Juwan will be first former player to coach Michigan in over 50 years
Jim Harbaugh became the first former player to coach Michigan Football in 47 years.
Juwan Howard is only the 5th former BASKETBALL playing^ Michigan alum to coach the Wolverines.
Those guys are?
Cappy Cappon
Player 1921-22 - 1922-23
Head Coach 1931-32 - 1937-38
Bennie Oosterbaan
Player 1925-26 - 1927-28
Head Coach 1938-39 - 1945-46
Ernie McCoy
Player 1926-27 - 1928-29
Head Coach 1948-49 - 1951-52
Michigan Basketball's history is a very interesting one. Consider this: Michigan did not have a dedicated, basketball-only head coach from 1919-1952.
Each Michigan coach during that time period (including the ones listed above) had their hands in the Football program as they served on the coaching staff. Football came first and then their offseason jobs would be various other sports. This wasn't just limited to Basketball, though. Wrestling's legendary Cliff Keen was a longtime Football assistant coach. For the first alum to be a Basketball-only coach........
Dave Strack
Player 1942-43 - 1943-44, 1945-46
Head Coach 1960-61 - 1967-68
Strack passed away the night after Nik Stauskas blew kisses to the izzone in 2014. He was considered by many Michigan Basketball historians as the program's greatest coach (until recently with Beilein).
Strack brought Michigan the likes Cazzie Russell, Bill Buntin, Oliver Darden, Rudy Tomjanovich, Larry Tregoning. Those great Cazzie Russell-led teams of the mid-60s brought Michigan Basketball out of the dark ages. Michigan Basketball's demand during that time saw the program outgrow the dilapidated, bat and pigeon-infested (seriously) Yost Field House for a new arena in 1967.
Strack left a great legacy and his lineage carried on through many decades that eventually led to Juwan Howard if you think about it.
When Strack retired from coaching in 1968 his assistant Johnny Orr was promoted to head coach. When Orr left for Iowa State, his assistant Frieder got the job. When Frieder bolted for ASU, his assistant Steve Fisher got the job.
In November Juwan Howard will become the first former player to coach Michigan in 51 years.
Juwan Howard
Player 1991-92 - 1993-94
Head Coach 2019-20 - present
Exciting hire!
This is a nice history piece WD, thanks for sharing.
Juwan has huge shoes to fill. It helps that he has huge feet. Good luck Juwan; I am eagerly anticipating his first season. He is walking into a great situation with the triumvirate of Simpson, Teske, and Livers.
Three thoughts
1. Cappy Cappon is clearly from the Golden Age of Doughy Guys, to use an MST3Kism.
2. Goodness I love the Strak era basketball jerseys. So clean.
3. I really hope Juwan pushes for a return to the classic styling of the Fab Five era maize jerseys.
Also, expecting to see a lot of 25 jerseys at M-Den.
Cappy Capon looks like a collector for The Black Hand.
It still doesn't compute that a Fab5er (even the Dad of the group) is a HC. Like, those dudes were THE most anti-establishment guys in the history of the sport (especially relative to the culture at the time).
Imagine talking to some dude who wasn't "comfortable" with the Fab5. Just wait till one of them becomes the HC, you stody old coot!
I saw Cazzie play at Yost. So, obviously, I'm pretty damn old, I loved the Fabs, saw a lot of their games, many of them with a room full of Michigan grads, and can't think of one Michigan guy who was "uncomfortable" with them. Sparty hated their guts, but ... Sparty.
I think this ignorant nonsense about Michigan guys "uncomfortable" with the Fabs is a ration of made up bullshit bandied about by empty headed, virtue signaling, haters wandering around without the first clue regarding what people here think/thought/did and do. Feel free to consider yourself to be firmly placed into that particular stereotype.
Lots of the "old coots", around here, were here for the BAM strike. Most of them that were already through were and remain supporters both of the strike and it's goals.
You should change your name to Michigan Ignorance.
Did a boomer just pull a "I protested with my one black friend" card?
Here's the story, you do-nothing old fart. First, I never said Michigan fans in particular, although they did exist (2). There was plenty of media types back in the 90s who didn't like the attitude the Fab5 displayed, their playground style on the court, any of it really (1).
Maybe you should leave out the ad-hom attacks and get back to telling your great grand kids about that time you stood around to protest social injustice and subsequently did nothing for the next 50 fucking years. So sit down in your rocking chair, STFU and stay in your lane.
(1)
"In their heyday, the Fab Five were widely portrayed as the root of all evil in college sports. They wore baggy shorts and black socks. They blasted hip-hop music in the locker room. They talked trash. A lot."
"By the end of their second year together, the Fab Five were routinely battered in the national media for the way they carried themselves. Articles and television reports painted them as brash villains or worse -- as thugs."
- Neumann, Thomas (March 11, 2011). "Michigan's Fab Five in their own words". ESPN. Retrieved March 17, 2011.
(2)
"The documentary explores what happened on the court, as well as the significant off-court issues of hate mail and threats from fans, ..."
- Gerstner, Joanne C. (March 14, 2011). "Documentary Rekindles 'Fab Five' Memories". The New York Times. Retrieved March 17, 2011.
Cappy somehow managed to look older as a player than as a coach.
Capon looks like the kind of guy you'd never want to pick you up when you're hitchhiking.
Unless.... you want to add a third to the marriage/killing cult.
Cappy Cappon is such a 20s-30s name
How does your title compare to your first line?
This is the 3rd point in history where we'll have former players coaching Michigan Football and Michigan Men's Basketball at the same time. That's why I put that in there.
It's been a long time, for both sports.
So Frieder's an alum who didn't play?
Yes, he graduated in 1964.
We also had a former Michigan Baseball player serve as our second head coach. Couldn't be a former basketball player because he was tasked with restarting the program after it was dropped after its first year in 1908-09.
Cappy has Bielfeldt-level calves
A Michigan man is gonna coach Michigan
Interestingly enough, UM is the only Division I school with alumni at the HC positions of both football and basketball.
Love the history and pics! Thanks.
I went to the Dave Strack basketball camp operated at Concordia College...which must have been in 1968, because I went to the Johnny Orr camp the next year. I know both coaches were there, but I was still under the radar, probably a two or low three star at the time, so I didn’t get much love.
Here's to Juwan having as much success coaching as Rudy Tomjanovich did in the NBA.
AWESOME, man.