Bo, Woody and the America They Knew

The end of the college football season brings about a certain sadness to those who enjoy waking up Saturday mornings each Fall, knowing they have a full day of great match-ups and rivalries they can tune into at any given moment.  But at the same time, for many, the entire season comes down to one week that matters most; a game against a most bitter rival.  For fans of Michigan football, this is the week, beginning in 1969, for which Coach Bo Schembechler prepared for the entire season.  His mentor, Ohio State coach Woody Hayes, did exactly the same.  The Michigan-Ohio State games of the that spanned the "Ten-Year War" (1969-1978) built this rivalry into one of the greatest in all of the sports world.

Reading War as They Knew It:  Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and America in a Time of Unrest, it is hard not to gain a respect for both coaches and the social underpinnings upon which this rivalry was built.  In this book, campus radicalism acts as a backdrop for these two conservative figures who stood as testimonies for passion, principle and tradition.  Both men would become legendary coaches and set the standard for all others who would follow in their footsteps.  Woody's continued reference to the state of Michigan as "that state up north" and Bo's top priority to beat Ohio State when taking over as Head Coach in 1969 is what set the standard for this rivalry.  And despite hatred between the schools and teams, there remains a certain esteem, rooted in the deep and abiding respect these men had for each other. 


In 1969, Bo Schembechler headed north from Miami University (Ohio) to take over as head coach of the Michigan Wolverines.  The program was in desperate need of a jump-start and bringing in a Woody Hayes protege seemed to be the right remedy.  Today, it is difficult to imagine Michigan Stadium (the Big House) only filling 60% of their seating capacity.  But, in Bo's first year has head coach, the Wolverines beat Ohio State and secured a bid in the Rose Bowl, thus triggering the 'Ten-Year War' between the two rival coaches and their respective teams.  Schembechler arrived on campus in the height of Vietnam War protests.  Students for a Democratic Society, Bill Ayers and his Weathermen and the Black Panthers were all active on the Ann Arbor scene.  Though not as political as Hayes, Coach Schembechler and his coaching staff's conservative demeanor made them easily distinguishable on the U of M's campus.  By the mid-70s, Bo would strike up a close personal friendship with President Gerald Ford, an All-American member of the 1932 and 1933 Wolverines National Championship teams.  


Woody Hayes, a proud WW2 Navy veteran and close personal friend of Richard Nixon, was the ultimate counter to the counter-culture that dominated college campuses in the late 60s and 70s.  Hayes wrote in his 1973 book, You Win with People!, " I have a deep and abiding respect for football, for it has paralleled the great achievements of this nation. Without winners, there can be no civilization, without heroes there can be no winning.  I can see a conscience of subconscious effort in this country to tear down heroes, and yet I ask what success, what achievement could there have been without heroes?"  Woody Hayes lived in an America where heroism, courage and accomplishment mattered.  He was fighting against what he saw as the threat to the values in which he deeply believed.


Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler were also men who valued loyalty.  When Woody Hayes was fired as Ohio State head coach in 1978, after punching a Clemson player while coaching OSU at the Gator Bowl, he continued to teach military history courses at Ohio State.  In 1987, Hayes gave the commencement speech at OSU and received an honorary degree from the university.  Bo Schembechler, after over a decade of success at Michigan, had been offered $250,000 to coach Texas A&M in 1982; this would have made him the highest paid coach in college football.  Bo declined and coached another seven seasons at U of M.  


Rosenberg's book is about much more than football.  He paints a picture of a time and place in American history, a story of two men and their passion for life, finding their way through a culture that begin to become unrecognizable.  Woody and Bo would become legends who would give the UM-OSU football game the historic and cultural significance it has today.