George W . Gregory George W . " Dad " Gregory ( April 19 , 1879 – September 6 , 1946 ) was an American football player , coach and lawyer . He was the starting center for the University of Michigan ' s " Point - a - Minute " football teams of 1901 , 1902 and 1903 . He was the only player to start all 22 games for the 1901 and 1902 teams that compiled a record of 22 - 0 and outscored opponents 1 , 194 to 12 . Michigan ' s football team was recognized as national champions for each of the three years in which Gregory was the starting center . After receiving his law degree from Michigan , Gregory moved to Seattle , Washington , where he was one of the founders of the Karr & Gregory law firm . He also served as the head football coach at Kenyon College during the 1905 football season . Early years . Gregory was born in California in May 1879 . His father , Nathan Gregory , was an Indiana native and an engineer . His mother , Marietta Gregory , was also an Indiana native . At the time of the 1880 United States Census , Gregory at age one was living in Lincoln , Placer County , California with his parents and three older sisters , Alameda , Cora and Louise . In 1900 , Gregory was living in Redding , California with his uncle , George Groves , who was a hotel - keeper . Gregory worked as a clerk in his uncle ' s hotel . In 1900 , Gregory enrolled at Stanford University as a law student . While at Stanford , he played football under head coach Fielding H . Yost in the fall of 1900 . In 1901 , Coach Yost accepted the position as head football coach at the University of Michigan . Pressure was placed on Gregory to remain at Stanford , but he opted to move east with Coach Yost . University of Michigan . In 1901 , Gregory enrolled in law school at the University of Michigan , receiving his law degree in 1904 . While attending law school , he played college football as the starting center for Yost " s " Point - a - Minute " football teams . During Gregory ' s three years as the starting center , the team compiled a record of 33 - 0 - 1 , outscored opponents 1 , 759 to 18 , and has been recognized as a national championship team all three years . Gregory started 32 games at center for Michigan as follows : During a 128 – 0 victory over Buffalo in 1901 , Gregory reportedly asked for an opportunity to run the ball for a touchdown . In his history of the Michigan football program , Jim Cnockaert described the incident as follows : " Dad Gregory , the team ' s center , complained at one point that everyone on the team had scored a touchdown in the game except him . Later , as the Wolverines closed in again on the goal line , [ Boss ] Weeks signaled for Gregory to line up in the backfield and promised to hand him the ball . Gregory plowed through the line and dove into the end zone , yelling , ' I ' m over ! I ' m over ! ' However , Weeks played a trick on the play , pulling the ball away at the last second so that Gregory was not awarded the touchdown . " A profile of Gregory in the 1903 University of Michigan yearbook noted : " While not an exceptionally heavy man , his build attracted early in the fall of 1901 . . . Yost tried him at center and he developed rapidly . His weight is low down , giving him stability for that position . . . . In nearly all the games of the past two seasons he has played against men who have outweighed him , but he has never failed to hold his own . He is aggressive from the start of the game to the call of time , but his aggressiveness never occasions any undue roughness . . . . He is hard and muscular and his build is well adapted to any kind of heavy athletic work . Perhaps the greatest thing about Gregory is his accuracy in passing the ball . He keeps his head well and never allows anxiety or excitement to cause a bad pass . Whether it is the short pass to the quarterback or the long one to the fullback he is absolutely sure . . . . Gregory and Ellsworth of Chicago divided honors for the All - Western eleven this year , but there is a disposition among Michigan students , however , to consider Gregory as the superior of any Western center . " Prior to the start of the 1903 season , press reports indicated that Gregory and halfback Willie Heston , both of whom had come to Michigan from California with Coach Yost in 1901 , might not return to the team . The " Detroit Free Press " reported in early September 1903 that there was " a business chance beckoning rather strongly to both " and that the players were rumored to be in Detroit to meet with Coach Yost . In 1903 , Gregory was identified as the distributor of " Hurry Up Yost Cigars " in advertising published in various University of Michigan publications . Gregory was also a member of the Delta Chi fraternity at Michigan . Football coach . In 1905 , Gregory served as the head football coach at Kenyon College in Ohio . One publication noted : " The College has secured as football coach ' Dad ' Gregory , of the University of Michigan . He is a pupil of Yost ' s and teaches the latter ' s system here . A squad consisting of much better material and more of it than for years past is what Gregory has to work with . His tactics , though strict , are very well liked by the team , and the best possible work from all the men is the result . " In his one season as the head coach at Kenyon , Gregory led the team to a 5 - 5 record . Highlights of the season included a 30 - 0 victory over Mt . Union and a 20 - 0 victory over Ohio Wesleyan . David Starr Jordan controversy . On December 25 , 1907 , Stanford president David Starr Jordan wrote a letter to Sydney Peixotto , president of the Pacific Athletic Association , criticizing Coach Yost , who left Stanford for Michigan in 1901 and returned to the West Coast to defeat Stanford 49 - 0 in the 1902 Rose Bowl . Jordan focused some of his attacks on Gregory , who had been a Stanford student and football player in 1900 . Jordan ' s letter was published in the " Los Angeles Times " under the headline , " Jordan ' s Information Peddled Second - Hand , " and in " The New York Times " under the headline , " Dr . Jordan Picks a New Victim . " In the letter , Jordan accused Gregory of having accepted money to play football at Michigan and of having flunked out of Stanford . Jordan stated : " I referred to [ Ralph ] Rose ' s career at Michigan with that of Gregory and [ Willie ] Heston as illustrating the irregularities which were among the evils of football . Gregory , for example , was a special student – that is , one who had not passed the entrance examinations at Stanford . He was not allowed to play in any of the intercollegiate games , and , failing in his work , was dropped at Christmas . He went to Washburn School to make good his entrance requirements . While there an offer of $ 1 , 500 a year to begin with came from Yost through a local agent . Gregory accepted and went to Michigan , played a dozen or more games a year , and was graduated with his class – a singular fact in connection with his failure at Stanford . In going to Michigan he took with him no credits and no honorable dismissal . " In a public response , Gregory angrily denied Jordan ' s allegations . Gregory stated : " I am tired of having David Starr Jordan . . . brand me as a tramp athlete . I shall have to give him the lie when he says that I was offered $ 1500 by an agent of Coach Yost to enter Michigan . I neither received an offer direct or indirect from Yost nor any agent . I went to Michigan because several lawyers in my native town were graduates of that university and I always liked the place . I do not regret my choice . If President Jordan will talk facts rather than trash , he will change his attitude on my standing in college , so far as Michigan is concerned . At Stanford I was only a special and I do not deny that my work was not of a high order . At Michigan I never flunked during my entire course , and what the conditions were against me when I entered I made up by working hard in summer school . . . . I owe it to Michigan and athletics in general to state definitely that I did not receive one cent in connection with athletics while I was in Michigan . " Gregory also noted that Jordan was wrong in stating that he had not been allowed to play in intercollegiate football games at Stanford , noting that he had played in a game against Nevada . With respect to the claim of having been pressured to enter Michigan , Gregory added : " More pressure was brought to bear on me to re - enter Stanford than was ever used to make me enter Michigan . " Law practice in Seattle . After graduating from Michigan , Gregory moved to Seattle where he began a law practice . In 1905 , he also served as the coach of a football team in Seattle . At the time of the 1910 , 1920 , and 1930 United States Census es , Gregory was living in Seattle with his wife , Kate . His occupation was listed as a lawyer in general practice . They had a son , George W . Gregory , Jr . , in approximately 1912 . In a draft registration card completed during World War I , Gregory identified himself as a lawyer in business for himself with an office at 911 American Bank Building in Seattle . He was one of the founders of the Seattle law firm of Karr & Gregory . In 1929 , Gregory ran for a seat in the Washington State Senate from the 37th District . Gregory died at Pierce County , Washington , in September 1946 .