Columbus, Ohio – The Dead Schembechlers are dead.
Yes, Columbus’ anti-Michigan punk rock group is disbanding today. They even changed the marquee on the theater where they played their last performance Friday night. The owner took down the group’s name and instead put up “GOD BLESS BO.”
Friday’s death of legendary Michigan coach Bo Schembechler greatly affected everyone in Columbus. It hit them all – from the satirical rock group that doesn’t feel like poking fun at the Wolverines anymore to the Wolverines themselves, who played the biggest game in the history of the rivalry barely 24 hours after their icon died of heart failure in Ann Arbor, Mich.
In a twist to second-ranked Michigan’s pregame prep, Schembechler insisted on addressing the team Thursday. He insisted, even though he wasn’t feeling well. He was short of breath. Twice he had undergone bypass heart surgery.
“I tried to convince him not to talk,” coach Lloyd Carr said Saturday after his Wolverines lost to top-ranked Ohio State 42-39, “because when I went down to get him, about 2:20, he said he was having a hard time breathing and he had had a hard time breathing since he had a pacemaker put in, the second one.
“But he said, ‘No, I’m going to talk to them.”‘
Whatever the Wolverines remember of Schembechler – the seniors were entering elementary school when his 21-year coaching reign ended in 1989 – they always will remember his last speech. To them.
“Bo was just trying to get us hyped up,” Michigan quarterback Chad Henne said. “He’s been in many Michigan-Ohio State games, just saying go out there and play our best, play to your capability. I mean, just keep fighting. And that’s what we definitely did today.”
Added tailback Mike Hart: “He just said if you want to win, we’ve got to come out and win the line of scrimmage. That’s Bo.”
Schembechler, who went 194-48-5 from 1969-89, collapsed taping his weekly TV show Friday morning and died at 11:42 a.m. Carr heard the news a couple of minutes before noon, the same time as their scheduled team meeting.
“Was that hard to tell them?” Carr said. “Yeah, that was hard and it was emotional. And yet you’ve got to move on.”
In truth, the players didn’t think about Schembechler. Carr wouldn’t let them.
“When I told the team on Friday, I tried to tell them that he would not have wanted to be a distraction,” Carr said. “And I told our team we weren’t going to use Bo and his passing away as a motivational deal. That would have been to dishonor him.
“And I simply told them the way we could honor him is to coach and play in a way that would have made him proud.”
Now that the Wolverines (11-1) have nearly six weeks before their bowl game, maybe thoughts of Schembechler will settle into their hearts.
“He was a great man,” Hart said. “He started the tradition of excellence in the classroom and on the football field at Michigan. And it continues to this day.”
