Eckersall, Norman E. Brown (sports editor of the Central Press Association), and Lawrence Perry. Kipke was also selected by Norman E. Brown as the best all-round player of the 1922 season. Team captain and right end Paul Goebel was also selected as a first-team All-American by Athletic World''. Left end Bernard Kirk was chosen as a first-team All-American by Walter Eckersall. With the proliferation of All-American selectors, the Romelke Press Clipping Bureau assembled a consensus All-American team based on its compilation of the votes of "nearly every important pressman who has picked an All-American team." Romelke also ranked the nation's top football teams based on the total number of votes its players received in the All-America voting. Michigan ranked as the No. 1 team in the country under Romelke's statistics with Iowa and Chicago finishing in second and third places. The top five were as follows: Death of Bernard Kirk In the early morning hours of Sunday, December 17, 1922, Michigan end Bernard Kirk sustained a fractured skull and internal injuries in an automobile accident. Kirk and four others were returning to Ann Arbor after a night in Detroit when the car in which Kirk was a passenger slid off an icy road and crashed into a telephone pole. The other four members of the party, including former Michigan football player Eddie Usher, were either uninjured or sustained only minor injuries. Kirk was taken to Beyer Memorial Hospital in Ypsilanti unconscious and in critical condition. Over the next week, newspapers across the country followed the daily changes in Kirk's condition. On Sunday evening, Kirk remained unconscious and doctors expressed fear for his recovery. Early in the week, Kirk's condition was much improved, and Kirk's father reported that physicians had told him that his son would recover. Kirk suffered what was reported as a "slight relapse" on Wednesday. The United Press reported that Kirk's pulse was down, and doctors expressed fears that meningitis might develop. Doctors expressed hope that Kirk's "fine physical condition will pull him through," and his condition improved again on Thursday. After an up-and-down week, meningitis set in, and Kirk died on Saturday morning, December 23, 1922. On learning of Kirk's passing, Kirk's teammate Harry Kipke told reporters, "Bernie Kirk was one of the best liked boys that ever wore a Michigan uniform. He was one of the greatest ends the University ever had, and he was a