Michigan vs. Texas A&M History: Bo Says No

Submitted by BursleyHall82 on

We don't have much of a history with Texas A&M in either of the two main sports. We're 2-1 all-time vs. them in football, and the game most of us remember is the 1995 Alamo Bowl, in which Brian Griese's late TD pass to Amani Toomer wasn't enough in a 22-20 loss. But good things came just two years later.

Our lone basketball game vs. Texas A&M came in 1962, when we beat them, 82-79. Bill Buntin was on that team, and it was the year before Cazzie Russell started playing. I think that Grayson Allen was a freshman at Duke, too.

As noted in a previous thread, the main sports connection between Michigan and Texas A&M came in January of 1982, when the Aggies and their oil money tried to hire Bo Schembechler away. I was a sports reporter at the Daily at the time, and this story was HUGE. In the history of Michigan football, it's still huge. There was a story about this in the HTTV issue a couple years ago.

Texas A&M was offering an ungodly amount of money – something like $3 million over 10 years! Incredible! After mulling over the offer, Bo took to the microphone at a press conference, and we still didn't know what he was going to do. I was there for the presser. Bo actually started to tear up when he said that there are things in this world that are more important than money - "and one of them's Michigan."

Here's the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaZQYHQR9l0

saveferris

March 19th, 2018 at 12:50 PM ^

A&M was ready to make Bo the highest paid college football coach by a WIDE margin.  Seems amazing to think he turned that offer down, although I can't imagine how miserable he would have been coaching in the SWC in the 1980's.  Pressure-cooker Texas football with ethically questionable boosters entrenched at every program.  His legacy would have certainly been different under those circumstances.

Seth

March 21st, 2018 at 7:58 AM ^

I never even made it all the way down the rabbit hole for that story. Shortly after I published it we were doing a WTKA segment with the guys involved in Billy Taylor's touchdown for Dr Sap's article that year, and I brought up A&M courting Bo to Fritz Seyferth during a break. Fritz had been the recruiting coordinator at the time and told me they had a huge visit weekend early that January, with kids in from all over the country (including a California QB named Jim Harbaugh). But no Bo! Nobody knew where he was. He was taking a secret visit to College Station with MIllie and Shemy.

GoBlueBill

March 21st, 2018 at 12:25 PM ^

I remember crying when a local station, erroneously reported that Bo had taken the A&M job . Does anyone else remember that or did i mis remember ? I was 11 at the time .