Yost vs Rockne: College Football’s 20-Year Cold War

Fielding Yost and Knute Rockne built the two most powerful programs in college football — and spent 20 years hating each other without ever coaching a single game against one another. This is the story of the Michigan-Notre Dame feud: a religious and cultural cold war fought through letters, newspaper columns, and a track meet that finally broke everything apart in 1923. From Notre Dame's first football lesson at the hands of Michigan in 1887, to Harry "Red" Miller's stunning 1909 upset, to the disputed eligibility case that killed the 1910 rematch, to the infamous blowup at the 1923 Big Ten track championships — this is how two men defined themselves against each other for two decades without ever meeting on the field. 0:00 The Two-Decade Cold War 1:12 The 1887 Origin Story 4:18 The 1909 Turning Point 7:00 The Student Who Witnessed the Feud 11:16 The 1923 Track Meet Explosion 16:16 A Shocking End to the Conflict football history documentary