Bennie Oosterbaan - Coaching Career

Coaching Career

After graduating, Oosterbaan declined offers to play professional football and baseball. According to friend and player Ron Kramer, Oosterbaan grew up in the Dutch Reformed Church and did not sign a professional football or baseball contract "because of his religious background and his mother. Dutch Reformed didn't play football on Sundays."

Instead, Oosterbaan stayed on at the University of Michigan as an assistant coach for the football and basketball teams. He began as an assistant football coach immediately after graduating, and he remained an assistant coach of the football team for twenty years before succeeding Fritz Crisler. After serving 10 seasons as an assistant coach, he also became the head basketball coach in 1938 and served in that capacity until 1946. The basketball team had an 81–72 record while Oosterbaan was the head coach. Oosterbaan employed an uptempo style of play that differed from that of his predecessor Franklin Cappon. Oosterbaan was also head coach of the freshman baseball team.

In 1948, Oosterbaan took over as head coach of the football team at Michigan. Fritz Crisler named Oosterbaan as his successor after the 1948 Rose Bowl in which Michigan beat the University of Southern California by a score of 49–0. Crisler described Oosterbaan, "the best offensive mind in college football." Oosterbaan led the Wolverines to an Associated Press (AP) National Championship in his first season and won Coach of the Year honors. His 1950 team won the 1951 Rose Bowl after Oosterbaan obtained consent from the Conference to hold extra practices. His teams won Big Ten championships in each of his first three seasons but did not win another under his tenure. He coached at Michigan until 1958, compiling a 63–33–4 record.

Oosterbaan believed success was fleeting. He once was quoted in Time Magazine as saying, "I'm on top now, and there is a lot of backslapping. But what of seasons to come? Let me lose the opener or a couple of other games next fall, and then watch how I'm blasted." As coach, he had a reputation as a mild-mannered man who aspired to live by the maxims of his own college football coach, Fielding Yost.

Oosterbaan had an mild-mannered coaching style. "Poise" was his favorite word when it came to inspiring his team. He coached without using a lot of yelling and screaming. Oosterbaan motivated his players without using sarcasm or losing his temper, and rarely used locker room pep talks.

Oosterbaan resigned as the head football coach in 1958. At the time, he said: "The pressure finally got to me. Not the kind that comes from outside. Not from my bosses or the fans. I mean the pressure that builds up inside a head coach whether he wins or loses." After Oosterbaan quit as football coach he was succeeded by Bump Elliott. In 1959, Oosterbaan became Michigan's director of athletic alumni relations and held that position until he retired in 1972.