Germany Schulz
Adolph George "Germany" Schulz was an All-American American football center for the University of Michigan Wolverines from 1904 to 1905 and from 1907 to 1908. While playing at Michigan, Schulz is credited with having invented the spiral snap and with developing the practice of standing behind the defensive line. As the first lineman to play in back of the line on defense, he is credited as football's first linebacker.
During his time at Michigan, Schulz also became involved in one of college football's earliest recruiting controversies, as some suggested that he was a "ringer" recruited by Michigan coach Fielding H. Yost. Schulz was 21 years old when he enrolled at Michigan and had worked in an Indiana steel mill and reportedly played for either amateur or professional teams. Michigan was refused re-entry into the Western Conference in 1908 when it insisted on playing the 25-year-old Schulz for a fourth season in violation of conference eligibility rules.
Despite the controversies, Schulz is remembered both as an innovator and one of the toughest football players in the early days of the game. In 1951, Schulz was selected as the greatest center in football history in a poll conducted by the National Football Foundation and became one of the initial inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame. He has also been inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame and the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor.
After his days as a collegiate athlete ended, Schulz assumed a variety of assistant coaching, athletic director, and head coaching positions in college football. He eventually entered the insurance industry, where he enjoyed a long career. He died in 1951, several days after being named the greatest center in football history by the College Football Foundation.
Childhood
Schulz was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the son of German immigrants. His father, Adolph F. Schulz Sr., was a doctor who was born in 1854, and his mother, Sophia, was born in 1850. The couple emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1880 with their infant daughter Wilhelmina. Schulz also had two brothers, Fred Schulz and Arthur Schulz, both of whom became doctors. Schulz played football for Fort Wayne High School and was also a member of amateur city teams for several years.Star athlete at the University of Michigan
Concerns that Schulz was a ringer
In 1904, Schulz enrolled at the University of Michigan at age 21, standing and weighing. In the early 1900s, many decried the increasing recruitment of ringers—older, experienced players whose qualifications as "student athletes" were suspect. Michigan's coach, Fielding H. Yost, whose teams outscored their opponents 2,821 to 42 between 1901 and 1905, had been accused of using ringers before. When Yost accepted the head coaching job at Michigan, he had recruited his star player, 23-year-old Willie Heston, to transfer to Michigan from the California State Normal School. When the 21-year-old Schulz joined the team, there were suggestions that he was Yost's newest ringer. The suspicions were exacerbated by reports that Schulz was a factory worker in an Indiana steel mill who had played for a half-dozen professional teams before enrolling at Michigan.Until the time of his death, reports of his having been a ringer angered Schulz. While he did work in a steel mill, Schulz insisted that he did not "come out" of the steel mill to play football. Instead, Schulz said he "went into" the mill to harden himself up for the football season. When asked years later how he got to Michigan, Schulz recalled that, in the summer of 1904, he was working in the mill and had received several offers to play football. One day, his father called to say that Fielding Yost of Michigan was in his office. Schulz ran down the street and rushed into his father's office, where he was introduced to Yost. His father promptly told him, "Adolph, this is Mr. Yost. You are to play football for him at Michigan. We have made all the arrangements".
In September 1904, on his way to Ann Arbor, Michigan, Schulz recalled that he stopped in Chicago, Illinois, where he spent four days drinking beer and generally having a "swell time". A group of Michigan representatives eventually found him in Chicago and put him on the next train to Ann Arbor. When he arrived in Ann Arbor, Yost was furious and accused Schulz of flirting with Amos Alonzo Stagg, the legendary coach of the University of Chicago. Schulz was immediately taken out to Michigan's training camp at Whitmore Lake and kept asking Yost when he was going to be allowed to register. Yost told Schulz that he had taken care of it. According to Schulz, he was registered two weeks before he ever saw the campus.
Yost's account differed dramatically from that of Schulz. Sensitive to allegations that he was recruiting ringers, Yost denied having recruited Schulz and claimed that Schulz was just another student who tried out for the team. According to Yost, the first time he ever saw Schulz was in the fall of 1904 when Schulz was waiting tables at a fraternity house in Ann Arbor and told Yost he would like to play football. Yost went so far as to say that he initially thought the young waiter looked too awkward to be a football player, but "did not want to discourage anybody".
Freshman year: Michigan's undefeated season
Schulz was the only freshman to play on Michigan's 1904 football team. The team featured the school's all-time scoring leader, Willie Heston, finished with a record of 10–0, and outscored opponents 567–22. Schulz started all ten games for the 1904 team.Schulz began his playing career at Michigan as a guard, starting five games at that position. However, midway through the season, Yost moved Schulz to center, where he started the remaining five games. Schulz's play at center was reported to have been "gilt-edged", and his accuracy in snapping the ball was praised by the team's quarterback, Fred Norcross. Six games into the season, Schulz's hometown newspaper reported on Schulz's accomplishments under the headline: "Makes Good at Michigan". The article noted: "Schulz went to Ann Arbor practically green at the game, but by hard and consistent work he has succeeded in winning a place on the greatest team in America, and is the only freshman out of fifty who was able to do so".
Schulz was one of the larger football players of his time and was known as a fierce hitter. Schulz liked to tell a story about an incident during Michigan's 1904 game against Oberlin College. He recalled: "We were playing Oberlin in 1904. Their regular center was hurt and a little 155-pound fellow came in. I hit him as hard as I could. Imagine my surprise when he looked up and said, 'please sir, if you are determined to be fierce, let me know and I'll get out of the way.' I was no good the rest of the afternoon. Every time I looked at the little fellow, I had to break out laughing".
1905 season: Stardom
Before the 1905 season got underway, Schulz contracted malaria in the spring. Newspapers reported it was a "serious attack" and that he "has been quite ill", but he was able to recuperate before the 1905 football season. In October 1905, Coach Yost said: "In looking over the whole bunch, I do not see anyone who has improved more than Schulz. He is bigger and stronger than ever, and I do not know a man in the world that has it the least bit over him in the center position. I would not trade him for any other center rush in the country today. He looks good to me for the All-America team right now". Though he was not selected for the All-America team in 1905, Schulz did receive All-Western honors.: The "spiral snap" and the "roving center"
Schulz is widely credited with two important innovations in the development of the modern game of American football. First, he is credited with having invented the spiral snap. Before Schulz, centers passed the ball to one of the backs in an end-over-end manner.Second, Schulz is credited with being the first center to step back from the line while playing defense. Prior to Schulz's innovation, centers played in the line on defense. In 1905, Schulz began dropping back from the line, enabling him to use his speed to move laterally and giving him greater coverage across the field of play. At the time, the innovation was referred to as a "roving center", but it was effectively the birth of the linebacker position in American football. Asked how he developed the "roving center" idea, Schulz noted that the backs started from five yards behind the line and concluded, "No back living could move five yards while I was moving four". He described his thinking to Coach Yost this way: "It's all very simple, Yost. The ball carrier travels five yards while I travel only four yard to meet him. I know of no back who can beat me in a five-yard race after giving me a one-yard handicap".
In 1954, sports columnist Dave Lewis explored the history of the linebacker position, and concluded that Schulz was the "first of the breed". Lewis wrote: "Schulz revolutionized defensive line play being the first to back up the line".
Schulz recalled that the first time he stepped back from the line on defense, Coach Yost was horrified. Yost said, "Dutchman, what are you trying to do?" "Stop 'em", replied Schulz. "But you're supposed to play in the line", Yost insisted. "They'll run over us." "Listen Yost", Schulz claims to have said, "My way is best. If any of 'em gets by me, I'll move back into the line and stay there". Yost eventually saw the wisdom in Schulz's technique, and soon nearly all centers were backing up the line on defense.