University of Michigan Hall of Honor
Fritz Crisler
- Induction:
- 1979
Young Herbert "Fritz" Crisler's career-long love affair with athletics prospered during his under graduate career at the University of Chicago where he earned nine letters in basketball, baseball and football, playing the latter sport under the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg. He also starred in the classroom, receiving the prestigious Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor and graduating with honors in 1922. At that point, Crisler became Stagg's assistant and remained there until 1930. After that, he filled football head coaching duties at Minnesota (10-7-1) and Princeton (35-9-1). The conference title won by U-M in 1943 was its first in a decade. Crisler led Michigan back to the heights of college football in 1947, as his "Mad Magicians" finished a perfect 10-0 and shut out Southern California in the Rose Bowl. Crisler was named Coach of the Year for the '47 season. He handed over the head coaching position to Bennie Oosterbaan in 1948 but continued as U-M's Athletic Director, a post he had assumed in 1941 when Yost retired. As A.D., Crisler enlarged Michigan Stadium twice, pushing it over the 100,000-capacity mark and was responsible for the building of the basketball facility, which now bears his name. A College Football Hall of Fame inductee in 1954, Crisler retired in 1968 but remained in Ann Arbor, where he died in 1982.
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