Today's Tidbit... Coe College’s Point-A-Minute Team of 1914
Today's Tidbit... Coe College’s Point-A-Minute Team of 1914
In Fielding Yost’s first season as coach at Michigan, his “Hurry Up” offense scored 550 points while allowing zero in eleven games and became known as the Point-A-Minute team. Football had 35 minutes halves at the time, so those doing the math realize Michigan scored .714 points per minute that season, but who’s counting?
When mighty Coe College’s 1914 team came along, football had shifted to thirty-minute halves. Coe took down Parsons 17-0 in the season opener before losing to Iowa State 27-6. The next game, played on the other side of the Mississippi, saw Coe take down Monmouth 18-0 in the final nonconference game. The postcard below shows the opponents and scores of Coe’s five conference games, during which they outscored their opponents 294 to 7.
Note: While the 115 points scored on Highland Park skewed Coe’s total, Michigan’s 1901 season included a 128-0 stomping of Buffalo.
Coe scored 58.8 points per game or .98 points per minute in conference games while achieving a season total of 335 points or .704 points per minute. So, while both Michigan and Coe were prolific scorers during a period in football’s history when offenses struggled to move the ball, neither managed to achieve the point-a-minute mark.
On a side note, Leander Clark followed the adage that if you cannot beat ‘em, join ‘em. The school went belly up in 1919, its assets were absorbed by Coe.
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