He was the starting left halfback on the undefeated 1898 Michigan Wolverines football team that won the school's first Western Conference championship.

"[3]Louis Elbel, a University of Michigan student, was so inspired by Widman's sixty-five yard run and the subsequent outcome of the game that he went to his sister's house that afternoon immediately following the game and composed "The Victors," which is the University of Michigan's well-known fight song.

[4][5][6][7][8][9] After the game, the Chicago Daily Tribune published a story on Widman in which it opined that he "promises to become one of the greatest football stars Michigan has ever produced.

Professor Albert Pattengill announced the faculty's decision finding that Widman was "taking the full amount of course work laid out for him by the dean of the law department" and concluding there was no foundation for the charges that Widman did not intend to return to college after the Christmas vacation.

[12] Widman did not return to Michigan in the fall of 1899 and subsequently played football for the Detroit Athletic Club.