How I became a Michigan fan

Submitted by The Oracle on

This is meant as a self-indulgent thank you. It's an expansion of a comment I once made, so I apologize if you've read some of it before.

I'm not from Michigan. My mom, however, was born and grew up in Northville. My parents met in Detroit. I visited the state just once, when I was about 3-4 years old. So why have I become a Michigan fan?

I've lived in the San Francisco Bay Area almost my entire life. As a young kid, I loved the Raiders. The Immaculate Reception game remains my most devastating sports moment, probably because I was a little kid when it happened. But then the Raiders got rid of Kenny Stabler and Dave Casper, which cooled my feelings, and moved to Los Angeles, which ended the relationship. A Giants fan can't possibly root for a team from LA.

After a period of mourning, I turned to the 49ers, which wasn't hard to do, since it was the Bill Walsh era. But I'm no front runner; I remained just as much a fan through the lean years of Dennis Erickson, Mike Nolan and Singletary.

College football isn't a big deal here. Cal and Stanford have their followings, but they don't seem to have the same passion as the fan bases of the pro teams. As a sports fans, I followed the teams' fortunes, but didn't care much about how they did.

But as the 49ers struggled through successive years of mediocrity, or worse, I took note of what was happening at Stanford. Jim Harbaugh was in the process of taking a one win team and turning it into a national power. Stanford? A national college football power? Not even Bill Walsh, in two chances, had been able to pull that off. Looking at Harbaugh's young coaching career, I also admired that he had gone against everyone's advice, as well as conventional thought, and taken the Head Coaching job at the University of San Diego where, of course, he had turned that unknown program into a winner. I laughed when he ran up the score on the mighty USC Trojans, which I saw as being similar to punching the neighborhood bully right in the nose. It was clear that this guy was a rare and extremely gifted coach, and also that he didn't really give a shit about what anyone else thought. Even though I wasn't familiar with the phrase at the time, he was all about the team, the team, the team.

So when the 49ers fired Singletary, and talk began that Harbaugh was a candidate to replace him, I agonized until the negotiations were completed and exalted when he was announced as the new Head Coach. I knew that the fortunes of my team were going to change, and quickly.

He began by bringing back the much maligned Alex Smith, who the media and entire fan base had assumed had played his last game for the team. Smith responded with, by far, his best season ever. Not a coincidence. Harbaugh was the only one who saw it coming. He didn't care what anyone else thought. They went from 6-10 to 13-3 in that first year, and missed the Super Bowl only because of two fumbled punts.

The success continued with a trip to the Super Bowl the next year and a near miss the year after, but then the reports began to circulate that Harbaugh was on his way out. I doubted them, at first. In a sport where coaching is most important, how could an organization decide to get rid of one of the few truly great coaches? But then it became clear. As it turned out, Jed York and Jim Harbaugh reside on the opposite ends of the manhood spectrum. Not content with merely being stupid for firing Harbaugh, York revealed himself to be gutless as well. In an attempt to justify the idiotic decision he was about to make, York orchestrated anonymous, anti-Harbaugh leaks which undermined the Coach and the team. Then Harbaugh was gone.

That was the end of it for me as a 49er fan. York ruined it. I will never root for them again. I root only for York's continued humiliation, which began quite nicely last season. I hope it continues forever.

Now I wasn't sure what to do. I first hoped that he would stay local, sign with the Raiders, and begin the process of rubbing York's nose in the dirt at close range. Instead, he signed with Michigan.

Of course, like any sports fan, I've always been familiar with the Wolverines. I'd watched them often, including during Harbaugh's playing days. I enjoyed the HBO documentary on the Michigan-OSU rivalry. But I had no rooting interest.

Still angry at York's stupidity, but interested in seeing the impact Harbaugh's hiring was having at Michigan, I Googled "Michigan fan blog." One of the results was Mgoblog. I clicked on the link, and I'm pretty sure I've been on the site every day since.

I was immediately very pleased at how happy and excited fans were about his hiring. Or maybe excited and happy is an understatement. Even with all of his success, Harbaugh was never fully appreciated by Bay Area fans. When he was fired, a significant portion of the 49ers fan base was actually happy about it. I think that was because this region is very impressed with itself. Many people here look at themselves as smarter and cooler than people who live elsewhere (see David Shaw's quote). Harbaugh was never cool. He didn't fit the image. As we all know, he's a somewhat awkward, possibly even geeky, football maniac. It's not cool to be a football maniac here.

But he went home a hero, and I was glad to see it. His opening press conference was awesome (a lesser athlete would've gone down). I quickly found that the more time I spent reading Mgoblog, the more interested I was becoming in Michigan football. A lot of it had to do with Harbaugh, but a lot also had to do with the blog. I was extremely impressed by the guys that ran it and the number of smart and funny commenters who seemed to know every detail about the team. And then I quickly went from being interested to being a fan. And pretty soon after that, I didn't care anymore that he had been fired by the 49ers. Being a Michigan fan was more fun.

I don't claim to rank with those of you that are alums or have been fans for years, but that doesn't matter. I'm having a great time. I was able to watch every game last season and, like most of you, agonized on signing day and follow all the recruiting news in obsessive detail. I can't wait for the next season to start. I look forward to someday making the trip to see a game in person. So thank you, Mgoblog writers and participants, for showing me what I had been missing.

I've been a cop for more than 20 years. A few years ago, I went to a burglary call at the home of a young couple who were both Michigan alums. They seemed like very nice kids, but as I looked around and noticed that their entire house seemed to be decorated in U of M memorabilia, I wondered if they might also be a little crazy. Now I know that they weren't crazy. They just loved their school. Now I get it.

Comments

UM4Life2011

April 17th, 2016 at 9:09 PM ^

Born and raised in Indiana my whole life. Got tired of hearing about Indiana, Notre Dame and Purdue. The first NCAA tournament I ever watched was in '89. Saw Glen Rice play and became an instant Wolverine fan! Then the next fall I saw those Michigan football helmets and it's been nothing but Maize and Blue in my life since!




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Wolvie3758

April 18th, 2016 at 3:33 PM ^

Now....have you heard about the rest of our nationally ranked teams?  Like softball?  once you get on the bandwagon you will never get off.. We have great and loyal fans, alumini, athletes and prob one of the top fan bases in the nation. One thing that always made me proud was when you go to a Michigan sporting event as the opposition for the most part you are welcomed and can enjoy yourself. Unlike some of our rivals whose fan base can be down right hostile to the point that you wonder if you are going to get out alive..You wont find that here....

JoJo5285

April 19th, 2016 at 5:58 PM ^

That was an awesome post and I can sort of relate:

Neither of my parents nor I went to Michigan but my father was from just outside of Detroit (Beverly Hills, MI),he later moved to New York City and one of memories was always watching Michigan play on Saturdays during the fall on tv.  Unfortuantely, I never knew the reason behind why my father chose to root for Michigan but I am glad that he did because it really is awesome meeting Michigan fans here and how excited and proud they are as a fan base. Most people celebrate January 1st because its a New Year, but for me growing up it was always the day Michigan played their bowl game and it to this day is still such an awesome traidtion when they do.

My first trip to the Big House was this past fall for the Ohio State game, and I do have to say the people I met while tailgating on the golf course were some of the nicest most friendly people I have ever met (certainly something you dont see in NYC very often) and other than the fact we lost I had an amazing time. What really put it all into prespective was seeing Dads with their young sons at the game and realizing that they were passing down a tradition the same way my father passed down and started a tradition. Go Blue!!

meangene

April 20th, 2016 at 3:51 PM ^

The very first Michigan game I remember was the 1997 Outback Bowl against Alabama. We made a 4th quarter comeback but ended up losing. I was hooked the following season and watched every game along with Big Ten Ticket (still miss that show) on channel 7. That beat down of PSU is still the most dominating win by a Michigan team from start to finish. I hope to see Harbaugh do something similar in Columbus or EL in the near future. 

Mgodiscgolfer

April 21st, 2016 at 8:48 AM ^

its so vindicating to hear about someone from so far away become a fan of the greatest football team in America. The reason I say this is, we all know how you feel about this great university and when we watch our team do great things as well as fall short of them we look around and think, how can someone watch this team and not fall in love w/ it like we all have?

Everyone has their story on how they became Michigan fans but not all of them can articulate as well as you did, myself included. Which is a shame because not all of us became fans because of a great win sometimes losses have a profound effect on us as well. My reason is a good example. I watched the Charlie White phantom TD Rosebowl and I would never cheer for another team even though Michigan lost. Thank you and as #2 puts it, as always Go Blue!

HAIL-YEA

April 26th, 2016 at 4:10 AM ^

the fact that your first experience with this blog was before Harbaugh was official tells me al I need to know. A leser man would have run and hid after seeing the insanity that was mgoblog that December.

KCLAZLO

May 8th, 2016 at 11:26 PM ^

As a kid who grew up on the west side I found myself drawn to Michigan football. My dad wasn't into sports. My mom not much either. They just didn't like sports. They took care of me while the games were on. "It's cold. Here's a blanket" we will bring your food in there. My mom would even read the stat page in the paper so she could discuss it with me. At the time I thought nice . Now I realize it was more than that. It was parents having a child who came out a lot like them but also very different. This was their real first look at me being interested in something that not only they weren't interested in I can only assume they thought would not be a part of their lives. I can remember my mother pulling up in
The driveway one summer afternoon. Yelling get in the car. Bo is doing a book signing at the mall. She had already bought the book just to be safe.
I played sports. They came to all my games. My dad even coached. I played football. I was pretty good. I also got in
A lot of trouble those high school years and joined the service. From Charleston to Iraq. Norfolk to Kuwait. I watched Michigan football. Moved back to the states and traveled a lot. Pittsburg, Jacksonville, key west, Seattle, LA Toledo, KC and more. I've lost a lot on the way. But every Saturday in fall. I get it all back. When a game is on I think of friends and family from past lifetimes but I always think about mom and dad and Steve Smith the greatest QB in Michigan history.

I have kids now. They don't care about football at all. They like soccer. I coach it. I watch it. I learn about. Hell I even play in a league so I can experience it.

They are really into comics. We read them together. We search for cools ones together. I read about comic book characters after they sleep so I can drop some knowledge on them.

I guess I'm saying

Those who stay.....

#teamcap #SKC #ibelievewewillwin