Montana Grizzlies Sports, Football and Basketball : Grizzoulian

I'm pretty sure that just about every Montana citizen thinks that this weekend's Griz-Cat game is the grandest thing this side of the globe. It's important for Montanans to know that there are not just bigger college football games, but more importantly, bigger college football people. One of these people was Bo Schembechler.

Bo Schembechler, the best coach in Michigan history and one of the best  in all of college football, passed away today at age 77. This is a day before the biggest "Big Game" of the all as his old Wolverines, ranked #2, take on the #1 Buckeyes.

My dad put it plain and simple: "college football would not be where it is without people like him."

This from Michigan Fanhouse:

He retired when I was ten, but by the time he left he had imbued the program with the direction and personality it maintains to this day: stodgy, cantankerous, fiercely loyal, kind, and honest. Do I love Michigan so because I am or aspire to those things? Or am I the person I am because of Michigan? Because of Bo? Today I think the latter. Goodbye, Bo. Thank you.

From a really incredible entry on Michigan Against the World:

The irony of Bo's death is not lost on me. Bo blew off an appointment with his doctor last night to speak to the Michigan team. Bo was always talking about his heart, joking that it was going to get the best of him sooner or later, so he might as well live life the way he wanted. Believe me, that he did. I think that while Bo wouldn't be able to watch the game in Columbus, he's now going to be doing one better. Bo will fittingly get to watch the biggest game ever with a birds-eye view, with his old pal Woody.

Thank you, Bo. For the memories you gave me.

Go Blue, Win for Bo.

Here's a quote from Bo out of an ESPN article from today:

"If you think my career has been a failure because I have never won a national title, you have another thing coming," Schembechler said a few weeks before coaching his final game. "I have never played a game for the national title. Our goals always have been to win the Big Ten title and the Rose Bowl. If we do that, then we consider it a successful season."

It'd be great if college football were still this simple. No BCS, no National Championship Game; you just try to win your conference so you can go and face the best of the Pac-10 in Pasadena. If the press thinks you're the best team in the land, so be it. You did all you could.

Bo's foe and friend, Ohio State coaching great Woody Hayes, once said "There are three things that can happen when you throw a pass, and two of them are bad." Bo and Woody coached in a different Big 10; after the jump is a video of what the "Big Game" was like when Bo was at the helm.