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11-17-2006, 03:53 PM
Bo Schembechler Died today at age 77.
Here is the story if you feel like reading it...
One of the greatest hearts in the history of collegiate football ceased beating Friday.
Legendary University of Michigan coach Bo Schembechler is dead at the age of 77.
Schembechler fell ill while preparing for the taping of a television show at Channel 7. Station officials said police and fire officials responded immediately, and escorted Schembechler’s ambulance to Providence Hospital at 9:25 a.m.
Doctors said Schembechler never regained consciousness after his collapse. His personal physcian, Dr. Kim Eagle, said Schembechler had defied the odds for years of very serious heart disease. "He was the most courageous patient I ever met," he said during a press conference at the hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:42 a.m.
Mary Sue Coleman, University of Michigan president, called Schembechler "the icon of Michigan football." She said, "No one represented Michigan football better than Bo."
Schembechler and his wife, Cathy, had a three-hour dinner Thursday night at an Ann Arbor restaurant, with Andrea Fischer Newman, a regent of the University of Michigan and Northwest Airlines executive, and David Brandon, chairman of Domino's Pizza, also a UM regent. Schembechler was relaxed and in excellent spirts, said Neuman, who described herself as “shaken up” by the loss of her colleague and friend.
“He was so excited about the game,” she said. Despite trouble walking, the former head coach “was really psyched up, telling us stories about Ohio State.” The former coach planned to watch Saturday's game on television and - contrary to his self-described pessimism - said “These kids are ready - we're gonna win,” according to Neuman.
Schembechler was stricken on Oct. 20 after falling ill at the same location, and doctors implanted a device to regulate his heartbeat. Schembechler told reporters later the device covered about half his chest, and that doctors still were adjusting it.
Schembechler had his first heart attack in 1970, on the eve of his first Rose Bowl appearance with the Wolverines; and a second one in 1987. He twice has undergone quadruple heart bypass operations.
Schembechler, named Big Ten Coach of the Year seven times, built a 194-48-5 record at Michigan in his two decades there, from 1969 to 1989.
In recent years he has maintained an office at U-M; and spent a good part of his time helping the charity named for his wife, Millie, who died of adrenal cancer.
Glenn E. Schembechler received his bachelor’s degree from Miami (Ohio) University in 1951, and his Master’s from Ohio State in 1952, while he was serving as a graduate assistant coach for the football team.
He began his coaching career as an assistant at Presbyterian College in 1954, then at Bowling Green in 1955, and Northwestern in 1958 before spending five seasons as an assistant at Ohio State, working for a fiery, mercurial head coach named Wayne Woodrow "Woody" Hayes.
As recently as Monday, when he sat down with reporters to discuss Saturday’s Michigan-Ohio State game, with a national championship and two undefeated seasons on the line, Schembechler recalled his days with Hayes with gratitude and respect.
"I had a wonderful experience there because I coached for Woody when Woody was really Woody," Schembechler said. "He was the most irascible guy that ever lived, and the worst guy in the world to work for. But I wouldn’t change that experience for anything in the world because I learned a lot. And we won a few games here and there."
In 1963 Schembechler took over as head coach of his alma mater, Miami of Ohio, where he labored quietly, but always effectively (in his 27 years of coaching, no Schembechler team ever had a losing season).
He made the big time thanks to the wisdom and foresight of the man known as the father of modern-day athletic directors, the marketing wizard Don Canham.
When Canham took over as Michigan’s athletics boss in 1968, his first major decision was a stunner: He ordered the institutional gray Big House — Michigan Stadium — repainted in the school colors of Maize and Blue.
A year later he made that decision look picayune, when he decided to turn over one of the nation’s plum coaching jobs to an unknown from a Mid-American Conference school, one Bo Schembechler.
"Don was a master marketer," Schembechler told The Los Angeles Times when Canham died last year.
"He told me, ‘Bo, I’ll market, you win and we can do some great things here.’"
That year the Wolverines played at home against Ohio State, with the Buckeyes the defending national champions, and a heavy favorite. "The game wasn’t close to a sellout," Schembechler said. "So Canham went and sold 25,000 seats in Columbus. The stadium was jammed (with Ohio State rooters). We beat them anyway, and the next day I said, ‘Canham, don’t you ever do that to me again.’ But he sold out the stadium, and it made a Michigan ticket hard to get."
Schembechler’s death was mourned, and his life celebrated, by generations of people whose lives he touched.
"I spoke to him only two days ago," said James P. Hackett, head of the manufacturing company Steelcase in Grand Rapids, who played for Schembechler. Bo wanted to talk about a former U-M player who recently died of leukemia, Hackett said.
"Bo was confirming with me how frustrated he was that we couldn’t have a found a match for him for a bone marrow transplant. It was just so perfect, as the week played out, that this was what was on his mind, taking care of somebody else.
"He was a true hero."
Here is the story if you feel like reading it...
One of the greatest hearts in the history of collegiate football ceased beating Friday.
Legendary University of Michigan coach Bo Schembechler is dead at the age of 77.
Schembechler fell ill while preparing for the taping of a television show at Channel 7. Station officials said police and fire officials responded immediately, and escorted Schembechler’s ambulance to Providence Hospital at 9:25 a.m.
Doctors said Schembechler never regained consciousness after his collapse. His personal physcian, Dr. Kim Eagle, said Schembechler had defied the odds for years of very serious heart disease. "He was the most courageous patient I ever met," he said during a press conference at the hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:42 a.m.
Mary Sue Coleman, University of Michigan president, called Schembechler "the icon of Michigan football." She said, "No one represented Michigan football better than Bo."
Schembechler and his wife, Cathy, had a three-hour dinner Thursday night at an Ann Arbor restaurant, with Andrea Fischer Newman, a regent of the University of Michigan and Northwest Airlines executive, and David Brandon, chairman of Domino's Pizza, also a UM regent. Schembechler was relaxed and in excellent spirts, said Neuman, who described herself as “shaken up” by the loss of her colleague and friend.
“He was so excited about the game,” she said. Despite trouble walking, the former head coach “was really psyched up, telling us stories about Ohio State.” The former coach planned to watch Saturday's game on television and - contrary to his self-described pessimism - said “These kids are ready - we're gonna win,” according to Neuman.
Schembechler was stricken on Oct. 20 after falling ill at the same location, and doctors implanted a device to regulate his heartbeat. Schembechler told reporters later the device covered about half his chest, and that doctors still were adjusting it.
Schembechler had his first heart attack in 1970, on the eve of his first Rose Bowl appearance with the Wolverines; and a second one in 1987. He twice has undergone quadruple heart bypass operations.
Schembechler, named Big Ten Coach of the Year seven times, built a 194-48-5 record at Michigan in his two decades there, from 1969 to 1989.
In recent years he has maintained an office at U-M; and spent a good part of his time helping the charity named for his wife, Millie, who died of adrenal cancer.
Glenn E. Schembechler received his bachelor’s degree from Miami (Ohio) University in 1951, and his Master’s from Ohio State in 1952, while he was serving as a graduate assistant coach for the football team.
He began his coaching career as an assistant at Presbyterian College in 1954, then at Bowling Green in 1955, and Northwestern in 1958 before spending five seasons as an assistant at Ohio State, working for a fiery, mercurial head coach named Wayne Woodrow "Woody" Hayes.
As recently as Monday, when he sat down with reporters to discuss Saturday’s Michigan-Ohio State game, with a national championship and two undefeated seasons on the line, Schembechler recalled his days with Hayes with gratitude and respect.
"I had a wonderful experience there because I coached for Woody when Woody was really Woody," Schembechler said. "He was the most irascible guy that ever lived, and the worst guy in the world to work for. But I wouldn’t change that experience for anything in the world because I learned a lot. And we won a few games here and there."
In 1963 Schembechler took over as head coach of his alma mater, Miami of Ohio, where he labored quietly, but always effectively (in his 27 years of coaching, no Schembechler team ever had a losing season).
He made the big time thanks to the wisdom and foresight of the man known as the father of modern-day athletic directors, the marketing wizard Don Canham.
When Canham took over as Michigan’s athletics boss in 1968, his first major decision was a stunner: He ordered the institutional gray Big House — Michigan Stadium — repainted in the school colors of Maize and Blue.
A year later he made that decision look picayune, when he decided to turn over one of the nation’s plum coaching jobs to an unknown from a Mid-American Conference school, one Bo Schembechler.
"Don was a master marketer," Schembechler told The Los Angeles Times when Canham died last year.
"He told me, ‘Bo, I’ll market, you win and we can do some great things here.’"
That year the Wolverines played at home against Ohio State, with the Buckeyes the defending national champions, and a heavy favorite. "The game wasn’t close to a sellout," Schembechler said. "So Canham went and sold 25,000 seats in Columbus. The stadium was jammed (with Ohio State rooters). We beat them anyway, and the next day I said, ‘Canham, don’t you ever do that to me again.’ But he sold out the stadium, and it made a Michigan ticket hard to get."
Schembechler’s death was mourned, and his life celebrated, by generations of people whose lives he touched.
"I spoke to him only two days ago," said James P. Hackett, head of the manufacturing company Steelcase in Grand Rapids, who played for Schembechler. Bo wanted to talk about a former U-M player who recently died of leukemia, Hackett said.
"Bo was confirming with me how frustrated he was that we couldn’t have a found a match for him for a bone marrow transplant. It was just so perfect, as the week played out, that this was what was on his mind, taking care of somebody else.
"He was a true hero."