MichMike86

August 20th, 2009 at 12:20 PM ^

The birds eye view of the Big House while tens of thousands of people are shaking these will be awesome. Keep it up coach.

bennis

August 20th, 2009 at 12:29 PM ^

Yeah I agree. I don't see a lot of students spending $7 on a towel. I already spent $10 on the shirt and I prolly won't go for the towel, even though I do like the idea. Maybe non-students will go for the towels since they are the ones that don't wear maize.

HermosaBlue

August 20th, 2009 at 2:11 PM ^

than just a marketing shpiel. It's a way many Ann Arbor residents live on a daily basis.

I think blue looks more menacing. The sheer darkness of the stadium's denizens in the 1997 M-OSU game was quite notable when I watched the youtube clips recently. Having seen Georgia's blackouts, I'm inclined to prefer the darkness.

It's also easier to do. Everyone owns something blue, and when it gets cold out, it's a lot easier to get people to wear a heavy blue coat than to get them to either (a) buy a warm-enough maize coat or (b) put on a maize t-shirt over their winter coat.

I may well be in the minority here. Not sure I really care.

BlockM

August 20th, 2009 at 12:38 PM ^

I think you've got two groups of people that would be interested in doing this. Group A is interested in just getting a towel to wave like crazy at a game. They're not as likely to pay $5-7 for it. Group B is interested in helping out the hospital. They're not as interested in going crazy at a game, or getting a small towel for their donation. We'll see come gametime how well this works out.

jg2112

August 20th, 2009 at 12:36 PM ^

will look great when the team comes out of the tunnel wearing the blue tops and maize bottoms for a night game this year, and then, while we all wave our sunflower yellow towels, the team pulls a Hulk Hogan, rips off the blue jerseys, and goes all maize for Michigan.

Of course, this will all happen while the speakers play my preferred musical choice: RAWK MUSIC. NICKELBACK RAWK MUSIC.

d.

August 20th, 2009 at 12:38 PM ^

when you get a towel for free its because they were sponsored. if you want a free towel TCF or something will have to pay for it.

wolverine1987

August 20th, 2009 at 1:25 PM ^

is that the proceeds go to charity, which is nice. But the towel itself personifies cheesy IMO, and really reminds me of what a lower level, nondescript school would do in an attempt to generate enthusiasm for it's program. Completely off base for me.

ToledoMFan

August 20th, 2009 at 1:43 PM ^

I agree that there needs to be more enthusiasm outside of the student section but I think this is a bad way to do it. I shudder whenever Michigan copies other schools/teams traditions/gimmicks. I'm not a big fan of maize outs.(mostly because there are 10 different shades of yellow being worn) The towel is not unique. It has been done for a long time by others. We pretty much copy Florida State/Atlanta Braves with the tomahawk chop. I guess I would feel better if, like hockey crowds (albeit with less swearing), the football stadium had only unique Michigan stuff. Adding all this extra crap on top of the greatest fight song ever, running out under the banner, Temptation/Hawaiian Chant, cheerleaders spelling out Michigan, and all the other "Michigan" traditions feels cheap.

BlockM

August 20th, 2009 at 2:03 PM ^

I see what you mean, and I agree for the most part, but while Michigan football is unique in a lot of ways, I don't think "copying" another program's pump-everyone-up method is necessarily a terrible thing. When it comes down to it, football as a game is the same whether it's played in the Big House or in a cornfield. There are certain things we hold "sacred" (no RAWK!) but I don't see the towels as a threat to Michigan tradition.

People are going to fall on all sides of this issue, but I guess I don't have a problem with it. You're welcome to boycott it though, I won't hold it against you.

ToledoMFan

August 20th, 2009 at 2:18 PM ^

necessarily think that the towels will ruin the experience or anything of the sort. I will probably be there waving mine around with everyone else. I do however have a hard time believing that the main culprits of the lack of enthusiasm are
A. Going to buy the towel
B. Wave it around and get off their asses
C. Be any less pissed about them than when they bitch about people standing up.

Hopefully the new additions will make these points moot and the stadium will rock (without rawk music) and it won't matter if we have towels in hand or not.

I do draw the line at those stupid blow up boom stick noise makers. Can't stand the things. Those I would boycott. (and no one would notice)

mich12fan

August 20th, 2009 at 7:34 PM ^

A few of the chants at Yost were originally from Cornell but over the years, the student section has modified them and made the chants our own ie. the Cya Chant, which no one else has come close to.

I completely agree that there needs to be more creativity in regards to coming up with Michigan specific chants. I also think that the band should start playing bulwinkle and the dudley do-right songs more often. These two songs are a Michigan tradition that seems to have fallen off except at Yost and Crisler.

Flood

August 20th, 2009 at 1:32 PM ^

If anyone cares, I checked out the U-M Print Style Guide (according to said guide, "U-M" is more accepted than "UM" apparently) to compare the towel/shirt of the above picture to the standardized color for Michigan athletics.

Looks like the towel is closer in this comparison.

See for yourself: http://logos.umich.edu/print.html

UMFootballCrazy

August 20th, 2009 at 2:11 PM ^

From the above linked style guide:

"The University of Michigan’s colors are, famously, maize and blue. However, within those constraints, there is a wide range of color variation designers can use."

There you go...no difinitive answer. And anything that Coach Rodrigues is wearing is most definitely not a knock off and has thus been officially approved. Therefore the powers that be have obviously determined that both colours fall within the spectrum that can be safely labeled as "Maize."

And to further muddy the waters:

"The original U-M colors were described in 1867 as “Azure Blue” and “Maize,” two standard artist’s oil colors of the day. The blue was described as being “the blue of a summer sky” and the maize as “the yellow of ripe corn.” These colors are represented today on the University flag and the ribbons affixed to diplomas; these colors are slightly different from one another."

Even with the official flag and on the diploma the colours are different. I suppose the only thing one can do is live with it...

BlueNote

August 20th, 2009 at 1:42 PM ^

"Maize" is the color of corn. That's indisputable. Long ago, corn used to come in all sorts of colors. Corn could range from the electric yellow to the dull yellow to the dark yellow to the dark brown. These days we have such homogeneity in our vegetables (in the U.S. at least) that there is basically only one color of corn. But when U of M was founded (or when they came up with "maize" as the school color, whenever that was), I'm quite confident that the color was not so easily defined as it is today.

SportsBrewKings

August 20th, 2009 at 3:01 PM ^

I really don't understand the complaining over the towel. I know you can't suit everyone but some of the actual reasons are beyond stupid.

For years, we've bitched about how depressing it is to watch our crowd cheer with enthusiasm rivaled only to watching the Barefoot Contessa chop up almonds for a picnic.

Then I read a complaint that this is "cheesy" and we should do something more Michigan oriented w/ tradition. Michigan has an assload of tradition but what tradition is reserved solely for the stadium? Throwing toilet paper rolls? Michigan Stadium doesn't have any traditions that involve fans other than the wave. We need something introduced to get fans off their ass.

And seriously, the over the top suggestion joke has gotten old. I can usually guess whats coming next after people start talking about "night games w/ RAWK NICKELBACK MUSIC". I was waiting for your SPARTY LASER OMG EYES comment to pop up next.

Now lets all have a brutal fistfight(or orgy depending on your perspective) over the color of Maize.

ToledoMFan

August 20th, 2009 at 3:25 PM ^

Michigan fans (especially older ones) believe that Michigan football/tradition is better than any other team. So when you throw something out there like the towel that is a direct rip off of someone elses tradition alot of people will react negatively. If I was watching a game as a casual non-Michigan fan and I saw Michigan stadium filled up with yellow towels I would immediately think "Hey they ripped off the Steelers." I don't have any better ideas to get the down in front crowd off their asses but I cringe at importing traditions from other places. As I said earlier a $7 towel is not going to make them stand up. More and more engaged fans will start to drown out the down in front crowd by being excited and not caring about their bitching.

tpilews

August 20th, 2009 at 3:10 PM ^

Any chance these will be for sale online? Seeing as how I live 1200 miles away, I'd like to get my hands on a couple of these towels before gameday on Sept. 5th.