Photo: Detroit News photo services. Thanks to BiggieMunn for sending this over. The photo above was set alongside of Angelique Chengelis’s fine piece on a few of those involved with the 1969 Wolverine victory over Ohio State. Question: Anyone know the significance (if any) of the 26 on Bo’s sleeve? On the extended team roster, #26 belonged to a sophomore quarterback named William Ross of Beaver Falls, PA. Answer this question definitively and we win Saturday. Related: Jim Mandich of ‘69 on WTKA (audio) <—You’ll enjoy this
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When Bo’s players Complained about Practice
A recap of an interesting confrontation between Bo Schembechler and team captain Andy Cannavino in 1980. Powerful stuff here.
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Blue Books: Bo’s Winless Season
Thanks to the profileration of sports media folks in Haiti can tell you that Michigan’s going to end up with its first losing season since 1967, a couple years removed from Bo Schembechler’s arrival on campus in 1969. Bo started the streak and only dipped to .500 once, in 1984 when Jim Harbaugh was hurt and they lost to #1 BYU in the Holiday Bowl. But Bo wasn’t foreign to tough seasons in his professional life before leading Miami, OH and Michigan. In fact, he lived through the worst season you can possibly have during his time as an assistant in Northwestern. With the Wildcats heading into town Saturday this version of Blue Books pulls an excerpt from John U. Bacon‘s tome Bo’s Lasting Lessons, this selection from Chapter 2: Seek Mentors, Not Money: I learned an awful lot from Ara in my first year at Northwestern, but I learned a heckuva lot more from him that second season, when we lost ’em all. And what I learned was how a real leader leads when things aren’t going his way. Ara treated the staff as though we were winning every game. He never gave the slightest inclination that we were the problem. He not once blamed any assistant or any player for any loss we suffered that year. NOT ONCE.…
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Woody Hayes says, “Don’t give this to Bo!”
The next edition of eBay Watch once again looks over at Mastro Auctions for another cool item, this time an autographed copy of Woody Hayes’ 1969 tome, ‘Hot Line to Victory‘. It’s just one item in a collection of old programs and other goodies, but this is the standout item to me. Here’s the full auction. There are many autographed copies of Hot Line out there, but this one has a special note inside: If you can’t make it out it reads: To Gene RyanFrom John W. Printer [not sure what that means] Be sure not to pass any of this information on to Bo!Regards,Woody Hayes I wish I knew who Gene Ryan is and whether he truly had some ties to Bo Schembechler, but either way this is pretty cool. Michael Rosenberg talked a bit about Hot Line to Victory in his great book, War As They Knew It. In it he Rosenberg describes Woody’s tome as a “football textbook” and added, “the book was intended for the general public–Hayes wanted to share strategy and tactics with anybody who would listen.” While we don’t know who Gene Ryan is (yet), we do know that Woody’s comments not surprisingly were in jest. Obviously, Bo could have grabbed a copy off the shelf himself, but Woody made it easy. According to…
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A Better Sports Illustrated Cover
Memo to Sports Illustrated. It just wasn’t right to put Bo Schembechler’s memorial photo in a small block behind a triumphant Buckeye on the November 27, 2006 cover: Especially after the hated Buckeyes downed Bo’s beloved Michigan in the greatest game ever played between the two rivals. Given my ties to the media, I was able to contact the print department to run off a few copies of a second version of last week’s Sports Illustrated. I like this one a little better. To add insult to injury, there seems to be a groundswell of support for a Notre Dame vs. Michigan rematch in the Rose Bowl, although most projections have the Wolverines and LSU in the Grandaddy. Bo would be turning over in his grave if Notre Dame gets a Rose Bowl berth on sacred Big Ten ground.
