Football for Player and Spectator

This book is a reprint of the original that was published in 1905, authored by Fielding Yost, football coach at the University of Michigan. Early chapters expound his philosophy of the sport, tout its benefits to its spectators, and sketch the history of its development.

Later chapters instruct the potential player and the spectator in the individual skills required to play the 1905 version of football. Appendices diagram the author's favorite plays, and give a complete set of rules. Numererous photographs illustrate the skills and show contemporary games in progress.

Fielding Yost played football and coached at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, spent a year coaching at Stanford, then moved to the University of Michigan in 1901 to begin a forty-year career as coach and athletic director. Legend has it that upon arrival in Ann Arbor he ran the uphill mile from depot to athletic office, so eager was he to begin building a team. And build he did, and quickly. His first team won all 11 games, including the first Rose Bowl, while scoring 222 points to their opponents' 0. That was a hard act to follow, and his teams did experience a few bad days, like the one in which Red Grange made his debut with 35 points against Michigan. Otherwise, his teams were highly successful through three decades. In 1930 Yost retired from coaching to become athletic director. In Ann Arbor the hockey arena and the enormous football stadium are still regarded as momuments to this man.