William Dennison Clark William Dennison " Denny " Clark ( October 21 , 1885 – May 30 , 1932 ) was an American football player . He played for the University of Michigan from 1903 to 1905 . He was blamed for Michigan ' s 1905 loss to the University of Chicago , which ended the Wolverines ' 56 - game unbeaten streak . He committed suicide at a hotel in Salem , Oregon , in 1932 . Early years and lineage . A native of Detroit , Michigan , Clark was the son of the Rev . Rufus Wheelwright Clark ( 1844 – 1909 ) , who served for many years as the rector at St . Paul ' s Episcopal Church in Detroit , and Lucy ( Dennison ) Clark ( 1854 – 1928 ) . His maternal grandfather was William Dennison , Jr . ( 1815 – 1882 ) , who served as the 24th Governor of Ohio and as U . S . Postmaster General in the Cabinet of President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War . University of Michigan . Clark played football for Fielding H . Yost ' s " Point - a - Minute " teams at the University of Michigan from 1903 to 1905 . Clark was a versatile player who played at the halfback , fullback , and end positions . He was the fourth - leading scorer on the 1904 Michigan team with 10 touchdowns . 1905 Chicago game . In the final game of the 1905 season , Clark was blamed for Michigan ' s 2 – 0 loss to the University of Chicago , ending a 56 - game unbeaten streak dating back to the first game of the 1901 season . Going into the final game of the season , the Wolverines were unbeaten , untied , and unscored upon . The two teams played to a scoreless tie for more than 50 minutes , when Clark was tackled for a safety as he attempted to return a punt from behind the goal line . The " Detroit Free Press " described the play as follows : " Eckersall , through failure of his team mates to advance it , was called upon to punt . Chicago at the time was on Michigan ' s 43 - yard line . Barlow and Clark were playing back to take the kick , but the ball , low and well driven , went between them . Clark went behind the line after the ball , with two Chicago players down on him . there was hardly a chance to get away , and he could have played it safe and avoided a score by merely touching the ball down behind the line . He shook off the two tacklers , however , and tried to run the ball back . He was a yard or so over the line on the field when Carlin reached him , and threw him back , forcing him over his own goal line . The result was a safety , two points , and the game , Chicago contenting itself from that time on with kicking out of danger when it could not advance , being satisfied to win by two points , if possible . " After the game , newspapers described Clark ' s play as " the wretched blunder " and a " lapse of brain work . " Clark was reported to have been so despondent after the game that he was reported to have said , " O , this is horrible . . . I shall kill myself because I am in disgrace . " However , Clark and his family denied the reports that he was suicidal . Two days after the game , the " Detroit Free Press " reported : " Denny Clark is alive and well . The plucky little football player , whose error of judgment lost Michigan her five years ' prestige on the western gridiron , has not committed suicide , nor has he attempted anything of the sort . He has not lost his reason , and he does not look as though he is in immediate need of medical attention . " Clark told the " Free Press " : " Everybody has been good to me , telling me it wasn ' t my fault , and so on . But it was my fault , and I haven ' t any excuses to make . It was a mistake for me to run out with the ball and I shouldn ' t have done it . I wish people would blame me . If they were only mad at me , because I lost the game , that would give me a chance to get mad too , and I could relieve my feelings . " On December 8 , 1905 , 3 , 500 supporters crowded into University Hall in Ann Arbor to support Michigan ' s football team . When Clark ' s name was mentioned , the crowd cheered for three minutes , " showing that Michigan stands by the Detroit lad , and forgives his mistake . " Finally , it should be noted that under modern American football rules a safety would not be scored under these circumstances since a ball carrier is always credited for any forward progression prior to contact with an opponent . Legacy as the man " who lost the Michigan - Chicago football game " . Clark became known for the rest of his life as " the man ' who lost the Michigan - Chicago football game in 1905 . " In 1925 , Michigan coach Yost wrote an article recounting a recent meeting with Clark , at which Clark constantly recalled his error against Chicago . Yost tried to set Clark at ease and wrote that " only Dennis still feels the pain of it . " In 1926 , Chicago coach Amos Alonzo Stagg published an article in the " Saturday Evening Post " claiming that Clark had immediately withdrawn from school after the loss because " conditions at the university became intolerable . " Clark reportedly resented Stagg ' s article as he believed it had impugned both him and the University of Michigan . Clark stated that he went to his home in Detroit after the game , but he returned to the university after the Thanksgiving holiday and remained there until the school year ended in 1906 . He then studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Later years . In November 1908 , Clark was appointed manager of Bell Telephone Company in Saginaw , Michigan He had previously been the company ' s manager at Hillsdale , Michigan . During World War I , Clark served as a captain in the United States Army Air Service . Clark married and had three children , Elizabeth , William Dennison , Jr . , and Barbara . Suicide in 1932 . In 1932 , Clark committed suicide , shooting himself in a hotel room in Salem , Oregon . He had reportedly been despondent for a period , and hotel attendants reported that Clark " had been drinking considerably before he ended his life . " He left an unsent airmail letter to his wife with instructions on his life insurance . Clark also wrote that his decision to end his life was " not cowardice , but the very hardest thing I ever did . " He added , " Also I have tried everything else desperately and without success . " His suicide note also reportedly expressed hope that his " final play " would atone for his error at Marshall Field in 1905 . Clark was age 46 at the time of his suicide . In the year prior to his death , Clark had been living in Los Angeles , California .