Barry and Bo

A story from an ESPN article about Barry Larkin (soon to be hall of famer) and Bo Schembechler.  The entire article does have a Robert Perryman reference (which is clearly worth the read right there!).

After your freshman year, you met with Bo Schembechler to tell him you were switching from football to baseball. How did that conversation go?

First, I called my mother and asked her if she would call Bo, and she said, “No, you’ve gotta do this.” So we had a date set for our meeting, and I walked into his office. Bo was a multitasker. Bo’s head is down. He doesn’t make eye contact. He’s writing something, on the phone and doing something else. He had three or four things going on, and he was talking to me at the same time. I don’t walk into his office like I normally do and sit down at the desk right in front of him. I kind of stand in the doorway, and I don’t enter his office. I’m just kind of standing there. So he’s talking, [but] he doesn’t make eye contact with me.

He’s like, “Larkin, I want to know: Are you committed to returning punts?” He said, “I’m considering you at strong or free safety. I’m not sure. I’ve got to talk to [then-defensive coordinator Gary] Moeller about that.” Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He’s just talking and rambling, and I’m not saying anything.

Then he kind of stops, and he still doesn’t make eye contact, and he’s like, “Is there a problem?” I go, “No Coach, there’s no problem.” He still hasn’t made eye contact with me. So he goes, “What is it, Larkin? You got something to tell me?”

I said, “Coach, I had a real good freshman baseball season and for the first time in my life I was able to just play one sport, and I think I just want to play baseball.” He took his glasses and put them on the table, took his pen and put it down. He made eye contact, and he said, “What did you say?”

I said, “Uhhhhh, I’m just gonna play baseball?” -- like it was a question.

He said, “Larkin this is THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN!” and pounded his desk. All the papers that were neatly [arranged] on his desk were flying all over the place. He came up over the desk -- almost climbed over the desk -- and he pointed at me and said, “No one comes to the University of Michigan and plays stinkin’ baseball!”

I’m like, “OK, Coach." He told me, “You get out of this office, and you come back tomorrow when you have come to your senses.” So I go back and tell him [again] the next day, and I thought that was the end of it.

Well, maybe three or four times a month [when] we’re out there practicing baseball, this guy in a hoodie comes out and he heckles me from the third-base line. It was Bo.

“LARKIN! Come hit a man who can hit you back instead of that sissy baseball!”

Unbelievable. The few times I got to tell that story up at Michigan, people loved it, but Bo hated it.


BHB:  Barry, when you enter the hall this summer there won't be any prouder Michigan Man looking down on you then Bo.  Knowing he was the guy that brought you to Michigan.  I guarantee he wouldn't have attended so many baseball practices if he didn't have a special place in his heart for you.   Congratulations on being a hall of famer and a Michigan Man!