Bruce Shorts Bruce Carman Shorts ( January 15 , 1878 – March 29 , 1945 ) was an American football player and coach . He played as a tackle for the University of Michigan from 1900 to 1901 . He later served as the head football coach at the University of Nevada , Reno in 1904 and at the University of Oregon in 1905 . Biography . Athlete . Shorts attended high school at Mt . Pleasant , Michigan before enrolling at the University of Michigan . Shorts played for Fielding H . Yost ' s first Michigan Wolverines football team . The 1901 team compiled a record of 11 – 0 and outscored its opponents 550 – 0 . He was regarded as one of the best tackles in the Western Conference . He was six feet one inch tall and weighed close to 190 pounds while playing at Michigan . He played in 1901 despite being sick . Coach Yost later recalled Shorts ' efforts in playing through sickness as follows : " Well do I remember how dangerously near Bruce Shorts , star right tackle , came to being lost to the 1901 Michigan football team . He was very sick all season with an attack of appendicitis . His enforced withdrawal from the team would have greatly weakened it . In an evenly matched game one can visualize what his absence from the lineup would have meant . Shorts played through the season , but his courage and loyalty nearly cost him his life , for he was a short time later so sick that it was reported he had died . Fortunately , however , he pulled through . " Prior to the 1902 Rose Bowl , the " Los Angeles Times " wrote a profile about the stars of the Michigan football team . About Shorts , the " Times " wrote : " Bruce Shorts , who is the newly chosen team captain of 1902 is 6 feet in height and weighs 190 pounds . For his two years he has played right tackle , and his weight makes him one of the strongest men on the team . He is the best ground gainer of the line men . " In addition to football , Shorts also competed in the " weight " events for the Michigan track and field team . He won the Western intercollegiate championship in the hammer throw , and was " also recognized as a very good shot - putter . " Coach and lawyer . Shorts graduated from the University of Michigan Law School . After practicing law for several months , Shorts was hired in September 1904 as the head football coach at the University of Nevada , Reno . He replaced another former Michigan football player , Allen Steckle , as Nevada ' s coach . A Reno newspaper reported on Shorts ' hiring as follows : " Bruce Shorts , captain of the famous Michigan football team of 1901 , arrived in Reno yesterday to enter upon his duties as coach of the University of Nevada team . Mr . Shorts is undoubtedly one of the best posted as well as one of the best football players in the country . . . . He is looked upon as the best coach west of the Mississippi River , and his work this year will undoubtedly result in maintaining , if not surpassing , the record made by Coach Steckle last year . " The Nevada Sagebrush compiled a 3 – 3 record in Shorts ' one year as head coach . In 1905 , Shorts was hired by the University of Oregon . The " Oakland Tribune " reported on Shorts ' hiring at Oregon as follows : " This year the Oregonians are coached by Bruce Shorts , the great Michigan captain of 1902 . Shorts coached Nevada last season and has a record for turning out fast players . Fred Staiwer is manager of the Oregon eleven . " Shorts later became a successful corporate lawyer in Seattle .