Donald Burrell Canham 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.

Glenn Edward "Bo" Schembechler Jr. was an American college football player, coach, and athletic administrator. He served as the head football coach at Miami University from 1963 to 1968 and at the University of Michigan from 1969 to 1989, compiling a career record of 234 wins, 65 losses and 8 ties. Only Nick Saban, Joe Paterno and Tom Osborne have recorded 200 victories in fewer games as a coach in major college football. In his 21 seasons as the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines, Schembechler's teams amassed a record of 194–48–5 and won or shared 13 Big Ten Conference titles. Though his Michigan teams never won a national championship, in all but one season they finished ranked, and 16 times they placed in the final top ten of both major polls.