The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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50-100 million, roughly 675,000 of those deaths in the United States. The world convulsed in multiple horrors, but the game of football continued. Here's a look back at how it all fit together in a sober- ing spring, summer and fall. Preparations Amid Pandemic Yost frenetically prepped his Wolverines for their first season back in the Western Confer- ence (precursor to the Big Ten) since 1906. The iconic coach went 59-2-1 in his first six seasons at the helm and rang up national championships in his first four campaigns. A number of new Western Conference policies Yost considered unacceptable — in- cluding limiting the schedule to five games — convinced Michigan to get out of the league and stay out for more than a decade. But in 1918 Yost geared the Wolverines toward a dive back into the fight to be con- ference champions. He fashioned a squad featuring an All-American freshman full- back who normally wouldn't have even been eligible and a left tackle that wound up scor- ing huge touchdowns. The fullback, Frank Steketee, couldn't have taken the field in most years back then. World War I changed the rules for many, opening the door for freshmen to participate on the varsity squad. So Yost enjoyed an ace up his sleeve, along with a pack of rugged defenders who proved nearly impregnable in the autumn of 1918. Other defenses — of much greater import — were soon to collapse. In Europe, the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire) were making what turned out to be last-ditch at- tempts at turning the tide against the Allied Powers of Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States. The bloody conflict — produced by in- creasing tensions throughout Europe and triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand — rumbled into a fifth year. According to History.com, the final German offensive of the war commenced on July 15, 1918. The Germans attacked French troops, who were supported by 85,000 U.S. soldiers and part of the British Expeditionary Force. The 1918 Wolverines played the first game of the season Oct. 5, but then were not able to return to the field until more than a month later. The squad finished 5-0 in a pandemic- and war-altered campaign, and outscored their foes 96-6. PHOTO COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ATHLETICS THE WOLVERINE 2020 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ■ 31