The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/402034
INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS and said, 'Who the hell wants to read a book about some old football coach?' "My ROTC assignment ended at Michigan, and I went off to places around the country and halfway around the world. You put things on hold, because life gets in the way. "I got reinvigorated when Marty, my son, called me in 2010. He said, 'Dad, I'm going to write a book about Michigan football and the Heisman Trophy.' He later said, 'Are you ever going to do that book you talked about?' "I said, 'Oh, is that a challenge?' He kicked my butt. He got his done in about 11 months. That kind of inspired me that I need to get this done. I'd written two books, but this is the one I'd been thinking about the longest." The Wolverine: What's the gist of the book? Gallagher: "It was going to be titled, 'A Final Ode To Bo.' I met with [former Michigan sports informa- tion director] Bruce Madej … he got me to thinking about telling a bigger story. We all know Bo's bowl record wasn't good. "But, the guy could flat-out coach. And the numbers that he put up in 21 years were phenomenal. I framed the story a little bit differ- ently when I went back and looked at what Michigan football was do- ing the 21 years before he got there and the 21 years after. "His 21-year tenure was incred- ible. It worked out great. Bennie [Oosterbaan] was there for 11, and Bump [Elliott] for 10, so there are 21 years right there. Then you've got Mo [Gary Moeller], and Lloyd [Carr] and RichRod [Rich Rodriguez], three guys, who totaled 21 years. "So it tells what I call the modern history of Michigan football. I used four lenses to tell the story: looking at where Michigan was in the national picture, competing for national championships, All-Americans, etc.; the Big Ten lens; the G a l l a g h e r ' s b o o k 2 1 - 1 9 4 - 1 3 M i c h i g a n Football's Greatest Era takes an in-depth look at U-M football from 1969-89. PHOTO COURTESY BARRY GALLAGHER