The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1340560
MARCH 2021 THE WOLVERINE 85 WHERE ARE THEY NOW? down" by the Trojans' Charles White. The running back reached the end zone after getting stripped of the foot- ball, but drew the then-unassailable touchdown signal. A few years later, in Naval Flight School, the world grew smaller in conversation with friends and fellow trainees, one in particular. "They knew I played at Michigan, and the Rose Bowl game came up," Breaugh recalled. "I'm telling the story about Charles White and how we got screwed, and this guy says, 'That was my uncle.' "I remember saying 'You've got to be kidding me! What are the chances of that?'" Two years in at Michigan, lifelong friendships secured, life lessons in place, Breaugh still hadn't experi- enced a game snap. That changed in his junior year, at the end of a 49-7 blowout win over Northwestern. Schembechler sent him in, with 40 seconds remaining. "I get in the huddle, and we only had 10 guys," Breaugh noted. "I call timeout, and I go over to the sideline. And Bo is Bo. He's yelling, and he says, 'Breaugh, what the hell are you doing!' I said, 'Bo — I've only got 10 guys. We need 11.' "He says, 'All right, all right. Give 'em 11 guys. Get back out there!' We handed the ball off, and the game was over. My joke has always been, look, you give me one play in my whole career, at least give me 11 guys." Nobody gave him anything. But friends and leaders like Wangler, George Lilja, Andy Cannavino, Butch Woolfolk, Stan Edwards, Ed Muran- sky, Bubba Paris, B.J. Dickey, Allen Mitchell and Rodney Feaster helped shape his Michigan football life and the success he went out and grabbed. "My football story isn't that big of a deal," he reiterated. "It's important to me, because it made me who I am. But that isn't where I made my big mark." While at Michigan, he'd joined the Michigan Flyers, a flight club. When he left, he'd logged nearly 300 hours in the skies. Next up, an arena even more daunting than Michigan football — Naval Flight School. He signed on with buddy Matt Seamon, an eventual Blue Angel. "He was even more gung-ho and driven," Breaugh stressed. "I got a lot motivation from him. We said, we're going to join the Navy, and we're go- ing to fly airplanes off an aircraft car- rier. It's kind of dangerous, it's kind of crazy, it's adrenaline filled and not many guys do it. "It's the hardest thing to do in the military, as far as being competitive. The military flight school is almost as competitive as the Michigan foot- ball program. It's a bunch of Type-A, driven people." They both not only made it through flight school, but became elite — to the extent that they did indeed find themselves landing fights on aircraft carriers at night. "Night carrier landings are some- thing to be proud of, but not any- thing you look forward to," Breaugh said. "They've hooked up moni- tors to pilots, and they say it far ex- ceeds almost any other stress level of anything else they've put people through — landing a plane on a car- rier at night. There's nothing fun about that." The fun came years later, amid his 34-year career as a pilot, from which he'll retire later this year. His big bosses in Atlanta knew the Detroit- based veteran would love to fly new U-M football coach Jim Harbaugh and his team to a road game at Penn State in 2015. So they made it happen. "Delta called me up one day and said, 'You're going to fly Michigan to Happy Valley, and go back the next day and pick them up,'" Breaugh said. "That was special. It would have been fun for me to fly the Mich- igan football team anytime, but par- ticularly at that time. "I knew Jim — we used to play catch on the sidelines when he was in the ninth, 10th grade, — and it was his first year. He was so excited." Breaugh has safely soared with ex- cited passengers for almost 35 years. "I wouldn't trade the career I've had after football for anything," he said. "The friends, the relationships — that has been gold for me." ❑ The Jim Breaugh File Michigan Accomplishments: Played on three Rose Bowl squads and went 3-1 against Ohio State … Was a member of the breakthrough crew in 1980 that delivered Bo Schembechler's first Rose Bowl victory. Professional Accomplishments: Served as a pilot for Northwestern and Delta Airlines the past 34 years … After flying fighter jets, including the F-16, in the Navy, has flown nationally and inter- nationally with a perfect safety record. Michigan Memory: "It was a football program, but it was really about life. There were so many lessons. From the time you got up in the morning until when you went to bed at night was about preparing you for life. We did it in the shadow of preparing to play sports. It taught you to be com- petitive, to think critically, to work hard. That's the memory." Education: Graduated in April 1981 with a BA in general studies, with an emphasis on business and computer science. Family: Married to his wife, Lisa, for 34 years, and the couple has three daughters: Melissa (31), Kelsey (29), and Christa (25). Breaugh became a Navy fighter pilot before carving out a 34-year career with Northwest and Delta Airlines. He plans on retiring later this year. PHOTO COURTESY JIM BREAUGH Breaugh on playing for Bo Schembechler "Bo was huge. Eighteen- to 22-year-olds are incredibly im- pressionable times. Bo was a leader, and he made men out of boys. There's hardly a day that goes by that I don't realize that Bo's fingerprints are on many of the things I've done and who I've become through the years."