Kenneth Thomson "Mike" Knode (November 8, 1895 – December 20, 1980) was an American

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

player. Knode was born in

Westminster, Maryland Westminster is a city in northern Maryland, United States. It is the seat of Carroll County. The city's population was 18,590 at the 2010 census. Westminster is an outlying community within the Baltimore-Towson, MD MSA, which is part of a greate ...

in 1895. He attended both the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

and

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, playing football and baseball at both institutions. At Michigan, he was the starting quarterback of the undefeated

1918 Michigan Wolverines football team The 1918 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1918 Big Ten Conference football season. The team's head football coach was Fielding H. Yost in his 18th season with the program. The 1918 team played in a ...

that was recognized as the national championship team of the 1918 college football season. He scored Michigan's final touchdown against Michigan Agricultural College in 1918 on a 30-yard run after faking a pass. In 1915, Knode began playing professional baseball for the Martinsburg Champs of the

Blue Ridge League The Blue Ridge League was the name of two minor league baseball organizations that operated in the first half of the twentieth century in the United States. History The first league operated for the better part of sixteen years, from 1915 throu ...

. Knode played under the alias of Kenny Thompson in order to keep his college eligibility. A second baseman, it was widely known by the local newspapers that Thompson was in reality Knode, but this information never reached the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

. At that time, Knode also was the team captain of the University of Michigan football eleven. In the

dead ball era In baseball, the dead-ball era was the period from around 1900 to the emergence of Babe Ruth as a power hitter in 1919, when he hit a then-major league record 29 home runs; only three players since 1890 had even hit 20. This era was characterized ...

of the early twentieth century, Knode's three home runs tied him for third place in the Blue Ridge League in 1915. In 1916, he played professional baseball for the

Cumberland Colts The Cumberland Colts were a minor league baseball team based in Cumberland, Maryland between 1916 and 1932. The Cumberland Giants of the Pennsylvania-Ohio-Maryland League in 1906 and the 1907 Cumberland Rooters of the Western Pennsylvania League pr ...

of the

Potomac League The Potomac League was a minor league baseball league that played a partial season as a Class D level league in 1916. The Potomac League featured four teams based in West Virginia and Maryland. The Potomac League permanently folded on August 16, ...

. In 1920, he played

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

as a right fielder, second baseman and shortstop for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

. In 42 games, he accumulated a .231 batting average and a .306

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...

. His younger brother

Robert Knode Robert Troxell "Ray" Knode (January 28, 1901 – April 13, 1982) was an American Major League Baseball baseball and college football player. He played for four seasons as a first baseman with the Cleveland Indians from 1923 to 1926. Knode attend ...

also played quarterback for the

Michigan Wolverines football The Michigan Wolverines football team represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins in college football history. The team is known for its ...

team, and played for the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

from 1923 to 1926. Knode later became a pediatrician. Knode died on December 20, 1980 in

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 United S ...

at the age of 85. He was buried in Violett Cemetery in

Goshen, Indiana Goshen ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. It is the smaller of the two principal cities of the Elkhart-Goshen Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in turn is part of the South Bend-Elkhart-Mishawaka ...

. The

University of Maryland Athletic Hall of Fame The University of Maryland Athletic Hall of Fame was established in 1982 by the M Club Foundation to honor student-athletes, coaches, and administrators who made significant contributions to athletics at the University of Maryland, College Park, U ...

posthumously inducted Knode in 1985.Wall of Fame
, University of Maryland, retrieved June 4, 2011.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knode, Mike 1895 births 1980 deaths Players of American football from Baltimore Baseball players from Baltimore St. Louis Cardinals players Martinsburg Champs players Cumberland Colts players Maryland Terrapins baseball players Maryland Terrapins football players Michigan Wolverines baseball players Michigan Wolverines football players