What is your favorite Bo Schembechler story?

Submitted by MGoCooper on

I know people always talk about great Bo Schembechler stories here and there. But to my knowledge, there hasn't been just an open topic to just have everyone share there favorite Bo memories and stories. Hell, even if there has been a thread discussing it, I think we can all justify saying them again.

 

If you love Michigan, then it's hard to pick out just one memory from Bo. For the sake of this topic however, I'll narrow it down to two. The first is from 1969, when Bo first took over at Michigan, when the facilities were pretty ran down. All the coaches would complain to Bo about how bad everything was, and Bo would always find ways to motivate them. For instance when he told one coach that was hanging his coat up lazily one day, "Men, these hooks on the wall, could have been the hook that Fritz Chrysler used".

 

The second is the whole Billy Taylor story, where Bo was the one who took him to prison in Wisconsin, and never left "one of his kids". Not ashamed to admit that I get choked up every time I hear that story.

 

 

Ziff72

October 5th, 2011 at 11:28 AM ^

I'm drawing a blank on the name, but the best story is when he chewed out the Captain MLB of the defense who said some of the guys were complaining about practices being too hard.

The run that defense went on from that point was legendary.

 

I also like the Dierdorf "You are fat and you are mine" story but that's just comical not uplifting.

Leaving J. George's house because he was a dick to his mother was also great.  

JeepinBen

October 5th, 2011 at 12:17 PM ^

about how in 1969 Bo said no lineman could be over 300lbs. Dierdorf and another lineman had been able to rig up the scale in AA so that it wouldn't read over 298 or something and they made it through the whole year. Then the day before a big game (OSU??) They had to weigh in again. No time to rig the scale. Dierdorf and the other lineman (I think his roomate) were terrified, weighed in over 300lbs, and were sure they wouldn't get to play. They were sitting in their hotel room, not knowing what to do, when they heard a thundering knock on their door. They open it, it's Bo. They're expecting to get kicked off the team. Instead Bo says

"Do you really think I didn't know you Fat Asses were over 300lbs all year! Get your fat asses ready to kick Ohio State's Ass tomorrow" or some such line.

TheLastHarbaugh

October 6th, 2011 at 3:25 AM ^

Not to be all contrarian or anything, but if you want my opinion on who represents the University of Michigan best, and whose stories are both the most interesting and worthwhile, then you'd hve to go with none other than the timeless, immaculate, Ralph Williams.

 

 

M-Wolverine

October 5th, 2011 at 11:30 AM ^

My favorite is more told by Bo than directly about him. Comes from the first BO book, by Bo, written by Albom. It's about the halftime of the OSU game in '69, and him recounting the game and the atmosphere is electric, but his DC Jim Young pounding the chalkboard yelling something to the effect of "THEY....WILL...NOT....SCORE...AGAIN" .  Still gives me chills.

Section 1

October 5th, 2011 at 11:38 AM ^

Actually, if I recall correctly, nobody scored again.  Right?   Isn't that true?  The Game was 24-12 at the half, and there were no points scored in the second half.  A strange game in that regard.

Rex Kern went out (early?) in the third quarter and Ron Macejowski (sp?) couldn't get the OSU offense going.

One of my favorite Bo stories, just because I am endeared to the picture of him on the old practice field along State Street where Schembechler Hall is now, is the one about the coaches seeing somebody with a camera in a second-story window in a house across State Street and Bo sending some players and GA's across the street to "intercept" the person.  Bo don't need no stinking warrant.  Is that a true story?  I believe it is.

Ziff72

October 5th, 2011 at 12:07 PM ^

I heard the writer on the radio a while back and he described the incident.   Bo was not giving access so he thought he would take things into his own hands.  It turned into a giant cluster fuck, practice was stopped and I believe the police got involved.  He thought Bo was off his rocker.  It gave him an idea how nuts the rivalry had gotten that Bo was that paranoid about spies.

Section 1

October 5th, 2011 at 12:22 PM ^

I was watching a Michigan practice in California one year before a Rose Bowl, and a GA told me I had to leave.  I was on public property; no camera.  Etc.  And I was certainly not an oppo-spy.  But that was Bo for you.  (I will say; they were in fact scrimmaging and working on new plays, which was why watching that particular practice instead of playing golf in Pasadena was so much fun.)

Needs

October 5th, 2011 at 11:36 AM ^

My wife's uncle played on Bo's first team, and he told me the following story...

Every Friday night before a game, the team would go, en masse, to a movie, I guess to kill time and get over the night before jitters. One week, Midnight Cowboy was playing at the Michigan Theater and off the team goes. As the movie goes on, Bo, who's sitting a row in front of my wife's uncle, is getting more and more agitated. About 1/3 of the way into the movie, likely at the hallucinatory Andy Warhol-esque party scene, Bo turns to Hanlon and says "I thought you told me this was a damn western!" He then gets up, turns to the team, and announces "We're getting the hell out of here" and they all walk out.

Dave

October 5th, 2011 at 11:44 AM ^

A writeup is here.

So, the question then was "why didn't Dan Webb cross-examine Bo?"  I remember reading / hearing that in the pre-trial deposition Webb & Co. wanted to paint Bo as a wealthy guy making money off the backs of the poor players.  But when they asked about his salary, they discovered it was -way- less than other top tier coaches.  When they followed up with questions about the Nike / merchandising money, Bo explained that it was pooled and divided up among all the assistant coaches.  And Bo's pure anger / righteousness just played too well to the jury.

I seem to recall that one of the AUSAs wrote up a recounting of the whole thing somewhere, but I can't find it.  Points to anyone that can. 

 

The Wagon

October 5th, 2011 at 11:53 AM ^

he tells about a player (I forget who) who graduated and wanted to go to law school but hadn't used up his eligibility.  He could have attended U of M law school and continued playing but he wanted to go to Harvard because "it was the best law school".  Bo encouraged him and congratulated him upon getting into Harvard.  But then he let the player know that Michigan is better than Harvard.

MGoShtoink

October 5th, 2011 at 11:57 AM ^

The only time I heard Bo speak in person was during graduation in 2005.

Bo received an honorary doctorate and gave a great speech to all of the 2005 graduates. 

He got a bigger applause and louder cheer than the keynote speaker, some guy who invented spell check!

JeepinBen

October 5th, 2011 at 12:11 PM ^

I was a sophomore in 2006 and I remember seeing Bo's last trip through Ann Arbor. I lived on Washtenaw and on my way home from class I saw a bunch of police cars waiting near Washtenaw and South U. I waited my turn as  a huge funeral procession came by, taking the long way through campus (I assume) over to the big house one last time.

I saw Lloyd speak once, and he was talking about his work with the Coach Carr Cancer Fund as well as Bo's work with the Heart division of the Hospital and he was asked to tell a Bo Story. So he did.

When Lloyd was interviewing for the Michigan assistant job, he and Bo and another assistant went out to dinner on Main street. They parked in a structure, and after dinner Lloyd had thought the interview was going well. Bo drove, and when backing out of his spot someone honked at him. Bo honked back. The other driver honked long and loud at Bo, so Bo threw it in reverse, backed into the other driver and then drove away! Lloyd didn't know what to make of it, but took the job anyway!

Jon Falk's book has a story about the two of them getting pulled over on the highway and Jon freaking out that his license would get revoked. Bo said not to worry. When the cop came to the window he saw Bo and after a little conversation gave them a police escort with sirens to get them where they needed to go.

Finally, another Lloyd story: Lloyd was offered the DC job at Notre Dame while he was a lower assistant at Michigan. Lloyd talked to Bo, told him it was an upward move, the salary was better, and he was going to take it. Bo thoughtabout it, sat for a minute, then said "NO! You're Michigan! you're going to stay here!" and Lloyd said it was the best decision he ever made.

*If anyone has more detailed accurate versions of the stories compared to my memory, please share!

seniorbearcat

October 5th, 2011 at 12:14 PM ^

My favorite Bo story is hearing how well the man could sell...he sold my dad to sign with UM the day before signing day at my grandparents house. Selling a kid living in Ohio from an Ohio State family to play for Michigan was no easy task...the man had ice in his veins yet never once said a bad word about Woody in recruiting...just pointed out his age and told my dad he would be his coach all 4 years there. 

jamiemac

October 5th, 2011 at 12:21 PM ^

My favorite Bo story is the time I had drinks with him at a Tiki Bar overlooking the Gulf Of Mexico while watching the day's NFL games. We were gonna have another round when his new trophy wife pulled him away for a beach walk.

I will never forget that moment of circumstance and 15 minutes of football talk.....

Section 1

October 5th, 2011 at 12:26 PM ^

Your second wife doesn't really count as a "trophy wife" when you've spent a long period of time in the hospital with your first wife up until the time she dies of a rare form of adrenal cancer.

jamiemac

October 5th, 2011 at 12:33 PM ^

She was pretty, looked great in her bikini top/beach ware despite being 50ish and much younger than Bo

Where I come from, thats a trophy wife.....and it aint a bad thing

Not everything needs to be construed as evil, Section One.

Everygamesince77

October 5th, 2011 at 12:22 PM ^

Its 1989

the Ohio game

We win

My buddy and I strom the field (those were the days)

There is people, players, coaches everywhere

We end up somehow right by the tunnel and the next thing I know Bo walks by with a police escorst right next to me

I look at him and he face is a ghostly grey color 

I turned to my buddy after Bo disappeared into the crowd going up the tunnel and said

"Man he does NOT look good" "he looks like death"

It was Bo's last game coached in the Michigan Stadium

I think it was two weeks later UM annpounced Bo was going to retire Doctors orders and the bowl game would be his last game

WolverineHistorian

October 5th, 2011 at 12:40 PM ^

He mentioned in "The Schembechler Years" that from the time the final seconds ticked off the clock to the time he walked off the field, he never once smiled because he knew that he had just coached his final game in Michigan Stadium. 

Also, that was the game where Vada Murray was knocked unconscious after colliding with Todd Plate's second interception.  I remember watching that on TV as a 9 year old and being freaked out.  

Understandable that Bo didn't look so great at that time. 

M-Wolverine

October 5th, 2011 at 3:19 PM ^

It was just time, he knew it, and if you watch the press conference after, you can tell, in hindsight.

I always wonder...he was younger than Paterno, and JoePa's still going, so we could have had him for a long time, and he'd have every coaching record out there.  But then, I really think we wouldn't have had 17 more great years with him, because he wouldn't have made i that long still on the sidelines.

Eck Sentrik

October 5th, 2011 at 12:27 PM ^

When I coached at Ohio State and even at Miami, we had really good facilities. When I got here, I was shocked. Our locker room was on the second floor of Yost Field House. We sat in rusty, folding chairs and hung our clothes on nails hammered into a two-by-four bolted into the wall. Those were our "lockers"!

My coaches started complaining. "What the hell is this?" they said. "We had better stuff at Miami."

I cut that off right away. "No, we didn't," I said. "See this chair? Fielding Yost sat in this chair. See this nail? Fielding Yost hung his hat on this nail. And you're telling me we had better stuff at Miami? No, men, we didn't. We have tradition here, Michigan tradition, and that's something no one else has!"

WolverineHistorian

October 5th, 2011 at 12:30 PM ^

I liked the short story George Perles told at Bo's memorial service.  In 1983, Perles became MSU's head coach.  That year, the game between UM and MSU was played in East Lansing.  The coaches met on the field before the game for small talk and Perles said, "I have to tell you, Bo.  I'm really nervous."  Bo smiled and replied, "You should be."  Blue went on to win 42-0.

But one of my personal favorites was a story I read in one of the many books about Bo.  I can't remember which one exactly.  The day before the Northwestern game in 1975, Bo was looking at game film of the Wildcats and came to the conclusion that we were in big trouble.  He slammed his fist down, threw papers and went screaming down the hallway of his hotel, "We're not ready!!!  We're not ready for this game!!!!!" 

The next day, Michigan won 69-0. 

Bo's response?  Nevermind.

Ohioblueblood

October 5th, 2011 at 12:52 PM ^

I love all the Bo storys...love the book Lasting lesson....Read it twice.. second time was this year...when I first read was when we got Rich Rob and he didnt seem anything like what we had a michigan over the years ....and now well we do...GBOD

mgotom

October 5th, 2011 at 12:58 PM ^

I was at the basketball game at Crisler in 1978 when during the break state rep. Perry Bullard was to present a signed copy of a resolution passed by the Michigan legislature and signed by the governor honoring Bo for all his years of service at Michigan. Except Bullard went off on a rant about the state's failure to decriminalize marijuana. About halfway through this Bo stormed off the court and the crowd started loudly booing Bullard. Bullard started reading the resolution but he could not be heard above the crowd noise. Bullard had to beat a hasty retreat when people started throwing things at him.

Classic.

RowoneEndzone

October 5th, 2011 at 1:28 PM ^

When people ask me how I came up with the name Boden, for my son.  I tell them it started with Bo, the late great coach of the University of Michigan Wolverines football team.  My wife agreed if we could call him Bodie.    After extensive research into my Germanic and Swedish ancestry I stumbled across Boden because we needed a formal name that we could yell when he was misbehavin'!!  Almost everyone we tell strangers or family absolutely loves it.  It's different yet familiar.  

FYI Boden is 8 months old and brute as hell.  I hope he commits early in 2028. 

elhead

October 5th, 2011 at 1:56 PM ^

When I was about to begin my sophomore year, the team was in fall camp and this young woman a year older than me who ran with some of my Mosher-Jordan crowd was working a summer job as a groundskeeper on South Campus. She came from a Catholic family in some Detroit NW suburb and her family was split between Notre Dame and Michigan.

It was 1978 and we were preparing to renew the series with Notre Dame. I believe that the second or third game on the schedule was to take place in South Bend.

So one day she comes back to the house at 931 State Street where a bunch of us were living or subletting that summer. We were on the porch drinking beers at the end of the day. She comes up the stairs all exasperated, wearing a Notre Dame t-shirt.

"Jesus Christ! I was over there this afternoon working, and the team went running by with Schembechler. They passed me, went a little ways and then he told them to stop. Then he walked part way over to me, and called me over to him and got right in front of me and looked me up and down."

What are you doing wearing that t-shirt?!?!

I dunno, just what I had to wear today...

Young lady!!! (he said, absolutely fuming) These men are out here every day busting their butts getting ready for one of the most important football games of their lives. How do you think it feels to see a student of the University of Michigan, working here on the grounds, wearing a Notre Dame t-shirt???!!!

Oh, sorry Coach Schembechler, I didn't know...

LET ME TELL YOU THIS!!! UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL YOU EVER SHOW UP FOR WORK HERE AGAIN DRESSED LIKE THAT!!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!?!?!

Rest assured, she never did that again!

Feaster18

October 5th, 2011 at 1:55 PM ^

Bo was the featured speaker at my high school athletic banquet.  The captain of each team would go to the podium and give a brief recap of that team's season.  Bo then made his remarks.  Though he did not take notes, he made a comment about each of the 15 or 20 speakers who had talked.  He was a brilliant, witty, off-the-cuff speaker, and very observant of others.  One of the earlier speakers had mentioned that she would be attending MSU that fall.  Bo started off by saying that it was too bad he hadn't met her earlier, because perhaps he could have pulled some strings and gotten her into her first choice for college.  The captain of my team wore boat shoes - with no socks - along with a sportcoat when he gave his little presentation.  He was going to be attending Miami - Bo's alma mater - that fall.  Bo called him out, and said "Son, I think you'll find when you get to Miami, you'll need to wear socks".   His eye for detail and memory were just astounding. 

 

 

g_reaper3

October 5th, 2011 at 2:40 PM ^

Was how he approached everything so straightforward.  As a junior in spring 1989 I was in Crisler for a ceremony honoring the BB team after winning the national title and I think Fisher was talking and Bo who was AD at the time came wandering over from spring practice, escorted by 2 big football players in full pads, got up and gave this great speech about what a great job Fisher and the team had done, etc., etc.  He was just such a motivating likeable guy.

Its too bad he never got a national title.  At the end of his speech, he made a comment about getting a national title in football one day and he came close during his last season in 1989 but just couldnt beat USC in the rose bowl (still might not have gotten it but no one was undefeated).

bacon1431

October 5th, 2011 at 3:04 PM ^

It was one of his early teams and Bo wanted to make a team rule concerning facial hair and wanted everybody on the team to shave their mustaches. Jim Betts approached Bo and convinced him that mustaches were a large part of African-Americans. Bo went back in front of the team and said the black players could keep their mustaches but the white guys still had to shave. Years later, Bo found out Betts lied so he could keep his mustache.

M-Wolverine

October 5th, 2011 at 3:27 PM ^

It has come to my attention that the black players on this team feel they cannot with a good conscience shave their mustaches, because they feel it is part of the black man's heritage.........so I am allowing them to keep their mustaches. But as for you white players, you have no hertiage! So shave them off!

Or at least a reasonable facsimile of how I remember him telling it...

Feat of Clay

October 5th, 2011 at 4:28 PM ^

This isn't really a happy story, but it made a big impression on me.  The day he collapsed at the TV station, there was a high-level meeting going on with the regents & the president together (if not for a full Regents meeting, at least a subcommittee).  The kind of thing I wouldn't interrupt short of a direct terrorist attack on campus.  But they immediately interrupted it to tell MSC & the regents.  That's what Bo meant to this school--how important he was.  That has always stuck with me.

FSPP-14

October 5th, 2011 at 4:51 PM ^

As a current undergrad I really wish I was a little bit older. I wish I could have understood more about the legacy he had left behind while he was still alive. I remember when I heard of his passing in 2006 and knew it was a big deal, I guess I just didn't feel that magnitude. Even though its tough competition, I kind of hope Hoke can be like that for my generation so I have someone to tell my kids and grandkids about in vivid detail.

stopthewnba

October 5th, 2011 at 5:17 PM ^

When he came to the program and instituted "Those Who Stay Will Be Champions" ... practices were so hard & half the team left, someone put up another sign that said "Those who don't will go on to be doctors, lawyers, and other successful professionals" and Bo left if up in the locker room