Go Blue: Bo Schembechler in Memoriam

Now, obviously, I’m in a deep, dark place at the moment[1]. You’ll forgive me but I’ve been following Michigan football since, well, since before I can remember. Watched on the television, went to the games, wore the colors, and flew the flag since I was knee high to people who’d been doing so their entire lives. I’ve even had the pleasure of working in and around the stadium a few times – it’s amazing the people you’ll meet as part of the many people it takes to pull off a major college football program’s games, by the way. So, I’ve seen Bo. In person. Walked by him. Even said a few words. Not much more than “Hey” or “Have a nice day, sir”, mind, but more than enough for me to run and tell all of my friends that I had spoken to the great Schembechler. So, I doubt he would have remembered me but I’d like to remember him. And remember him well.

And, at Michigan they had a great broadcaster, now also, sadly, long gone, who would close every game with an original poem. However, words are beginning to fail me at the moment and I have no poem of my own. But, when I get upset I turn to, well, many things. But, often, I turn to one of the original It-Getters[2] John Donne[3]. So, now a quote from his Meditations XVII (cleaned up a bit as my memory disagrees with the text and to, well, sound a bit better, if only to my own mind.):

"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me....No man is an island unto himself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the mainland; if a clod is washed away by the sea, Europe is the less...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore seek not to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Yeah, I’d buy that for a dollar.

Bo Schembechler: 1929-2006[4]

Ah well, back to work. The world's still spinning and all that...


[1] – I hesitate to mention it as this should be a time of morning not celebration but, well, I love a good wake. So, in case anyone thinks I’m heading down to the grave and not across to the hospital let me just say that this, of course, means that OSU is getting crushed tomorrow. The Buckeyes have gone to considerable efforts this week to avoid giving the Wolverines any “bulletin board material” because college football games are won and lost on emotion but now? Well, “Win one for Bo” has a nice ring to it is all I’m saying.

[2] – In the western literary tradition, anyways, plenty of other peoples in other times in other ways got there first. Nobody said it as well as Donne, though.

[3] – As far as I can tell the linked site is made by some college professor with a Donne fixation. In other words, great resource if you want to spend some time learning anything and everything about Donne. In the name of all that is good and holy, I bless the internets and the hamsters that run it for giving the world things like that.

[4] – Okay, here’s the freaky thing. Check out this history page. Working out the time frame that wiki page got changed almost as the news was breaking. And it’s still being updated to be more accurate.