[NU Sports] Sad News on the Eve of the Big Game

[NEONRye at aol.com]

According to wire service reports, Bo Schembechler has died after  collapsing 
while taping a television show.  Bo, of course, came out of the  same 
coaching pantheon at Miami of Ohio as our own beloved Coach  Walker.  And, of course, 
he apprenticed under Woody Hayes, for whom he  later became his most fierce 
rival and nemesis.
 
I always kind of liked Coach Schembechler--mainly because he wasn't  Woody, 
whom I loathed--even though I knew that in some ways they were cut from  the 
same cloth.  But I never regarded him as the virtual epitome of evil  and 
bullying as I viewed Hayes (who trailed only Nixon in my personal Hall of  Fame of 
Infamy and Villany, which was created while I was at NU, and while my  friend 
Mark Ament and I were protesting the Viet Nam War, in which Woody stood  
foursquare behind Richard Milhouse.  I say this by the way simply for  perspective, 
and not in any way to disregard, denigrate or diminish the  sacrifices of our 
contemporaries, including some valuable members  of this list, who served our 
country proudly and well in the  armed forces during that conflict.   
 
It's ironic, of course, that he passed the day before what may come to be  
seen as the "biggest" of the many "Big Games" between tOSU and UM.
 
Anyway, hope he finds peace on the "Big Gridiron in the Sky".
 
Paul Levinson