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‘Point-a-Minute’ Michigan Teams Featured in ASU Football Program 30 Years Before Historic Upset

This story was in the 1978 program for the Appalachian State football game against The Citadel on Oct. 21.

About 30 years before App State’s historic upset against the Michigan Wolverines in The Big House, the Wolverines were featured in a story in the 1978 Appalachian State Football program.

The story was titled “Famous Teams That Earned Their Nicknames” and authored by Jack Wilkinson of the New York NEWS.

In the early 1900s, the Michigan football team scored so many points at such quick pace, those Wolverine teams were dubbed “Yost’s Point-a-Minute” teams.

Fielding Yost was the head coach of Michigan from 1901 to 1923. In that time, Yost achieved a 165-29 record. However, his “Point-a-Minute” teams fared even better. From 1901 to 1905, the Wolverines won four consecutive national championships in a five-year span, and the margin by which they won was ridiculous.

“Quite simply, from 1901 to 1905, when they outscored the opposition by 2,841 to 40, the Michigan Wolverines averaged scoring nearly a point a minute,” Wilkinson wrote.

Highlights from each of those “Point-a-Minute” teams noted by Wilkinson:

1901: Michigan was 11-0, outscored its opponents 550-0, and won teh first Rose Bowl game, 49-0, over Standford on Jan. 1, 1902

1902: 11-0 again, 644-12 in points

1903: 11-0-1, (a 6-6 tie with Minnesota), 565-6 in points 

1904: 10-0, 567-22 in points. Michigan scored over 100 points in four different games, including a 130-0 victory over West Virginia that is still the highest-scoring Michigan game ever: football, basketball or anyball.

1905: 12-1, 495-2 in points. Michigan ended the season with a 2-0 loss to Amos Alonzo Stagg’s University of Chicago team, which ended the Wolverine’s streak of 56 straight games without a defeat.

Brought to our attention by Reba Moretz, the co-owner of Appalachian Ski Mountain, she said, “I just thought it was interesting that this was in the ASU football program and then they played Michigan and beat Michigan years later.”

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