From Madej's Mind: Following in Schalon's Footsteps
4/27/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Tradition plays a major role at Michigan, especially in athletics. The names of Harmon, Oosterbaan, Howard, Woodson and Russell not only ring through the halls of football and basketball, those names also resonate with the many Wolverine fans.
But the tradition of Michigan athletics doesn't stop with football and basketball. And as the Michigan team gets ready for this week's Big Ten Championships at Penn State, U-M's golf coach Andrew Sapp is going to remind his players about a Wolverine team from 60 years ago that won the 1949 Big Ten title behind the championship performance of Ed Schalon.
"You have to have a certain mindset for different sports and businesses," said Sapp. "You have to compete with confidence and know that through your preparation you have the ability to win the Big Ten Championship."
"In golf, you have to be consistent," adds Sapp. "I want everyone, especially our senior co-captains, to understand what this team and what Ed were able to accomplish."
True to form, consistency has been trademark of U-M this season. The team has posted top-10 performances in all but one event through the 2008 fall and 2009 spring seasons.
And the leaders in consistency have been the senior co-captains. With his expected start Friday at the Big Ten Championship, Bill Rankin (the U-M golfer on the Ed Schalon Endowed Scholarship) will make it 35 straight events as a Wolverine starter. He has yet to miss a start in the last three years. Fellow senior co-captain Nick Pumford also has shown improved consistency. He will be making his 21st start Friday and is tied for the team lead with eight par-or-better scores.
Schalon also was consistent on the course. In fact, Schalon's record of two Big Ten individual titles in 1946 and again in 1949 plus second-place finishes in two of his four NCAA Championship competitions made Schalon one of the most consistent, outstanding golfers in Big Ten golfing history.
"I got to know Ed when I took the head coaching job at Michigan," said Sapp, who came to Ann Arbor as men's golf coach in 2002. "Here was a modest man who was a great golfer who not only made significant individual accomplishments, but he was able to lead his team on the course and in business after he graduated from Michigan."
While Schalon didn't go on to play professional golf, he used his Michigan degree, his competitive spirit and leadership abilities to create a company named Consolidated Die Casting in 1954. By 1956, Schalon was the president of the company, just seven years after he graduated from U-M. Consolidated was acquired by a group known today as SPX and just less than 20-years later, Schalon became president and CEO of SPX when it was a Fortune 500 company. (At the time, Sealed Power was the world's largest producer of piston rings and a producer of cylinder sleeves and other precision engine parts).
"Ed's competitive spirit and his demeanor were a perfect fit for a golfer," said Sapp. "The way this team is playing this year, I believe we can do well in the conference championship."
Unfortunately, Schalon passed away in late December at the age of 88.
Sapp is going to make sure his 2009 team knows about Schalon and what he was able to do to help that Michigan team win the Big Ten Championship in 1946, 1947 and finally in 1949.
"I want our players to know what it takes to win the Big Ten Championship," added Sapp. "Using our Michigan tradition to remind our players what it takes to become successful on and off the course is a lesson we can learn from playing at this level of competition."
What better way to honor Ed Schalon and the 1949 team.
Players Mentioned
