The 1925 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team that represented the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in the

1925 Big Ten Conference football season The 1925 Big Ten Conference football season was the 30th season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Ten Conference (also known as the Western Conference) and was a part of the 1925 college football season. Over the course o ...

. In their first year under head coach

Clarence Spears Clarence Wiley "Doc" Spears (July 24, 1894 – February 1, 1964) was an American football player, coach, and doctor. He was an All-American guard at Dartmouth College (1914–1915) and served as the head football coach at Dartmouth (1917–1920), ...

, the Golden Gophers compiled a 5–2–1 record and outscored their opponents by a combined score of 176 to 91. Guard Len Walsh was named All-Big Ten first team. Total attendance for the season was 193,707, which averaged out to 27,672 per game. The season high for attendance was against Notre Dame.

Schedule

Game summaries

Michigan

Minnesota concluded its 1925 season with a 35–0 loss to Michigan. The game was played at

Ferry Field Ferry Field is a multi-purpose stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It opened in 1906 and was home to the Michigan Wolverines football team prior to the opening of Michigan Stadium in 1927. It had a capacity of 46,000. It is currently used as a tai ...

before a sellout, homecoming crowd of 47,000 on a warm Indian summer afternoon. Minnesota came into the game with a 5–1–1 record and a highly touted offense featuring

Herb Joesting Herbert Walter Joesting (April 17, 1905 – October 1, 1963) was an American football player and coach. He was a consensus All-American fullback while playing for the Minnesota Golden Gophers in both 1926 and 1927. He also played three seasons i ...

that was averaging 25 points per game. More than 3,000 Minnesotans and the 100-piece Minnesota band traveled to Ann Arbor on five special trains. The Associated Press wrote that Michigan won the game with "a driving line attack and a bewildering aerial game." Michigan's first touchdown drive was led by Benny Friedman's passing. He completed a pass to sophomore

Bennie Oosterbaan Benjamin Oosterbaan ( ; February 24, 1906 – October 25, 1990) was a three-time first team All-American football end for the Michigan Wolverines football team, two-time All-American basketball player for the basketball team, and an All-Big Ten C ...

for a 23-yard gain and followed with a pass to William Flora for an 11-yard gain. Fullback

Bo Molenda John Joseph "Bo" Molenda (February 20, 1905 – July 20, 1986) was an American football player, primarily a fullback, who played for the University of Michigan and nine seasons in the NFL. He played for two Big Ten Conference championship teams a ...

then ran 24 yards for the touchdown, and Friedman kicked the extra point. Michigan's second touchdown drive started with a 25-yard gain on a pass from Friedman to Oosterbaan. Sophomore halfback

Louis Gilbert Louis Matthew Gilbert (September 15, 1906 – May 9, 1987) was an American football player. He played at the halfback position for the Michigan Wolverines football teams from 1925 to 1927. He was selected as a first-team All-Big Ten Confer ...

then ran 20 yards, and Molenda ran for the touchdown from the one-yard line. Friedman kicked the extra point, and Michigan led, 14–0, at halftime. In the third quarter, Friedman threw a touchdown pass to Oosterbaan, and Friedman kicked his third extra point. In the fourth quarter, Minnesota opened up its passing game in an attempt to overcome Michigan's 21–0 lead. Halfway through the quarter, Louis Gilbert intercepted a pass and returned it 60 yards down the right side for a touchdown. In addition to the interception return, Gilbert also returned a punt 35 yards in the second quarter, handled the punting for Michigan, and was credited by the ''Chicago Daily Tribune'' with "sensational open field running." Michigan's final touchdown was set up by another turnover, as Carl Stamman intercepted a pass and returned it 35 yards to the Minnesota nine-yard line. Friedman threw a pass to Oosterbaan for the touchdown. Friedman completed seven of 16 pass attempts for 130 yards and converted all five extra point kicks to give Michigan a 35–0 victory. On defense, Michigan did not allow Minnesota to complete a pass and held the Gophers to four first downs, two in each half, and 45 net rushing yards. Minnesota ran an offense featuring the "Spear shift," named for the team's head coach

. The shift failed to gain against Michigan's line, leading the ''Chicago Daily Tribune'' to write:

"The famous Minnesota shift was a bloomer. The Gophers shifted and shifted and kept on shifting like a lot of hop toads and every time they shifted, the Michigan line shifted with them and knocked them flat as soon as the ball was snapped. To the Michigan team that shift was about as puzzling as a dog's bark."

References

{{Minnesota Golden Gophers football navbox

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

Minnesota Golden Gophers football seasons

Minnesota Golden Gophers football The Minnesota Golden Gophers football team represents the University of Minnesota in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Founded in 1882, Minnesota has been a member of the Big Ten Conference since its ince ...