d's at Yale, and for
the first time played a complete schedule with the leading universities
of the West, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Chicago, with
varying success. The Varsity lost most of her principal games in 1893,
Minnesota winning for the last time in twenty-seven years, though a
final victory over Chicago, 18 to 10, was some compensation for the
earlier defeats.

The autumn of 1894 saw the beginning of a long series of remarkably
successful seasons, which lasted with one or two partial relapses until
1906. These twelve years were not only Michigan's "golden age" of
football, as far as the game itself is concerned, but also one of the
longest series of almost uniformly successful seasons in the history of
any of the larger American Universities. It is true that a decisive
defeat from Cornell, 22 to 0, marred the early season in 1894, but a
second game, 12 to 4, redeemed the record. This was Michigan's first
victory over a rival of long standing. The team was a formidable one,
equally strong on offense and defense, and included such well-known
names in Michigan's football annals as H.M. ("Mort") Senter, '90-'95,
_m_'95-97, end; Gustave H. ("Dutch") Ferbert, '97, end in '94 and later
half-back; G.R.F. ("Count") Villa, 96_l_, tackle; F.W. ("Pa") Henninger,
'97, guard; and "Jimmy" Baird, '96, quarter-back. W.L. McCauley,
Princeton, '94, who had entered the Medical School, proved his ability
as a coach during this and the two succeeding seasons.

Previous to this time there had been little supervision of athletics on
the part of the Faculty, and no attention was paid to the composition of
the teams or the academic standing of the players. When the general
Athletic Association was organized in 1891, an Advisory Board of three
non-resident alumni and four Faculty members was established, though at
first it had slight influence. The Faculty members were becoming
impressed, however, with the significance of the growing interest in
athletics all over the country and realized the necessity of some form
of effective supervision.

Up to this time there had been no real distinction in the West between
professional and amateur. The question came home to Michigan as the
result of a disclosure that two men on the 1893 track team were
sub-freshmen, not yet in college, although they entered the following
fall. The Athletic Board promptly requested the resignation of the
captain of the team and published the facts. The