Bump Elliott - Coaching Career

Coaching Career

The Elliot brothers served as assistant coaches together at Oregon State in 1949 and 1950, before going their separate ways. The Elliotts coached against each other in the early 1960s while Bump was the head football coach at Michigan and Pete held the same position at the University of Illinois. In November 1963, Pete Elliott's Illinois team was ranked No. 2 in the country and the favorite for the Rose Bowl when it faced off against Bump Elliott's Michigan team. Michigan had a record of 2–3–1 when the brothers met in 1963, but Michigan came out on top, 14–8, marking the fourth time in four games that Bump's Wolverines came out on top of brother Pete's Illini.

After graduating from Michigan, Bump turned down an offer to play professional football for the Detroit Lions, saying he said he had obtained a job in Chicago outside of football. Elliott also considered going into medicine as his father had done, but he chose instead to go into coaching. He started his coaching career at Michigan in the fall of 1948 as assistant backfield coach. In the spring of 1949, he was hired as an assistant coach under Kip Taylor at Oregon State, where he remained for three seasons, from 1949–1951. Elliott later recalled, "I was only 24 when Kip Taylor hired me as backfield coach at Oregon State, and it bothered me a little because there were two backs on the squad who were older than I was." It was even worse for his brother Pete, who was 22 when he was hired to coach the ends. Bump recalled: "After practice one night some players noticed Pete light up a cigaret. One of his ends drew Pete aside and said in a fatherly voice, 'You shouldn't smoke, coach; I didn't do it when I was your age." Oregon State had an overall record of 14–15 in Elliott's three years as an assistant coach.

In 1952, Elliott was hired as an assistant at the University of Iowa under its head coach, Forest Evashevski, another former All-American at the University of Michigan. On being hired at Iowa, Elliott said, "I should feel at home back in the Big Ten. I grew up in Bloomington – 40 miles from Illinois. I played at Purdue and Michigan and coached at Michigan. My father went to Iowa and Northwestern and now I’m coaching at Iowa." He stayed at Iowa until 1957. Elliott was with the Hawkeyes in 1956 when they went 9–1, won the Big Ten championship, and defeated his former team, Oregon State, 35–19, in the 1957 Rose Bowl game.

He returned to Michigan in 1957 as a backfield coach under Bennie Oosterbaan. In 1959, Elliott was elevated to head football coach at Michigan. He was the head coach for ten years from 1959 to 1968, posting a career record of 51–42–2, for a .547 winning percentage. In Big Ten Conference play, his record was 32–34–2 (.485). His record over the ten years at Michigan was as follows:

Although his tenure at Michigan was unsuccessful by the school's historic standards, he did lead the 1964 Wolverines to a 9–1 record, a Big Ten title and a win in the Rose Bowl against Oregon State. His final team, in 1968, won eight of its first nine games but then suffered a humiliating 50–14 loss against Ohio State. Despite having a 36-point lead, Ohio State Coach Woody Hayes passed for, and failed to get, a two-point conversion after the final score and with 1:23 remaining in the game. When asked why he went for the two-point conversion, Hayes reportedly said, "Because we couldn't go for three!" Shortly after the game, Elliott resigned, and athletic director Don Canham hired Bo Schembechler to replace him as head coach. Schembechler would use the memory of the 1968 Ohio State loss to motivate his team the following season.

There were reports during the 1968 season that Elliott had been given an ultimatum: "Either win or face the possibility of being kick upstairs." There were also reports when Don Canham was hired that Elliott had expected to be named athletic director and that there was "bad blood" between Canham and Elliott.

However, Canham later denied that Elliott was "eased out" of his job. In an interview with Joe Falls, Canham said: "Bump and I are close personal friends. Bump is not naïve – he knows that when you work at a place for 10 years and you’re not winning consistently, it doesn’t become fun for anybody – the coach, the alumni, the players or anybody else. We talked about this and we talked about it openly. If Bump had said to me, ‘Look, give me a couple of more years,’ I would have given it to him. I mean that. I didn’t fire Bump Elliott. My first year as director Bump had an 8 and 2 record. Anyone could live with that."

According to Canham, he met with Elliott in December 1968 and offered him the job of associate athletic director. Canham told Elliott he could stay on as coach if he wanted, but Canham could not promise him that the job of associate athletic director would still be open in another couple of years. Canham said: "Bump smiled at me and said, ‘I don’t have to think about it.’ He was ready to get out. I did not force him, and I mean that in all honesty. But the job had ceased to be fun for him."

Schembechler later recalled that he remained loyal to Elliott when he took over as Michigan's head coach in 1969. When Schembechler won the Big Ten championship in 1969, he said, "I made certain I let everyone know I won with Bump's kids. Bump was a man of great class and he showed it to me again and again in that first year, never getting in the way, always trying to be helpful, always trying to encourage me." After Michigan won the 1969 Ohio State game, the team presented the game ball to Elliott, and Schembechler noted that "I don’t remember when I felt happier about anything in my life."

From 1969 to 1970, Elliott was the associate director of athletics at Michigan.