Charles A. Baird

Charles Baird enrolled in the University of Michigan in 1890 as a student in the law department. In 1891, he entered the literary department and was elected to the athletic board as its freshman representative. In 1893, he was elected as the manager of the football team and held that position in the 1893, 1894, and 1895 seasons. Despite receiving his A.B. degree in 1895, he was employed as the football team's manager for the ensuing fall, reportedly "by reason of his business ability." His brother, James Baird, who earned an Engineering degree in 1896, played on the football team and was Captain in 1894. ==Michigan's first athletic director==

1898 season By 1897, the finances of the Michigan Athletic Association under constantly changing student control were "at a low ebb." of athletics. Baird was given "complete control of all branches of athletics at Michigan" in order to induce him to return to the school. and closed the season with a 12–11 win over Amos Alonzo Stagg's University of Chicago team on November 24, 1898. The game was played in Chicago with a paid attendance of 12,000—the largest crowd to watch a Michigan football game up to that time. The 1898 victory over Chicago served as the inspiration for Louis Elbel to write The Victors, Michigan's fight song. Elbel's lyric, "Champions of the West," refers to Michigan's having won the 1898 Western Conference championship—the first in the school's history. 1899 season Seeking to increase the prestige of Michigan's football program, Baird traveled during the winter of 1899 seeking to arrange games with the country's top teams. In January 1899, he met with representatives of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Harvard—then considered the top football programs in the country. The 1899 football team finished the season with an 8–2 record, losing 11–10 to Penn in Philadelphia, and 17–5 to Wisconsin. The Wisconsin game, however, was an early demonstration of Baird's business acumen. Baird contracted for the game to be played in Chicago on Thanksgiving. Both schools had a large alumni base in Chicago, and the site was within an easy train ride from each school. As a result, the game drew 18,000 paying spectators—breaking the Michigan attendance record set the prior year in the Chicago game. In December 1899, Baird was rewarded for his efforts when the university appointed him "director of outdoor athletics," with the rank of junior professor in the university and a salary of $2,000. 1900 season In January 1900, Baird met with Amos Alonzo Stagg in Ann Arbor and negotiated a two-year contract with rival, the University of Chicago, including a Thanksgiving game in Chicago. Though Chicago would be playing at home in 1900, Baird required that Stagg agree to "an equal division of the gate receipts." In May 1900, Baird lost his head football coach, Gustave Ferbert, to the Klondike Gold Rush. Ferbert left Ann Arbor to join "two other prominent Michigan football men" to prospect for gold in Alaska. (Ferbert returned from Alaska in 1908 as a millionaire after striking gold, though these claims are debated by modern historians.) Langdon "Biff" Lea was hired to replace Ferbert as coach for the 1900 football season. Lea had played at Princeton from 1892 to 1895 and was considered one of the greatest football players in Princeton's history. The 1900 team finished in 5th place in the Western Conference with a 7–2–1 record, losing to rival Chicago and to Iowa. ==Yost's "point-a-minute" teams==

Hiring of Fielding Yost In January 1901, Langdon Lea returned to his alma mater, Princeton, as its first "official" football coach. Baird was left without a football coach for the second time in eight months. At the end of the 1900 football season, Stanford University passed a rule requiring all coaches to be alumni. The decision left Stanford's football coach, Fielding H. Yost, who was not an alumnus, without a job. Yost wrote to the University of Illinois in December 1900 seeking a job. Illinois did not have an opening, but the school's athletic director passed along Yost's letter to Baird at Michigan. Baird asked Yost to come to Ann Arbor to interview for the football coaching job. Before leaving for Ann Arbor, Yost sent Baird a box of clippings and scrapbooks. Baird met Yost at the Ann Arbor train station, where Yost is reported to have told Baird, "There are three things that make a winning football team, spirit, manpower and coaching. If your boys love Meeshegan, they've got the spirit, you see. If they turnout, that takes care of the manpower. I'll take care of the coaching." Baird offered Yost the job at a salary of $2,300 (the same as a full professor) for only three months work. The 1901 Wolverines became known as the "point-a-minute" team, as their offensive production resulted in an average of one point being scored every minute. Even after the 1901 season had commenced, Baird continued to seek opportunities to increase revenues from the team's success. In mid-October 1901, Baird signed a contract with the University of Iowa for a Michigan-Iowa game to be played on Thanksgiving Day at Chicago's West Side baseball park. In November 1901, Baird issued a public offer that Michigan would play any rival claimant for the Western Conference championship in a post-season game. The proposed game, which would have matched Michigan against the winner of the Minnesota-Wisconsin game, would have allowed for the determination of an undisputed champion, and also presented an opportunity for substantial receipts at the gate. Michigan's offer was reported in the press as "practically a challenge," Wagner offered Michigan $2 a day for meal money, to which Baird replied, "We won't come unless we can go comfortably and in reasonable style. We want $3 a day meal money." Baird's financial demands were met, Baird noted that "a game played in Milwaukee would tend to bring out the full strength of Milwaukee and surrounding territory." The 1902 team compiled the school's second consecutive undefeated season and National Championship and outscored opponents 644–12. 1903–1904 seasons Michigan's undefeated streak continued through the 1903 and 1904 seasons (with one tie against Minnesota in 1903). Over the course of Yost's first four seasons at Michigan, the team was 44–0–1, outscoring opponents 2,331–40. ==Acclaim for Baird's role as athletic director==

Media coverage of Baird's role in Michigan's success Michigan was the most successful football team in the country, and while Yost received the lion's share of the credit, much praise was also paid to Baird for his role in building Michigan's athletic programs. Baird has been called the "financial genius" of the Yost era football teams. In March 1903, an eastern newspaper wrote about the success Baird had achieved in his five years in control of athletics at Michigan: In that time the Michigan athletics treasury has acquired a large cash balance and the teams have been universally successful. For the past two years Michigan's teams have won the western championship in every branch of sport except baseball, and in a financial way the Baird administration has been phenomenally successful. One paper observed that their compensation was "over double that of United States Senators," though each was "conceded to be worth all he gets." Baird was praised as a "clever diplomat" who arranged all the schedules and "looks after the business end." Track and Olympic championships Michigan's success was not limited to football during the Baird era. Baird asked trainer Keene Fitzpatrick to serve as track coach in addition to his responsibilities as trainer for the football team. Michigan's track teams under Fitzpatrick from 1901 to 1910 compiled a 24–2–1 record in dual meets and won Western Conference track championships in 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, and 1906. Michigan's athletes also excelled in Olympic competition during the Baird years. Over the course of four Olympic Games held during Baird's tenure as athletic director, Michigan athletes won 16 medals, including 7 gold medals. In 1900, funds were solicited from faculty, students, alumni and Ann Arbor businessmen to send four Michigan track athletes to the Olympics in Paris. The Michigan athletes won three silver medals in Paris—John McLean in the high hurdles, Charles Dvorak in the pole vault, and Howard Hayes in the 800 meter race. Six University of Michigan athletes won 10 medals: six gold, two silver, and two bronze. And at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, Michigan athlete Ralph Rose repeated as the gold medalist in the shot put, and John Garrels won a silver medal in the 110-meter hurdles and a bronze in the shot put. Development of Ferry Field Michigan's football team became a major attraction after the success of Coach Yost, and Regent Field with its 800-seat grandstand could not accommodate the paying crowds that sought to watch the team play. Baird improved the university's athletic fields and "was responsible for the construction of Ferry Field to replace the outdated Regents Field." In 1902, Detroit businessman Dexter M. Ferry purchased and donated north of Regent Field for use in constructing a new athletic facility. Baird began by constructing new bleacher seating for 6,000 adjacent to the existing grandstand. One thousand circus seats were also installed. By 1906, the new Ferry Field with seating for 18,000 spectators was opened. The facility included a brick wall and ornamental gate with ten ticket windows. Baird's phenomenal success drew interest from professional sports. In March 1903, Boston Red Sox owner Henry Killilea offered Baird a contract as the baseball team's business manager and financial secretary, replacing Joseph Gavin. Press accounts indicated, though Baird was loath to quit Michigan, the "financial inducements offered by Mr. Killilea were so far in excess of Baird's present salary at the University of Michigan that there is hardly any doubt but that he will accept, although alumni are working tooth and nail to keep him at Michigan." ==Later years at Michigan: 1905–1909==

1905 season: Allegations of professionalism The 1905 season began with Michigan on top of the football world, having completed four consecutive undefeated seasons. In early 1905, Baird wrote an article for the Illustrated Sporting News commenting on the differences between low-scoring Eastern football and high-scoring Western football. Baird commented on differences in coaching and on the Western teams' focus on speed and continuous development of multiple formations, alternating line plays with end runs, introducing the element of uncertainty and inspiring the spectator. Michigan continued its "point-a-minute" offense, outscored opponents 495–2, and finished the season 12–1. However, the 1905 season also found Baird and Yost mired in scandal. In the week before the Western Conference championship game against Chicago, Stanford University President David Starr Jordan, wrote a feature article in ''Collier's'' making allegations of "professionalism" at Michigan. Yost was described as the "czar of Michigan's system" and Baird as the "business man of Michigan athletics and silent partner in the firm of Yost & Baird, victory-makers." the story was printed in newspapers across the country. Even President Theodore Roosevelt spoke at the time calling for a "gentleman's agreement" among American colleges and universities providing for the removal of any player who engaged in brutality or foul play and of the player who is not a bona fide student and amateur. Former Michigan player and then Drake coach, Willie Heston, one of the players named as a professional in Jordan's article, responded: "I was in a position to know what was going on and I believe that I am safe in saying that no Michigan athlete ever did anything since Baird took hold of things there." One week after Jordan's article was published, Michigan's four-year unbeaten streak ended in the last game of the season, a 2–0 loss to rival Chicago. The Angell Committee also voted in March 1906 to prohibit summer training, to eliminate professional coaches and the "training table," and to limit the admission price to college athletic events to a maximum of fifty cents. One of the most drastic reforms enacted in 1906 restricted conference schools to five football games per year. Accordingly, and despite playing 13 regular season games in 1905, Michigan was permitted to play only five games in 1906. Michigan finished 4–1 in 1905, losing the final game of the season to the University of Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania game was negotiated by Baird and played in Philadelphia before 26,000 spectators—setting a new record for the highest attendance at a Michigan football game. In January 1907, a "close friend" of Baird told the press that Baird found the Western Conference's new restrictions to be unacceptable and warned that Baird would resign unless the conference loosened up on the rules. Nevertheless, a proposal to extend the football schedule to seven games and to eliminate the harsh effects of applying the three-year rule retroactively was rejected. One of the most troubling rules going into effect in 1907 limited eligibility to three years. The rule was applied retroactively so that many of the conference's best players, including Michigan's captain Germany Schulz, would be ineligible to play as seniors even though they had played as freshman when such play was within the rules. In April 1907, Michigan announced that it would not comply with the new restrictions, and all athletic competition between Michigan and other Western Conference schools was severed. The Washington Post noted that the new Western Conference rules had made it difficult for western schools to compete in the east and criticized the conference for its "mistake" in "virtually driving Michigan out of the conference." 1907 season Because the decision not to comply with conference rules was not made until the summer of 1907, Baird was not able to sign contracts for a full schedule of football games. In February 1907, he announced that he had signed contracts with two football powers from regions outside the Midwest—Penn from the east and Vanderbilt from the south. However, the uncertainty over Western Conference rules forced Baird in May 1907 to turn down games with Dartmouth and the Naval Academy. The Vanderbilt games marked the first time Michigan played a football game south of the Mason–Dixon line. Baird continued in his comments about the Penn game: I think it will eclipse in point of interest and attendance any football game ever played in the Middle West. If we do not draw close to 28,000 spectators, it will be because something has gone wrong. The 1907 season saw Michigan go 5–0 in its first five games, outscoring opponents 107–0. However, Michigan lost the final game of the season to Penn, 6–0, before a crowd of 19,000 at Ferry Field. In April 1908, the school's Board in Control of College Athletics voted in favor of withdrawal, and Michigan ceased being a member of the conference for the next nine years. With the mandatory reduction in both ticket prices and the number of games in 1906 and 1907, Baird's ability to generate a profit for the athletic department had been impaired. In September 1908, Baird announced that the department would be in debt $6,000 at the beginning of the football season—the same as 1907. Baird noted: "This was caused by a poor baseball season and the usual expenditures on the grounds. No, we will not erect any more seats. We now have a seating capacity of 20,000 persons and that will be sufficient." Unrestrained by Western Conference rules, Baird arranged an eight-game football schedule for 1908 that included games against eastern powers Penn and Syracuse, two southern schools in Kentucky and Vanderbilt, and three budding Midwest independents, Ohio State, Notre Dame and Michigan State. Seeking to re-focus attention on Michigan as a national power, Baird wrote a column about the team's prospects for 1908 to be published in newspapers across the country. Baird noted that the forward pass was a "radical change." Baird was positive about the forward pass, stating that it "opens a field for development of skill and science along lines that have been uncultivated" and making the game "more spectacular than ever." Baird announced in March 1909 that his resignation would become final at the end of the then-present college term. ==Banker and businessman in Kansas City==

In June 1902, Baird married Georgia O. Robertson at the Washington Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. Baird and his wife first became acquainted while both were students at the University of Michigan. His wife was the daughter of John Duffy Robertson, "a leading business man and capitalist of Kansas City." and died in January 1908. Baird moved to Kansas City, Missouri in 1909, where he lived for the remainder of his life. In 1912, Baird paid $49,000 for one of the finest homes in Kansas City, a estate "with forest trees" on Sunset Drive overlooking the Country Club. In March 1914, Baird, who was then engaged in the investment and farm mortgage business, purchased the Western Exchange Bank in Kansas City and was elected its president. At various times, Baird was also a director of the Inter-State National Bank, a director of the Morris Plan Company, and treasurer of the Anchor Savings and Loan Association, all of Kansas City. In 1911, he was in negotiations to purchase the Boston National League baseball team, but opted not to do so. An article reporting on his interest in the Boston Rustlers baseball club noted: Baird is a capitalist of Kansas City. For a number of years he was director of athletics at the University of Michigan and established a reputation in the business end of the game that is second to none. The Kansas City man has always taken a keen and intelligent interest in professional baseball, and has been anxious to obtain a controlling interest in some major league club. Baird also served on the Board of Visitors of the University of Missouri from 1921 until at least 1937, also acting as the President of the Board for several years. ==Baird Carillon==

. In his later years, Baird became a benefactor of the University of Michigan. His most prominent gift was the Charles Baird Carillon, a carillon consisting of 53 bells that was the third heaviest in the world in 1936. The carillon was purchased with a $70,000 gift from Baird. Baird made the gift of the bronze sculpture in 1940 in memory of Thomas McIntyre Cooley, an early professor and dean of the law school. The sculpture is located on the Ingalls Mall, between the Michigan League and Burton Tower. ==Death==

Baird died in November 1944 at age 74 following a heart attack in Kansas City. He was buried at the Forest Hill Calvary Cemetery in Kansas City. ==References==