Bo Schembechler

This month's Michigan Today links to a terrific Jon Falk video.  About five minutes of Mr. Falk's reminiscing about lessons learned from Bo and what the University of Michigan means to him.  He also offers some insight as to why Brady Hoke generally avoided wearing red throughout much of his career - on Falk's first day of work he walked in wearing a red coat from Miami and was tossed from Bo's office.  Later Bo explained "I don't talk to anyone in a red coat".

Mr. Falk is a beloved figure around the program, and this video underscores why that is: http://vimeo.com/39387884 .

Since the stroll through 1986 came off pretty well, and since it’s the off-season, and since Seth asked for it, we step into the Quantum Leap accelerator, once again, and journey back into the glorious past to observe Michigan athletics as part of overall history.  We emerge in a time that will be unfamiliar to most of us, including yours truly as this is the year of my birth; a time without PCs, and cell phones, and ESPN, and internets, and blogs.  Journey back to the bizarre and colorful times that were….1971!

We are in the midst of Richard Nixon’s first term as president, where he shows a penchant for pointing at things. Vietnam is still going on and still unpopular.  It gets even more unpopular when the New York Times publishes the Pentagon Papers, and all the dirty secrets of the war that past administrations have kept from the public are brought to light.  On the international scene, the United Nations formally recognizes the Peoples Republic of China and also declares the first Earth Day, Idi Amin leads a coup and seizes control in Uganda, and IRA-led rioting in Northern Ireland grows worse against British rule.

Human exploration of the Moon continues with the Apollo 14 and 15 missions, with Apollo 15 featuring a crew of Michigan alumni (Space, Bitches….Space) and a sweet ride in the Lunar Rover.  The Soviet Union also achieves a technological milestone with the launch of Salyat 1, the world’s first orbiting space station.  Other milestones in technology include the release of the Intel 4004, the first commercial microprocessor.  Texas Instruments introduces the first pocket calculator sounding the death knell of the slide rule.  And, the first e-mails and chat rooms appear on the ARPAnet, the precursor of the modern Internet.

1971 is the year that many sporting legacies are born.  Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali in the “Fight of the Century” to set off one of the great boxing rivalries in history.  The great Roberto Clemente leads the Pirates to the World Series title.  In the NBA, future legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar leads the Milwaukee Bucks to their only world title.  In other areas of sport, legacies are being solidified.  UCLA continues its era of dominance under John Wooden, defeating Villanova to earn their 7^thtitle in 8 years.  The Montreal Canadiens win the 17^thof what will be 24 Stanley Cups.  In the world of golf, Jack Nicklaus wins the PGA, rounding out the first half of his record 18 major championships.

In our spare time we watched television on just three stations.  We were offered edgy broadcasting like “All In The Family” and “The Odd Couple” and tamer fare like “The Partridge Family”.  On the big screen we were following the exploits of Popeye Doyle in “The French Connection”, Alex and his droogs in “A Clockwork Orange”, and we meet Dirty Harry for the first time.  On the music front, Led Zepplin IV is released, the Allman Brothers record At Fillmore East, Queen is formed, and Jim Morrison is found dead in Paris.

The music of Michigan was different during this time too.  The Michigan Marching Band is an all-men arrangement under the direction of the legendary William T. Revelli and are introduced with the less politically correct “Men, take the field!” during football pre-games.  Women would not be seen amongst their ranks for another year.  Women are not seen amongst the ranks of any of Michigan’s varsity sports in 1971, as Title XI is still a year away from passage into law. 

Bo Schembechler is in his 3^rdseason as head coach of the Wolverines and fields one of his greatest teams and points at things while doing so.  Lead by All-Americans Reggie McKenzie, Billy Taylor, Thom Darden, and Mike Taylor, Michigan went 11-0 during the regular season and won Bo’s 2^ndBig 10 championship.  Billy Taylor would finish his career as Michigan’s all-time rushing leader with 3,072 yards, a record that would stand for 6 years until broken by Rob Lytle.  Mike Taylor would go on to play 2 seasons for the New York Jets.  Reggie McKenzie would go on to a 13 year NFL career with the Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks, blocking for the likes of OJ Simpson.  Thom Darden would be a 3 time All-Pro in his 10 seasons with the Cleveland Browns and is still the career-leader in interceptions for the franchise.

The season was highlighted by a thrilling 10-7 victory over Ohio in Ann Arbor.  The game’s memorable moment came late in the game when Darden came up with a win-preserving interception that Woody Hayes insisted to the referees should have been called pass interference.  Hayes proceeded on a minutes-long tirade, ripping up yard markers, drawing 2 unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, and making an embarrassing spectacle that aired on news programs nationally…quite an accomplishment in the days before 24 hour media coverage.

Michigan’s season would end with another disappointing showing in Pasadena with a 13-12 loss to the Stanford Indians (Stanford would not become the “Cardinals” until 1972 and not the “Cardinal” until 1981).  Michigan came into the game ranked 3^rdin the country and a 10.5 point favorite against the 8-3 Indians, but Stanford managed to edge out the Wolverines with a 31 yard field goal with 16 seconds to play.  The 1971 Michigan team would finish ranked 6^thin the AP and 4^thin the UPI and is commonly regarded as the team that came closest to earning Schembechler a National Championship, although it is debatable that even a 12-0 Michigan team would’ve passed up eventual champion Nebraska.

Well, that concludes our nostalgic step through 1971.  A time where clothes were bold and loud, phones were rotary dialed, and Michigan still didn’t sell out every home football game.  It’s hard to imagine a time without video games, personal computers, and 24 hour news coverage, but those times existed.  Here’s hoping that Michigan’s upcoming season sees Michigan back in the Rose Bowl undefeated against Stanford.  I got a feeling Hoke would serve up epic payback topped off with a pointed finger.

Interesting read on Barry Larkin and Bo Schembechler from Barry's days at Michigan:

http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/fandom/post/_/id/2053/barry-larkin-talks-schembechler-pete-rose

Bruce Madej from the Athletic Department tweeted the following link to an interview given by Bo, apparently 10 years before he died and 15 years ago now.  The link actually takes you republication of the interniew on the occasion of Bo's death. 

Bruce Madej commented in his tweet that he had never seen the interview, which is amazing to me since he has been the PR guy with the athletic department forever.

I thought the interview was very interesting on a variety of topics and thought many of you would enjoy it.

http://alanpaul.net/2006/11/rip-bo-1929-2006-2/

The torrent is up at MGoVideo. Boyz will have the YouTube version up later.

Link

Today, I went for a walk.  I left my central campus apartment and headed south on State St., hoping that if I walked slowly enough, by the time I got to the stadium, there would be someone at the gate to take my ticket and let me in.  I seriously even took my ticket along, just in case.  I walked because I could not read another word or watch another video about Michigan Football (yes, when it comes to Michigan Football, you capitalize the ‘F’).   I had no intention of writing anything, but as I walked, I could not fight the urge. 

I walked by the ticket office, and saw a couple dozen people picking up their tickets.  “Who could possibly wait until today to pick up their tickets,” I wondered. But then again, I called the ticket office in a panic when a friend’s tickets arrived in the mail and I had not yet received mine yet.  I hadn’t even checked my mail yet.  They were there.  That day, I took out my tickets, snapped a picture on my phone and sent it to my brother, a Michigan alum living in Chicago, who wasn’t as much jealous as excited, and will be here with me as many Saturdays as work will allow this fall. 

I walked by Schembechler Hall, and thought of Bo.  I never met the man, and am not even old enough to have seen the games he coached live, but have read about and watched everything I can about his legend.  I like to think that his handshake could have told you all you needed to know about him.  Strength, confidence, a touch of brashness and a genuine human-beingness that makes you try to make up words like human-beingness.  Probably what it’s like to shake the hand of a 4^th generation plumber, his hands strong from wrenching the steel inner workings of his teams, who loves what he does and couldn’t give a damn if you don’t respect his craft.  I thought of how many people’s lives he must have touched, how many large, grown men probably heard the news of his passing, silently walked to a room away from their wives and children, and wept.  How his death deeply affected millions of people who probably never got closer to him in person than the confines of Michigan Stadium’s railings would allow.  I saw what appeared to be two grandfathers with their grandsons walking to take a peek inside Schembechler Hall.  I thought of how one day I hope I’m lucky enough to do the same.  To pass on what is one of my greatest passions to another generation like so many have before. 

As I walked, I saw a pizza delivery car pass with a Pizza House sign atop its roof, and thought of Rich Rodriguez.  A couple friends and I would occasionally go to the coach’s radio show on Thursdays to drink beer, eat pizza and listen to Brandstatter and whomever the guest of the day was.  There, I met Rich Rodriguez several times.  While I had hot and cold feelings about him throughout his tenure, it becomes much more difficult to dislike a man when you meet him.  When he turns to your table in commercial breaks, asks you about your future and jokes that he wishes he could have a beer with you.  When he meets you only a couple times, you’re nothing more than another fan, and he remembers your name.  When you watch him order the free pizza Pizza House provided him with to take home to his wife and kids.  I thought of how, regardless of your feelings on him as a coach, you have to be so thankful that he brought Denard Robinson to this program.  A young man who redefines his position, loves playing football more than anything in the world, and encapsulates humility and what you want in a student-athlete in a way that is indescribable.  I literally hate that last sentence because it falls so incredibly short of capturing everything great about Denard Robinson.  Ronald Bellamy’s Underachieving All Stars does the best job I’ve seen.  Brian’s not too bad at it either. 

I walked past the Al Glick Field House and noticed something I had not seen before. By the Southeast entrance is a stone sign with ‘2009’ engraved in it.  I realized its significance.  When myself and everyone reading this are long gone, it will remain.  There will be a 232^nd year of Michigan Football, and 332^nd and on and on.  The magnitude of a tradition that great and sacred filled me with pride. 

I walked past the field hockey fields and thought of Charles Woodson.  Strange, right? But the color and texture of the field reminded me of what used to be at Spartan stadium (yep, they get a lowercase ‘s’ in ‘stadium’) when Charles Woodson went on a solo mission into space and landed perfectly back at Cape Canaveral, with his intergalactic pigskin in tow.  The man in black and white stripes who could not even contain his own amazement as he reached back and made the most deliberate first down signal for Michigan I’ve ever seen.  “Neutrality be damned,” thought that referee, “that was awesome and deserved to be called like a home plate umpire who rings someone up in the bottom of the 9^th of a perfect game in game seven of the World Series on a nasty curveball thrown by Cy Young striking out Babe Ruth.” Except more exciting and historic.  (Boom, Fred Jacksoned.) I thought of how Charles Woodson an idol to me in my childhood.  How when I recently found a journal from my elementary school days, scribbled in awful penmanship and grossly misspelled was, “My hero is Charles Woodson.  He plays cornerback for the Oakland Raiders.  He went to the University of Michigan.  I am going to go to the University of Michigan.”  I thought of Saturday afternoons when I would sit with my friends glued to ABC watching every amazing second of every game, then going out in the brisk autumn evening to throw a football around until it got dark.  “I’ll be Charles Woodson,” my friend would say. “No, I will,” I’d argue back.  We all wanted to play cornerback.  Kids who like football do not grow up wanting to play cornerback.  They want to be Joe Montana or Barry Sanders, but after 1997, they wanted to be Charles Woodson, too.  When I played football in seventh grade, I was a quarterback and the smallest middle linebacker in the history of the universe, because that’s where my coaches wanted me to play.  I was number 24, Sir Charles’ number for the Raiders.  I wasn’t number 2 only because one of my best friends on the team had a name before mine in the alphabet and got to pick his jersey number first, that bastard.  When I left middle school and they let us have our jerseys, I scribbled ‘Woodson’ on the back with a Sharpie.  Obsessed probably doesn’t do it justice.

I turned right and headed down the train tracks.  I thought of the men that built those tracks, and I bet they liked Michigan Football.  I’ll bet they were the kind of households where if someone asked to watch a different game at halftime, the father would say, “we only watch one team in this house.  Michigan.” (I’ll confess I stole that from Rudy. And if the timing of black and white TV and railroad construction and televised football don’t match up, screw you for caring.)  I thought of warm apple cider spiked with a little whiskey, bratwursts sizzling and smoking on portable grills, the smell of a cigar or two, and the feeling that everything is right in the world on late chilly fall Saturdays in Ann Arbor. 

I walked through the parking lot and was in awe of the pantheon that is Michigan Stadium.  Or Cathedral.  Or Mecca.  There’s something magnificent about a building that’s awe-inspiring even when it’s completely void of its purpose and patrons.  Like a church you walk around even though there’s no priest or parishioners in it (if you’re into that kind of thing), Michigan Stadium begs to be explored even when you’d be only one of one in there instead of one of 113,000.  I can think of no other stadium in the world I’d rather have my favorite football team call home.    

I walked as close as I could to the tunnel and saw the Rose Bowl Years painted by the player entrance and thought of Lloyd.  A man who I think I’d be proud to be like as a father.  A man who supports Mott’s Children’s Hospital as if every child there is his own.  If you asked me who the best football coach in the country was, I wouldn’t have hesitated to say Lloyd Carr, right or wrong.  Someone who pretty much anyone would love to play golf with, or just talk life.  I’m upset with myself right now for waiting this long to talk about Lloyd.  My attention span is waning and there are only so many analogies and adjectives left in the keys right now.  Suffice it to say, I’m proud to know that Lloyd Carr was a coach for my favorite team.  He’s a great man and a pillar of hope in the sometimes selfish, cold and calculated world of college football.  If he ran for political office, I wouldn’t vote for him, but not because I don’t think he’d be good at it, because I think he’s above that world, and I’d want to protect him from it.

I walked a little further, and this long walk reminded me of Brady Hoke.  A man who would have walked from San Diego.  Yes, it’s been talked about so much by idiots like Drew Sharpe that it’s almost annoying, but I still love it.  Because I believe him.  Like many people, the Brady Hoke hire was scary for me.  I wanted Harbaugh. I don’t resent him for going elsewhere.  I kind of wanted Les Miles, but was a little leery.  I did not initially want Brady Hoke.  I knew who he was only because I am a college football NUT, but I wasn’t excited.  Then, he had that press conference.  Words can only do so much, but sometimes sincerity and emotion can make a big difference.  Brady Hoke belongs at Michigan.  He has already achieved his dream.  Not just to coach college football, but to be the Head Coach at the University of Michigan.  People will feel that.  I doubt there will ever be a time when Hoke really wants to talk about how many hours he puts in, because he doesn’t care.  Not talking about your new salary until after you quit your old job and move your family across the country is kind of crazy.  But it’s not crazy if it’s for your dream.  I think he would have accepted a 10^th of what he’s earning if that’s all Michigan could have afforded.  As long as he could’ve provided for his family, he would have been A-OK with that.  You know that question from Office Space about what you would do if you won a million dollars ? What would Brady Hoke do if he won 100 million dollars? He would coach the University of Michigan Wolverines, I think.  Also, buy lots of sausage.  Maybe commision the invention of a time machine to go and convince Chris Farley never to play that Matt Foley guy.  Regardless, I have faith, and maybe it’s partially blind faith, about the direction he’ll take Michigan. But that blind faith is part of what makes being a fan so great.  The hope for the future success for your team and the belief, even the deep-rooted feeling of a knowledge that your team will be great again. It also is part of what makes the offseason so painstakingly long. 

I walked back up Hoover and decided to write this, knowing it would get me that much closer to tomorrow.  And tomorrow, I’ll walk back down State St., surrounded by tens of thousands of people who love and believe in the same thing that I do.  That walk will be filled with less thoughts, mostly because I’ll just be awash in excitement and anticipation.  But there’s a few vague words or feelings concepts or horribly cliché ideas that will run through my brain.  Winning.  Pride.  Championships.  Character.  Tradition.  Michigan Football. 

P.S.  In the most uplanned and awesome timing ever, we’re now 24 hours from kickoff.