Gustave Ferbert Gustave Herman Ferbert ( July 22 , 1873 – January 15 , 1943 ) , nicknamed " Dutch , " was first a player ( 1893 – 1896 ) and then the head coach ( 1897 – 1899 ) for the University of Michigan American football team . In 1898 , his Michigan team went 10 – 0 and won the first Western Conference ( now known as the Big Ten Conference ) championship in the school ' s history . He left the University of Michigan in 1900 and spent nine years prospecting for gold in Alaska , finally striking it rich off claims he discovered in 1908 and 1909 . Early life . Ferbert was born in 1873 to John C . Ferbert and Caroline Stlbbinger at Cleveland , Ohio . University of Michigan football player . Ferbert played quarterback and right halfback for the University of Michigan from 1893 to 1896 . During the four years Ferbert played , the Michigan team compiled an overall record of 33 – 4 – 1 . In his senior year , 1896 , the team went 9 – 1 , winning its first nine games by a combined score of 256 to 4 . In a 20 – 0 victory over Minnesota , Ferbert scored two touchdowns . However , the team lost the final game of the season to the University of Chicago , 7 – 6 , in a game played indoors at the Chicago Coliseum . The newspapers reported that Pingree was the " whole thing " for Michigan in the first half , though Ferbert took his place in the second half and was " equally effective . " The game was played in front of 15 , 000 enthusiasts in the same building in which William Jennings Bryan had been nominated for the presidency just five months earlier , and the game was " one of the most desperately contested games ever played Chicago . " Neither team resorted to trick plays , " both relying on straight , hard foot ball . " Toward the end of the second half , it got very dark , and " the spectators were treated to a novelty in the shape of foot ball by electric light . " In December 1896 , Febert was unanimously selected as the captain of Michigan ' s 1897 football team . one newspaper reported on the selection as follows : " ' Dutchy , ' as Ferbert is almost universally called by his college fellows , has been as popular as any man who ever played on one of Michigan ' s teams , and his election meets the favor of every one . Ferbert began his career as a football player in the Ann Arbor high school team . . . He began playing on the varsity in ' 93 at end , but in the Purdue game of that year , on account of an injury to one of the regular backs , Ferbert was put in back of the line , and no one has been able to run him out of his position . During a majority of the time he has played on the team he has acted as field captain , and his splendid judgment has been largely instrumental in Michigan ' s success on the gridiron . " University of Michigan football coach . After his graduation , Ferbert was named as Michigan ' s head football coach at age 22 . The 1897 season and the first Ohio State game . In 1897 , Ferbert ' s team was 6 – 1 – 1 and finished third in the Western Conference . Ferbert ' s team played to a scoreless tie against an Ohio Wesleyan team coached by Fielding H . Yost . Ferbert was Michigan ' s head coach in the first match in The Michigan - Ohio State Game . On October 16 , 1897 , the teams met at Regents Field in Ann Arbor , where Michigan won , 34 – 0 . The Michigan Daily reported : " Michigan had no trouble in defeating the Ohio State University representatives in Saturday ' s game . Two halves of 20 and 15 minutes respectively were played and the score was 34 - 0 . " All the scoring took place in the first half , and the score would have been much worse if Ferbert had wanted to run up a higher score . " Champions of the West " in 1898 . The 1898 Wolverines went 10 – 0 and won the Western Conference ( now known as the Big Ten Conference ) championship . The first great Michigan football team , the 1898 group outscored its opponents 205 to 26 . In the first meeting with what would become Michigan State , Michigan prevailed 39 – 0 , and they also shut out Notre Dame , 23 – 0 . The team finished the season traveling to Chicago for a final game against Amos Alonzo Stagg ' s University of Chicago team on November 24 , 1898 . Led by All - American center , William Cunningham , Michigan came out on top , 12 – 11 , for its first Western Conference championship . A newspaper account described Michigan ' s victory this way : " The western football championship goes to Michigan . On a field that was simply perfect for fast football , and before a crowd of 12 , 000 the maroons of Chicago went down before the maize and blue of Michigan today by a score of 12 to 11 . . . . The Michigan line , in which big holes were torn by the light Northwestern team , was simply impregnable today , with the exception of about ten minutes in the second half , when the Chicago men pushed their opponents aside with an apparent ease . " Another article noted : " Michigan , with the exception of one or two double passes , relied almost altogether on straight football , line bucking and runs around the end . Chicago , on the contrary , used trick plays throughout but the team work was of a high order , as shown by both teams . " During Ferbert ' s three - year tenure as Michigan ' s head football coach , his teams were 24 – 3 – 1 , a winning percentage of . 875 . From 1898 to 1899 , his Michigan teams had a 16 - game winning streak . Gold prospecting in Alaska . After his coaching career at Michigan , Ferbert went to Alaska to search for gold . In May 1900 , amid the Klondike Gold Rush , newspapers reported that Ferbert had left Ann Arbor for Seattle , where he planned to join " High " Allen and " Count " Villa , described as " two other prominent Michigan football men . " Ferbert , Allen and Villa intended to " proceed to the Alaska gold fields , " leaving unsettled the question of who would coach the Michigan football team in 1900 . For a considerable period of time , Ferbert was out of contact in the Klondike , but he emerged on the Seward Peninsula . An article published in 1909 after his return reported that Ferbert had struck it rich . The article stated : " Eight years ago , with the determination to come back rich or not at all , ' Dutch ' Ferbert , old Michigan coach and one of the most famous football players , left Cleveland for the Klondike . For eight years he has toiled over endless snows , fought fierce hardships , endured everything in his battle to win his word - - to come back home a rich man . And now he has made a strike and is coming back to civilization . He sailed from Nome and is rushing homeward with $ 1 , 000 , 000 as his reward . " Another article reported on Ferbert ' s $ 1 , 000 , 000 " Touchdown in the Arctic . " The article reported that Ferbert ' s parting words were that he would return rich or not at all . Ferbert made a " killing , " the report continued , near Doering City in the Candle Creek region in 1908 and 1909 , and " it is reported that his claims are valuable enough to put him in the millionaire class . " Before striking it rich , Ferbert spent several years prospecting in several districts with " slim success . " He worked part time in restaurants and stores , but he finally located some of the best claims in the region and " panned out more gold than he had ever dreamed of and became a bonanza king overnight . " Modern historians however are not necessarily convinced of these claims . James Tobin in particular argues that the claims of mining success may have been vastly overstated . Later life . When Ferbert returned from Alaska , he practiced as a mining engineer and consultant until his retirement in 1928 . In a draft registration card submitted in September 1918 , Ferbert indicated he was living in Seattle , Washington , and was employed as a carpenter . At the time of the 1920 United States Census , he was living in Whittier , California , and his occupation was listed as a miner in a private mine . His brother A . H . Ferbert was the president of the Pittsburgh Steel Co . Ferbert moved to Cleveland , Ohio in approximately 1942 , where he lived with his brother . Ferbert died of a heart ailment ( coronary thrombosis ) in Cleveland on January 15 , 1943 at age 69 .