1903 Ferris-Michigan Game Score Changed
Note: Information & images courtesy of
the MVictors
website
Big Rapids, Mich. - Ferris State recently came up on the short end
of a controversial ruling from the 1903 season when a scoring
change was made to the only football contest on record ever played
between the Bulldogs and the University of Michigan after
historical research uncovered by a writer this summer.
Distinguished writer John Kryk, author of the brilliant and
definitive tome on the Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry, Natural
Enemies, uncovered information finding the score of
Michigan's 88-0 win over the Bulldogs in 1903 (Oct. 21) was
incorrect and should have actually been listed as 90-0 in favor of
the Wolverines.
During a visit to the Bentley Historical
Library in June, Kryk was thumbing through the bound
copies of the Michigan Daily and
spotted a nugget of information in the October 24, 1903
edition, which was printed just a few days after the game.
In the article, it was noted "the score of the game against
Ferris Institute last Wednesday should have been 90 instead of 88,
as everywhere printed. In the first half, when Michigan,
after the kick-off downed the runner behind the goal line, Referee
Hollister called it a safety, which entitled Michigan to two points
more. Ferris kicked off from the 25-yard line and the game
went on ........".
Recently, the folks at the Bentley Historical Library, which
houses the University of Michigan Athletics History, applied an
asterisk to the final tally.
The score change added two more points for Michigan's Fielding
Yost and his point-a-minute reign of terror. For those
keeping score, according to Kryk, "that brings the point-a-minute
team's point total up to 2,823 points in 57 games, from 2,821 - for
a per-game average of 49.5 points over five years [1901-05]."
"I aim to uncover both long-forgotten and never-known stories of
the Wolverines of yesteryear," Kryk wrote, "and set the record
straight a time or two 
along the way."
The change marks the second time a Michigan score has been
adjusted this summer after the Wolverines' previously added an
extra point to a 44-0 contest versus Syracuse in the 1909
season.
The 1903 game between Ferris and Michigan is the only football
contest on record between the two teams.
Michigan concluded the 1903 campaign with an 11-0-1 record and a
national championship under the legendary Yost.
The scoring adjustment came in a season in which the
Bulldogs struggled to a 1-3 overall record after previously posting
6-2 and 5-2-1 marks in 1901 and 1902, respectively.
During the 1903 campaign, Ferris was defeated 10-0 by Traverse
City, bounced back to defeat Muskegon by a 31-0 score, fell to
Michigan 88-0* and ended its season with an 11-0 loss to Alma.
Ferris State, which celebrated its 100th season of varsity football
in 2008, began playing on the gridiron in 1900, according to
archived records. However, no football was played in 1908-09,
1917-18, 1932 and from 1942-45 for various reasons. Additionally,
no scores are available from either the 1912 or 1916 seasons.
Below are
Michigan's partial results from 1903 with the asterick
added:
