Fielding H . Yost Fielding Harris Yost ( April 30 , 1871 – August 20 , 1946 ) was an American football player , coach , and college athletics administrator . He served as the head football coach at Ohio Wesleyan University ( 1897 ) , the University of Nebraska – Lincoln ( 1898 ) , the University of Kansas ( 1899 ) , Stanford University ( 1900 ) , San Jose State University ( 1900 ) , and the University of Michigan ( 1901 – 1923 , 1925 – 1926 ) , compiling a career college football record of 198 – 35 – 12 . During his 25 seasons as the head football coach in Ann Arbor , Yost ' s Michigan Wolverines won six national championships , captured ten Big Ten Conference titles , and amassed a record of 165 – 29 – 10 . From 1901 to 1905 , his " Point - a - Minute " squads went 55 – 1 – 1 , outscoring their opponents by a margin of 2 , 821 to 42 . The 1901 team beat Stanford , 49 – 0 , in the 1902 Rose Bowl , the first college football bowl game ever played . In 1921 , Yost became Michigan ' s athletic director and served in that capacity until 1940 . He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1951 . Yost was also a lawyer , author , and businessman . Early life and playing career . Yost was born in Fairview , West Virginia . He enrolled at Ohio Normal School ( now known as Ohio Northern University ) in 1889 . Yost played for the Ohio Normal baseball team . He later enrolled at West Virginia University where he began playing football in 1894 at the age of 23 . A 6 - foot 200 pounder , Yost was a standout at tackle at West Virginia into the 1896 season . There he was also a member of the Mu Mu chapter of the Sigma Chi fraternity . " The Yost affair " . In October 1896 , after his team lost three times to Lafayette in home games played on three different fields over the course of three days , Yost became a remarkable personification of " if you can ' t beat ' em , join ' em . " He transferred in mid - season to join Coach Parke H . Davis ' s national championship team at Lafayette . Just a week after playing " against " Davis in West Virginia , Yost was playing " for " Davis in Lafayette ' s historic 6 – 4 win over the Penn Quakers . The fortuitous timing of Yost ' s appearance on the Lafayette roster did not go unnoticed by Penn officials . They called it " the Yost affair . " The Philadelphia " Ledger " quoted Yost as saying that he came to Lafayette only to play football . The fact that Yost appeared in a Lafayette uniform only once , in the Penn game , and that he returned to West Virginia within two weeks of the contest did not help appearances . He assured all concerned that he would return to Lafayette for at least three years of study . But 1897 found him no longer a student or a player , but a coach . Coaching career . After four single - season stints at Ohio Wesleyan , Nebraska , Kansas , Stanford and San Jose State ( as interim coach ) , Yost was hired in 1901 by Charles A . Baird as the head football coach for the Michigan Wolverines football team . Yost coached at Michigan from 1901 through 1923 , and again in 1925 and 1926 . Yost was highly successful at Michigan , winning 165 games , losing only 29 , and tying 10 for a winning percentage of . 833 . Under Yost , Michigan won four straight national championships from 1901 to 1904 and two more in 1918 and 1923 . Yost ' s first Michigan team in 1901 outscored its opposition by a margin of 550 – 0 en route to a perfect season and victory in the inaugural Rose Bowl on January 1 , 1902 over Stanford , the team Yost had coached the year before . From 1901 to 1904 , Michigan did not lose a game , and was tied only once in a legendary game with the Minnesota Golden Gophers that led to the establishment of the Little Brown Jug , college football ' s oldest trophy . Before Michigan finally lost a game to Amos Alonzo Stagg ' s Chicago Maroons squad at the end of the 1905 season , they had gone 56 straight games without a defeat , the second longest such streak in college football history . During their first five seasons under Yost , Michigan outscored its opponents 2 , 821 to 42 , earning the Michigan team the nickname " Point - a - Minute . " Legacy . After retiring from coaching , Yost remained at Michigan as the school ' s athletic director , a position he held until 1940 , thereafter holding the title of athletic director emeritus . Under his leadership , Michigan Stadium , Yost Fieldhouse , now Yost Ice Arena , and the university ' s golf course were constructed . Yost invented the position of linebacker , co - created the first ever bowl game , the 1902 Rose Bowl , with then legendary UM athletic director Charles Baird , invented the fieldhouse concept that bears his name , and supervised the building of the first on - campus building dedicated to intramural sports . Arguably no one has left a larger mark on University of Michigan athletics and college football itself than Fielding Yost . A longtime football coach and athletic director , his career was marked with great achievements both on and off the field . Yost was also a successful business person , lawyer , author , and a leading figure in pioneering the explosion of college football into a national phenomenon . A devout Christian , he nevertheless was among the first coaches to allow Jewish players on his teams , including Joe Magidsohn and Benny Friedman . However , Murray Sperber ' s book " Shake Down the Thunder " places principal responsibility for the Big Ten blackballing and boycotting of Notre Dame on Yost , as well as the charge that this was motivated by anti - Catholic and anti - immigrant prejudice common in the early 20th century . Although John Kyrk ' s book " Natural Enemies " points out that there was a bitter feud between Yost and Knute Rockne , head coach of the Notre Dame football team . Yost initiated the concept of coaching as an actual profession near the turn of the century when he was paid as much as a UM professor . The professionalization of coaches that started with Yost and earlier , Walter Camp at Yale University , symbolized how serious college football was becoming , and Yost symbolized this more so than any of his peers . It was Yost who first articulated the now accepted premise about student - athetes in the sport that : " Football builds character . " Yost was also known for a series of admonitions to his players beginning with the words , " Hurry up , " for example , " Hurry up and be the first man down the field on a punt or kick - off . " This inclination earned him the nickname , " Hurry up " Yost . A native of West Virginia , Yost ' s unusual pronunciation of the school ' s name , " MEE - she - gan , " copied by long - time Michigan football broadcaster Bob Ufer , is affectionately carried on by many Michigan football fans and often referenced by ESPN sportscaster Chris Fowler . Yost was among the inaugural class of inductees to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951 . Coaching tree . No fewer than 64 men who either played for Yost or coached under him as an assistant went on to become head coaches in college football . Two , Benny Friedman and Tommy Hughitt , helmed teams in the NFL . Yost ' s disciples include : Later years and death . Yost was in poor health for several years before his death and was hospitalized at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in May 1946 . He reportedly suffered from a stroke , but was released after two weeks and returned to his home in Ann Arbor , Michigan . In August 1946 , Yost died of a gall bladder attack at his home . He was survived by his wife , who he married in 1906 , a son , Fielding H . Yost , Jr . , two brothers , Ellis and Nichola , and a sister , Mrs . Charles Barry . Yost was buried at Ann Arbor ' s Forest Hill Cemetery near the University of Michigan campus . Bibliography . Gruver , Edward ( 2002 ) , " Nitschke " . Lanham : Taylor Trade Publishing .