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Michigan mourns passing of former assistant coach Mike DeBord
By Mark Kern
Published:
Michigan is mourning a member of the Wolverine family as former assistant coach Mike DeBord recently passed away at 69 years old. No cause of death was provided.
The program released a statement Wednesday on social media.
Our football program and athletic department lost a great assistant coach and Olympic Sports administrator in Mike Debord,” the team posted on X. “He was always a great source of inspiration for the student-athletes who competed for Michigan and the coaches who represented our teams. Mike positively affected so many lives at this university and his impact will be felt for generations. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mike’s Family.
DeBord was a part of Michigan football for many years. He began his career with the Wolverines as the offensive line coach from 1993 to 1996. He was then promoted to offensive coordinator, where he helped the team win a national championship in 1997.
He was in Ann Arbor in that role until 2000, when he became the head coach at Central Michigan. He was the coach there for 4 seasons, where he finished with a record of 12-34.
DeBord also had various coaching stints with Tennessee, as well as time in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks and the Chicago Bears.
He returned back to Michigan with Jim Harbaugh during the COVID-19 year as an offensive analyst for the Wolverines. His final year of coaching was in 2021 at Kansas, where he was the offensive coordinator and the quarterbacks coach.