Photoshop Phriday: Howard Yerges

The Michigan-Ohio State rivalry made headlines in 2008 when Justin Boren transferred from Michigan to OSU.  Boren was the first player to ever leave Ann Arbor for Columbus but not the first to play on both sides of the rivalry.  Howard Yerges enrolled at OSU in 1943 and played quarterback for the Buckeyes (Michigan beat OSU that year 45-7).  But in 1944 his position as a U.S. Navy trainee forced him to relocate to Ann Arbor, where he enrolled at Michigan and played under coach Fritz Crisler.  J.T. White, a teammate of Yerges’, had also joined the Wolverines after previously playing for the Buckeyes.

Yerges quarterbacked the Wolverines from 1944-47 and was a key player on the 1947 team that went undefeated en route to a national title.  The ’47 team was one of the first to have specialized offensive and defensive players (though Bump Elliott played both sides) and benefited from Yerges’ well rounded offensive skills.  In the 1948 Rose Bowl Yerges passed for and caught a touchdown, helping Michigan to a 49-0 win over USC.  It was Michigan’s first bowl game appearance since the first Rose Bowl in 1902, a 49-0 dismantling of Stanford masterminded by Fielding Yost.  Yerges fully embraced the Ann Arbor culture of healthy living, bringing pesto quinoa bowls to practice to refuel after a long day.