Former University of Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler died today, according to his doctors at Providence Hospital in Southfield. He was 77.
Minutes before he was to tape a show on the eve of The Game, legendary University of Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler collapsed in a bathroom of a Southfield television station.
“He was in the powder room when he collapsed and was found face down and unresponsive,” Dr. Shukri David, chief of cardiology at Providence said during a press conference Friday.
Southfield Fire Department Battalion Chief Barry Savrickas said the call came in to the 911 dispatchers at 9:17 a.m. Firefighters and paramedics were at WXYZ-TV's station on West 10 Mile Road in two minutes, he said.
“It was obviously very critical,” said Savrickas, who went on the run.
When Savrickas and six others arrived, the 77-year-old Schembechler wasn't breathing and did not have a pulse. He said the paramedics worked to revive Schembechler, performing CPR, putting a tube in his throat to open an airway, inserting an IV and giving him medication. Paramedics also called doctors at the hospital - less than a five minute drive from the station - telling them they were on their way with Schembechler.
“We did everything we could and took him to the hospital,” Savrickas said.
He said paramedics worked quickly to revive Schembechler, but could not.
David said Schembechler arrived at the hospital at 9:38 a.m. He did not have a pulse.
“His heart was not beating," he said. "His heart just stopped.”
Schembechler's heart muscle was not responding to standard therapy, so they inserted a balloon pump.
According to David, Schembechler had a very weak heart muscle. Last month, a device was placed in Schembechler - a pacemaker and a defibrillator - to help the heart muscle.
“He was given 11 shocks, despite 11 shocks, there was no response,” David said. “It was probably not a heart attack. The muscle just gave out.”
Schembechler never regained consciousness.
Mike Dowd, chief investigator for the Oakland County Medical Examiner's Office, said Schembechler died at 11:42 a.m. of heart failure at the hospital.
An autopsy will not be performed, Dowd said.
Dr. Kim Eagle, clinical director of the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center and Schembechler's doctor for five years, said the coach fought heart disease and diabetes for 40 years.
“He's the most courageous patient I've ever had,” Eagle said Friday during the press conference.
He said Schembechler fought hard and was determined to stay healthy.
“He was absolutely determined to fight his battles and win every day,” Eagle said. “It's with great sadness that I bid him farewell.”
Lions chief operating officer Tom Lewand, who started out as a student manager under Bo in the late 1980s, said Schembechler had problems with his legs and with circulation for years.
“When he was here for training camp, I said, ‘Hey coach, we'll get you a cart.' And he looked over at (offensive line coach Larry) Beightol's cart,” Lewand said. “He said, ‘I don't need no stinkin' cart. I'll walk.' And he didn't.”
At Schembechler's Ann Arbor home, where two American flags hung outside the garage, a family friend who would not give her name, said: “It wasn't time for him to go. He wasn't ready. He knew that he had a problem with his heart, but he wasn't ready to give up.”
She said Schembechler's wife, Cathy, was on her way back to Ann Arbor from Providence Hospital.
Today's incident was the second time that Schembechler collapsed while taping the Big Ten show at WXYZ-TV studios in Southfield. The first occurred in October when he experienced dizziness and other symptoms before taping his weekly show.
He was admitted to the cardiovascular unit of the University of Michigan Hospital where he had a procedure done in which a small device was installed in his chest to help regulate his heartbeat. The device is designed to help Schembechler's heart pump more efficiently and prevent possible heart-related crises. It combines a pacemaker, which regulates the heartbeat, with a defibrillator, which can shock the heart back into rhythm.
He remained at the hospital for a few days.
The seven-time Big Ten coach of the year compiled a 194-48-5 record at Michigan from 1969-89. Schembechler's record in 26 years of coaching was 234-65-8.
Schembechler's Wolverines were 11-9-1 against the Buckeyes. But fans in both states generally agree that the rivalry's prime years were 1969-78, when Schembechler opposed his friend and coaching guru, Woody Hayes. Michigan prevailed in those meetings, going 5-4-1.
“It was a very personal rivalry,” Earle Bruce, who succeeded Hayes as coach, once said. “And for the first and only time, it was as much about the coaches as it was about the game.
“Bo and Woody were very close because Bo played for Woody at Miami of Ohio, then coached with him at Ohio State. But their friendship was put on hold when Bo took the Michigan job because it was the protege against mentor.”
Steve Snapp, director of athletics communications for The Ohio State University, said Friday that there will be a moment of silence for Schembechler before the game Saturday. Snapp said Ohio State football Coach Jim Tressel walked into his office Friday morning and learned from his secretary that Schembechler had died.
Snapp said fans had been calling Tressel's office about the death. Snapp said Tressel immediately interrupted a meeting with offensive coordinator Jim Bollman, university officials and ABC sportscasters - including Brent Musburger, Bob Davie and Bonnie Bernstein - to break the news.
“We're all saddened to hear about Bo,” Snapp said. “I'm sure everybody feels terrible. Bo stood for what college football was all about.”
The last time Snapp saw Schembechler was in the University of Michigan press box at last year's OSU-UM game.
“He said to me, ‘Snapp, how many years have we been doing this?'” he said. “This is a tragic event.”
Thirteen of Schembechler's Michigan teams either won or shared the Big Ten championship. Fifteen of them finished in the Associated Press Top 10, with the 1985 team finishing No. 2.
Seventeen of Schembechler's 21 Michigan teams earned bowl berths. Despite a .796 regular-season winning percentage, his record in bowls was a disappointing 5-12, including 2-8 in Rose Bowls.
The mythical national championship eluded Schembechler, but he said that never bothered him.
“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.”
His last game as Wolverines coach was a 17-10 loss to Southern California in the 1990 Rose Bowl. One week later, Schembechler - who also had been serving as Michigan athletic director since July 1988 - was named president of the Detroit Tigers.
Schembechler's signature moment as athletic director probably came in March 1989, when basketball coach Bill Frieder accepted a job at Arizona State on the eve of the NCAA tournament.
An angry Schembechler declared, “A Michigan man will coach Michigan, not an Arizona State man.” He refused to accept Frieder's 21-day notice and named assistant Steve Fisher as interim coach.
The Wolverines went on to win the national championship by beating Seton Hall 80-79 in overtime.
Schembechler's tenure as Tigers president was less rewarding.
Schembechler took the heat for the firing of beloved broadcaster Ernie Harwell after the 1991 season. But, the then-genral manager of WJR-AM (760) Jim Long later said he's the one who fired him.
Harwell was brought back two years later.
Schembechler hired extra coaches for every farm team, upgraded all the facilities and introduced football-style strength and conditioning programs.
But those moves bore little fruit at the big-league level. The Tigers' last winning season was in 1993 until they advanced to the World Series this season.
Tigers owner Tom Monaghan fired Schembechler as Tigers president the day before he sold the team to Mike Ilitch in August 1992 - and 13 days before Schembechler's wife, Millie, died at age 63 of adrenal cancer. Bo Schembechler sued, claiming Monaghan had broken a contract the Domino's Pizza owner had jotted down on a napkin. They settled out of court in 1994.
Schembechler was an intense disciplinarian and his gruff persona belied his devotion to his players, both during and after their playing days in Ann Arbor.
“He preached the team from day one, and it's still being taught now,” offensive guard Reggie McKenzie, who played for Schembechler from 1969-71, said when he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2003.
McKenzie said Schembechler's iron hand almost prompted him to quit. But, he said: “I learned to beat him by doing it the right way every time, all the time. That's the attitude we had at Michigan.”
While Schembechler loved coaching, he was less enamored with some other aspects of college football. In his 1989 book “Bo,” co-written with Free Press sports columnist Mitch Albom, Schembechler decried drugs, sports agents and the pressures of recruiting.
“Recruiting is the worst part of college football,” he wrote. “I no longer look forward to it. I can't wait until it's over. It makes me feel like a pimp.”
Schembechler was born April 1, 1929 in Barberton, Ohio. He graduated in 1951 from Miami of Ohio and earned a master's degree in 1952 at Ohio State, where he served until 1953 as a graduate assistant under Hayes.
After serving in the Army, Schembechler held assistant coaching jobs at Presbyterian College in 1954 and Bowling Green in 1955, then joined Ara Parseghian's staff at Northwestern in 1958 before returning to Ohio State as an assistant to Hayes.
Schembechler was named head coach at Miami in 1963, winning two Mid-American Conference titles in six seasons. In 1969, he took over a Michigan program that had posted six losing seasons over the previous 11 years. He did not have a losing season at either school.
Schembechler worked as an ABC Sports football broadcaster and analyst in 1991-92 and was a popular motivational speaker for many years.
Schembechler was inducted into the Miami University Hall of Fame in 1972, the State of Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1989, the University of Michigan Hall of Honor in 1992, the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1993 and the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1993.
Bo and Millie Schembechler had one son, Glenn III. Schembechler and his second wife, Cathy, married in 1993.
Associated Press writers Larry Luge Jim Irwin, Tom Krisher and Ron Vample contributed to this report.
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