RRod...Is He Bump Or Bo?

The year is 1963.The coach is Bump Elliott.

Michigan has just ended their season with a 3-4-2 record after a 2-7 season the year before.

The Wolverine faithful were up in arms about the direction the team was in.Fire Bump! Fire Bump!

1964...A year later.9-1 and rated #5 in the country.

Fast forward another 3 years to 1967. Another disappointing season of 4-6 followed by  8-2 season that got Bump bumped up to an associate athletic director position.There were reports during the 1968 season that Elliott had been given an ultimatum: “Either win or face the possibility of being kicked upstairs.”

However,Michigan Athletic Director Dan Canham later denied that Elliott was “eased out” of his job. In an interview with Joe Falls, Canham said: “Bump and I are close personal friends. Bump is not naïve – he knows that when you work at a place for 10 years and you’re not winning consistently, it doesn’t become fun for anybody – the coach, the alumni, the players or anybody else. We talked about this and we talked about it openly. If Bump had said to me, ‘Look, give me a couple of more years,’ I would have given it to him. I mean that. I didn’t fire Bump Elliott. My first year as director Bump had an 8 and 2 record. Anyone could live with that.”

Schembechler later recalled that he remained loyal to Elliott when he took over as Michigan’s head coach in 1969. When Schembechler won the Big Ten championship in 1969, he said, “I made certain I let everyone know I won with Bump’s kids. Bump was a man of great class and he showed it to me again and again in that first year, never getting in the way, always trying to be helpful, always trying to encourage me.” After Michigan won the 1969 Ohio State game, the team presented the game ball to Elliott, and Schembechler noted that “I don’t remember when I felt happier about anything in my life."

So Bo took over an 8-2 team with 11 future all Big 10 players , 4 All Americans, and 2 NFL All-Pro's and took them to an 8-3 record.

Bump Elliott meanwhile took 2 losing teams and the next year had a 9-1  with a #5 ranking,and an 8-2 with a #12 ranking. 

Take heart RRod and Wolverine faithful. A major improvement from a losing year to at least an 8 win season has been done not once but twice...by someone named Bump.