Game-Day Fan Garb Over The Years

Submitted by Everyone Murders on

LS&A Magazine has a nice slideshow up showing how game-day fashion has evolved over the years.  (Or devolved - you kids get off my lawn!)  Link is here: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/lsa/archives/ci.footballhautecouture_ci.detail .

It's entirely unrealistic on many levels, but I'd love it if we could organize a "throwback fan uniform" day.  I understand raccoons are 100% against this idea, BTW.

A sample shot from the 1930 homecoming game against Illinois.  That blanket is the bee's knees, I tell ya. 

FabFiver5

November 14th, 2012 at 2:06 PM ^

What an incredible transformation over the years. I can't even imagine wearing a suit, hat and long formal winter coat to a game nowadays. Someone would spill Coke on it, I'd be pissed and then I'd start a fight in the stands.

stephenrjking

November 14th, 2012 at 2:19 PM ^

Underrated transition: the move to eliminate white from stadium wear in the late 90s and early 00s. Michigan's fanbase actually wears maize and blue now; contrast with videos of classic events like the '91 ND game, where the predominant color is white. A marked improvement in my opinion.



This transition isn't limited to Michigan, either. Schools like LSU and Florida have seen the same thing.

Roy G. Biv

November 14th, 2012 at 10:37 PM ^

It was hotter than hell.  I've been going since '89 and that's the worst weather I can ever remember for a game.  Worse than the rain delays, worse than Purdue '95, worse than all of them.  You just can't get comfortable when it's that hot, packed in with 100,000 other sardines.

Darth Wolverine

November 14th, 2012 at 2:50 PM ^

It's funny that just about every male in this country wore a hate back in the early 20th century. Everyone dressed the same and had the same cars.

 

EDIT: I just finished the slide show and that was really cool. I love looking at old photos from the early 20th century. Those pictures from the 20s make me think of the awesome show Boardwalk Empire.

Voltron Blue

November 14th, 2012 at 2:50 PM ^

...but I'd pay a premium for one of those knit tam o'shanters that used to be all over the place in, I'm guessing, the 70s and 80s. Can't find them anywhere.  

 

 

French West Indian

November 14th, 2012 at 3:33 PM ^

Gameday fashion is a pretty interesting topic.  Even though I'm not a fan of most of the casual, modern attire, I think it would be pretty interesting if someone did a blog dedicated to it.  Maybe something like The Sartorialist to tease out the daring & fashionable amongst the sea of blandness in most stadiums.

Wave83

November 14th, 2012 at 5:14 PM ^

What was lacking in 1979-83, when I was an undergrad, compared to today was Michigan colors.  It didn't particularly occur to us to wear maize or blue t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc.  We certainly were not wearing jerseys.  It wasn't that we were dressing up -- we dressed like bums.  But flaunting the team colors was just not in style.  You can see the difference between slide 12 and 14 (or 13 and the war paint).  (I don't remember white clothes that apparently were worn in the mid-90s.)

I do recall that in the early 80s, there were alums -- 50 year old guys -- wearing god awful polyester maize pants.  My friends and promised each other that if in 30 years we ever came back and wore those, we would take each other out.

Everyone Murders

November 14th, 2012 at 5:26 PM ^

It's been thirty years, so you've some checking to do.  If you catch one of your old friends rocking maize slacks on game day, please promise the board that before you take them out you'll first tell them (in a Col. Walter E. Kurtz voice) that you are merely "an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill."

That will make it funnier when you violently attack them.  Trust me on this.

 

Engin77

November 14th, 2012 at 5:19 PM ^

My Grandparents attended UM in the late 1920s, along with Richard Albert Loeb of the infamous thrill-killing duo Leopold and Loeb. My grandmother would see at Loeb at the train station sometimes and told me (50 years later), he always wore a beautiful and stylish fur coat. Mr Loeb is pictured in the Michiganensian she left to me.

Wave83

November 14th, 2012 at 7:47 PM ^

Very interesting.  You caused me to look up the details about Loeb -- I didn't know about the Michigan connection.  He was apparently at the time (and maybe still is) the youngest graduate of UM.  He was already finished at Michigan and back home in Chicago at the time of the infamous murder.   He was only 18.

Marshmallow

November 14th, 2012 at 8:02 PM ^

The article says the "maize out" started in 2005.  Not sure that's accurate.  They started making student shirts in 2002, I think, that were maize and that most in the student section wore.  They also used to give out free shirts occasionally, like the blue ones in 2003 for the 100th version of the The Game.  Before 2002, there was really no coordination in the student section on what to wear.  There was a lot of white, which made no sense, and plenty of the non-highlighter, orange--ish maize.  That was also the era when marshmallow tossing from the student section at the bubble-encased camera man was going strong.  That was a great tradition which offset the stupid key play tradition on 3rd down.