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The Michigan Daily - New Student Edition - Fall 2005 - 7E


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Don CANHAM: 1918-2005
Remembering a 'Michigan man'

He led football turn-around,
transformed 'M' athletics

By Chris Burke
OCTOBER 9, 2005
Daily Staff Writer

FILE PHO
Director of Athletics from 1968-1988, Don Canham revolutionized how sports - specifically Michigan football - was markete

The Michigan football program was
floundering at the end of 1968. The Wol-
verines had suffered losing campaigns
in four of their last seven seasons, and
Michigan Stadium frequently had tens of
thousands of empty seats on gamedays.
But Don Canham changed all that in
his reign as Michigan's athletic director
from 1968-88.
Michigan Daily sports editor Chris
Burke talked withCanham in the fall prior
to his death about his experiences running
the University's athletic department.
THE MICHIGAN DAILY: People are very
familiar with your time as Michigan's
athletic director. But not as many know
that you were a successful track coach
here for 20 seasons. Can you compare
the experience of coaching at Michigan
o to being Michigan's athletic director?
d. DON CANHAM: I think the most impor-
tant things are the relationships that you
have with the athletes. ... It helped me
as athletic director an awful lot to know
what, particularly, those football and
basketball coaches go through. (Former
Michigan football coach Bo) Schem-
des bechler has said that he can't see how
ted someone could be an athletic director if
th- they hadn't been a coach.
ian
TMD: Was making the move from
m- coach to athletic director a difficult
ied one at all?
od DC: It was difficult to me for a
e. I strange reason. I owned a business that
nd I started when I was the track coach and
had when Fritz (Crisler, the previous athlet-
ic director) retired, I was going to quit
to coaching and run my business. When
I was first offered an interview for the
of athletic director job, I turned it down.
Aic I had no ambition to become athletic

director. Some of the other coaches ...
came to me and said, "Look, take the
interview and if they give you the job,
just do it for five years." So I said "OK."
We had some problems - we weren't
drawing any people for football; we had
50,000 people in that damn stadium at
the time.
TMD: With those problems in mind,
how were you able to turn the football
program around?
DC: I was lucky because I had been
on the (University of Michigan) staff
for 17 or 18 years. I knew what the
problems were and I had no doubt in my
mind that we could do it. I knew I was
going to hire a coach.
TMD: Why'd you end up choosing Bo?
DC: He had the background, head
coaching experience, knowledge of the
Big Ten - he had worked at North-
western and Ohio (State) and was a
winner. His personality just struck me
right away. I hired him 15 minutes after
we began to talk. That was the turning
point in my career as athletic direc-
tor. That's because he started winning
right away, we didn't have to wait four
or five years.
TMD: Like you mentioned, the
crowds at Michigan football games
were pretty small before Bo took over.
What specific things did you do to
increase those numbers?
DC: The first thing I did was con-
tact every high school coach in the
state of Michigan. I said, "This fall,
play on Friday nights, then on Satur-
day come to Ann Arbor." We had five
and six thousand high school football
players come a week. The biggest
thing we did, of course, was invite
(high school) bands. We filled the
whole football stadium with bands. I
had the San Diego Chicken come out

and the Clydesdale horses. We adver-
tised to the women of the house - we
said come have a picnic. Before that
time, frankly, very few kids came to
Michigan football games....
The one big thing ... We hadn't sold
the Ohio State game out for 14 years.
So we went down to Ohio and adver-
tised Michigan-Ohio State football.
Thousands of people there couldn't
see Michigan-Ohio State because it
was always sold out (in Ohio). We sold
23,000 tickets to people in Ohio and
filled the stadium. But we had 23,000
Ohio fans. After we won, Bo came
in and said, "Don, don't ever do that
again." And I said, "Now, I don't think
I'll have to."
We changed what a football game
meant to people. We made it a spec-
tacle, a carnival, a ball. Now they come
at seven in the morning, go to the game,
then go back to their tailgates. We real-
ized early that you can't always be No.
1, and can't advertise that - so we
made Saturday an event.
TMD: Looking back, could you have
envisioned being as successful as you
were, to the point where today Michigan
always leads the nation in attendance and
always draws over 100,000 fans?
DC: Oh, no. The only thing I did know
was that we're going to draw a hell of a
lot more people than we ever did. Up
until then, schools did not advertise. I
almost got fired when I flew a helicopter
advertising Michigan football over the
World Series (in Detroit) in 1968. That
was considered undignified. We ran ads
in magazines and all the Detroit subur-
ban newspapers. Our big gimmick was
that we mailed ticket applications - that
first year we mailed 400,000 ticket appli-
cations and sold coffee cups and things
like that. We paid for the ads with the
coffee cups. The premiums we came up
with paid for it all.

Canham was
By Jeremy Davidson
MAY 9, 2005
Daily Staff Writer
As the fans at Michigan Stadium scream "Hail to the Vic-
tors" this fall, there will be one irreplaceable voice absent from
the crowd. When Don Canham passed away on May 3, he left a
legacy that will forever define Michigan athletics as some of the
best in the country.
"We have lost a giant at Michigan and we will miss him. Mr.
Canham was a remarkable man and his legacy will endure,"
Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr said.
Canham started his career in 1938, when he enrolled as a stu-
dent-athlete at the University. Competing in the high jump with
the track and field team eventually led him to an NCAA champi-
onship in 1940. After graduating from the University, Canham
went on to become head track coach in 1948.
Over the next 20 years he recruited athletes from around the
world to play for Michigan, including countries in the Carib-
bean, Africa and Europe.
Tom Goss, a former University athletic director, said that
Canham recruited so many talented black athletes from places
in the Caribbean, such as Jamaica and Trinidad, that Michigan
had the most black athletes enrolled during his tenure.
Soon after arriving at a track meet at Georgia in 1951, Can-
ham headed back to Michigan with his team, after discovering
that black athletes and white athletes couldn't eat together.
"I don't care what it was. I don't care how unpopular it was.
You could count on Don doing the right thing," Goss said.
Canham's integrated team broke American and world indoor
records in the track distance medley relay.

,a'

visionary

After 20 years as head track coach, and nearly three deca
of involvement with Michigan sports, Canham was appoin
athletic director, where he championed publicity for college a
letics and hired Bo Schembechler, who won more games th
any Michigan football coach in the program's history.
"I worked for him for 21 years without a contract!" Sche
bechler said. "That's how much faith I had him in. I coach
Michigan without ever a thought I'd get fired because he sto
behind me. I was hired at Michigan by him and him alon
had a lot of faith in him and he had a lot of faith in me, a
together we produced a pretty good team. And the success I h
at Michigan, I would share equally with him."
Other coaches who Canham hired felt similarly
Schembechler.
"Don Canham was a visionary athletic director, ahead
his time. He was responsible for building the Michigan athle
department as we know it today. He did a great job of find]
the coaches and allowing them to coach their programs. Wer
going to miss a great friend of Michigan," said Michigan hock
coach Red Berenson.
With Canham's help, the Michigan football team hasr
played at home to a crowd of fewer than 100,000 people sir
1975, and Michigan has had the highest attendance in the nati
for 30 of the last 31 years.
"Don Canham was a giant in the history of intercollegi
athletics at Michigan," University President Mary Sue Colem
said. "His contributions are many, and they continue to shape t
experiences of student-athletes at the University. As a (Universi
student, coach and administrator, he exhibited the values of int
rity and sportsmanship. Don was an outstanding ambassadorI
the University of Michigan, and he will be deeply missed."

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While other 'M' athletes
excel academically, men's
basketball team has third-
worst graduation rate gap
By Karl Stampfl
NOVEMBER 11, 2004
Daily Staff Writer
Just trying to balance a heavy course
load is difficult for many University stu-
dents. But Michigan athletes have to deal
with the added burden of daily practices
and road trips that sometimes take them
away from their studies.
Despite their harried schedules, ath-
letes traditionally have a higher gradua-
tion rate than student bodies as a whole,
according to a study by the NCAA as
reported by The Chronicle of Higher
Education. The average six-year gradu-
ation rate for athletes entering college
in the 1997-98 school year at universi-
ties across the country was 62 percent,
which led overall graduation rates by
two points.
Last year, 185 Michigan athletes
received Academic All-Big Ten hon-
ors. To be eligible for the award, Big
Ten athletes had to have a GPA of 3.0
or better and have been letter winners in
their sport. Michigan also produced five
Academic All-Americans.
The overall athlete graduation rate at
Michigan is 82 percent, 20 points above
the national average.
But in the survey, men's basketball did
not follow that trend. Overall, basketball
had the lowest rate of any sport, graduat-
ing 44 percent of players.
At Michigan, that rate was even lower.

sional and ring the bell financially. Put
yourself in their shoes."
Martin said the program's struc-
ture and personnel led to the high
turnover rate.
"There was instability in the pro-
gram," Martin added.
But since then, things have changed,
Martin said.
"Those numbers are one reason we
have a new coach," Martin said, refer-
ring to the 2001 firing of Brian Ellerbe
and subsequent hiring of current head
coach Tommy Amaker.
"You might want to think about
the low rate as pre-Tommy (Amaker)
and post-Tommy and see the dra-
matic change," Martin said. "Under
Tommy, nine out of the 10 players
have graduated."
The only player in Amaker's era not
to graduate was Bernard Robinson Jr.,
who left early for the NBA. Martin said
he believes Robinson plans to come
back eventually and graduate. The
program no* boasts players in highly
ranked University programs. Among
others, J.C. Mathis was accepted this
summer into the Stephen M. Ross
School of Business and Sherrod Harrell
is in the School of Engineering.

The University is making more of an
effort to recruit athletes who can handle
the necessary schoolwork and compete
at the same time, Martin said.
"First and foremost at Michigan,
you have to win in the classroom,"
Martin said. "Then you win on the
basketball court."
Athletes learn to deal with the
demands of sports and academics early,
Michigan senior gymnast Chelsea
Kroll said.
Kroll has earned a spot on the Aca-
demic All-Big Ten team for the last
three years. She has been a part of a
Michigan gymnastics team that has won
the Leaders and Best trophy - which
goes to the Michigan team with the best
grades - two out of the last five years.
The gymnastics program requires
freshman to go to a supervised study
room four days a week from 7:30 to 9:30
p.m. to help them adjust. If an upper-
classman's GPA slips below 2.0, she too
must go to the study table.
"You have to get used to balancing the
two," Kroll said. "It's really hard, espe-
cially when you get into your season and
you care so much about the sport that it's
hard to focus on your homework. But it's
kept me disciplined."

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