William Cunningham

William Ralph Cunningham (July 13, 1872 – September 1957) was an All-American football center for the Michigan Wolverines football team of the University of Michigan. Cunningham was born at Volant, Pennsylvania in July 1872. His father, Valentine Cunningham, was a native of Grove City, Pennsylvania. Cunningham was a 5-foot, 9-inch, 180-pound native of Grove City, Pennsylvania who played center for the University of Michigan Wolverines from 1897-1899. Chosen as an All-American in 1898, he was the first University of Michigan football player to be so honored. The 1898 Wolverines went 10-0 and won the Western Conference (now known as the Big Ten Conference) championship. The first great Michigan football team, the 1898 group outscored its opponents 205 to 26. They shut out Michigan Agricultural College (39-0) and Notre Dame (23-0) before traveling to Chicago for a final game against Amos Alonzo Stagg's University of Chicago team on November 24, 1898. Led by Cunningham, Michigan came out on top, 12-11, for its first Western Conference championship. A newspaper account described Michigan's victory this way: "The western football championship goes to Michigan. On a field that was simply perfect for fast football, and before a crowd of 12,000 the maroons of Chicago went down before the maize and blue of Michigan today by a score of 12 to 11. . . . The Michigan line, in which big holes were torn by the light Northwestern team, was simply impregnable today, with the exception of about ten minutes in the second half, when the Chicago men pushed their opponents aside with an apparent ease."Another article noted: "Michigan, with the exception of one or two double passes, relied almost altogether on straight football, line bucking and runs around the end. Chicago, on the contrary, used trick plays throughout but the team work was of a high order, as shown by both teams."Based on his performance in the Chicago game, Stagg recommended Cunningham as an All-American. At that time, t