Since the Michigan and Wisconsin
football teams first played each other in 1892, Michigan has won a decisive
80-percent of those games.   

The difference was one man: Bo
Schembechler, who beat the Badgers 18 of 19 times.  If Schembechler
had coached Wisconsin, instead of Michigan, the record would be almost
even.    

That actually almost happened.
And it all came down to a 40-minute meeting, 43 years ago.   

Schembechler became the head
coach of his alma mater, Miami of Ohio, in 1963, at the ripe old age
of 33.   After Miami won its league title in 1965 and ’66,
Wisconsin came calling for the head coach.  

Wisconsin set up an interview
for ten o’clock on a Sunday night. Bo walked in to face twenty guys
sitting around a room, looking bored.  One of the members actually
fell asleep, right in front of Bo – which thrilled him.  They
also had a student who seemed to relish asking smart-aleck questions
– which thrilled him even more.    

The whole thing lasted just forty
minutes.  The second Schembechler got out that door he walked
to the nearest pay phone and called the Wisconsin athletic director,
and told him to withdraw his name from consideration.  

Schembechler already knew they
were probably going to hire an assistant coach from Notre Dame anyway,
so it was mostly for show.  He didn’t appreciate that, either. 
But Bo knew one thing: even if Wisconsin still wanted him, he no longer
wanted Wisconsin.   

The process also made Schembechler
realize his destination was the Big Ten, and he was going to hold out
until he got there.    

He turned down Tulane and Pitt,
Vanderbilt and Kansas State.  Finally, in 1968, Schembechler got
a call from Michigan’s outgoing head coach, Bump Elliott, who was
recruiting his replacement.  Schembechler was interested, of course,
but let them know he was not about to go through another dog-and-pony
show like Wisconsin’s.     

“Michigan didn’t need some
silly committee or student rep to check me out,” Bo told me, “and
I didn’t need any dime-store tour of the campus to appreciate what
Michigan had to offer.”   

Two days later, they sealed the
deal with a handshake.   

A year after Schembechler’s
disastrous interview at Wisconsin, the Badgers offered a young basketball
coach named Bobby Knight the top job.  Knight called Schembechler
at six in the morning for his advice.   

“I can’t tell you what to
do,” Bo said, “but I was unimpressed. If I was in your shoes, I
wouldn’t go to Wisconsin.” 

Knight didn’t, of course. 
Two years later, he took the job at Indiana.  

The Badgers lost out on a football
coach who would go on to win 13 Big Ten titles, and a basketball coach
who won eleven more, plus three national titles.   

Instead, Wisconsin got a revolving
door of five football coaches and six basketball coaches, none of whom
ever won a single Big Ten title.  They did, however, get shellacked
by the coaches they could have had, year after year.  

And it was all because of one
shabby, 40-minute interview on a Sunday night in 1967.