Ted Petoskey Frederick Lee " Ted " Petoskey ( January 5 , 1911 – November 30 , 1996 ) was a three - sport athlete at the University of Michigan , a Major League Baseball player , a collegiate coach in three sports and an athletic director . At the University of Michigan , Petoskey received eight varsity letter s in three sports . In American football , he was a two - time All - American end for the undefeated Michigan Wolverines football teams that won back - to - back college football National Championships in 1932 and 1933 . He was also a guard and captain of Michigan ' s basketball team in the 1933 – 34 season . As a baseball player in 1934 , Petoskey led the Big Ten Conference with a . 452 batting average . Petoskey played parts of the and Major League Baseball seasons as an outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds and played minor league baseball until 1944 . Petoskey also served in a variety of collegiate coaching positions , including head coach of the University of South Carolina ' s basketball team ( 1935 – 1940 ) , athletic director and football coach at Wofford College , and head baseball coach at the University of South Carolina ( 1940 – 42 , 1948 – 56 ) . High school athlete . Petoskey was raised in St . Charles , Michigan and attended nearby Saginaw Eastern High School . On October 22 , 1926 , Petoskey became the first receiver in Michigan High School Athletic Association history to garner five receiving touchdown s in a high school football game . As of August 2002 , the record had not been surpassed . While playing for Saginaw , Petoskey was an all - state end two years and an all - state fullback another . He once played in a game with University of Michigan head coach Fielding H . Yost in the stands . Petoskey ran back the opening kickoff for 87 yards and a touchdown and after hearing that Yost was in the stands ran back another kickoff in the second half for 92 yards and a touchdown . University of Michigan athlete . Petoskey was a three - sport player for the Michigan Wolverines . While enrolled at Michigan , he earned eight varsity letter s - - three in football , three in baseball and two in basketball . 1931 and 1932 football seasons . In Petoskey ' s three years as a varsity football player , the Wolverines had a combined record of 23 – 1 – 2 and won two national championships . As a sophomore in 1931 , Petoskey was touted as " a second Bennie Oosterbaan , " and earned a spot on the United Press All - Big Ten Conference second team . In his junior year , Petoskey was one of the favorite pass receivers for quarterback Harry Newman , who won the Douglas Fairbanks trophy as the Most Valuable Player in college football . Coach Harry Kipke shifted Petoskey to fullback mid - way through the 1932 season , and he scored two touchdowns in a 32 – 0 win over Illinois . The United Press noted : " A running attack which featured Ted Petoskey , converted from an end to a fullback in the last week by Coach Harry Kipke dovetailed nicely with the Wolverine aerial play to produce the touchdowns . With Petoskey plunging the line and sweeping inside the ends for many sizeable gains , the Michigan eleven showed power through the line for the first time this season . " An Associated Press writer warned opponents to watch out for Petoskey : " It is about time for grid foeman to wake up when Ted Petoskey , end and fullback on the University of Michigan football team , gets to dreaming . Petoskey ' s dreams have a habit of coming true , and happily for Petoskey , most of his dreams are good ones . " Petoskey was selected as a first - team All - American in 1932 by the All - American Football Board , a second - team All - American by the New York Sun , and a third - team All - American by the United Press . After the 1932 team compiled a perfect 8 – 0 record ( outscoring opponents 123 – 13 ) and won the national championship , the press credited the squad ' s " esprit de corps " as a key to their success . As an example of Wolverine teamwork , a United Press story pointed to a fumble in the Minnesota game . " Michigan recovered , with both Ted Petoskey , end , and Charles Bernard , center , at the bottom of the heap . Bernard credited Petoskey . Petoskey said Bernard recovered . " 1933 football season . During his senior year , Petoskey started all eight games at left end for the 1933 Michigan Wolverines football team , as Michigan won its second consecutive national championship , and Petoskey was again named an All - American . Although Petoskey was principally an end , Coach Kipke played Petoskey at fullback in some games in 1933 . An October 1933 newspaper story reported on his versatility : " Ted Petoskey , Michigan ' s brilliant right end was moved into the backfield for last night ' s practice . . . This is the second time Petoskey has figured in such a shift . Last fall he was converted into a fullback before the Illinois game and proved a capable ground gainer . Monday he was given a trial as a forward pass er , and made an impressive showing . " In his final game for the Michigan football team , Petoskey also kicked a 35 - yard field goal against Northwestern , representing the final points scored for Michigan in its 1933 championship season . After the 1933 season , Petoskey was chosen as a first - team All - American in the Central Press Association poll of team captains , and for the second - team by Grantland Rice . Petoskey also finished third in the voting for the Associated Press 1933 Big Ten Athlete of the Year award . In choosing Petoskey for his All - American team , football writer Lawrence Perry said : " Ted Petoskey of Michigan is one of the finest ends who ever played the game . A former halfback , he is superb as an end - around runner . He receives forward passes with great accuracy and when he catches the ball he is difficult to bring down . " Coach Kipke credited the play of halfback , Herman Everhardus , and his ends for the undefeated season : " Our ends , Ward and Petoskey , were near perfection . " The 1934 University of Michigan yearbook , called the " Michiganensian " , described Petoskey ' s contributions as follows : " After three years of Varsity football , Petoskey is recognized as one of Michigan ' s greatest all - time ends . At the end of his junior year , he was chosen All American , and recognized as one of the greatest defense players in the country . He was alert , followed every play , and opponents found it almost impossible to gain around his end . " In 1955 , Kipke rated Petoskey as one of the six best players he ever coached : " If I had to name the best player I ever coached , it would have to be among Harry Newman , Francis Wistert , Otto Pommerening , Ted Petoskey and Maynard Morrison . " When the Associated Press picked Petoskey as only a second - team All - American in 1933 , ten - year - old Mary Lee Grossman from Saginaw , Michigan protested in a letter to AP sports editor , Alan Gould , that he had " chosen wrong " in leaving Petoskey and Whitey Wistert off the first - team . To avoid any appearance of bias , the Saginaw native noted : " You may think I am a friend of these boys but I do not know either of them . I hope you change your mind . " Gould responded to Miss Grossman in his column : " You may be right , Mary Lee , but it ' s too late now to change our mind . " Other sports . Petoskey was also the captain of the 1933 - 34 Wolverines basketball team . For the versatile Petoskey , baseball was his best sport . In May 1933 , the Wolverines baseball team swept the Ohio State Buckeyes , as All - American football players Whitey Wistert pitched a complete game , and Petoskey hit an inside - the - park home run . Petoskey led the Big Ten Conference in batting in 1934 , with 19 hits in 42 at bat s for a . 452 batting average . Professional baseball . Immediately after graduating , Petoskey and Michigan teammate Whitey Wistert both signed with the Cincinnati Reds , reporting to the team in early June 1934 . Petoskey made his major league debut on September 9 , 1934 , and Wistert made his debut two days later . Petoskey played in six games in 1934 , where he went hitless and struck out five times in seven at bats . On the last day of the 1934 regular season , Petoskey was a strikeout victim of Dizzy Dean in the ninth inning of Dean ' s 30th win of the year . When the baseball season ended , Petoskey and Wistert both returned to Ann Arbor , Michigan in early October , where they were given coaching assignments helping Ray Fisher teach fundamentals and offering personal tutoring to the freshman football team . Petoskey returned to the Reds in 1935 , but after spring training he was assigned to the minor leagues . He played for the Wilmington Pirates in the Piedmont League for most of the 1935 season , where he was hitting . 426 to lead the league in early June . The Reds called up Petoskey in June , and one newspaper noted that when he was called up , Petoskey was " batting above the . 400 mark , leading the ( Piedmont ) league in home runs , runs driven in and practically everything else . " He was two - for - five with a stolen base and a . 400 batting average in four games for the 1935 Reds , but he played his last game for the Reds on June 20 , 1935 . Petoskey played for the Durham Bulls in the Piedmont League in 1936 , where he was hitting . 428 in late May . He played for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1937 , where he was leading the International League in base hits in mid - June . He continued to play with the Leafs in 1938 and 1939 , before being sold to the Toledo Mud Hens in July 1939 . He was released by Toledo in March 1940 . Coaching career . Basketball coach at South Carolina . During the off - season from his summer job as a minor league baseball player , Petoskey coached the University of South Carolina basketball team from 1935 to 1940 . In five seasons as the Gamecocks ' head coach , the team had a record of 36 – 67 . South Carolina and Wofford ( 1940 – 47 ) . Until 1940 , Petoskey had been coaching in the offseason , while still playing baseball in the summers . In August 1940 , he announced his retirement as a player to take a full - time position as the head baseball coach at South Carolina , a position he held from 1940 to 1942 . In August 1942 , Petoskey was hired by Wofford College as its head football coach and director of physical education . At the time , Petoskey had been playing for the Columbia Reds in the Sally League . Petoskey remained at Wofford through 1947 , taking time off at times to revive his baseball career . In 1944 , Petoskey was a player and manager for the Birmingham Barons of the Southern Association in 1944 . In 1945 , he left Wofford for the summer to play for the Buffalo Bisons in the International League . He returned to Wofford after World War II . Wofford had suspended its football and basketball programs in 1943 and 1944 , but Petoskey announced that the school would bring both programs back in the 1945 – 1946 school year . He also served as coach of the Wofford football team . Baseball coach at South Carolina ( 1948 – 56 ) . In 1948 , Petoskey returned to the University of South Carolina where he was the head coach of the baseball team until 1956 . He also served as an ends coach for the South Carolina football team . In twelve seasons as South Carolina ' s head baseball coach , Petoskey compiled a record of 113 – 120 . Petoskey ' s baseball players remembered his love of playing poker and his bringing the team home hungry after a tough loss to Duke . In what team members remembered as the " hunger game , " an angry Coach Petoskey told the players to " get on the bus , " and the team rode from Durham , North Carolina to Columbia , South Carolina ( 236 miles ) without having eaten . Another time against Furman University , the Gamecocks blew an 11 – 2 lead in the 8th inning to lose 12 – 11 . On the bus , Petoskey had " that look , " and the driver figured the team would receive a tongue - lashing . " He said , ' I don ' t want to hear a word out of you guys , and that goes for you , too , Bussie . ' " Baseball Coaching Record at South Carolina Later years . In December 1956 , Petoskey announced he was leaving the University of South Carolina to work for the New York Yankees , as a baseball scout for the Georgia , North Carolina , South Carolina and eastern Tennessee territory . As a Yankees ' scout , he signed Duke catcher Steve Crihfield to a contract . And in 1959 , when the Yankees moved spring training for their farm system to Columbia , South Carolina , Petoskey was responsible for the logistics and preparing Capital City Park . He served in the mid - 1960s as the director of recreation for the South Carolina Department of Corrections . Petoskey died in Elgin , South Carolina at age 85 in 1996 . His son Ted Petoskey , Jr . , followed his father playing end in American football . Ted , Jr . , was chosen to play end for the South Carolina high school team in the 1959 Shrine Bowl against the North Carolina team , and was named South Carolina high school AAA Lineman of the Year . He went on to play end for the Clemson Tigers football team from 1962 to 1964 .