Alvin Wistert

Alvin Lawrence "Moose" Wistert (June 26, 1916 – October 3, 2005) was an American football offensive tackle. He played college football for the Boston University Terriers in 1946 and for the Michigan Wolverines from 1947 to 1949. He began his collegiate football career at age 30 following 12 years of working in a factory and serving in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He played at the defensive tackle position for the undefeated 1947 and 1948 Michigan Wolverines football teams, both of which finished the season ranked No. 1 in the final Associated Press poll. He was the oldest college football player selected as a College Football All-American, having been selected to the 1948 College Football All-America Team at age 32 and the 1949 team at age 33.

He was the last of the three Wistert brothers—along with older brother Whitey and younger brother Albert—to play for the Michigan Wolverines football team. All three Wistert brothers played at the tackle position, were selected as consensus All-Americans, and were later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Alvin was the last of the three brothers to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, receiving the honor in 1973. The Wistert brothers all wore jersey No. 11 at Michigan and are among the seven players who have had their numbers retired by the Michigan Wolverines football program. Their number will be put back into circulation starting on November 10, 2012, before a Michigan home game against the Northwestern Wildcats as part of the Michigan Football Legend program. The Legends program was discontinued in July 2015, and the numbers again permanently retired.

Early life Wistert was born in 1916 in Chicago, Illinois. His parents, Kazimir J. Wistert and Josephine (Shukis) Wistert, immigrated to the United States from Lithuania in 1894 and were married at Chicago in 1907. His father was a policeman in Chicago from at least 1910 to 1927.

Wistert's father was shot while on duty and pursuing a robbery suspect in July 1926. By the spring of 1927, Wistert's father, who had served in the U.S. Army from 1898 to 1901, was disabled due to "chest emphysema with draining sinus" and was admitted to the U.S. National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He died in June 1927 when Alvin was 10 years old.

Wistert's mother, Josephine, used money from her husband's war pension and the Policemen's Benefit Association to keep the family together and to educate her six children.

Wistert attended Carl Schurz High School in Chicago, but dropped out. He did not play football in high school. Wistert later recalled that he was often confused with his brother Al Wistert who played both college and professional football. In 1982, he told an interviewer that an officer approached him in 1944, "shook my hand and said 'I saw you play in Philly and at Michigan.'"

College athletics

After his discharge from the Marine Corps, Wistert worked for Procter & Gamble Soap Company in Massachusetts. He learned that Boston University was offering high school equivalency tests that would allow him to enroll there.

After one semester at Boston University, Wistert transferred to the University of Michigan. Wistert played defensive left tackle for the undefeated 1947 Michigan Wolverines football team that became known as "The Mad Magicians", and is considered to be the greatest Michigan football team of all time. Wistert later recalled the tight competition to play for the 1947 team: "There were players of almost equal ability on the first two teams. You had to play at your peak because there was someone who could always step in. Also, there was a good balance. A good mixture of youth and maturity." In addition to being the largest player, he was also the oldest. Wistert recalled, "When I played football for Michigan in 1947, opponents would say, 'Here comes Pappy and his kids again.' I was a 30-year-old college freshman. I was 13 years older than some of the other players."

As a junior, Wistert was selected as a consensus All-American while playing for the undefeated 1948 Michigan team that finished the season ranked #1 in the Associated Press poll. In October 1948, Michigan helped secure Michigan's 19th consecutive victory with a blocked punt at the 12-yard-line of the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Michigan recovered the ball at the one-yard line and scored a touchdown on the next play. The 1948 team also set a Rose Bowl record defeating U.S.C. 49–0.

After the 1948 season, Wistert was unanimously chosen as the team captain of the 1949 team.

When Wistert played his final game for Michigan in November 1949, the Detroit Free Press offered to fly his mother, Josephine, to the game to watch her son play. She had never seen one of her sons' football games in person but listened to the games on the radio. She declined the invitation, noting that she had been ill would listen to the game on the radio while looking at her sons' pictures.

The Sporting News published a photograph in December 1949 of Wistert's mother "Cheering Alvin's Final Game" while listening on the radio with a Michigan pennant and photographs of her three sons visible in the background. In 1981, he was also inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in the fourth class of inductees alongside his brothers. Only five Michigan football players earned this honor before him.

Later life and family After graduating from Michigan, Wistert worked in the insurance business. In 1950, he was employed as a general agent for Federal Life & Casualty in Ann Arbor. He later worked as a manufacturer's representative.

Wistert had two daughters and four grandchildren. His only grandson, Jason Alvin Neeser, played basketball at Dartmouth College.