Alvin Wistert Alvin Lawrence " Moose " Wistert ( June 26 , 1916 – October 3 , 2005 ) was an American football player . A native of Chicago , Illinois , he played college football at the tackle position for Boston University in 1946 and at the University of Michigan from 1947 to 1949 . He began his collegiate football career at age 30 following 12 years of working in a factory and serving in the United States Marine Corps during World War II . He played at the defensive tackle position for the undefeated 1947 and 1948 Michigan Wolverines football team s , both of which finished the season ranked No . 1 in the final Associated Press poll . He also holds the distinction of being the oldest college football player ever selected as a College Football All - American , having been selected to the 1948 College Football All - America Team at age 32 and the 1949 Team at age 33 . He was the last of the three Wistert brothers ( along with older brother Francis " Whitey " Wistert and younger brother Albert " Ox " Wistert ) to play for the Michigan Wolverines football team . All three Wistert brothers played at the tackle position , were selected as consensus All - Americans , and were later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame . Alvin was the last of the three brothers to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame , receiving the honor in 1973 . The Wistert brothers all wore jersey No . 11 at Michigan and are among the seven players who have had their numbers retired by the Michigan Wolverines football program . Their number will be put back into circulation starting on November 10 , 2012 before a Michigan home game against Northwestern as part of the Michigan Football Legend program . Early years . Wistert was born in 1916 in Chicago , Illinois . His parents , Kazimir J . Wistert and Josephine ( Shukis ) Wistert , immigrated to the United States from Lithuania in 1894 and were married at Chicago in 1907 . His father was a policeman in Chicago from at least 1910 to 1927 . At the time of the 1920 United States Census , Wistert ' s family lived at 5647 Waveland Avenue in Chicago ' s 27th Ward and consisted of parents , Kazimir and Josephine , and five children : Josephine ( age 11 ) , Isabelle ( age 10 ) , Francis ( age 7 ) , Evelyn ( age 6 ) , and Alvin ( age 3 - 1 / 2 ) . Wistert ' s father was shot while on duty and pursuing a robbery suspect in July 1926 . By the spring of 1927 , Wistert ' s father , who had served in the U . S . Army from 1898 to 1901 , was disabled due to " chest emphysema with draining sinus " and was admitted to the U . S . National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Milwaukee , Wisconsin . He died in June 1927 when Alvin was 10 years old . Wistert ' s mother , Josephine , used money from her husband ' s war pension and the Policemen ' s Benefit Association to keep the family together and to educate her six children . At the time of the 1930 United States Census , Wistert ' s family continued to live at 5647 Waveland Avenue in Chicago . The household at that time consisted of Wistert ' s mother , Josephine , and five children : Josephine ( age 22 , employed as a bookkeeper ) , Francis ( age 18 , employed as a tube maker for a radio company ) , Evelyn ( age 16 , employed as a " saleslady " at a variety store ) , Alvin ( age 13 ) , and Albert ( age 8 ) . Wistert attended Carl Schurz High School in Chicago , but dropped out . He did not play football in high school . After leaving high school , Wistert worked in a factory for several years . With the income from his factory job , he helped pay for his younger brother , Albert , to attend the University of Michigan . His mother later recalled , " He told me he ' d stay out of school for a few years and work so Albert , the baby boy of the family , could go on to school . " In 1940 , he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps , spending four years overseas during World War II . Wistert later recalled that he was often confused with his brother Al Wistert who played both college and professional football . In 1982 , he told an interviewer that an officer approached him in 1944 , " shook my hand and said ' I saw you play in Philly and at Michigan . ' " When Wistert explained that it was his younger brother Albert who had played football , the officer " wiped off his handshake , turned on his heels and walked away . " According to Wistert , " that so affronted me that I wrote my kid brother and said I ' m going to try to get back to school . " College athletics . After his discharge from the Marine Corps , Wistert worked for Procter & Gamble Soap Company in Massachusetts . He learned that Boston University was offering high school equivalency tests that would allow him to enroll there . Using the post - war G . I . Bill , Wistert spent one semester at Boston University and played for the school ' s football team as a 30 - year - old freshman . After one semester at Boston University , Wistert transferred to the University of Michigan . He was the last of the Wistert brothers to play for the Michigan Wolverines football team where he , like his brothers Francis and Albert before him , wore number 11 , which was retired by the University of Michigan but will be re - issued starting November 10 , 2012 before a home game against Northwestern as part of the new Michigan Football Legend program . In the spring of 1947 , Wistert won the Meyer Morton Award as the most improved player during Michigan ' s spring football practice . Wistert played defensive left tackle for the undefeated 1947 Michigan Wolverines football team that became known as " The Mad Magicians " , and is considered to be the greatest Michigan football team of all time . Wistert later recalled the tight competition to play for the 1947 team : " There were players of almost equal ability on the first two teams . You had to play at your peak because there was someone who could always step in . Also , there was a good balance . A good mixture of youth and maturity . " At 230 pounds , Wistert was the largest player on the 1947 Michigan team . In addition to being the largest player , he was also the oldest . Wistert recalled , " When I played football for Michigan in 1947 , opponents would say , ' Here comes Pappy and his kids again . ' I was a 30 - year - old college freshman . I was 13 years older than some of the other players . " As a junior , Wistert was selected as a consensus All - American while playing for the undefeated 1948 Michigan team that finished the season ranked # 1 in the Associated Press poll . In October 1948 , Michigan helped secure Michigan ' s 19th consecutive victory with a blocked punt at the 12 - yard - line of the Minnesota Golden Gophers . Michigan recovered the ball at the one - yard line and scored a touchdown on the next play . The 1948 team also set a Rose Bowl record defeating U . S . C . 49 - 0 . After the 1948 season , Wistert was unanimously chosen as the team captain of the 1949 team . He was selected as a consensus All - American for the second straight year in 1949 . When Wistert played his final game for Michigan in November 1949 , the " Detroit Free Press " offered to fly his mother , Josephine , to the game to watch her son play . She had never seen one of her sons ' football games in person but listened to the games on the radio . She declined the invitation , noting that she had been ill would listen to the game on the radio while looking at her sons ' pictures . Interviewed by Lyall Smith , she expressed her particular pride for Alvin ' s accomplishments : " I am the proudest mother in the world . But I am proudest of all about Alvin . It hasn ' t been easy for him to go to school , you know . He had the hard way and that ' s why I am so happy his teammates made him captain this year and that he was picked by you sportswriters as an All - America . . . " " The Sporting News " published a photograph in December 1949 of Wistert ' s mother " Cheering Alvin ' s Final Game " while listening on the radio with a Michigan pennant and photographs of her three sons visible in the background . Wistert was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1973 as the third Wistert brother so honored . In 1981 , he was also inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in the fourth class of inductees alongside his brothers . Only five Michigan football players earned this honor before him . Later life and family . After graduating from Michigan , Wistert worked in the insurance business . In 1950 , he was employed as a general agent for Federal Life & Casualty in Ann Arbor . He later worked as a manufacturer ' s representative . In November 1982 , the 66 - year - old Wistert was working as a sales representative for Owens - Illinois . He lived in Northville , Michigan in his later years and died in October 2005 at age 89 . Wistert had two daughters and four grandchildren . His only grandson , Jason Alvin Neeser , played basketball at Dartmouth College .