Ferris Jennings Ferris Gordon Jennings ( November 10 , 1913 – December 22 , 1995 ) was an American football , baseball and basketball player . He played college football at the quarterback and safety positions for the University of Michigan in 1934 and 1936 . He was the starting quarterback for the 1934 Michigan Wolverines football team . Jennings also played for the Michigan Wolverines men ' s basketball and Michigan Wolverines baseball teams between 1935 and 1937 . Early years . Jennings was born in Michigan in 1913 . His father , Ray Floyd Jennings , was a public school teacher in Charlton Township , Michigan , and later in Ann Arbor , Michigan . He attended Ann Arbor High School where he was selected as an all - state quarterback in 1932 . He also received all - state honors in basketball . University of Michigan . In 1933 , Jennings enrolled at the University of Michigan . As a sophomore , he played for the 1934 Michigan Wolverines football team . After a 16 – 0 loss to Michigan State in the first game of the season , head coach Harry Kipke named Jennings as the team ' s starting quarterback . Jennings was the team ' s starting quarterback in the remaining seven games of the 1934 season . He also played at the safety position on defense . Jennings began the 1934 season weighing 137 pounds , but boosted his weight to 140 pounds by the time he took over as the starting quarterback . Press coverage regularly referred to him as " Little Ferris Jennings . " In its pre - season football review , one magazine wrote : " For contrast there ' s a little Ann Arbor boy , Ferris Jennings , who will be at least second choice for quarterback , weighing 137 pounds . This is not the ready - made team that Michigan boasted a year ago or two years ago . " Jimmy Donahue , a syndicated sportswriter for the Newspaper Enterprise Association , wrote : " Another miniature edition of a gridder brought Michigan out of the doldrums to victory over Georgia Tech recently . He is 140 - pound Ferris Jennings , who was so far down on the list at the beginning of the season that Coach Harry Kipke forgot all about him - — until Renner ' s injury and casualties to other signal callers forced him to call out the rear guard . The sophomore turned into a sensation . . . " Jennings gained national acclaim when he scored the first touchdown of the year for Michigan in a 9 – 2 win over Georgia Tech . Jennings returned a punt 66 yards for the game - winning touchdown . Jennings ' touchdown against Georgia Tech proved to be the first of only two touchdown scored by the Wolverines during a 1934 season in which the team finished with a record of 1 – 7 . Jennings also won a reputation during the 1934 season as " a fearless and deadly tackler " on defense . One of the highlights of his 1934 season came in a loss to the 1934 Minnesota Golden Gophers national championship team . Jennings tackled the Gophers ' 205 - pound fullback Stan Kostka in the open field , as he appeared to be headed for a touchdown . A newspaper account compared the force of Jennings ' hit to " a pack of dynamite , " and noted that " instead of the slight Michigan back being injured it was the big Kostka who was carried off the field , knocked out by the force of the tackle . " Jennings ' center on the 1934 team was Gerald Ford who later became the 38th President of the United States . In a 1994 interview , Ford described the impact on the 1934 team of losing starting quarterback William Renner to injury : " In ' 32 and ' 33 , we were undefeated , and then in ' 34 we had a tough , tough year . In those years , our offense was called a punt , a pass , and a prayer . We had an outstanding passer , Bill Renner , who broke an ankle before the season started . Our punter , John Regeczi , was the greatest college punter I ever saw and he ruined his knee . All we had left was the prayer . " As a junior in 1935 , Jennings suffered a head injury after being kicked in the head while making a tackle in a pre - season scrimmage . Jennings missed the 1935 football season as a result of the injury . As the 1936 season got underway , one newspaper wrote that Michigan ' s " Game Guy " had returned to the football team : " Ferris Jennings the ' game guy ' of Michigan football is back in uniform . . . Jennings 140 pounds of nerve and determination was the hero of Michigan ' s 1934 season . Given his chance as quarterback Jennings made the most of a bad situation . . . But it was as a defensive safety man that Jennings earned the appellation ' Game Guy . ' " Coaching and later years . Jennings graduated from Michigan in 1938 with a bachelor of science degree in education . In August 1938 , Jennings was hired as the football coach at Urbana High School in Urbana , Illinois . He also served as the basketball coach at Urbana . By the late 1940s , Jennings had begun a career working in the automotive industry in the Detroit area . On December 31 , 1964 , he married Ann J . Bitar . From the 1960s until the early 1980s , he was the general manager of Duggan Masking Devices , Inc . , in Detroit . He lived in West Bloomfield , Michigan in his later years . In 1995 , Jennings died at the age of 82 in West Bloomfield .