Schembechler Struggles in 1st Season From Coaching

This is the autumn of Bo Schembechler’s discontent.

It has nothing to do with the fact that Schembechler’s former football team at the University of Michigan started the season with a disappointing loss to Notre Dame. It has nothing to do with the fact that the Detroit Tigers, of which Schembechler is president, are out of the pennant race in the American League East.

It has to do with the fact that, for the first time in more than 35 years, Schembechler is not coaching.

“I didn’t think it would be this tough,” says the man who retired from coaching last December and later left his athletic director’s job to join the Tigers. “I’ve talked with Ara (Parseghian) and some other guys who got out before they really wanted to, and they said that the first year is always the hardest.”

But there are some positive aspects of Schembechler’s new life, which he spends with his wife, Millie, at their home in Ann Arbor, Mich. “I don’t get bugged as much,” says Schembechler, who left college coaching with 234 victories, 194 of them in 21 seasons at Michigan. “I’m just another resident.”

Not quite. Schembechler’s celebrity status, nearly to the point of idolatry around the Michigan campus, makes it impossible for him to enjoy a Wolverines home game in person. He stayed home last week and watched Michigan’s victory over UCLA on television. He will not have the same luxury for Saturday’s game against Maryland, which isn’t being televised locally.

“I might have to go,” he says.

Schembechler says that the initial adjustment to a new sport and new job wasn’t difficult, and that the years he served on the Tigers’ board of directors helped make the transition even easier. Though he had no control over the team’s play, another losing season in Detroit eventually began to wear on him.

“With the exception of our home-run hitter, we’ve had a tough year,” says Schembechler, referring to another local folk hero, Cecil Fielder. “But baseball is a different game. You can’t make radical changes. You may want to move some guys, but they may not want to move. We could go after some free agents, but the best way is to build. And that’s going to take more time.”

Now 60, Schembechler says that he hopes to remain with the Tigers for another 10 years before retiring for good. Then again, he has never been a retiring sort. He quit coaching only after his doctors convinced him that another heart attack (he had already had two) would probably kill him. He left the athletic director’s job because he didn’t want to be accused of looking over the shoulder of his successor, Gary Moeller.

And going to Michigan football games, just to watch, is not what Schembechler considers great fun. “It’s tough getting in and out,” he says. “It’s not like going in and watching like the average fan does.”

Or even the average ex-coach.