Earle Bruce and Bo Schembechler on The Game
By Tom Orr and John Porentas

Bo and Earle - The Men Behind the Games

Bo Schembechler and Earle Bruce spent nine years facing each other across the field as head coaches.

Their series was every bit as tight as the 10-Year War between Schembechler and Woody Hayes; Bruce beat Michigan five times, Schembechler beat Bruce’s Buckeyes four times.

But even at the height of their rivalry, both men said there was always a great respect for the guy on the other sideline.

“I like Earle, and I respect him,” Schembechler said. “I’ll tell you one thing about Earle Bruce: Ohio State never appreciated, in my judgement, the coaching ability of Earle Bruce. He was tough to beat. He was an excellent, excellent football coach.”

Bruce was similarly impressed with Schembechler.

“I would say great respect for his ability to coach, and he and I were friendly,” Bruce said.

“Bo was a graduate assistant when I was a player. Bo had a great personality. Bo is a smiling guy that is a tough coach, a demanding coach, intimidates the officials, does everything to win a football game, a helluva competitor, teaches football, makes them tough, makes them hit, did the best job of defending our best play.

“If we had a best play, he stopped that best play. We had to have a counter to the best play every time we went into that, whether it was a pass or this or that, inside play or outside play, but we had to have something that would (work) if he shut that down.

“We would always look to him to come blitzing at us to stop us. He’d give us a complete sell-out if he had to stop us and win.”

However, Bruce said the rivalry could get in the way at times.

“I think when you’re the coach at Ohio State and the coach at Michigan there’s a little standoffishness in the sense of as soon as that’s over, you can have a close relationship.

“But it’s one of competitors, one of knowing that both sides are going to try and win that football game. And if you’re recruiting against one another, you’re (an S.O.B) and I'm (an S.O.B), because it means if you get that football player you’ll win.

“Other than that, his teams were well-coached, he coached an ethical game of football, all within the rules, no steroids, no cheating, no anything. You could look for Michigan to be everything a team could be and then some.”

That mutual respect did not, however, mean that either man was happy to see the other on the opposing sideline. In truth, it was quite the opposite.

Schembechler said, “When you asked me who I was most glad to see leave Ohio State, I was most glad to see Earle Bruce leave. He was the toughest guy I was playing against since Woody left on any of these Big Ten teams. That son of a gun could coach.”

In a separate interview, Bruce was asked which person he was happiest to see leave the Michigan program.

He thought for a while before answering, “Actually, I would rather have seen Bo go than anybody, retire, not fired, because he’s the best.”

The men had much more than that mutual admiration in common. They both also experienced the rivalry first-hand as assistants under Woody Hayes. That experience helped shape the way they approached the game.

In Schembechler’s case, he learned all about the intensity of the rivalry in his first year as a graduate assistant.

“I graduated from Miami (of Ohio), and he was my coach,” Schembechler said.

“He went to Ohio State and I went with him as a GA. I’ll never forget after the (1951) Michigan game; Michigan beat us 7-0. We’re in his house on Sunday afternoon looking at the film, and he got so mad he threw the projector and everything. I’ll never forget (him saying), ‘I will not subject the people of Columbus to a team like that.’ He was mad.

“Of course, they wanted to get rid of him after that year. That was 1951, and by 1954 he had put together a system of football and a program that won the national title.”

Schembechler said he knew what the most important part of the Michigan coach’s job was, even before taking over the program.

“When I went to Michigan, in my first staff meeting, I kept two guys from the staff,” Schembechler said.

“I brought the rest of my staff from Miami (of Ohio, where he had coached) and none of them had ever coached in the Big Ten. But I knew the Big Ten, I had coached in it; I was with Ara (Parsegian) for two years at Northwestern, and a (graduate assistant) with Woody for a year, then coached with him for five years before I went to Miami.

“I told those guys, ‘keep one thing in mind: We’re not here to beat Indiana. We’re not here to beat Northwestern. We’re here to beat one and only one team: Woody Hayes and Ohio State. So we’re going to do something every day, maybe it’s just talk about them, but we’re going to do something every day to beat Ohio State.

“And we did that. But I lost to Michigan State that year,” he said.

That level of preparation and dedication to beating the Buckeyes carried on throughout Schembechler’s Michigan career.

“During that 10-year period, Ohio State and Michigan were so dominant that we could pretty much go through that Big Ten, and we did. We kind of wiped out those guys until it came down to the last game. Not always, but most of the time.”

The story was much the same down in Columbus for Bruce and his Buckeyes.

“When Coach Hayes was alive, and that was for every one except the last football game, he wouldn't let you forget it was Michigan week, he wouldn't let me forget that Michigan was coming up, at practice, in the spring, he taught me that.

“He taught me to practice on Mondays, he taught me that everything was Michigan because Michigan is The Game! Anyone that thinks Michigan isn't The Game can't coach at Ohio State, because it is THE game.”

For Bruce, beating Michigan was a daily obsession.

“You've got to think about beating Michigan. That's the salvation of the football coach. You either walk the alleys (if you lose), or walk Broad and High (if you win). You got it?”

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