working

ADVERTISERS

Sports Outside the Beltway

Bo Schembechler, Michigan Coaching Legend, Dead at 77

Bo Schembechler collapsed and died during an interview about the Michigan-Ohio State game.

Bo Schembechler, who became one of college football’s great coaches in two decades at Michigan, died Friday after taping a TV show on the eve of the Wolverines’ No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown with perennial rival Ohio State. He was 77.

Bo Schembechler, Michigan Coaching Legend, Dead at 77 Michigan coach Bo Schemechler reacts on the sideline during the fourth quarter of the Rose Bowl college football game against Southern California in this Jan. 1, 1990 file photo in Pasadena, Calif. At right is assistant coach Gary Moeller. Schembechler, the winningest coach in Michigan football history, died Friday, Nov. 17, 2006, after collapsing during the taping of a television show, according to three Detroit TV stations. He was 77. (AP Photo/Dough Sheridan) “This is a tremendous shock and an irreplaceable loss,” University of Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman said at a news conference at Providence Hospital in Southfield, where the coach died.

Schembechler collapsed at the studios of WXYZ-TV in the Detroit suburb and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. His death at 11:42 a.m. was confirmed by Mike Dowd, chief investigator for the medical examiner’s office in Oakland County.

Police were sent to the station about 9:25 a.m. along with the city’s fire department and escorted the ambulance, Southfield police spokesman John Harris said.

“It was probably not a heart attack; it just stopped working,” Dr. Shukri David said.

Schembechler had a heart attack on the eve of his first Rose Bowl in 1970 and another one in 1987. He had two quadruple heart-bypass operations, and doctors implanted a pacemaker to regulate his heartbeat after he became ill during a taping at WXYZ on Oct. 20.

No great surprise given his age and long history with heart disease. Still, he was a legendary figure in college football and will be missed.

 
Related Stories:
 
Recent Stories:
 
 
 
Comments

Comments are Closed

 
 


Visitors Since Feb. 4, 2003

All original content copyright 2003-2008 by OTB Media. All rights reserved.