After more than 40 years in the industry, Don “Wink” Martindale has pretty much seen it all.
He won an NCAA championship alongside a coach named Harbaugh, won a Super Bowl alongside a coach named Harbaugh and now will take over the defense of a defending national champion which was coached by someone named Harbaugh.
Martindale, 60, has been in Ann Arbor for more than six weeks, but was only recently announced as the team’s defensive coordinator earlier this month. On a recent episode of the program’s podcast “Inside The Trenches,” the well-traveled defensive mind detailed his early days with Michigan football after nearly two decades coaching at the NFL level.
“We’ve been excited since Day 1 when Sherrone (Moore) and I decided this was going to work,” Martindale said. “People have been great up here, been to a hockey game, been to a basketball game can’t wait for baseball and softball to start, I enjoy that.
“Just to getting back to campus life, it’s been really re-energizing for me, it’s brought me back to my roots of just starting as an educator, a high school teacher and a coach.”
Martindale spent five years as a high school coach after he played at Defiance College in the late 70s and early 80s, which is where he got the nickname “Wink” when he walked in during his freshman year with a duffel bag that had “Martindale” on the side. The late Donald Brown said, “hey Wink,” after the popular game show host at the time.
