Football Player At Michigan
A native of Mount Clemens, Michigan, Weber played football at Michigan in 1925 and 1926 as a halfback and fullback in the same backfield with College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Benny Friedman and College Hall of Famer Bennie Oosterbaan. In 1927, Weber scored two touchdowns against Wisconsin in Fielding H. Yost's last game as Michigan's football coach (also the last Michigan football game played at Ferry Field). Michigan won the game, 37–0. The next week, Michigan played Ohio State in Columbus, and an anxious Weber was quoted as saying to Oosterbaan, "Ben, at this rate they're going to beat us 40-0." Oosterbaan reportedly replied, "Dammit, Wally, we haven't had the ball yet."
Having played with Friedman and Oosterbaan, Weber once modestly noted that "my sole function in the drama was to inflate the ball." Weber later recalled that the 1925 and 1926 teams with Oosterbaan and Friedman helped build the demand for Michigan football: "We were so good, we created the demand for the new stadium. Ferry Field had a capacity of 45,000 and that wasn't nearly big enough to handle the crowds who wanted to see us play. So they had to build the new stadium."
In 1925 or 1926, a rule change was instituted so that players did not need to pursue a fumble out-of-bounds attempting to gain possession. During a game after the rule change, Weber reportedly scrambled after a fumble out-of-bounds, across the track surrounding the gridiron at Ferry Field. Weber scraped his face, hands and arms with the cinders from the track. When he handed the ball to an official, the official said, “Weber, you dummy, don't you know the rule changed this year and the ball belonged to Michigan when it went out of bounds?” Weber replied, “Sure I knew, but I wasn't sure you did.” Asked in 1977 about how modern football players differed from his era, Weber conceded that modern players were bigger and stronger, yet noted: "But players had more stamina in the old football game. A Harmon played it all the way. An Oosterbaan played it all the way. A Weber played it all the way. Sixty minutes, no breaks."
Read more about this topic: Wally Weber
Famous quotes containing the words football and/or player:
“In this dream that dogs me I am part
Of a silent crowd walking under a wall,
Leaving a football match, perhaps, or a pit,
All moving the same way.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“There has been in our time a lack of reliance on language and a lack of experimentation which are frightening to anyone who sees them as symptoms. We know the phenomenon of stage-fright: it holds the player shivering, incapable of speech or action. Perhaps there is an audience-fright which the play can feel, which leaves him with these incapacities.”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)