John Mc Lean (athlete) - Athlete at Michigan

Athlete At Michigan

McLean's hometown was Menominee, Michigan, a lumber town located in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. He enrolled in the University of Michigan where he became a star athlete in American football, track and field, and baseball. He played as a substitute on Michigan's 1897 football team and played left halfback for the 1898 and 1899 teams. McLean was also a member of Michigan's track and baseball teams. In May 1899, McLean set the University of Michigan school record in the 120-yard hurdles with a time of 16-1/5 seconds. On the same day, he also broke a western intercollegiate record in the running broad jump by clearing 23 feet.

In 1898, McLean played on Michigan's first Western Conference (as the Big Ten Conference was then known) championship football team. The Wolverines won the championship with a 12–11 victory over Chicago—a game that inspired Louis Elbel to write the University of Michigan's fight song, "The Victors." McLean contributed to the win over Chicago with a kick return to the 50-yard line and a second kick return for 35 yards.

In November 1899, McLean led the Wolverines in a game against eastern football power, the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. The Wolverines lost the game 11–10, but McLean's play at left halfback drew praise in newspaper accounts carried across the country. McLean made several long runs, principally on end runs. Michigan scored its first touchdown "wholly on a series of runs by McLean, around Pennsylvania's left end." The score came on a 22-yard end run that "set the Michigan rooters fairly wild." The New York Times reported that even the Penn fans showed their appreciation for McLean -- "his brilliant sprinting around Pennsylvania's ends often brought applause from the followers of the Quakers."

McLean's final game for Michigan was a November 1899 match against the University of Wisconsin played in front of 17,000 fans in Chicago. Newspaper accounts reported that Michigan's "crack halfback" McLean "made one of his end runs" with ten minutes to play—a forty-yard run for a touchdown. Another newspaper described McLean's final touchdown as follows: "the premier halfback, receiving the ball on the forty-yard line, bounded past the Badgers' left end, and at a high speed struck out for the goal line."

After the season ended, McLean received acknowledgement with his selection as a first-team All-American, including All-American selections by The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Fort Wayne News.