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Willie Heston is his Michigan sweater circa 1902, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
September 9, 1878 - Willie Heston was a halfback from San Jose State who later also played for the University of Michigan. Willie had never played football before when he enrolled into the San Jose State Normal School in 1898. His objective was to get a degree and become a teacher for his vocation. It was discovered though that Willie Heston was a very fast man as he ran the 100 yard dash in 10 seconds flat with good size for the era at 5'-8" tall and weighing in at 190 pounds. The school's football coach at the time was Jesse Woods who introduced the young man to the gridiron and promptly played him at halfback after seeing his natural talent on display. Woods was right on the money as Heston was a great runner that scored more touchdowns than his other players on the team. The next season in 1899, Willie Heston became the captain of the team which went undefeated and earned the right to play Chico State Normal School in a league championship game. The game ended in a 6-6 draw and people from both teams agreed to settle the game with a rematch three weeks from the time when the first matchup took place. For some unknown reason Woods did not coach the San Jose squad for this second championship game and Stanford's Coach Fielding Yost stepped in to lead Heston and his teammates as he was released by Stanford because the Pacific League barred him from being their coach snce he did not graduate from the school as was the rule for the league in that day. With just a few weeks of practice Yost guided the San Jose State team to 46 -0 blow out of Chico State in the rematch to capture the title. In 1901 Heston graduated and received his teaching degree and accepted a job at a school in Oregon. Coach Yost sent Willie a letter about that same time stating that he had accepted the head coaching job at Michigan and invited his former player of just one game to join him at Michigan. At first Willie declined the invitiation, and it is unknown what caused the change of heart but he soon there after accepted Fielding Yost's invitation. Willie Heston then set out to study law at Michigan while playing for the Wolverine's football team. Heston and Yost made Michigan one of the greatest teams in college history. The Wolverine squads from 1901 through 1904 became known as "the point-a-minute" teams because their average point totals were very close to a point being scored every minute they played! Remember, the forward pass was not legal in football until 1906 and Willie was the work horse of the team, as evident in a 1903 game against the University of Chicago Maroons where the Wolverines had a total of 267 yards rushing and Heston was responsible for 237 of them. Heston's four years at Michigan had a record of 43-0-1 and they outscored their opponents in an extremely one sided way 2326 points to 40! They won the National Championship in 1901 and again in 1902 as Michigan won the very first Rose Bowl for the crown. Coach Yost called Willie Heston the best player he has ever seen and WIllie was voted as the halfback by the Football Writers of America as the All-TIme team of the first 50 years of football. The National Football Foundation and the College Football Hall of Fame selected Willie Heston to enter the Hall in 1954's induction ceremony. Professional football was in it's infancy but multiple teams wanted Willie Heston to play for them. As the story goes Willie was approached by two teams in particular who wanted to pay him to play for their respective teams, the Akron East Ends and the Massillon Tigers. The shrewd Heston created a bidding war by the to teams for his services and even had sent a telegram to each stating that the other had offered him $500 to play one game on Thanksgiving Day 1904. The two club figured out what he was doing and each refused to do futher business with him. Heston became what was described by one writer as being "professional football's first hold out." Willie then went into coaching at Drake University for the 1905 season. And was coerced to play again in 1906 as he signed a contract to play for the Canton Bulldogs reportedly for $600 per game plus expenses. As fate would have in his first pro game as a player, he broke his leg against those same Massillon Tigers that he had sent the telegram to, and the leg was bad enough that it ended his playing career.
Willie Heston (underneatht eh football) in his Michigan team photo circa 1902, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Willie Heston in his Michigan football gear circa 1902, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
