Everyone who wore the winged helmet for Bo Schembechler can drum up a favorite story of the legendary leader.

For 1981 All-American offensive tackle Ed Muransky, it was jimmying the locker room scale so he and a teammate could always make weight, only for Schembechler to reveal the night before the Ohio State game that he had been on to them all along.

As Muransky recalls it, Schembechler came to their room that night and said, "Do you fat-asses really think that I thought you weighed 284 pounds the entire year? Go kick some ass tomorrow."

University Regent David Brandon, who captained the team in the early 1970s, first met Schembechler as a high school senior. Brandon arrived at the coach's home to find the legend dressed for the occasion - in a bathrobe and slippers.

Rousing pregame pep talks. Strange practice antics (inflatable baseball bats, anyone?). An intense pride for the Maize and Blue. Schembechler had a special style of coaching that his players never forget.

"Bo was intense to the point of frightening at times," Brandon said. "Those intense hours of practices were not fun, but they always made us better. You could hate him during the time you were out there on the practice field, but by the time practice was over for five minutes, he would come up to you, put his arm around you and tell you he appreciated what you had done, and then you'd realize, geez, we're really lucky. We're out here playing for a legend."

Former Wolverine safety Jim Betts couldn't settle on one trait to describe Schembechler.

"He was crazy," Betts said. "He was compassionate. He was sensitive. He was hard-nosed - he was a little bit of everything."

More than a coach, Schembechler also played the role of teacher to his pack of Wolverines. Many players recall how the coach didn't just prepare them for the upcoming games, but for life after football, too.

During his 21 seasons at the helm of Michigan football, Schembechler groomed 117 NFL draft picks, 38 first-team All Americans and 92 first-team All-Big Ten players.

"He was always about creating a better future," said Fritz Seyfirth, a member of the team in the early '70s and a former associate athletic director. "I truly respect the man for the caring attitude he had towards all of the kids on the football team. All of us who ever played for him look at him with such admiration. He would do anything for any of us at any time."

Even those who didn't have the opportunity to suit up for the program's winningest coach felt the impact of his work. It wasn't hard, considering Schembechler was a constant presence at practice and at meetings.

John Navarre, Michigan's starting quarterback from 2001 to 2003, saw Schembechler in a team setting and in a personal setting.

"I met with him a number of times one-on-one, during the down times when I was a sophomore and the high times when I finished off my senior year," Navarre said. "He always had coaching advice for me, talked to me and assessed my play, told me what I needed to do better, told me what I was doing well. We had a good relationship like that. I respected everything he told me."

- Gabe Edelson, Anne Joling, Andrew Grossman and Mark Giannotto contributed to this report.