Don Canham

Who was Don Canham?

Donald Canham was a track and field athlete and coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the athletic director at the University of Michigan from 1968 to 1988. There, he became nationally renowned for his ability to market and sell products bearing the name or logo of the school. In December 1968, he hired Bo Schembechler as head football coach, beginning a new era of success for Michigan's football program. The combination of Canham's aggressive marketing efforts and Schembechler's winning teams helped Michigan set many national attendance records at Michigan Stadium. Since 1975, the school has sold over 100,000 tickets for every home football game — a string of more than 200 contests.

One of Canham's first priorities upon being named athletic director was to address the dwindling attendance at Michigan home football games, which by 1967 had declined to an average of 67,000 fans per game. Canham's good friend, Notre Dame athletic director Moose Krause, knew a sure-fire way to fill Michigan Stadium — by playing Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish and the Wolverines had not met on the gridiron since 1943 when Fritz Crisler, Michigan's then football coach and athletic director until 1968 when Canham succeeded him, became so incensed at the intensity of Notre Dame's Frank Leahy that he never scheduled Notre Dame again. Canham and Krause worked out an agreement to renew the series, which resumed in 1978 and is scheduled to continue until 2014.