In the final game of the 1921 season, Minnesota lost to Michigan by a 38–0 score. The game was played at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan, before a crowd estimated at 33,000 spectators,[3] first in drizzling rain and then in cold weather.[4] Prior to the start of the game, a ceremony was held dedicating a bronze memorial tablet honoring four Michigan athletes who died in World War I.[5][6]
Michigan's quarterback Irwin Uteritz scored two touchdowns, including a 65-yard interception return that the Detroit Free Press called "the most thrilling achievement of the afternoon."[4] Michigan end Clark Dean added a field goal from the 50-yard line that the Free Press called "the longest of the season, and, in most respects, the greatest any Michigan man ever exhibited to the gaze of paid spectators."[4]Franklin Cappon scored on a 60-yard touchdown run, and Paul G. Goebel kicked all five extra points and, unguarded late in the game, scored a touchdown on a 30-yard pass from Doug Roby that the Free Press called Michigan's "most spectacular pass" since 1907. Frank Steketee also scored a touchdown when he jumped on a Cappon fumble in the end zone.[4] The game marked the worst defeat that a Minnesota football team had suffered to that point in the program's history, exceeding a 41–7 loss to Iowa earlier in the 1921 season.[4]