Bo Schembechler

[whiteCB]

I was watching old highlight tape of the "Ten Year War" between Woody and Bo and noticed that Michigan had a lot of white players back then. They even had a white HB named Ron Lidle I think. Ohio St on the other hand had a good amount of white players but more black guys than Michigan. Though when you look at the two teams now a days it is the opposite. What happened to Michigan did they go caste system after Bo left and Lloyd Carr took over? Bo's teams, at least in the 70s, looked very white oriented and I would just like to know when the hell did Michigan pull a black out.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Michigan still had a solid majority white team in 1984, when BYU beat them, but they didn't have any whites carrying the ball. The defense had several white starters. I would say the biggest part of the changes came before Schembechler retired in 1989. The Michigan teams I have seen since Gary Moeller became coach in 1990 have looked about the same. I remember watching replays of the Notre Dame-Michigan games from 1986, 1988, and 1990 and by 90, they had gotten a lot darker than 84.

 

[ocaamikedm11]

A year or two ago 3 of their 4 DL were white, but it's back to being all black once again.

 

[white is right]

Michigan still had a solid majority white team in 1984, when BYU beat them, but they didn't have any whites carrying the ball. The defense had several white starters. I would say the biggest part of the changes came before Schembechler retired in 1989. The Michigan teams I have seen since Gary Moeller became coach in 1990 have looked about the same. I remember watching replays of the Notre Dame-Michigan games from 1986, 1988, and 1990 and by 90, they had gotten a lot darker than 84.

I recall at one time some people accused Bo of favouring white backs over local black recruits. I don't know about this, this is just stuff I heard discussed on the air on WFAN in NYC. I was just a kid when this time period was happening.Edited by: white is right

 

[Colonel_Reb]

white is right, Bo may have been that way early in his career there. Maybe he was pressured into starting blacks later on. He coached there from 69-89, so I'm sure he had plenty of white backs there early on.

 

[white is right]

white is right, Bo may have been that way early in his career there. Maybe he was pressured into starting blacks later on. He coached there from 69-89, so I'm sure he had plenty of white backs there early on.

This was during the 70's. The Michigan teams I watched never played a white tailback and just had white fullbacks(who never got the ball). The caller I heard who made the accusation was an ex-college player who was black and I think this was on the Tony Paige show. He implied that this was known during this time period.

 

[jaxvid]

Rob Lytle was the white running back for Michigan probably the last one ever until after the war happens

They also had a white speedster receiver Jon Kolasar a few years back, OSU fans may remember him as he burned them for a long TD to break open a tight UM/OSU game.

Here's the deal on Michigan. When Carr became head coach he had been the main recruiter for Bo for years as an assistant. He was just following trends in recruiting blacks as was nearly everyone else. What happened though were a couple of things that directed UM to the recruiting process they now have.

Ohio State was losing a lot of Ohio HS players to Michigan because Bo was a native Ohioan and for a while Michigan was beating OSU. Plus the UM basketball team took off with a national championship and then the Fab Five. That made Michigan a popular national program so instead of recruiting Ohioans, many of them white, and competing against their instate school (OSU), Michigan went national.

Michigan is a national recruiting powerhouse. For some reason kids from California and Texas and Florida want to play for the winged helmet and live in Ann Arbor. Why? I cannot imagine, having lived there myself but that is how it is. The UM roster is dotted with lots of kids from Texas and Ohio and Florida.

Michigan got beat by some black teams from the SEC a few years back and that made them think that they had to recruit from Florida to compete. Or at least recruit black kids from the south. I don't know how it is where you are at but in Michigan football fans think that rural blacks are the best football players. Better even then the blacks in the many ghettos of Michigan. Why? They probably ascribe to the Jimmy the Greek idea that slaves were bred for physical activity and must think that blacks in Alabama etc, are still pickin' cotton.

Michigan has been getting out recruited by the gangster friendly Florida schools down there and now looks to Texas to get most of their black players.

Ironically most good black players from Detroit, Flint, Lansing etc. go to MSU, probably because of the success of their basketball teams which are now much better then Michigan's.

I'm talking the ball handling positions and defense when I say Michigan recruits blacks. At QB, offensive line and TE, Michigan is usually completely white. They are a prototypical caste system football program with the positions strictly segregated by race. They probably have "black only" and "white only" drinking fountains, it is so segragated there.

Leave the white ball handlers to OSU, Iowa, and Wisconsin, Michigan wants nothing to do with them.

Michigan is also the school that convinced the Supreme Court to overturn the equal protection clause and totally void the constitution (thanks Sandra Day O'Conner) in the case concerning race preferences in student admissions. They should be rooted against every chance you get except when they play the especially vile all black programs.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Michigan killed Ole Miss in the 1990 Gator Bowl. It is strange to see how segregated the positions are there, more so than most programs. Some trivia: which college originally used the winged helmet?

 

[ocaamikedm11]

princeton?

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Yep!

ocaamikedm11, you get 25 gold stars! jk

 

[ocaamikedm11]

Yeah I remember hearing about it.. I was debating whether it was Delaware or Princeton. Cool.

 

[whiteCB]

So Lloyd Carr is caste system piece of garbage is the feeling I'm getting. GO BUCKS!!!

 

[GreatLakeState]

Bo actually played two black quarterbacks at the same time, Demetrius
Brown and Michael Taylor, in the late '80s. Brown had a 7 INT game
against MSU! Carr has had almost exclusively white QBs -- and
exclusively NFL QBs. Jermaine Gonzalez was a local star black QB, but was
moved to WR.

Kolesar was a legit NFL talent, but got hurt early in his pro career. He's
the last white WR I can remember.

Carr has actually recruited two white RBs, but neither panned out. Jon
Anes had a 100-yard game as a true freshman against UCLA, but
dropped out of school because he was "depressed." Reggie Benton was a
stud from Grand Blanc, but never made the grades, then was supposed to
go to Purdue, and ended up in the military.

 

[GreatLakeState]

RIP, Bo.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Wow, talk about strange. Its sad he dies a day before this historic matchup. I'm watching Woody/Bo The Ten Year War right now, and its kind of strange. I wonder if this will pump Michigan up?

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Michigan started 2 white backs in 1976, Lytle and a white FB as usual. Bo just commented on the old show that those guys made one of the most powerful offenses he ever had.

 

[foreverfree]

Wow, talk about strange. Its sad he dies a day before this historic matchup. I'm watching Woody/Bo The Ten Year War right now, and its kind of strange. I wonder if this will pump Michigan up?

A coworker of mine just notified me of Bo's death. I told him "That'll motivate the Wolverines even more."

Condolences to the Schembechlers and all in Ann Arbor. A moment of silence at the Horsehoe tomorrow will definitely be in order.

John