University of Michigan Hall of Honor
Thomas Trueblood
- Induction:
- 1981
For more than 50 years of his career, Thomas Trueblood had a profound effect upon both Michigan academics and athletics. Trueblood's legacy, however, has continued on long since his death in 1951 at the age of 95. He arrived in Ann Arbor in 1884, offering to teach speech to University students. This unheard of course was greeted with such skepticism by the university that it gave him a room but no salary, basing his earnings on the tuition he made from students who took his course. Trueblood's speech classes became so popular that the first speech department in the nation was instituted at Michigan in 1918. Besides speech, Trueblood had another love -- golf. He learned the game in 1896 and began teaching it to interested Wolverines in 1901. Few people in the United States knew of the game's existence in this era, but Trueblood managed to maintain an informal team of golfers for athletic play. In 1922, the sport was recognized by the university, and Trueblood was named the head coach. His teams won four straight Big Ten titles from 1932-35 and captured the national championship in both 1934 and 1935. Trueblood tutored such Michigan stars as Chuck Kocsis and John Fischer before retiring after the 1935 season at the age of 79. Trueblood left not only a career mark of 54-8-2 on the links; he was the designer of the "locomotive yell," still used at football games by alumni cheerleaders.
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