Remembering Michigan’s ‘spinning fullback’ from 1947 national-title team

Ann Arbor News (MI)

March 30-- Mar. 30--Long before the days of sports specialization, as we see so often now, Jack Weisenburger did it all.

He did it all well, too.

Was there anything that the former Muskegon Heights High School and University of Michigan multi-sport standout could not do?

A 1991 Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame inductee, Weisenburger died Monday at the age of 92 in Mt. Pleasant, where the Muskegon native and his wife, Sally, had resided for more than six decades.

Jim Moyes, a Muskegon-area sports historian and longtime radio voice who now lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., said he did not personally know Weisenburger but he was present for his MASHF induction.

"I just remember him being one of those rare, three-sport stars. You don't see that very often anymore," Moyes said. "An outstanding baseball player. He was just one step away from the big leagues. He played behind Johnny Logan in the Triple-A system for the Boston Braves. I mean, that was a very strong system at that particular time. You know, they had Eddie Mathews and then eventually they had guys like (Hank) Aaron."

As a senior at Muskegon Heights High School, Weisenburger was a captain for the football, basketball and baseball teams. He also was class president and salutatorian.

THE SAGINAW NEWS

On the wall of Jack Weisenburger's insurance office of the General Agency Co., in Mt. Pleasant, was a photograph of Weisenburger with three University of Michigan teammates from the past. From left, Bump Elliott, right halfback; Howard Yerges, quarterback; Weisenburger, who played fullback, and Bob Chappuis, left halfback. (Saginaw News file photo)

During his senior year at University of Michigan, Weisenburger helped the Wolverines football team win a national championship. He also captained the baseball team in 1948 and graduated as the Big Ten's Scholar Athlete of the Year before going on to play professional baseball for five years in the Braves organization.

In a 49-0 Rose Bowl thrashing of USC in the 1948 game, Weisenburger scored on three, 1-yard touchdown runs as the Wolverines finished the season 10-0 and edged out Notre Dame for the No. 1 national ranking. His trio of rushing TDs in that game tied a Rose Bowl record for individual scoring.

"People still remember him for being the 'spinning fullback' on the Rose Bowl team that just decimated Southern Cal," Moyes recalled.

In 1988, Michigan's 1947 squad was chosen as one of the top 15 teams in the history of college football, according to The Sporting News.

Weisenburger was drafted by the Washington Redskins of the NFL, as well as by the New York Yankees of the All-American Football Conference. He turned down football to pursue his first love, baseball.

He signed with the Boston Braves and climbed as high as the Triple-A Milwaukee Brewers, which was the Braves' top farm team, before he retired from baseball in the early-1950s.

Weisenburger married Sally Carnahan in 1950. Four years later, they moved to Mt. Pleasant to go into the insurance business with her father, Tip Carnahan, at the General Agency Co.

Weisenburger retired from the insurance agency in 1992. That year, he was inducted into the U-M Hall of Honor.

Weisenburger was born Aug. 2, 1926, in Muskegon. At Muskegon Heights High School, he played football, basketball and baseball, and he also ran track for the Tigers.

At U-M, he lettered four years in both football and baseball. On Michigan's 1947 national-title football team, Weisenburger and Bump Elliott were the only two Wolverines to play both offense and defense.

According to his obituary, Weisenburger loved sports in general, especially golf, fishing and hunting pheasants with his family in South Dakota. He also enjoyed watching his sons, grandchildren and great grandson play sports, and cherished spending time at their cottage on Crystal Lake in Beulah.

For a span of about a dozen years, Weisenburger served as a registered official for high school sports, working hundreds of basketball games and many football games.

Weisenburger's son, Perk Weisenburger, is athletic director at Ferris State University. Perk's son, Jack, who attended Rockford, is currently on the U-M baseball team as an outfielder and pitcher.

Family will receive friends at Clark Funeral Chapel in Mt. Pleasant on Thursday, April 4, at 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. Services will be held at First Presbyterian Church in Mt. Pleasant at noon Friday, April 5, with visitation at 11 a.m. A private family graveside service will follow in Riverside Cemetery.

___

Visit The Ann Arbor News, Mich. at www.mlive.com/ann-arbor

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.