page_title: 1909 Michigan Wolverines football team
section_title: at Minnesota
hierarchical_section_title: 1909 Michigan Wolverines football team / Season summary / at Minnesota
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of football game between Michigan and Minnesota, November 20, 1909
context_page_description: The 1909 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1909 college football season. The team's head coach was Fielding H. Yost in his ninth year at Michigan. The Wolverines compiled a record of 6–1, outscored opponents 116 to 34, and held six of seven opponents to six points or less.
  The team began its season with four consecutive victories, including close calls against Case and Marquette and dominating performances against Ohio State and Syracuse. The team's sole setback came in the fifth game, losing to Notre Dame for the first time in nine games between them. Following the game, a Detroit newspaper described Notre Dame's predominantly Irish-American lineup as a group of "Fighting Irishmen", giving birth to the team's nickname.
  The Wolverines then finished the season with impressive road victories over two of the best teams in the country. In Philadelphia, they defeated the 1908 national champion Penn Quakers, 12–6, breaking the Quakers' 23-game winning streak. In Minneapolis, they defeated the previously unbeaten 1909 Western Conference champions from Minnesota, 15–6.
context_section_description: Michigan concluded its 1909 season with a game against Minnesota in Minneapolis.  It was the eighth meeting between the two football programs, but the first since a 6–6 tie in 1903 that ended Michigan's 29-game winning streak.  The day after the 1903 game, Minnesota's custodian Oscar Munson brought an earthenware jug to L. J. Cooke, head of the Minnesota athletics department, and declared in a thick Scandinavian accent: "Yost left his yug."  Accounts differ as to the history of the jug and how Munson came to be in possession of it.  Cooke and Munson painted the jug and wrote on it, "Michigan Jug – Captured by Oscar, October 31, 1903" along with the score "Michigan 6, Minnesota 6".  Cooke wrote to Yost: "We have your little brown jug; if you want it, you'll have to win it."  Michigan accepted the challenge, and the teams finally met three years later on November 20, 1909.  The teams continue to play each year for the Little Brown Jug, the oldest rivalry trophy in American college football.
  The 1909 Minnesota team came into the game as the Western Conference champions and with an undefeated record, having soundly defeated Iowa (41–0), Iowa State (18–0), Nebraska (14–0), Chicago (20–6), and Wisconsin (34–6).  The Golden Gophers were led by 1909's first-team All-American quarterback John McGovern, who was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. On the day before the game, the University of Minnesota's chapel was packed for a mass meeting to celebrate the team's Western Conference championship.  The students opened with Minnesota's traditional "Ski-U-Mah" cheer, and a large banner with the words "Western Champions" was raised above the players.  University of Minnesota President Cyrus Northrop spoke to the crowd and confidently predicted that the Gophers would realize their fondest dreams the next day by humbling a team coached by Fielding H. Yost.
  Michigan was placed at a further disadvantage because its starting quarterback William Wasmund was not permitted to play.  Wasmund was playing his fourth year of college football in 1909, and a Western Conference rule prohibited the use of players who had already played three years.  Even though Michigan was no longer a member of the conference, Minnesota remained in the conference, and Wasmund was therefore not permitted to play.  James Joy Miller replaced Wasmund at quarterback on offense, but returned to his end position when the team played on defense.
  Despite the loss of Wasmund and a rigorous travel schedule that had taken the Wolverines in the preceding days by train from Ann Arbor to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to Ann Arbor, and Ann Arbor to Minneapolis, the Wolverines won the game by a score of 15–6 and, with the win, the right to bring the Little Brown Jug to Ann Arbor.  The 1909 game began at 2:01 p.m. and was played in front of 25,000 spectators at Northrop Field.  Several inches of snow had to be removed from the field before the game began. As in the Penn game, Joe Magidsohn scored both of Michigan's touchdowns.  Dave Allerdice kicked two extra points and a field goal.  The teams each scored a touchdown in the first half and went into halftime with the score tied at 6 to 6.
  At halftime, Michigan's 24-piece band merged with Minnesota's 80-piece band and marched around the field "playing popular Minnesota and Michigan airs."  Walter Eckersall wrote that the halftime show "probably surpasses anything ever seen on a football field."  In addition to the marching band show, halftime saw a flurry of betting, with Minnesota fans "demanding even money" and several thousand dollars being wagered on the outcome.
  In the second half, Magidsohn put Michigan in the lead when he intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown.  Eckersall described the game-winning interception: "As the oval was sailing through the air, he judged his distance, leaped perfectly, and grabbed the ball on the dead run.  Without a Minnesota man around him, he sprinted thirty-five yards for Michigan's second touchdown."  Allerdice kicked the extra point.  Later in the second half, Pattengil
caption: Michigan vs. Minnesota, 1909
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