Harry Newman

The Second Coming 

 

One of the oldest clichés in the English language is that lightning never strikes twice. Yet, just a few short years after Benny Friedman had graduated college to bedevil pro defenses, Michigan's football opponents found themselves facing a seeming reincarnation of the fearsome Friedman. In 1930, Michigan introduced their new quarterback: a handsome, smart field boss, brilliant in both passing and placement kicking, and clearly destined to be an All-American stalwart before proceeding to fame and glory with the New York Giants in the professional ranks. No, it wasn't Friedman re-entering university for a second education - Benny was still calling signals in the pro ranks. The new Wolverine star was a Jewish athletic marvel, all right, but this one was a lad from Detroit named Harry Newman.

It is perhaps unfair but completely inevitable that Harry be compared to Benny throughout his career. Newman was a sensational football player in his own right, but there just weren't that many Jewish All-America quarterbacks starring for Michigan equally adept at running the offense, throwing the ball or kicking it through the uprights. As a matter of fact, Newman was given an early opportunity to show his stuff partly because Friedman's success story was so indelibly remembered. At the end of his freshman year