Legendary Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler will be the first speaker in the Don Nehlen Distinguished Lecturer Series being instituted this fall by West Virginia University’s School of Physical Education and its athletic coaching education program.
Schembechler will be on campus Monday, Sept. 17, to offer several lectures to students and the public. He will speak to WVU students at 11 a.m. at the Erickson Alumni Center, followed by a luncheon visit with the School of Physical Education faculty.
Schembechler will give another presentation at 7 p.m. that is open to the general public; that lecture will also be held at the Erickson Alumni Center.
Serving as head football coach at Michigan for 21 seasons (1969-89), where he was the school’s winningest coach with a 194-48-5 record and 13 Big Ten championships, Schembechler also spent two years as Michigan’s athletic director and later served as president of the Detroit Tigers. A Miami (Ohio) graduate, he has won numerous honors in the field of college athletics.
Nehlen served as Schembechlers assistant at Michigan prior to coming to WVU in 1980.
The School of Physical Education plans to offer at least one lecture each semester in the series, featuring outstanding coaches from professional, collegiate and international sports. The series was announced in May to honor Nehlen, who is serving as an adjunct professor in the School of Physical Education after his retirement last season as head football coach.
“The Don Nehlen Distinguished Lecturer Series will attract nationally recognized and respected coaches to the WVU campus each year whose philosophy and life reflects those same qualities which Don Nehlen possesseshigh principles, compassion, dedication, commitment, integrity and a deep appreciation of family,”said WVU President David C. Hardesty, Jr.”Mr. Schembechler certainly fits this mold.”
The series is being funded through private gifts to the WVU Foundation, a private non-profit organization that generates, receives and administers private gifts from individuals and organizations for the benefit of West Virginia University. The Foundation is in the midst of a $250 million Building Greatness Campaign on behalf of the University that concludes Dec. 31, 2003.