A random act of kindness from the Schembechler family to mine

Submitted by SteelBrad on

I'm hoping this is ok to share. This is my first post so my images may not work or may be too large. I apologize in advance.

Sunday evening I was browsing eBay looking for cool Michigan items to display in my basement. One of the items I've been looking for is a seat from the stadium renovations that happened in the late 90's and early 00's. I've missed on a few of them but found a seller with a handful of them listed. Without reading too much of the description I messaged to ask the seller a question concerning missing items from the certification.

The seller got back to me quickly and answered my question while striking up a conversation based on my Pittsburgh related user id. Sending messages back and forth, I informed him although I love Pittsburgh pro sports I am a Michigan fan first and foremost. I also told him I fell in love with Ann Arbor when I made my first trip there. On that trip my brother donated a kidney to my Mom.

After a few more messages, and out of the blue, the seller told me he'd like to send me a seat free of charge from his Mom to my Mom. I was floored. I offered to at least pay shipping but he refused. After this, I also shared that my Mom was undergoing a mastectomy the following day to remove a cancerous lump. I also read more of the description and connected the dots the best I could. Seeing his signed his last message "M" I believed I was talking to Matt Schembechler, son of Millie and Bo.

2 days later, this arrived (accompanied with a note signed by Matt with best wishes to my family): 

I'm hoping this was ok to share. I couldn't resist because it was one of the nicest things that could've happened to my family the night before surgery. My Mom really liked the story and couldn't believe he would do something so nice.

Lastly, Go Blue, Cancer Sucks!

MGoBoard
Football

Bando Calrissian

September 4th, 2014 at 10:06 PM ^

This is indeed awesome. 

Weren't there some issues with how these seats made it to the marketplace? Back in the 90s, there was a really huge kerfuffle about (I think it was) this (step)son selling these, in particular whether or not he was actually authorized to do so. There were allegations they weren't actually intended to be sold. Bo got dragged into it, there were a lot of ill feelings, and I think he was told not to sell them anymore. They had a whole line of seat-based items, including some that were autographed by Bo, some with Michigan-themed laser etchings, things like that.

That being said, this is awesome, and best of luck to your mom!

EDIT: See: 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-01-15/news/9901160190_1_michiga…

And from the Daily:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2706&dat=19990115&id=c_tJAAAAIBAJ…

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 68117

Bando Calrissian

September 4th, 2014 at 10:47 PM ^

Looking at the auctions, these certificates from Michigan have Joe Roberson's signature on them. Who hasn't been AD in nearly twenty years, and was in the middle of trying to stop Matt from doing this. The stamp looks to be from Matt's company, not Michigan.

My guess is Matt is clearing out some old inventory, whether or not Michigan actually knows about it. I suspect they don't. 

Joined: 07/02/2008

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Thorin

September 4th, 2014 at 10:20 PM ^

Thanks for sharing. Does anyone remember for sure if the benches were metal or fiberglass even before that renovation? That looks like an original 1927 bench.

Joined: 04/07/2009

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BlueCube

September 5th, 2014 at 7:14 AM ^

been mentioned here where Dave Brandon has gone over and beyond for charitable causes or even to help the athletes on campus. This was a very positive thread and you had to post total bullshit. I don't agree with a lot of Dave Brandon's positions but he is not a heartless main.

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