How did YOU become a Wolverine?

into a superior life form . . . like all Wolverines.

Games use to be on after Saturday morning cartoons, they grew on me :). 

Fab Five got me

Grew up 30 min north of ann arbor, I was a sponge at age 12 when 97 happened, and Woodson made me a die hard.

My grandfather was part of a small vote behind closed doors that determined that Fritz Crisler would be the next head coach. That coaching search was very different than what we see today. My grandfather and great uncle also ran track with Don Canham. My father and his brother also graduated undergrad.

By Birth.

was bitten by an infecrted wolverine fan as a kid, been stuck with the insatiable thirst ever since.

Will most likely stay this way until someone digs Yost out of his native earth and puts a stake through his heart.

Although I grew up primarily a ND fan, I always liked Michigan. I think the helmets did it the most. Once I decided to attend UM it was all over. I became a huge Michigan fan because of school pride, obviously, and because it's impossible to go to the Big House and leave unamazed. Go Blue!

Wait, this question implies I could have become something else. I didn't know that was an option.

Love at first sight. Also, watching Grbac in the Rose Bowl against Washington is my first memory of the Maize and Blue.

my mom tells the story: i was about 6 or 7 years old and we were at a garage sale. i saw a michigan hat on the .25 table and liked the colors. when i asked my mom if i could get it, she said 'your dad isn't going to like that, he roots for ohio state'.

when i found that out, i didn't take the hat off the entire summer.

i kinda remember that, but my mom remembers it well.

Because I was born in Michigan. Duh. Was Sparty even an option? I seriously didn't even know they existed until 6th grade.

hard to tell whether I love Michigan because of who I am or if I am who I am because I love Michigan (or something close to that.)

---- Brian, Eleven Swans, 2006

Grew up in Canada (Toronto) until the age of 12, after which my father picked up the family and moved us to Ann Arbor of all places. Grew up a Baseball (the Blue Jays were going through their hey-day) and Hockey (Toronto is the REAL Hockeytown, don't get it twisted) fan, but football and to a lesser extent Basketball (pre-Raptor era) were somewhat foreign to me. College Sports were an absolute unknown.

My first night living in America was spent at Joe Louis watching Michigan beat MSU in the Championship of the GLI. Great experience - it was there that I saw what this whole Michigan thing was about. 

Then, when football season came around....it was over. My whole family fell in love with Michigan and football was king. Not I can't stand baseball and still follow Hockey a bit, but professional sports are not really my cup of tea. College is where it's at and from there on out I was a Michigan Man.

when my dad took me to my first game.  My dad and uncle are both alumni and my dad had season tickets since 1956.  My first game was 1968 and I haven't looked back since. 

My allegiance has never waivered and my hatred for Sparty, ND and Ohio grows every day.

Go Blue

My parents had season tickets when I was a kid. My dad took me to my first game the day Woodson and the gang beat ohio to go to the natty. It was a wrap after that. Plus all the spartan kids at school played with dolls. Shit was weird.

My Mom was working on her PhD and met Dad.   Mom and Dad's first date was a football game.   All four of us kids went to Michigan and I met my husband at Michigan.  I'm actually the loser in the fam who did not go to Mich. for grad school, only undergrad.  (Which, for the record, I would like to blame on Rick's and my various  sorority parties.)  

I grew up in Massachusetts and I remember seeing the winged helmet on TV. College football wasn't big there, so I watched the national games as a kid and loved the helmets. The fab five intrigued me in middle school.

I guess it may have started then, but I really jumped in when I went to Ann Arbor for grad school. My plan was to get me degree and move back east. That was 10 years ago. I'm still in AA and an avid MGoBlog disciple.

In 1965 and on a Saturday in the winter the Big Ten game of the week came on TV. Michigan was playing someone and it was the first time I saw Cazzie Russell play. I fell in love with Michigan then and there. How ironic you ask this question because yesterday at the Michigan BB game they brought back some players from the past and honored Cazzie. I was fortunate to get a picture with him and I told him how I watched those games and his battles with the Van Arsdale twins from Duke. Got a big smile from him and he told me "Their aren't 5 people in this gym that remember those guys". Thanks for this thread. Made my day (twice).

Jim Harbaugh roll out of the pocket, winged helmet shining in the sun, and squeeze in the corner for the TD.  I don't know what game it was, what the final score was or anything like that, but that single moment was the start of something strange and inexplicable that would hunt me down in life until I submitted to its will a few years later...

Wolverines are not made, they, like most exceptional people, are born the way they are.  I was valedictorian of my HS class and could've gone to pretty much any school I chose.  I applied to only one place because going anyplace else would've been settling.  I'll give you 3 guesses what school that was, but you only need one.

Was introduced to College Football by a good friend and his dad when I was about 8 or 9.  They were huge Michigan fans and his dad often got tickets through his work.  He took both of us to watch the 1986 Iowa game at the Big House.  I was 10 at the time and I have been a fan ever since.  Was the best and most surreal moment I have can remember as a kid sitting in that stadium.  The taligating was awesome.  My buddy and I were actually playing catch with a football when he over threw me and it bounced into the front seat of a Porsche 911.  I was not about to go get it.  The guy who owned the car called us over, we both thought we were dead, then promptly gave us the ball and let us sit in the car.  We both thought we were the $hit at that age.  Graduated from high school and was accepted into U of M undergrad.  Then was accepted in grad school 1998.  Graduated 2002 from U of M Dental School and bleed Maize and Blue.  Have a son named Braylon, and a daughter who was nicknamed Denard by a very close friend and also an alumnus. 

Members of my family had gone to Michigan (my brother and uncle), so I did apply, but in the 11th hour, my boyfriend talked me into following him somewhere else. Of course, then four days before we left for school, he broke up with me. I ended up transferring to Michigan my sophomore year.  I love Ann Arbor more now than when I was there, and go every chance I get. 

It's Michigan forgodsakes!

I wanted to go to the best university in the state (since I didn't want to be too far away from family). Obviously that was Michigan. I actually didn't care about football at all when I got there, and now I'm as diehard as the rest of you poor schmucks. Dad was actually an ND fan, but I like to think I'd have converted him.

My grandma is a diehard fan and I kinda got it from her. I have loved them for as long as I can remember. Now, there is no one in my family that is a bigger fan of the Wolverines. 

Both parents went to Michigan... grandpa taught my older sister all about Michigan football, she taught me and the rest is history!

Technically, for me, it started at birth.  I was born and raised in Ann Arbor to 2 U of M grads.  But it truly took off in the beginning of the 90's, thanks to the Michigan Women's basketball team, believe or not.

My mom was a member of the Women's Basketball team booster club, and when I and one of my sisters were old enough, we came became permanent ball boy/girl for the team, along with Lisa Mattison (Greg Mattison's daughter).  That eventually led to me becoming a regular ball boy for the men's team during the sophomore year of the fab five.  While I didn't appreciate the situation as much back then, I got to basically be around those guys whenever I wanted (Juwan was hands down my favorite, but I recall Jalen not being so nice...).

My true fanaticism came about after that year, when my other sister became old enough and good enough to start being recruited for college basketball.  Because of NCAA rules, my family had to sever all personal ties with the athletic department.  To fill that void, I became the obsessive U of M fan that I am today and haven't looked back.

I went to Catholic schools. I can't recall the game.  However, they won a bowl and and jumped quite a few positions in the polls to be top rated.  This appeared to be very biased and I never followed them again. 

Around the same time the  Michigan - Sparty game was playing in the car while driving with my Dad.  I asked who we were rooting for and he said.  "Michigan".  The rest is history including attending The University of Michigan.

10 year war in the mid-70's.  Add to that the great Michigan basketball teams of 1976, 1977 and I was hooked for life.  But when college came, I had two choices due to the type of major I wanted to pursue (Naval Architecture): Michigan and a small school on Long Island.  Fortunately, I was accepted to the former and not the latter.  The rest is history.  I went to Michigan, - watched some great sports teams (not basketball unfortunately), met my future wife, and got a great job when I graduated. 

The degree program brought me to Michigan. I received the acceptance letter, and the football season ticket order form. I either became a Wolvering on the day we sent the deposit and ticket order back, or September 10th, 1983. All I know is college football has been my favorite sport since then.

it was and still is my favorite color. lol

I went to a football game when i was just starting to get into sports, i was 6 or 7 years old (i wish i remember more about the game) and the the Big House just amazed me! I noticed that pro stadiums looked bigger on tv, but was told the Big House held a hell of a lot more.

And the color green disgusted me...it really did.

I became a Wolverine by applying and/or offering Mary Sue certain favors.

I'm not saying which.