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"A Michigan Man will coach Michigan"

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Buckeyeskickbuttocks

Buckeyeskickbuttocks

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No doubt you've heard the term "Michigan Man" and how our rivals to the North insist on everyone being a "Michigan Man." It's no small part why Brady "The Clapper" Hoke has a job, quite frankly. Perhaps it's owing to the fact that too much time has passed since the actual statement was made and a lot of fans are too young to even know the context and prefer instead to believe the myth.

Let's go ahead and reset our clocks to 1989. Bo Schembechler was Michigan's Athletic Director and had just coached his second to last season of football. For those of you who don't know, Bo Schembechler played college football for Woody Hayes at Miami University in 1949 and 1950. Later, Schembechler served as an assistant coach at THE Ohio State University with Woody in 1952 and again from 1958 to 1962. Yes. You read that right, the man who started the whole "Michigan Man" stuff in the first place was, himself, not a Michigan Man.

In any case, in 1989 Michigan (24-7, 12-6) was invited to participate the NCAA basketball tournament (which they would win, by the way). The coach of the basketball team was Bill Frieder. During the last week of the season, Frieder announced he had agreed to take the head coaching job at Arizona State starting in the 1989 - 90 season. While Frieder intended to coach Michigan through the tournament, Schembechler is said to have responded, "The hell you will!" and fired Frieder. When making the announcement that Steve Fisher would coach the Wolverines in the Tournament Bo said, "I don't want someome from Arizona State coaching the Michigan team. A Michigan man is going to coach Michigan." NYT March 16, 1989.

As it happens, the whole "Michigan Man" thing was an explanation from Schembechler as to why he was letting Frieder go immediately prior to an NCAA Tournament run - a bold move, to be sure. I suspect had the Wolverines not won the tournament, much of the "Michigan Man" myth they are so enamored with today wouldn't even exist. In any event, it's funny as an Ohio State fan to know that Michigan has limited itself to an idea - hiring a sub .500 coach in Brady Hoke, for example - on authority of a statement that 1) was an explanation and never meant to encapsulate something more than that, and 2) was about the basketball program, not the football team.
 
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And that Michigan man brought in expensive freshmen in the 1991 class that did not win any hardware, humiliated the fanbase (and especially the elitist school) and ruined the program for decades. His cheating allowed their bitter rivals from East Lansing to go on a huge run.

Michigan men are the reason that both spartan programs became dominant.
 
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jwinslow said:
And that Michigan man brought in expensive freshmen I'm the 1991 class that did not win any hardware, humiliated the fanbase and especially the elitist school and ruined the program for decades. Worse his cheating allowed their bitter rivals from East Lansing to go on a huge run.

Their Michigan men are the reason that both spartan programs became dominant.
Click to expand...
DING DING DING! We have a winner!
 
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