I am a lifelong, bleeds Maize and Blue Michigan Wolverine fan, and so after joining this board and reading some of the historical what-ifs, this one occurred to me...
After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1935, the real life Gerald Ford went to Yale Law School and served as an assistant coach for the Yale gridiron team. Here's where my what-if veers off in a different direction from real life. Instead of going into politics, Ford decides to make coaching his career. He stays another season or two at Yale, then returns to his home state to work as an assistant coach at the University of Detroit, which still had a football team at the time. By the mid 1940s he is looking to move up to a head coach position, and is hired at Central Michigan University. Ford coaches the Chippewas until 1958, when he (instead of Bump Elliot as in real life) is offered and accepts the head coaching job at his alma mater, the University of Michigan. As a True Blue, loyal Wolverine, Coach Ford is now in his ultimate dream job and he remains Michigan's head coach until 1989 when he is replaced by long time assistant Gary Moeller.
Meanwhile, Glenn "Bo" Schembechler is born and raised in Barberton, Ohio and attends Miami (Ohio) University where he plays football for the famous Coach Woody Hayes. Schembechler does a bit of coaching after graduating from college, but then his old coach Hayes talks him into attending law school (this is where things take a turn away from real life). Bo remains a football enthusiast, but finds he really enjoys the law and politics. And so he runs for Ohio state legislature and is elected, eventually moving up to the state Senate and then into a United States congressional seat, representing the district that includes his hometown of Barberton as well as Akron. He builds a reputation as a solid middle of the road Republican, and is well liked by his consituency. Fast forward to the early 1970s, when in real life the presidency of Richard Nixon is embroiled in scandal. Vice President Spiro Agnew is forced to resign, and President Nixon needs to appoint a new VP. He likes the young member of Congress from Ohio with the long and hard to pronounce last name, and so Bo Schembechler becomes Vice President of the United States...and then a couple years later when Nixon is forced to resign, Bo is sworn in as President. He serves until January 1977 when Jimmy Carter takes over. Bo then returns to athletics, taking a job as associate athletic director under AD Don Canham at the University of Michigan. When Canham retires in 1988, Schembechler takes the reigns of the entire Michigan sports program and remains as AD until his death at age 77 on November 17, 2006, the day before the annual Big Game against Ohio State.
After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1935, the real life Gerald Ford went to Yale Law School and served as an assistant coach for the Yale gridiron team. Here's where my what-if veers off in a different direction from real life. Instead of going into politics, Ford decides to make coaching his career. He stays another season or two at Yale, then returns to his home state to work as an assistant coach at the University of Detroit, which still had a football team at the time. By the mid 1940s he is looking to move up to a head coach position, and is hired at Central Michigan University. Ford coaches the Chippewas until 1958, when he (instead of Bump Elliot as in real life) is offered and accepts the head coaching job at his alma mater, the University of Michigan. As a True Blue, loyal Wolverine, Coach Ford is now in his ultimate dream job and he remains Michigan's head coach until 1989 when he is replaced by long time assistant Gary Moeller.
Meanwhile, Glenn "Bo" Schembechler is born and raised in Barberton, Ohio and attends Miami (Ohio) University where he plays football for the famous Coach Woody Hayes. Schembechler does a bit of coaching after graduating from college, but then his old coach Hayes talks him into attending law school (this is where things take a turn away from real life). Bo remains a football enthusiast, but finds he really enjoys the law and politics. And so he runs for Ohio state legislature and is elected, eventually moving up to the state Senate and then into a United States congressional seat, representing the district that includes his hometown of Barberton as well as Akron. He builds a reputation as a solid middle of the road Republican, and is well liked by his consituency. Fast forward to the early 1970s, when in real life the presidency of Richard Nixon is embroiled in scandal. Vice President Spiro Agnew is forced to resign, and President Nixon needs to appoint a new VP. He likes the young member of Congress from Ohio with the long and hard to pronounce last name, and so Bo Schembechler becomes Vice President of the United States...and then a couple years later when Nixon is forced to resign, Bo is sworn in as President. He serves until January 1977 when Jimmy Carter takes over. Bo then returns to athletics, taking a job as associate athletic director under AD Don Canham at the University of Michigan. When Canham retires in 1988, Schembechler takes the reigns of the entire Michigan sports program and remains as AD until his death at age 77 on November 17, 2006, the day before the annual Big Game against Ohio State.
