Howard Yerges Howard Frederick Yerges , Jr . ( April 5 , 1925 - December 1 , 2000 ) was an American football player who played quarterback for the Ohio State Buckeyes football team in 1943 and the University of Michigan Wolverines football teams from 1944 to 1947 . He was the starting quarterback of the 1947 Michigan Wolverines football team that went undefeated , beat USC 49 - 0 in the Rose Bowl and is considered by some to be the greatest Michigan football team of all time . As of 2009 , Yerges was one of three players ( along with Justin Boren and J . T . White ) to play on both sides of the Michigan – Ohio State football rivalry . Playing career . Yerges was a native of Point Pleasant , West Virginia . He played quarterback for Grandview High School in the Grandview Heights section of Columbus , Ohio . His father , Howard Frederick Yerges , Sr . , played for the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 1910s and later played professional football for the Columbus Panhandles in 1920 . Yerges began his collegiate football career at Ohio State University , where he received a varsity letter in football in 1943 . As a U . S . Navy trainee , Yerges was transferred to the University of Michigan prior to the 1944 academic year . The 20 - year old sophomore , who had played for the Buckeyes in 1943 , joined Fritz Crisler ' s Michigan Wolverines football team in 1944 as a backup quarterback behind Joseph Ponsetto . Yerges earned a varsity letter in football from Michigan in 1944 . Yerges again began the 1945 season as a backup for Joe Ponsetto . He scored a touchdown for Michigan in September 1945 against Great Lakes Naval Training Station Bluejackets , 27 - 2 . Yerges took over as Michigan ' s quarterback in November 1945 , replacing Ponsetto , after his leg was injured in a game against Illinois . In his first game as Michigan ' s starting quarterback , Yerges led the Wolverines to a 26 - 0 win over Minnesota on November 3 , 1945 . He scored Michigan ' s first touchdown of the game on a quarterback sneak in the first quarter . He also led the Wolverines to a 7 - 3 win over Ohio State in 1945 . Yerges was Michigan ' s starting quarterback in five games of the 1946 season , sharing the quarterback position with Jack Wiesenburger and Pete Elliott . In March 1947 , the Western Conference faculty representatives approved Yerges for a fifth season of competition , excusing his playing time for the Ohio State Buckeyes in 1943 . The ruling proved fortunate for Michigan , as Yerges started nine of ten games for the 1947 Michigan Wolverines football team that went 10 - 0 , outscored opponents 394 to 53 , and won a national championship . Yerges was part of a backfield in 1947 that included Bob Chappuis , Bump Elliott and Jack Wiesenberger . The undefeated 1947 team became known as the " Mad Magicians " due to Coach Fritz Crisler ' s complex shifts , stunts , and schemes . As the field general of the " Mad Magicians " team , Yerges became known as " Crisler ' s ' second brain . ' " At the close of the regular season in late November 1947 , Yerges was selected as the first - team All - Big Ten quarterback by five selectors , including the Associated Press and United Press , and as a second - team All - Big Ten player by one selector . The AP called Yerges the " unheralded field general and ball - handler of Michigan ' s magical attack . " After the close of the 1947 season , Crisler said , " Pete Elliott was just as good a quarterback as Howard Yerges was the past season , but we used Yerges because the players had so much confidence in him . . . " Yerges played his final game in a Michigan uniform in the 1948 Rose Bowl , a 49 to 0 win over the University of Southern California . Yerges both threw and caught touchdown passes in the 1948 Rose Bowl ; he received an 18 - yard pass from Bob Chappuis and threw a 29 - yard touchdown pass to Dick Rifenberg . Post college life . After graduating from Michigan , Yerges took a job in the fall of 1948 with the mechanical engineering department of a Flint , Michigan , automotive company . When the 1947 Wolverines staged a 10 - year reunion of their Rose Bowl championship in 1958 , Yerges was the subject of a " whatever became of " feature story by the United Press International . The UPI wrote at the time : " Like all single wing signalcallers , Yerges was the unsung hero of that Wolverine powerhouse that swept to the 1947 Big Ten title and a subsequent 49 - 0 victory over Southern California in the Rose Bowl . But he blocked , faked and quarterbacked to perfection . " As of 1958 , Yerges was working as a successful sales executive in St . Louis .