second half began.
According to the Detroit Free Press, the Wolverines "did sharp work" for the first 15 minutes of the game, scoring all 18 points in that time. The Wolverines reportedly lost their vigor in the remainder of the game.The Indianapolis Journal wrote that Jewett "played a brilliant game and was as elusive as a will-'o-the-wisp." During the game, a spectator yelled to a DePauw player, "Kill the nigger," referring to Jewett, who was playing a brilliant game. On hearing the comment, Jewett approached the spectator "with a leap like a panther" and his "fist shot out". When the spectator picked himself up, he didn't know where he was. Jewett returned to the game in time for the next play "as unconcerned as though he had just made an easy buck at the center."
Michigan's lineup against DePauw was Paul Woodworth (left end), Frank Decke (left tackle), Virgil Tupper (left guard), Frank Harding (center), Charles Thomas (right guard), W. W. Griffin (right tackle), Charles Southworth (right end), Ed Sanderson (quarterback), Jewett (right halfback), McAllister (left halfback), and George Dygert (fullback).
Game 6: at Purdue
On Monday, October 24, 1892, Michigan lost to Purdue, 24–0, before a crowd of 2,500 spectators at Stuart Field in Lafayette, Indiana. The game was the second meeting between the two schools, Michigan having won the first game in 1890.