Catching Up with John Beilein: Wolverine Coaching Legend, Surviving a 'Debilitating' Illness, Reflects On a Life Well Lived

Why did he leave Michigan five years ago? When can he return to Big Ten Network? Which is his favorite team memory? How golf has replaced coaching as an obsession, and what the grandkids do for him

Photo Courtesy of John Beilein

John and Kathleen Beilein, married for 46 years, are surrounded by their seven grandchildren at Walloon Lake near Petoskey, Mich.

Photo Courtesy of University of Michigan Photography

Michigan coach John Beilein enjoying a moment at a 2018 Final Four press conference.

By Steve Kornacki

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Our paths crossed at a recent Michigan football game, and it was so good to see John Beilein again. He looked and sounded great, and he suggested we talk soon.

Beilein, a Florida resident who now lives in Naples and has a summer home Up North near Petoskey on Walloon Lake along with wife Kathleen, is enjoying life despite what has been a painful, two-year-long battle with shingles that recently required surgery.

It was going to be great hooking up again because we had some special times together when I covered his Wolverine basketball teams for the athletic department at MGoBlue.com.

And when we talked on the phone Monday, I finally got to ask him the question I never got to when he left Ann Arbor so abruptly to coach the Cleveland Cavaliers:

Exactly why did he leave a program he had at the highest level in college for one of the worst teams in the NBA? That’s a question he said he’d never fully answered before.

And I also asked him to choose his favorite season among a dozen with the Wolverines – which included playing in the 2013 and 2018 national championship games while becoming the winningest coach in program history at 278-150. We also spoke of his admiration for and friendship with new Michigan coach Dusty May.

However, before we got to that and discussed his current roles as a Michigan Medicine consultant and Big Ten Network analyst, we talked about something that has dominated his life since retiring as an advisor for the Detroit Pistons two years ago.

“I was always too busy for a shingles shot,” said Beilein, 71. “But I got shingles, which is usually a two- or three-week event, and had it for 18 straight months. The rash leaves after a month, but the pain is exactly the same. And the pain is through my stomach, side and back. It’s a four-inch span, and I haven’t slept with sheets on [the bed] in 18 months. You can’t have a bed spread or a shirt or anything that touches your body. It sets you off like people are burning you with a match.

“After 18 months, I gave in and went to St. Louis for a guy who is ground-breaking in this surgery. He’s only done 14 of them, but they were all successful. So, I could have this one more day or for the rest of my life. But it is so debilitating for normal life. I’m now out eight weeks. The intercostal nerves [part of the somatic nervous system] that are causing the pain, took out the bad part, took my skin and capped them up with my skin. And then he buries them back in the tissues…I’m a little bit better now.”

It was a five-hour surgery.

“It was crazy, just crazy,” he continued. “And so now I’m on massive pain killers that help, but I have to wait it out until the nerves calm down because they’ve been violated.”

Shingles struck four days after he retired from working for the Pistons, whose head coach, Dwane Casey, had just resigned.

“It’s supposed to come from stress,” added Beilein of shingles, “and so you’d think it would’ve come after some Final Four game. Those four days were the least stressful time of my life! It’s freaking awful. I haven’t slept for more than a half hour at a time because of the pain. It wakes me up before I can get back to sleep.

“Thank God for marijuana gummies They’ve been a really great help. They have one called ‘Dreams’ and they help me sleep.”

Based on the recovery schedule doctors provided, Beilein said he “hopes to be back on the Big Ten Network as a studio analyst before Thanksgiving.” He’s excited that one of his nine NBA first-round draft picks, Nik Stauskas, the 2014 Big Ten Player of the Year and an All-America guard, has joined BTN as a game analyst.

“How about that!” exclaimed Beilein.

He also works with Michigan Medicine as a consultant for leadership training, culture building and fund-raising.

Golf has become a passion.

“I never had time to play before,” said Beilein. “Now that all the recruiting and coaching is behind me…Wow, what a game. I love it. Some of what drives coaches is failure, and trying to get better every day. I know it drove me crazy. And that’s golf, man! That’s golf. It’s like Frank Sinatra sang, ‘Riding high in April, and shot down in May.’ That’s golf.

“I think coaches are addicted. They hate losing, but they love making the corrections from losing. That was a big driving force behind my 45 years as a head coach. Seeing a young man who had so much possibility and getting them to that.”

Photo Courtesy of University of Michigan Photography

Wolverine coach John Beilein, carefully surveying game action, has always been a true student of the game of basketball.

He noted guards Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, Jordan Poole and Zavier Simpson as great examples of that. And Duncan Robinson of the Miami Heat, who transferred from Division III Williams College, is another great example.

I was shocked when Beilein left the Wolverines for Cleveland, and asked why he left a school that should probably erect a statue of him outside Crisler Center.

“I’m going to tell you that I’ve never spoken publicly about this,” said Beilein. “No offense, but it’s probably something I will share at another time. There were several issues – some of which I can’t even talk about…That’s a story for a book or something.

“But in short, for you, after 45 years as a head coach…Who’s done 45 years as a head coach? And had 45 straight years of making these decisions? There were other endeavors I wanted to explore – one of which was having a normal life again. I never had a normal life. I was so grateful for 45 years in college basketball, but it was time to step away from college basketball.”

I recalled a conversation we had outside the team hotel in Anaheim, Calif., before the final game he coached in the 2019 NCAA Tournament. He discussed having to speak with players considering leaving after one or two years for the NBA Draft upon tournament conclusion. He was dreading it.

Beilein said: “I just knew after 45 years in coaching – and I understand the financial aspect of it – but I knew for some of our young men it was not the right time or place [to leave college]. Now, Duncan went to the NBA six years after high school with prep school before Michigan. The player he became by sitting out [one year] twice, if someone could see what happened to him in his four years here, and cherish all four years.

“Mo [Moritz Wagner] and Timmy [Hardaway, Jr.] both stayed three years and they’re both still in the league. It really helps when they have a bit more of what it takes to survive at the next level.”

The NBA, he thought, would allow more time for that “normal life” because summers wouldn’t be very involved. But it was still demanding and the Cavs let him go after a 14-40 start in 2019-20. Never mind that the team had little talent and was lousy before he arrived.

Beilein can’t travel at this time, and misses seeing the seven grandchildren from the four children he and Kathleen raised. He shared a photo of him and his wife with the grandkids at Walloon Lake, proudly adding that an eighth grandchild is on the way.

He noted that Johnny Hendricks, 10, who received plenty of TV game air time in his grandfather’s later coaching career, “has become quite an athlete – football, baseball, basketball.” One of his friends in nearby Saline is Ace Boynton, son of current Wolverine basketball assistant coach Mike Boynton, Jr., whom Beilein said “runs like O.J. Simpson.”

Beilein had a role in May – the coach who brought in Boynton -- picking Michigan over other opportunities he had after taking Florida Atlantic University to the 2023 Final Four and the 2024 NCAA Tournament. They talked during his decision-making time and May told me recently that he speaks frequently with Beilein, getting advice on everything from which local barber to choose to his special insights into the program.

“I am very optimistic about the future of Michigan basketball under the leadership of Dusty May and his staff,” Beilein said. “Dusty is a tireless worker and a fabulous representative for the University of Michigan. We talk often and I am very impressed how he goes about his business. I look forward to attending some games, and watching his team all season.”

I closed our conversation by asking what his favorite season or memory was at Michigan.

“That’s like asking me which one of my children is my favorite child,” Belein said, chuckling. “That’s unanswerable. There were so many things.

“Now, this is not my favorite, it’s just one of my favorites. But it would be how we responded after the plane crash and not only won four in a row [to take the 2017 Big Ten Tournament in Washington, D.C.], but we beat Oklahoma State and Louisville [to reach the Sweet 16] and then lost to Oregon in a game that could’ve gone the other way.

“That is the first thing that comes to mind. And I could go on and on and many of them would equal that. That’s just the first one of many.”

Kornacki: Stories of 24 Hours with the Wolverines - University of Michigan Athletics (mgoblue.com)

Photo Courtesy of University of Michigan Photography

John Beilein cutting down the net from Michigan’s improbable 2017 Big Ten Tournament championship after surviving a plane crash. He had players practice everything — even how to correctly cut down a net.

We all were fortunate to survive what happened on March 8, 2017. A pilot arriving at Willow Run Airport as I left with my luggage told me that the pilot, hitting the brakes an instant before takeoff, saved all our lives.

“We’re blessed,” said Beilein, while recalling the terror, chaos and all the soul-searching that came after that. “So, let’s go out and live it.”

Life is good for the Beileins – who have enjoyed 46 years of marriage -- even with the health concerns and challenges that come with aging.  

As for seeing the grandkids grow, he said, “It’s fun for me to watch that. I enjoy that.”

I could picture that warm, wonderful Beilein smile as he said that, and our talk ended on a great note.

It’s so wonderful being back in touch with an old and dear friend, isn’t it?