Entering the new decade the Minnesota Gophers, under the
direction of Dr. Henry Williams, had firmly established
themselves as one of the true powers of college football.
Williams himself had earned his rightful place among the 
game's great coaches and innovators, a list that included
Amos Alonzo Stagg, Glenn "Pop" Warner, and Fielding Yost.

The Gophers romped to a 6-1 record in 1910, tying for the
Western Conference Championship in the process. So dominant
was this team that it outscored its opponents 179-6, with
the 6 coming in a season-ending loss to Michigan, who was 
temporarily out of the league.

They followed that performance with a 6-0-1 mark in 1911,
only this time they had the league title all to themselves.
As the years passed, the Gophers continued to win, taking
the league title in 1915, again with a 6-0-1 mark. So dom-
inant were the Gophers in the conference that the term
"Minnesota Monopoly" was being applied.

Williams' masterpiece was his 1916 team. With Pudge Wyman
throwing to Bert Baston, the Gophers had one of the greatest
passing attacks the game had ever seen. They slaughtered
their first four victims by a combined score of 236-14
and observers around the nation were acclaiming them the
finest football team in the game's history. But a huge 14-9
upset loss to Illinois, a 49-point underdog, ruined their
parade. The team would destroy Wisconsin and Chicago to
finish the season, but the damage had been done. There
would be no National Championship, nor even a conference 
title, for a team considered by many to be the best ever to
step on a gridiron.

The Gophers would put together winning seasons for the rest
of the decade, despite the First World War, but it seemed
to many that the Williams era had reached its high-water 
mark in 1916. The game was growing, and many fans feared
that the job of Gopher head coach could no longer be manned
by a "part-timer", even if that part-timer was a legend.