page_title: 1902 Michigan Wolverines football team
section_title: Michigan 63, Oberlin 0
hierarchical_section_title: 1902 Michigan Wolverines football team / Game summaries / Michigan 63, Oberlin 0
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Boss Weeks
context_page_description: The 1902 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1902 Western Conference football season. In their second year under head coach Fielding H. Yost, Michigan finished the season undefeated with an 11–0 record, outscored their opponents by a combined score of 644 to 12, and became known as the second of Yost's famed "Point-a-Minute" teams. With a conference record of 5–0, Michigan won the Big Nine Conference championship. The 1902 Michigan Wolverines have also been recognized as the national champions by the Billingsley Report, Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, and National Championship Foundation, and as co-national champions by Parke H. Davis.
  Quarterback Boss Weeks was the team's captain and the leader of the Wolverines' offense that twice scored more than 100 points against opponents and averaged 58.5 points per game. Right halfback Albert E. Herrnstein was the team's leading scorer with 135 points on 27 touchdowns. Fullback James E. Lawrence was the second-leading scorer with 113 points on 12 touchdowns and 53 extra point kicks. Willie Heston, Joe Maddock and Paul J. Jones added 15, 12 and 11 touchdowns, respectively.
context_section_description: Michigan defeated Oberlin 63–0 in the ninth game of the season. Michigan scored 28 points in the first half and 33 in the second. The speed of Michigan's "hurry up" offense was demonstrated by a three-play drive in which Herb Graver returned a kickoff 60 yards and Willie Heston ran the remaining 40 yards for a touchdown.
  Early in the second half, Herb Graver fumbled the ball at Michigan's 10-yard line, and the ball was recovered by Oberlin. On a fake field goal, Oberlin took the ball to the four-yard line but was unable to advance the ball further and missed a field goal attempt.  Michigan's Herrnstein and Sweeley were both taken out of the game with injuries to their knees.
  With Minnesota's head coach Henry L. Williams and five of his players attending the game to scout the Wolverines, Michigan's quarterback Boss Weeks did not open up the great variety of Michigan's plays and "did not pull much down out of his sleeve for their edification." Only once did Michigan run one of its renowned trick plays, a double pass to Everett Sweeley that was good for 15 yards.
  After the game, the umpire, Allen of Chicago, was asked what he thought of the Michigan team and responded: "Why, it goes without saying that Michigan is a wonder. It is the greatest team I ever saw, and I have watched a lot of them."
  The game was a benchmark game in which Michigan could be compared to the best teams in the east. Cornell had defeated Oberlin 57–0 earlier in the year, and the Detroit Free Press suggested that Michigan's victory by a greater margin "may give the easterners an eye-opener."
  With the popularity of the "Point-a-Minute" tradition at Michigan, the Detroit Free Press reported: "The score is one of particularly gratification to Michigan's enthusiasts as it makes Yost's whirlwinds secure a record that never was equalled before, and probably never will be again. Michigan started out the season with as tough a schedule apparently as any team in the west, and if anybody had made a break that this aggregation would be a 'point to the minute' team the man who made the assertion would have been the guy of the town. Yet now, having played 540 minutes, this scoring machine has piled up 621 points, and even if Michigan is shut out by Minnesota in seventy minutes of play the Wolverines will have obtained an average that is the greatest feat in gridiron history."
  The game was played in halves of 30 minutes. Michigan's starting lineup was Redden (left end), Cole (left tackle), McGugin (left guard), Gregory (center), Carter (right guard), Maddock (right tackle), Sweeley (right end), Weeks (quarterback), Heston (left halfback), Herrnstein (right halfback) and Jones (fullback).
caption: Quarterback Boss Weeks (pictured) called a conservative game against Oberlin with Minnesota coach Henry L. Williams in the stands scouting the Wolverines
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