To Bo Schembechler, R.I.P.

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This was Bo Schembechler:

When my son Michael, the creator of collegeBLITZ.com, was 6 years old in 1990, he watched“Sesame Street” one morning with me, a night worker and a house dad while mom was at work.

One of the characters on the show described and then played a glockenspiel.

“Can you spell glockenspiel,” I asked Michael.

He did, which was an early sign that he would be a newspaper editor someday soon and know how to spell tough words.

“How about Schembechler?”

His reading and viewing of Michigan football games prepped him, and he spelled Schembechler without hesitation.

A few months later I saw Bo Schembechler in New York City. He was a Detroit, Michigan guy speaking at a luncheon sponsored by a Japanese automaker — Toyota. Which is like an Ann Arbor guy speaking in Columbus, Ohio.

We met for the first, and sadly the only time, and I told him about the spelling bee and then asked him if he would sign an autograph for Michael. Bo had a hearty laugh and broke a smile as wide as The Big House.

“To Glockenspiel,” he signed over his 8x10 portrait.“Bo Schembechler.”

GUESS WHO'S CRYING AT DINNER?

After Glenn (Bo) Schembechler died at age 77 on the morning of Friday, Nov. 17, of a heart attack while preparing to tape his weekly football show 30 hours before the kickoff of yet another Michigan-Ohio State game, the Maize and Blue mourned and remembered his intensity, emotions, tears and humor.

Kevin Maddix, a former star halfback at Syosett, N.Y., High School in 1973 who dreamed of being the next Pete Johnson at Ohio State or the next John Cappelletti at Penn State, called“Mike and the Mad Dog,” on WFAN-AM in New York, to grieve.

Maddix recalled being recruited by Woody Hayes, who had lunch at the family home and who would poke Maddix to see how strong he was. He was recruited by Penn State’s Joe Paterno, whose intellect impressed him, and he was recruited by Bo Schembechler, who had a sentimental dinner in New York with Maddix and his parents.

“He became so emotional when he was talking about Michigan that he cried,” Maddix told the show’s co-host Chris Russo, who was an underclassmen at Syosett when Maddix played there. (Maddix went on to play as a freshman at Penn State, where twice he had knee surgery. He then transferred to Rutgers, where he finished his college career.)

MUTUAL RESPECT FOR A LEGEND

Though they never met in a football game, Bo Schembechler and Joe Paterno admired each other — though it might be a fair assumption that the leather-helmeted traditionalist in Bo Schembechler opposed Penn State’s admission into the Big Ten Conference in 1993. Bo was a “Go, Blue” guy, not a“Go, Blue and White” guy.

But Paterno, now a month from his 80th birthday and immobilized by a broken left shin bone and two torn knee ligaments, paid tribute to Bo Schembechler with a statement, that read like an eulogy. Paterno said:

"Bo was a giant. He was a great football coach and person. He was a great supporter of college football and the way it's supposed to be played. He was a great ambassador for Michigan and was proud to represent Michigan.

"He was an interesting guy and fun to be around. He was the kind of guy you would want to be your friend. You always knew where you stood with him. I looked forward to seeing him at the Big Ten meetings. I respected him and enjoyed being around him.

"He was a super coach and I'm not sure he has gotten his due as far as being one of the truly great football coaches of all-time. I'm going to miss him."

DON’T TELL G.M., FORD OR CHRYSLER

Bo Schembechler was never an apologist for Michigan or the Big Ten or the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry. He was General Patton with a sense of humor, Woody Hayes without the scowl.

In New York 16 years ago, on Dec. 12, 1990, Bo went on defense briefly at the sixth Toyota Leadership Award luncheon in Manhattan. He had retired from Michigan and had become the controversial president of the Detroit Tigers when he promptly fired longtime broadcaster Ernie Harwell. To the luncheon guests, he said he was aware he could again be criticized, this time for helping a Japanese automaker honor two college football scholars.

"I'm from Detroit, headquarters of the big three, and when you talk about Toyota you have to be a little bit careful, and I don't want this to go out of this room," he said, laughing. "But I'm here because this is about leadership by people you haven't read much about."

A reporter let it go out of the room when it became a“Sports People” item in The New York Times.

THE LAST GOOD BYE

On Thursday, Nov. 16, the last night of his life, Bo Schembechler laughed again and cried again and raised his voice again in The Big House — when he spoke to the Michigan players at practice. They and Glockenspiel still hear his silenced voice.

Michael B. Sisak 3d, with over 50 years of experience in journalism, covers college football from a national perspective. Sisak's columns are filled with insights into the biggest games, the key players and the traditions that make Saturdays memorable.

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