Just days after being hired by Michigan as assistant director of football recruiting, Glenn "Shemy" Schembechler -- the son of legendary Wolverines coach Bo Schembechler -- has resigned from his position. The departure comes amid the discovery of a mass of objectionable and racist social media content liked by his Twitter account.
The liked tweets, publicly available to view, were compiled over a period of years. Seemingly hundreds to thousands of those tweets were unliked Friday night before the Twitter account was ultimately deactivated Saturday.
"We are aware of some comments and likes on social media that have caused concern and pain for individuals in our community. Michigan Athletics is fully committed to a place where our coaches, staff and student-athletes feel welcome and where we fully support the University's and Athletic Department's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion," said athletic director Warde Manuel and coach Jim Harbaugh in a statement released Saturday.
On Sunday, Schembechler admitted his wrongdoing through a statement released on his behalf from his public relations firm.
"Any words or philosophies that in any way seek to underplay the immeasurable suffering and long-term economic and social inequities that hundreds of years of slavery and the 'Jim Crow' era caused for Black Americans is wrong," Schembechler said. "I was wrong. We must never sanitize morally unsanitary, historical behaviors that have hindered the Black community, or any other community. There are no historical silver linings for the experiences of our brothers and sisters."
Harbaugh's affection for Bo Schembechler, his former coach and mentor, is well known. The hiring of Shemy was viewed with curiosity at its onset, seen by many as a move only made due to the personal connection between the families.
The younger Schembechler played for the Wolverines and started his off-field career with the program as a graduate assistant in 1993. However, he spent most of his post-playing working in a scouting role across various NFL franchises, most recently the Las Vegas Raiders, which parted ways with him in January.
Bo Schembechler spent 21 seasons as Michigan's coach (1969-89), amassing 194 wins and capturing 13 Big Ten titles. He was named Big Ten Coach of the Year six times and finished his career with a coaching record of 234-65-8 between his stay at Michigan and his first job from 1963-68 at his alma mater of Miami (Ohio). Schembechler doubled as Michigan's athletic director in the closing years of his coaching tenure, holding that role from 1988-90 before being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993. He died in 2006 at age 77.
Michigan enters the 2023 season seeking its third consecutive Big Ten championship and College Football Playoff berth. The Wolverines haven't won the Big Ten in three straight years since capturing five consecutive league titles from 1988-92, a streak that started under Schembechler and continued under former Wolverines coach Gary Moeller, who took over as coach in 1990.
