The History of Michigan Wolverines football in the early years covers the history of the University of Michigan Wolverines football program from its formation in the 1870s through the hiring of Fielding H. Yost prior to the 1901 season. Michigan was independent of any conference until 1896 when it became one of the founding members of the Western Conference (now known as the Big Ten Conference). The team played its home games at the Washtenaw County Fairgrounds from 1883 to 1892 and then at Regents Field starting in 1893.
While the first official university football team was not formed until 1879, class football teams were formed as early as 1870. The university team played its first game against Racine College in May 1879, and Irving Kane Pond scored the first touchdown in Michigan football history. In 1881, the Michigan football team traveled to the East and played a series of games that marked the beginning of football as an inter-sectional game. In the mid-1880s, the Wolverines had four consecutive undefeated seasons and allowed opponents to score only two points between November 1884 and April 1888. In November 1887, the Michigan football team traveled to South Bend, Indiana, where it taught Notre Dame students the game of football and participated in the first Notre Dame football game.
The Michigan football team was among the first to be racially integrated. George Jewett became Michigan's first African-American player in 1890 and was one of the leading stars in the early years of Michigan football. The 1891 season was the first in which the Michigan football team had a coach with Frank Crawford and Mike Murphy coaching the team. William McCauley served as head coach in 1894 and 1895 and compiled a 17–2–1 record, including the Wolverines' first victory over one of the Eastern football powers. The 1895 team outscored opponents 266 to 14 and was acknowledged as the Western football champions.
In 1896, Michigan participated in the first indoor football game, a game played under electric lights at the Chicago Coliseum. The 1898 Michigan team compiled a perfect 10–0 record, outscored its opponents 205 to 26, and won the school's first Western Conference championship. William Cunningham became Michigan's first consensus All-American, and the victory of the 1898 team over Amos Alonzo Stagg's Chicago Maroons inspired Louis Elbel to write Michigan's fight song, "The Victors." Gustave Ferbert served as Michigan's head coach from 1897 to 1899, compiling a record of 24–3–1, including a 16-game winning streak from 1898 to 1899. In May 1900, Ferbert left the program to prospect for gold in Alaska. His replacement, Langdon Lea, lasted only one year as Michigan's head coach.
Year-by-year results
History of the program
Early developments
The November 1869 game between Rutgers University and Princeton University is often cited as the first game of intercollegiate football. By the spring of 1870, the game had spread to Ann Arbor. In April 1870, members of the freshman class announced that they had formed a football club. And in May 1870, the football club formed by the freshmen defeated the football team from the Union School by a score of 7 to 5. Beginning in the early 1870s, football teams formed by the individual classes also played games against each other.
In May 1873, a newly formed Foot Ball Association approved the first set of official rules to govern the game at Michigan. Michigan's 1873 Rules and Regulations for Foot-ball (shown at right) provided for no more than 20 players per side, allowed a player running with the ball "may be tripped or thrown, but not backed", and prohibited players from wearing "projecting nails, iron plates, or gutta percha, upon the heels or soles of his shoes."
In the fall of 1873, The Chronicle (a student newspaper of the time) announced that the Cornell football team had accepted a challenge to play a "match game of foot-ball" in Cleveland, but the Cornell faculty had refused to grant the players leave to attend the game. The Chronicle protested the "apron-string, boarding school tyranny" of the Cornell faculty. In October 1874, members of Michigan's University Foot Ball Organization continued their efforts to schedule a game with Cornell, but The Chronicle expressed doubt that it would ever happen.