Fielding Harris Yost (/joʊst/; April 30, 1871 – August 20, 1946) was an American college football player, coach and athletics administrator.

[1] Yost was also a successful business person, lawyer, and author; but he is best known as a leading figure in pioneering the development of college football into a national phenomenon.

In October 1896, after his team lost three home games to Lafayette, played on three different fields over the course of three days,[8] Yost became a remarkable personification of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

He transferred in mid-season to join Coach Parke H. Davis's national championship team at Lafayette.

In June 1899, the University of Kansas Athletic Association offered Yost $350, and an additional $150 conditionally, to coach the school's football team.

[15] During the 1899 season, the Kansas football team "lived separate from the rest of the students and ate specially selected and prepared food .

In May 1900, Yost was hired as the football coach at Stanford University,[17] and, after traveling home to West Virginia, he arrived in Palo Alto, California, on August 21, 1900.

"[24] The team featured running back Willie Heston, who Yost called the greatest player he ever saw.

[28] Yost said of Schulz's performance: "He gave the greatest one-man exhibition of courage I ever saw on a football field.

[30] In 1910, Michigan was led by All-Americans Albert Benbrook and Stanfield Wells and played its only undefeated season of the independent years, compiling a 3–0–3 record.

[35] He reportedly suffered from a stroke, but was released after two weeks and returned to his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

He was survived by his wife, whom he had married in 1906, a son, Fielding H. Yost, Jr., two brothers, Ellis and Nicholas, and a sister, Mrs. Charles Barry.

[38] A native of West Virginia, Yost's unusual pronunciation of the school's name, "MEE-she-gan," copied by long-time Michigan football broadcaster Bob Ufer, is affectionately carried on by many Michigan football fans and often referenced by ESPN sportscaster Chris Fowler.

A devout Christian, he was among the first coaches to allow Jewish players on his teams, including Joe Magidsohn and Benny Friedman.

However, Murray Sperber's book Shake Down the Thunder places principal responsibility for the Big Ten blackballing and boycotting of Notre Dame on Yost.

It also claims this was motivated by anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant prejudice common in the early 20th century, though John Kyrk's book Natural Enemies points out that there was a bitter feud between Yost and Knute Rockne, head coach of the Notre Dame football team.

Tommy Hughitt was heavily inspired by Yost's system and used it to great success,[40] later adapting it to the professional game with the Youngstown Patricians and Buffalo All-Americans.

Yost invented the position of linebacker with center Germany Schulz; co-created the first ever bowl game, the 1902 Rose Bowl, with then legendary UM athletic director Charles Baird; invented the fieldhouse concept that bears his name; and supervised the building of the first on-campus building dedicated to intramural sports.

[42] Yost initiated the concept of coaching as an actual profession near the turn of the century when he was paid as much as a UM professor.

In addition Dan A. Killian, who was the head coach for the LSU Tigers (1904–1906), reportedly played quarterback on the Michigan football team[43] under Yost,[44] but if he did, he apparently did not qualify for a letter[45] and is not listed below.