Former University of Michigan >Bo Schembechler — one of the true characters in the storied history of Big Ten football — died yesterday, adding another emotional element to today’s big game between No. 2 Michigan and No. 1 Ohio State. Here is the Detroit Free Press coverage on Schembechler’s life and death, including Schembechler biographer Mitch Albom’s heartfelt tribute.
I never had the opportunity to meet Coach Schembechler, but I have long felt connected to him. Many of my friends in the coaching profession knew and enjoyed him, particularly how he loved to compete. Even though my family was from Iowa, we always suffered with Schembechler during Michigan’s long drought in the Rose Bowl when it seemed as if the Pac-10 teams were always flying by Bo’s Michigan teams. Although Schembechler was 12 years younger than my father, the two of them were both active and highly-motivated men who had heart attacks and by-pass surgery at a time when that surgery was still a somewhat iffy proposition. They both then returned to their respective professions and worked productively for many years, representing two good examples of the value of that surgical procedure. Schembechler even died in the same manner as my father, suddenly of a heart attack while enjoying what he loved to do. These were two men who were not about to let a little health problem interfere with enjoying the fullness of life.

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