October 21, 2008 A little less than two years ago my parents and I went to Michigan Stadium to attend a memorial service for Bo Schembechler. We followed our usual routine, even tailgating in the parking lot for a little while outside Crisler Arena prior to heading over the stadium to pay tribute to the man we'd watched for so many years. The scene was a little surreal—I'd never been to a memorial service held in a football stadium before. The marching band was subdued, the stadium only one-third full, none of the charge of a football Saturday, appropriately enough. I think the only other times I'd ever been inside the stadium when the football team wasn't playing was when my cub scout troop would get free tickets to watch the Slippery Rock-Shippensburg State game. Otherwise it had always been packed, of course, and since my parents were the proud holders of four season tickets I got to go to most of the games. The Bo Shembechler memorial tribute had its highpoints and lows. The low came when Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman mispronounced Schembechler's name, calling him 'Schlemblecher,' much to everyone's disappointment but nobody's surprise. The highpoint was without question Lloyd Carr, who quoted poetry and gave a moving, sincere eulogy about a man he obviously loved dearly. But that was no surprise, either. Lloyd Carr is a very classy guy, someone who always did Michigan and Ann Arbor proud. Since Lloyd retired it's hard to get excited about Michigan football. Granted, some of this has to do with the team's performance, which has been terrible. But it's more than that. The Rich Rodriguez hire has been one of the two main factors turning me, a lifelong fan, off from Michigan football. Hiring the vulgar Rodriguez from West Virginia was a disservice to fans of both Michigan and UWV. It was wrong to hire away someone else's coach—the sort of shmoe move that only a poor judge of talent would feel required to do. It was also wrong to pay someone four million dollars a year to coach the football team. Honestly, why couldn't Michigan hire a young, bright up-and-coming coach from the MAC or another second-tier conference from the midwest? Where, after all, did Michigan find Bo Schembechler? Miami of Ohio. Where did Ohio State find Jim Tressel? Youngstown State. But in order to find a diamond in the rough like those two you have to be able to make a smart hire. Because Michigan's Athletic Director, Bill Martin, clearly lacks the confidence in his ability to choose a lesser-known coach, he had to go for people who were already well established, not to mention expensive: first Les Miles, who turned him down, and then Rich Rodriguez, who notified a high school recruit, Terrell Pryor, about his departure for Michigan before he told his own players at West Virgina. Very classy. And now, to make matters even worse, Michigan Stadium—the most beautiful stadium I've ever set foot in—is being redeveloped to look like an eight-storey mini-mall, which is hardly a surprise given the fact that Martin is himself a developer specializing in the construction of ugly shopping centers. Rodriguez will likely be gone within a few years, but the damange that Bill Martin is wreaking upon a building which should have been declared a protected architectural landmark will never be undone. The University of Michigan Athletic Department was once run by capable of people who knew how to make a smart hire and keep the fans happy. Well, this fan is not a bit happy about Michigan Football anymore, and even a victory over Michigan State this Saturday (while nevertheless welcome!) would do little to erase the genuine sense of dismay that I feel when I think of what has happened to Bo's team and the stadium he once worked in.