Don Canham
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Don Canham c. 1950
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| Sport(s) | Track and field |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born | April 27, 1918 |
| Died | May 3, 2005 (aged 87) |
| Playing career | |
| 1940–1941 | Michigan |
| Position(s) | High jumper |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1950–1968 | Michigan |
| Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
| 1968–1988 | Michigan |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 52–13–2 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| 7 Big Ten Indoor (1955, 1956, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964) 4 Big Ten Outdoor (1955, 1956, 1961, 1962) |
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Donald Canham (April 27, 1918 – May 3, 2005) 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.
Canham was an athlete for the Michigan Wolverines men's track and field team, earning All-American honors by winning the 1940 NCAA title in the high jump and was both the indoor and outdoor Big Ten Conference champion in both 1940 and 1941.
From 1950 to 1968, he served as the school's head track coach. His teams won 11 Big Ten Conference championships, seven indoor and four outdoor. He left the post after 19 seasons to become the school's athletic director.
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 ended in 2014.
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