Bo Schembechler

Personal

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Family

American athlete; head coach of the University of Michigan Wolverines and a noted motivational speaker. He was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1989 and the National Football Hall of Fame in 1993. Glenn got his nickname when his little sister Marge couldn’t pronounce the word "brother." She called him "Bobo," and this was soon shortened to "Bo." After graduating from high school in 1947, he enrolled at Miami University in Ohio, where he lettered in both football and baseball. In May 1951, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in education and went on to get his Master’s degree from Ohio State in 1952. He spent the next two years in the Army at Camp Rucker, Alabama where he coached football and baseball. From 1955-63, he coached at Bowling Green, Northwestern and Ohio State. In 1963, Schembechler accepted a position as head coach at Miami. Six years later, he moved on to the University of Michigan where he spent the next 27 years. During his time with Miami and Michigan, he never had a losing season, and at his retirement from collegiate sports in 1990, he was ranked as the most-winning active coach in Division One football history. He worked with the Detroit Tigers from 1990-92 and spent some time with ABC Sports as a football broadcaster. On 12/31/1969-1/01/1970, he suffered his first heart attack. A second attack on 12/15/1987 resulted in his second quadruple bypass surgery. Schembechler was married twice. He met and married Millie in 1968, gaining three sons in the process, Chip, Geoffrey and Matthew. In August 1992, Millie died after an eight-month battle with adrenal cancer. On 11/27/1993, he married Cathy Aikens after an eight-month courtship. On November 17, 2006, the 77-year-old former football coach died of congestive heart failure in Southfield, MI. At the time of his death he was taping a local sports TV show. Link to Wikipedia biography