The 1917 Michigan Agricultural Aggies football team represented

Michigan Agricultural College Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

(MAC) as an independent during the

1917 college football season The 1917 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the ''Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book'' listing Georgia Tech as national champions, the South's first. Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Williams, and Washington Sta ...

. In their ninth non-consecutive year under head coach

Chester Brewer Chester Leland Brewer (November 26, 1875 – April 16, 1953) was an American football, basketball, baseball, and track and field coach and athletic director. He served as the head football coach at Albion College (1899–1902), Michigan Agri ...

(Brewer previously coached the Aggies from 1903 to 1910), the Aggies compiled a 0–9 record and were outscored by their opponents 179 to 23. This season marks the only time in team history in which they went winless on the field; in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, the Spartans finished with a 5-6 record, but this was changed to 0-11 after an academic scandal led to the forfeiture of their victories.

Schedule

Game summaries

Michigan

On October 20, 1917, the Aggies played their annual game against Michigan at Ferry Field. It was the 12th game between the two schools dating back to 1898. Michigan had won eight of the prior 11 games. Michigan won the 1917 game by a score of 27 to 0. Michigan scored in the first quarter on a drive that featured a 30-yard run by

Tad Wieman Elton Ewart "Tad" Wieman (October 4, 1896 – December 26, 1971) was an American football collegiate player, coach and athletic director. He played football for the University of Michigan from 1915 to 1917 and 1920 under head coach Fielding H. Yos ...

and was capped by a 15-yard touchdown run by

Archie Weston Archie Bruce "Beak" Weston (June 9, 1895 – April 1981) was an American football player who was a quarterback for the University of Michigan in 1917 and a halfback in 1919. He was selected as a first-team All-American in 1917 by ''Chicago ...

. At halftime, the schools' combined bands led a detachment of troops onto the field and played the "

Star Spangled Banner "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bo ...

" and "

The Victors "The Victors" is the fight song of the University of Michigan. Michigan student Louis Elbel wrote the song in 1898 after the football team's victory over the University of Chicago, which clinched an undefeated season and the Western Conferen ...

". In the third quarter, the Wolverines scoring drive began with a 20-yard punt return by Weston with Wieman scoring on a seven-yard run. In the fourth quarter, Wieman ran through the middle of the M.A.C. line, "shook off five tacklers," and scored on a 35-yard touchdown run. Later in the fourth quarter, Weston ran 30 yards around the left end to the M.A.C. 12-yard line, and Wieman scored his third touchdown of the afternoon on a one-yard run.

References

Michigan Agricultural Michigan State Spartans football seasons College football winless seasons

Michigan Agricultural Aggies football The Michigan State Spartans football program represents Michigan State University (MSU) in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level. The Spartans are members of the Big Ten Conference. Michigan State claims a ...

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