Bo was an excellent football coach. He had a great record. He had a great upset over OSU in his first year. He did pretty well against our biggest rival. He coached for two decades. He retired as coach on top. He had a manner of speaking that was gruff with often inspiring words.
But it seems like over time, Bo he has become a mythological figure. He has been deified in a sense.
Why is this? I would argue that institutions such as a university and its football program need such mythological figures. In creating heroes, a program can market and brand itself. Putting a face on a football program makes it easier to create a human emotional connection between it and its supporters. The program can build statutes . . . name buildings . . . create hype videos . . . say that it is the best not just because of its wins, but because of the heroes that have been part of it. The New York Yankees have won a lot of baseball games, but the emotional connection between the Yankees and New Yorkers (at least New York Yankee fans) is not the same without such legendary figures as Babe Ruth, Joe Dimaggio, Mickey Mangle, etc.).
IMO, the process by which Bo has been deified over time has really turned him into something that Michigan fans want him to be rather than what he really was. And it now results in some not willing to look critically at his behavior and believing he must remain the face of the program at all costs (see many of the posters on this site who say that they no longer will support the program if he is not part of a pre-game "hype video").
I will say again that Bo was a long time excellent football coach - you cannot dispute his win loss record during his two decades of coaching. But I believe over time, we have glossed over many of Bo's weaknesses and some of his behavior that was not necessarily heroic. For example:
- Bo had a poor bowl record.
- Bo never won a national championship.
- Bo suffered some upset losses to far inferior teams.
- Bo was criticized by some of his former players as being abusive as far back 30 years ago (not abusive in the Anderson sense but abusive in terms of how he handled injuries and running players off the team).
- Bo is seen has heroic about not letting Bill Frieder coach the 1989 basketball team in the tourney after Frieder has accepted the ASU job but not everyone sees it that way. Some believe that decision was borne out of Bo's personal animosity against Frieder (who's pedigree up to the point was more a "Michigan man" than Bo's). Fisher himself disagreed with the decision. And Bo, hypocritically, coached the 1990 Rose Bowl after he already had secretly agreed to become president of the Detroit Tigers with Tom Monahan. In general, there are two sides to the Frieder story but we really only focus on the "Frieder was traitor" narrative because that allows us to make the "Michigan Man will coach Michigan" into biblical like words offered from a great prophet.
- Bo flirted with the Texas A&M job in the early 1980's and only stayed at Michigan after his compensation was increased (including being given a Dominos franchise from the aforementioned Monahan).
I was a Michigan undergrad from 1988-92. There is no question that during my first two years at Michigan, Bo had already become a legendary figure. I remember when his name was announced before games, students would repeatedly bow towards the field (which was done sort of kiddingly). The narrative of Bo as heroic legend had already started to be written and has continued to be written ever since. That is what us as fans and alums want - we want heroes. But the consequence of this is that we make people into something they never were.
I will say again that Bo was an excellent football coach. But he was a flawed human (and coach) and certainly does not have some God-given right to . . .
- be part of a hype video or . . .
- have a statue on campus for him or . . .
- be free from criticism or . . .
- only be remembered for what want him to be as opposed to what he actually was
But it seems like over time, Bo he has become a mythological figure. He has been deified in a sense.
Why is this? I would argue that institutions such as a university and its football program need such mythological figures. In creating heroes, a program can market and brand itself. Putting a face on a football program makes it easier to create a human emotional connection between it and its supporters. The program can build statutes . . . name buildings . . . create hype videos . . . say that it is the best not just because of its wins, but because of the heroes that have been part of it. The New York Yankees have won a lot of baseball games, but the emotional connection between the Yankees and New Yorkers (at least New York Yankee fans) is not the same without such legendary figures as Babe Ruth, Joe Dimaggio, Mickey Mangle, etc.).
IMO, the process by which Bo has been deified over time has really turned him into something that Michigan fans want him to be rather than what he really was. And it now results in some not willing to look critically at his behavior and believing he must remain the face of the program at all costs (see many of the posters on this site who say that they no longer will support the program if he is not part of a pre-game "hype video").
I will say again that Bo was a long time excellent football coach - you cannot dispute his win loss record during his two decades of coaching. But I believe over time, we have glossed over many of Bo's weaknesses and some of his behavior that was not necessarily heroic. For example:
- Bo had a poor bowl record.
- Bo never won a national championship.
- Bo suffered some upset losses to far inferior teams.
- Bo was criticized by some of his former players as being abusive as far back 30 years ago (not abusive in the Anderson sense but abusive in terms of how he handled injuries and running players off the team).
- Bo is seen has heroic about not letting Bill Frieder coach the 1989 basketball team in the tourney after Frieder has accepted the ASU job but not everyone sees it that way. Some believe that decision was borne out of Bo's personal animosity against Frieder (who's pedigree up to the point was more a "Michigan man" than Bo's). Fisher himself disagreed with the decision. And Bo, hypocritically, coached the 1990 Rose Bowl after he already had secretly agreed to become president of the Detroit Tigers with Tom Monahan. In general, there are two sides to the Frieder story but we really only focus on the "Frieder was traitor" narrative because that allows us to make the "Michigan Man will coach Michigan" into biblical like words offered from a great prophet.
- Bo flirted with the Texas A&M job in the early 1980's and only stayed at Michigan after his compensation was increased (including being given a Dominos franchise from the aforementioned Monahan).
I was a Michigan undergrad from 1988-92. There is no question that during my first two years at Michigan, Bo had already become a legendary figure. I remember when his name was announced before games, students would repeatedly bow towards the field (which was done sort of kiddingly). The narrative of Bo as heroic legend had already started to be written and has continued to be written ever since. That is what us as fans and alums want - we want heroes. But the consequence of this is that we make people into something they never were.
I will say again that Bo was an excellent football coach. But he was a flawed human (and coach) and certainly does not have some God-given right to . . .
- be part of a hype video or . . .
- have a statue on campus for him or . . .
- be free from criticism or . . .
- only be remembered for what want him to be as opposed to what he actually was
