1896 Michigan Wolverines football team The 1896 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1896 college football season . They played their home games at Regents Field in Ann Arbor , Michigan and competed in the newly - established Western Conference , later to be known as the Big Ten Conference . The team , with William Ward as head coach , started the season with nine consecutive wins in which the Wolverines outscored their opponents by a combined score of 256 to 4 . In the final game of the season , played on Thanksgiving Day at the Chicago Coliseum , the team lost a close game to Amos Alonzo Stagg ' s University of Chicago team by a score of 7 – 6 . The 1896 Michigan – Chicago game was the first college football game played indoors , and the last portion of the game was also played under electric lights . Henry M . Senter was the team captain . Preseason developments . Before the 1896 football season took the field , two developments occurred . First , Michigan joined the Western Inter - collegiate Athletic Conference ( later renamed the Big Ten Conference ) . The 1896 season was the first for Michigan in conference play . Michigan ' s three conference games in 1896 were against Purdue , Minnesota and Chicago . Second , William McCauley , who had led Michigan to a 17 – 2 – 1 record in two seasons as coach , resigned as Michigan ' s football coach . Princeton graduate , William Ward , was hired to replace McCauley . Before leaving Ann Arbor in November 1896 , McCauley assisted Ward in coaching the 1896 team . Michigan conducted tryouts for the 1896 football team at Sand Beach . The " Michiganensian " for 1897 reported on the group appearing for try - outs as follows : " Never before had the Athletic field been so teeming with aspirants for foot - ball honors . " Season summary . Michigan 18 , Michigan State Normal 0 . Michigan opened its 1896 season with a home game against Michigan State Normal , later known as Eastern Michigan University . The Wolverines won , 18 – 0 , scoring two touchdowns in the first half and a goal and a safety in the second half . " The World " of New York reported on the game as follows : " The University of Michigan opened its football season here this afternoon by a loosely played game with the Michigan State Normal eleven . Only four members of last year ' s ' Varsity eleven were in the game , although four of them were on the ground ready to play . " Michigan 44 , Grand Rapids High School 0 . Michigan played its second game of the season at home against the team from Grand Rapids High School . The game was played in halves of 20 and 10 minutes , and Michigan won easily by a score of 44 to 0 . A newspaper account of the game described Michigan ' s performance as follows : " Michigan is now rapidly rounding into form and the team played a much stronger game today than a week ago . Several of the new men did some creditable work , and the interference at all times was excellent . Hazen Pingree , at half , made several brilliant runs , and Hannan , at full , punted very well . Bennett , Wombacher , Palmer and Farnham also showed up well in the line . Grand Rapids was never able to gain and the ' varsity scored as she pleased . " Michigan ' s lineup in the game was Palmer ( left end ) , Giovanni " Count " Villa ( left tackle ) , Fred Baker ( left guard ) , John David Wombacher ( center ) , John W . F . Bennett ( right guard ) , Frederick Henninger ( right tackle ) , Thaddeus Farnham ( right end ) , Richards ( quarterback ) , Hazen Pingree ( right halfback ) , Thomas Jesse Drumheller and Steel ( left halfback ) , and William Caley and Hannan ( fullback ) . Michigan 28 , College of Physicians and Surgeons 0 . Michigan ' s third game of the season was a mid - week match against the team from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Chicago . The game was played in 15 minute halves at Ann Arbor ' s Regents Field . Halfback Gustave Ferbert scored a touchdown " on a brilliant twenty - yard run " in the first half , and Villa and Pingree scored two touchdowns each for Michigan . Steel and Hogg each added two goals after touchdown for Michigan . A newspaper account of the game described Michigan ' s performance as follows : " The game put up by Michigan was the best of the season . This was the first game in which the ' varsity work has been tried against a heavy team , but , as a rule , the interference was fast and sure and their team work good . Farnham , Pingree , Ferbert , and Villa carried off the honors for Michigan . " Michigan ' s line up against the Physicians and Surgeons was Palmer and Ayers ( left end ) , Giovanni Villa ( left tackle ) , Bert Carr ( left guard ) , John David Wombacher ( center ) , John W . F . Bennett ( right guard ) , Frederick Henninger ( right tackle ) , Thaddeus Farnham ( right end ) , J . DeForest Richards ( quarterback ) , Gustave Ferbert and Gordon ( left halfback ) , Hazen Pingree ( right halfback ) , Steel and James R . Hogg ( fullback ) . Michigan 66 , Rush Lake Forest 0 . Michigan ' s fourth game was played against Rush Lake Forest two days after the game against the Physicians and Surgeons team . Michigan compiled its highest point total of the season , winning the game 66 – 0 . Through the first four games of the season , Michigan had outscored its opponents by a combined tally of 156 to 0 . Michigan 16 , Purdue 0 . The team traveled to Lafayette , Indiana to open its conference schedule against the Purdue Boilermakers and came away with a fifth straight shutout and a score of 16 – 0 . The game was played in front of a crowd of 2 , 000 at Purdue ' s Stuart Field . One newspaper described the game as " the most desperate game that has ever been played on Stuart Field " and concluded that " Michigan won by superior weight . " The same account noted that " the prettiest play of the game " was a 40 – yard run by Ferbert and has tackle by Marshall . Michigan ' s scoring came on two touchdowns by Caley and one by Hogg . Michigan ' s lineup was Loomis Hutchinson ( left end ) , Giovanni Villa ( left tackle ) , Carey ( left guard ) , Wombacher ( center ) , Bennett ( right guard ) , Henninger ( right tackle ) , Farnham ( right end ) , Greenleaf ( quarterback ) , Ferbert ( left halfback ) , Caley ( right halfback ) , and Hogg ( fullback ) . Michigan 44 , Lehigh 0 . Michigan ' s sixth opponent was the Lehigh Mountain Hawks . The game was played at the Detroit Athletic Club field in Detroit and ended in a sixth straight shutout by a one - sided score of 44 – 0 . Michigan ' s scoring came on seven touchdowns and five goals after touchown ( all five kicked by halfback Ferbert ) . During the 60 minutes of play , the ball was in Lehigh ' s possession " not more than ten minutes , " and most of that was in the first half . One newspaper account stated that " the Eastern boys were outclassed from start to finish . " The same report gave the following account of the game : " The team play of the University of Michigan was excellent and the interference as good as has ever been seen in this city . The star of the game was probably Ferbert , though the plays of Villa , Farnham , Henninger , and Caley were at times brilliant . . . . The University of Michigan is celebrating the victory here tonight , and pointing proudly to the fact that the best Pennsylvania [ 1896 national champions ] could do against Lehigh was 32 to 0 . " Michigan ' s lineup in the Lehigh game was Thad Farnham ( left end ) , Giovanni " Count " Villa ( left tackle ) , Carr ( left guard ) , Wombacher ( center ) , Baker ( right guard ) , Henninger ( right tackle ) , Hutchinson ( right end ) , Howard Felver ( quarterback ) , Caley ( left halfback ) , Gustave Ferbert ( right halfback ) , and Hogg ( fullback ) . The 1897 " Michiganensian " noted that the game was Lehigh ' s worst defeat of the 1896 season and suggested that the game was important in measuring Michigan ' s standing : " This was the only contest with an eastern team and furnished some basis for comparison . . . . Comparison with the eastern leaders was necessarily indirect , but it can conservatively be said that at this time Michigan was playing in much the same form as the great eastern quartette . " Michigan 6 , Minnesota 4 . The first close game of the season game in early November in a conference game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers in Minneapolis . In a game played in 35 minute halves at Athletic Field in Minneapolis , the Wolverines came away with the win by a score of 6 – 4 . Michigan came within ten yards of a touchdown five minutes into the game but did not score . The first half ended in a scoreless tie . When Michigan scored its touchdown in the second half , Michigan fans in the bleachers signaled the event with cowbells . Michigan ' s touchdown was scored by fullback duffy and the goal after touchdown was kicked by Ferbert . Minnesota responded with a touchdown ( worth 4 points under 1896 rules ) , but the score came at the far corner of the field where a straight kick for the goal after touchdown ( worth 2 points ) was impossible . Accordingly , Minnesota attempted a double kick , kicking the ball first to the fullback Loomis . Loomis caught the ball so close to the goal posts that his kick for goal " was easily stopped by Michigan players . " The blocked kick was the difference in a close game . Michigan ' s lineup was Hutchins ( right end ) , Henninger ( right tackle ) , Bennett ( right guard ) , Wombacher ( center ) , Carr ( left guard ) , Villa ( left tackle ) , Farnham ( left end ) , Felver ( quarterback ) , Caley ( right halfback ) , Ferbert ( left halfback ) , and Hogg and Duff at fullback . Michigan 10 , Oberlin 0 . After the road game against Minnesota , the Wolverines defeated Oberlin College by a score of 10 – 0 in front of a crowd of 1 , 000 spectators in Ann Arbor . An account of the game published in " The World " of New York reported : " Michigan put a substitute team against Oberlin to - day and won by making two touchdowns in the first half . Oberlin forced the fighting towards the end of the game . " Michigan 28 , Wittenberg 0 . In the final home game of the 1896 season , Michigan defeated Wittenberg College by a score of 28 – 0 . The game was described by the press as " a fine exhibition of football , " and the Wittenberg team was credited with playing " a sportsmanlike and fast game . " The game was played on " extremely muddy grounds " at Regents Field , but the conditions did not stop Michigan ' s interference . Three minutes into the game , Michigan ' s right end scored the first touchdown " on a pretty quarterback kick from the thirty yard line . " Michigan reportedly " found no trouble in gaining as she pleased , " scoring 18 points in the first half and 10 more in the second . Halfbacks Coley and Pingree each scored two touchdowns for Michigan . The game was played in halves of 20 and 15 minutes . Michigan ' s lineup in the game was Farnham ( left end ) , Villa ( left tackle ) , Carr ( left guard ) , Wombacher ( center ) , Bennett ( right guard ) , Henninger ( right tackle ) , Greenleaf ( right end ) , Drumheller ( quarterback ) , Pingree and Gordon ( left halfback ) , Coley ( right halfback ) , and Hogg ( fullback ) . Through the first nine games , Michigan was undefeated and had outscored its opponents by a combined score of 256 to 4 . Chicago 7 , Michigan 6 . The final game of the season , to decide the Western Conference championship , matched Michigan against Amos Alonzo Stagg ' s Chicago Maroons on Thanksgiving Day . Michigan lost the game , which was described as " one of the most desperately contested games ever played in Chicago , " by a score of 7 – 6 . The game featured " few trick plays , " as both teams relied on " straight , hard football . " Hazen Pingree , Jr . ( whose father , Hazen S . Pingree , had been elected Governor of Michigan three weeks earlier ) was the star of the game for Michigan , as one newspaper reported that Pingree ' s effort " in the first half was the ' whole thing , ' the plucky little fellow seldom failing to make the required distance . " Pingree was unable to play in the second half , and Gustave Ferbert , who later became a millionaire in the Klondike Gold Rush , took over in the second half and " was equally effective . " Chicago ' s scoring came on a blocked punt resulting in a safety and a drop kick ( worth five points under the rules at the time ) by Clarence Herschberger from the 45 – yard line . Michigan ' s sole touchdown came in the second half when Henninger was pushed into the endzone from the two - yard line , and Ferbert " kicked and easy goal . " Michigan drove the ball to Chicago ' s 20 – yard line late in the game , but Chicago recovered a fumble and " Michigan ' s chances of victory were dashed . " The Michiganensian described the defeat as follows : " There had been every reason to expect a victory from Chicago . Michigan had played strong and consistent foot ball throughout her schedule – Chicago had been erratic and unsteady . But there is certainly no sport more full of surprises than foot - ball , and the Thanksgiving Day contest of ' 96 furnished as sensational a surprise in as exciting a contest as had ever come off on a western gridiron . There was one great difference in the character of the play of the two teams . Michigan was playing her stock game of football , hard and steady , the game she could have been depended on to play at any time . Chicago seemed to have been trained and nerved to this one game . There could have been little doubt what the result of a series of contests would have been . But this one game , Chicago won by good generalship , by the most advantageous use of her greatest resource – a magnificent player in a telling place . Indoor football . The most unusual feature of the Michigan - Chicago game on Thanksgiving Day was that it was played indoors at the Chicago Coliseum and was " the first collegiate game of football played under a roof . " Adding to the novelty , as daylight turned to darkness , the field inside the Coliseum was lit with electric lighting . According to a newspaper account , the field grew dark in the second half , and play was halted for ten minutes to discuss whether play should continue . Play was resumed , and the lights were finally turned on after Michigan scored a touchdown . The crowd was stated in varying press accounts to be either 15 , 000 , or 20 , 000 . Noting that the game was played in the same building " in which five months ago W . J . Bryan was nominated for the presidency , " the press proclaimed the experiment in indoor football to be a success : " One thing at least was settled by the game , and that is , that indoor football is literally and figuratively speaking a howling success . The men had no trouble in catching punts , and football was played on its merits , without the handicaps of a wet field or a strong wind . Toward the end of the second half it got very dark , and the spectators were treated to a novelty in the shape of football by electric light . " Another newspaper described the novelty of indoor football as follows : " Indoor football is an innovation , but it promises to become a permanency for late games . While the other fields about Chicago were sloppy and the players were floundering about in the seas of mud , the athletes in the Coliseum played on dry surface and secure from the elements . A two - inch layer of tan bark was placed over the hard earth , and there was no inconvenience from dust . None of the punts touched the beams overhead and spectators and players were captivated with the comfortable conditions under which the game was played . Darkness came on at 4 : 00 and the players were scarcely distinguishable for a time , but electric lights soon rendered each play distinct . "