The 1921 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1921 Big Ten Conference football season. In his 21st year as head coach, Fielding H. Yost led Michigan to a 5–1–1 record, as the Wolverines outscored their opponents with a combined score of 187 to 21. Michigan recorded shutouts in five of its seven games, allowing only 14 points in a loss to Ohio State and 7 points in a tie with Wisconsin. Over the course of five home games at the newly expanded Ferry Field, the Wolverines attracted crowds totaling 143,500 with receipts totaling $170,000.
Injuries to multiple Michigan backfield starters, including quarterback Ted Bank, fullback Frank Steketee, and Eddie Usher and Harry Kipke, required repeated changes in the team's lineup, including the conversion of Franklin Cappon from a tackle to a halfback. Starting center Ernie Vick was selected as a first-team All-American by Walter Camp, and end Paul G. Goebel was selected as a first-team All-American by sports writer Lawrence Perry. Left guard Robert J. Dunne served as the team's captain and was selected as a first-team All-Big Ten Conference player. The team's leading scorers were halfback Harry Kipke and fullback Doug Roby, each of whom scored five touchdowns for 30 points.
Schedule
Preseason
Since 1906, the Michigan Wolverines football team had played its home games at Ferry Field. Prior to the start of the 1921 season, the seating capacity at Ferry Field was expanded to 42,000 with the construction of new stands at the west end of the field. The expansion resulted in Ferry Field becoming the country's third largest stadium.
As the season got underway, Fielding Yost, who had served as head coach since 1901, expressed uncertainty about his team's prospects. With both of the tackles from the 1920 team (Tad Wieman and Angus Goetz) having graduated and joined the coaching staff, Yost noted that the team would have to develop new talent. He had hoped that Wieman's brother, Don Wieman, and LeRoy Niesch, both sophomores, would become the team's starters at tackle, but both were injured in practice. Accordingly, Franklin Cappon and Stanley Muirhead were tasked with moving to the tackle positions. Yost noted that his team was light, with no player weighing more than 185 pounds, "but it will be a fast, fighting, aggressive eleven."
During practice in the fall of 1921, 300 students were outfitted with football uniforms, 50 first-string players, 20 "scrubs", and 200 freshmen.
Season summary
Week 1: Mount Union
On October 1, 1921, Michigan opened its season with a 44–0 victory over Mount Union from Alliance, Ohio. The game was played at Ferry Field with a crowd of 10,000 persons in attendance.
Frank Steketee returned the opening kickoff 60 yards to the Mount Union 15-yard line. Eddie Usher scored Michigan's first touchdown and Steketee kicked for the extra point. Michigan's second touchdown followed after Stanley Muirhead blocked a punt and Paul G. Goebel recovered the loose ball on the Mount Union one-yard line. Usher then carried the ball for the touchdown. Before the first quarter was over, head coach Yost replaced Dunne, Kirk and Usher with substitutes. Steketee scored Michigan's third touchdown from punt formation on a 38-yard run around the left end and then kicked the extra point. Doug Roby scored Michigan's fourth touchdown on a four-yard run, also in the second quarter, and Steketee again kicked for the extra point.
At halftime, Yost replaced six more starters with substitutes. Michigan's fifth touchdown followed a 60-yard punt return by Irwin Uteritz to the Mount Union 10-yard line, with Roby running for the touchdown and Uteritz missing the kick for point after touchdown. In the fourth quarter, Michigan scored on a free attempt at goal following a fair catch by Uteritz. Clark Dean converted the free attempt by kicking a field goal from placement from Mount Union's 41-yard line. Dean then scored again for Michigan's sixth and final touchdown on a 15-yard gain and successfully kicked the extra point. Another Michigan touchdown in the fourth quarter (a 25-yard run by Jack Searle) was disallowed due to a holding penalty. Mount Union was held to a single first down through its offensive efforts with another four first downs resulting from Michigan penalties. Michigan attempted five passes in the game, but completed none.
The game was played in four quarters of 15, 10, 15, and 10 minutes. Out of 38 players, 31 saw action against Mount Union. Michigan's starting lineup against Case was Bernard Kirk (left end), Franklin Cappon (left tackle), Robert J. Dunne (left guard), Ernie Vick (center), Hugh Wilson (right guard), Muirhead (right tackle), Goebel (right end), Ted Bank (quarterback), Usher (left halfback), Harry Kipke (right halfback), and Steketee (fullback). Substitutes included Roby, Donald Swan, Verne Richards, Stephen Garfield, Walter Kreinheder, Louis Curran, James Johns, Uteritz, Paper, John Fairbairn, Charles Petro, John Landowski, J. W. McAuliffe, C. J. Smith, John Searle, Clark Dean, Ray Knode, Bill Van Orden, and Martin.
Week 2: Case
In the second week of the 1921 season, Michigan defeated the Case team from Cleveland by a score of 65 to 0. The game was played at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor before a crowd of 8,000 persons.
Michigan scored nine touchdowns and tallied 26 first downs in the game. Case was able to advance the ball past midfield only once, late in the game. Harry Kipke scored two touchdowns and was rated as the star of the game by the Detroit Free Press, with the newspaper noting that it "frequently took four struggling opponents to stop him in his smashing, dodging advances."
In addition to Kipke's touchdowns, Michigan also scored on two touchdowns each by Doug Roby and single touchdowns by Frank Steketee, Eddie Usher, John Searle, Ted Bank and Ray Knode, and on extra points by Steketee (3), Paul G. Goebel (3), and Knode (2). Also in the first quarter, a Case snap from center went over the goal line resulting in a safety when Ernie Vick tackled a Case player, giving Michigan a 9–0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The game consisted of four 11-minute periods. Michigan's starting lineup against Mount Union was Bernard Kirk (left end), Franklin Cappon (left tackle), Robert J. Dunne (left guard), Vick (center), Hugh Wilson (right guard), Stanley Muirhead (right tackle), Goebel (right end), Bank (quarterback), Kipke (left halfback), Steketee (right halfback), and Usher (fullback). Substitutes included Irwin Uteritz, Bill Van Orden, Searle, Louis Curran, Donald Swan, Charles Petro, Roby, Ray Knode, Walter Kreinheder, C. J. Smith, Verne Richards, William Crawforth, Herbert Dunphy, John Henry, and J. W. McAuliffe.
Week 3: Michigan Agricultural
In the third week of the season, the Wolverines registered their third consecutive shutout with a 30–0 victory over Michigan Agricultural College. The game was played at Ferry Field before a crowd of 18,000 spectators.
Michigan's stars in the game were left halfback Harry Kipke and right end Paul G. Goebel. Kipke scored three touchdowns, including one on a punt return from midfield, and kicked nine punts for an average of better than 42 yards. Goebel recovered two fumbles, blocked a punt which he then picked up and returned for a touchdown, "made 20 or so tackles," and kicked three extra points. Ray Knode kicked a field goal. Michigan's passing games was called "nothing short of miserable" as five of the Wolverines' passes were intercepted and only one was completed. Michigan's defense held the Aggies to 57 yards of total offense and two first downs (one of which was achieved by an offside penalty against Michigan).
The game was played in 15-minute quarters at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines played the entire game without Frank Steketee, and quarterback Ted Bank and fullback Eddie Usher were both injured in the game.
Week 4: Ohio State
In the fourth game of the season, Michigan played without two of its backfield stars, Ted Bank and Eddie Usher, both of whom were injured in the M.A.C. game. The Wolverines lost to Ohio State by a 14 to 0 score at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor. The game was played to a crowd of either 40,500 or 42,000 spectators—the largest crowd in Michigan history to that date. Before the game began, Ohio Governor Harry L. Davis led the Ohio State band up and down the field in what the Detroit Free Press called as "pretty a picture as has ever been painted." The Ohio State bulldog also "pranced" on the field wearing a scarlet sweater.
In the first quarter, left halfback Harry Kipke had an open field run for a 35-yard gain, but he was injured on the playing, leaving the Wolverines without three of their four starting backfield players. Ohio State's first points came in the second quarter on a short punt by Frank Steketee that Ohio State's left halfback Johnny Stuart caught at Michigan's 30-yard line and, with the agility of a cat," returned for a touchdown. Stuart also had a 95-yard, wind-assisted punt in the game. Ohio State added a second touchdown in the fourth quarter on a run by the Ohio State fullback Taylor.
The game was played in 15-minute quarters. Michigan's starting lineup against Ohio State was Kirk (left end), Cappon (left tackle), Dunne (left guard), Vick (center), Johns (right guard), Muirhead (right tackle), Goebel (right end), Uteritz (quarterback), Kipke (left halfback), Roby (right halfback), and Steketee (fullback). Substitutes included Knode, Fairbairn, Van Orden, Curran, Searles, and Smith.
Week 5: at Illinois
Michigan traveled to Champaign, Illinois, for its first road game on October 29, 1921. A special train with 11 Pullmans left Ann Arbor on Friday evening with 600 students and the varsity band. Upon arriving in Champaign on Saturday morning, the Michigan contingent walked to the Inman Hotel where the Michigan team was quartered. Michigan students raided the hotel dining room and woke the guests with a variety of cheers and songs, including "Varsity" and "Samuel Hall".
The Wolverines defeated the Illini 3 to 0 on a field that was "soaked from torrents of rain that fell all of the night before," with players skidding around the field and vision "obscured by clotted mud." Michigan entered the game hobbled by injuries, with three of the team's backfield starters, Harry Kipke, Eddie Usher, and Ted Bank, all being unable to play.
The lone scoring drive of the game came in the second period and was led by the rushing efforts of left halfback Franklin Cappon and fullback Doug Roby, which advanced the ball to the Illinois six-yard line. From there, right halfback Frank Steketee kicked a field goal from placement to give the Wolverines a 3 to 0 lead. Late in the game, Michigan maintained another long drive, and time was called with the ball at the Illinois 15-yard line. The Detroit Free Press praised the efforts of Cappon, who was moved from tackle to halfback for the game after injuries to multiple backfield players.
After the game, the Michigan varsity band put their caps on backwards and led the Michigan students in a snake-dance through the streets of Champaign. On arriving at the Inman Hotel, varsity cheerleader Al Cuthbert climbed atop the hotel's glass awning to lead the Michigan contingent in cheers, breaking the awning in the process.
Michigan's starting lineup against Illinois was Bernard Kirk (left end), James Johns (left tackle), Dunne (left guard), Ernie Vick (center), Hugh Wilson (right guard), Stanley Muirhead (right tackle), Paul G. Goebel (right end), Irwin Uteritz (quarterback), Cappon (left halfback), Frank Steketee (right halfback), and Roby (fullback). Michigan played the entire game with only one substitution, Donald Swan entering the game at right guard in the fourth quarter.
Week 6: at Wisconsin