One Michigan football game you wish you had been at
February 19th, 2010 at 5:08 PM ^
i declined to buy a ticket to the 2005 PSU game after going and seeing them lose to Minnesota the week before. i was pretty low on funds and the whole losing to Minnesota made me believe i was going to be spending my money on something i didn't want to see. i have been kicking myself ever since then.
my friends were all down by the field after the game when all the players were jumping up into the stands to celebrate too.
...and of course, i was at the app state game.
February 19th, 2010 at 5:10 PM ^
Games I was fortunate to be at:
- 2000 Orange Bowl
- 1979 Indiana (Wangler to Carter)
Games I wish I had been at:
- 1997 @ Penn State
- 2008 Capital One Bowl
- 2005 Penn State
Most miserable game in my life
- 2008 Toledo! I drove from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada all the way to Ann Arbor to a game I was 99% sure we'd win... you know the story...
February 19th, 2010 at 7:02 PM ^
Was that damn Indiana game in '79.
February 19th, 2010 at 5:22 PM ^
I've been to almost all the games mentioned in this thread except for:
1969 -- Michigan vs. Ohio State
Wish I could have seen that one.
There isn't a single game I've attended that I wish I hadn't. My worst day at a Michigan football game is better than my best day at work (and I'm self-employed). Although the 1998 Syracuse game comes close. Donovan McNabb beat the hell out of us.
February 20th, 2010 at 7:46 AM ^
My first game in the Big House. Very frustrating as a young fan, but there were some great quarterbacks on the field that day. (Brady vs. McNabb. Wow. Henson looked tremendous at the end of the game too).
Games I've been lucky enough to attend: 2003 vs. tOSU, 2004 vs. MSU, 2005 vs. PSU, 2006 at PSU, 2007 Rose Bowl (Game was disappointing but the experience will stay with me forever. My student manager friend got me a ticket on the 50 yard line.), 2008 vs. Wisc, 2009 vs. ND
Game I was fortunate to miss: App State
Game I wanted to attend: 2008 Citrus
February 19th, 2010 at 5:31 PM ^
Hit: 1969 OSU. Not born yet.
Miss: 1994 Colorado. Senior year.
February 19th, 2010 at 5:33 PM ^
What an eerie feeling that game was. The stadium was incredibly quiet during the two minutes of silence. There was no noise anyway near the stadium due to the no fly zone around the stadium. The two bands playing the national anthem was moving. The only thing we didn't plan for was the bank machines were removed from the stadium and we ran out of cash. I also remember it took 3 hours to cross the Ambassador Bridge that Friday afternoon.
February 19th, 2010 at 6:24 PM ^
I remember that game. During the moment of silence for 9/11, it was so quiet that you could hear the wind blowing. I remember thinking that you'll never, ever be surrounded by 110k people and have it be that quiet. That memory will always stick with me.
February 19th, 2010 at 11:44 PM ^
And it was much better than the MSU game the same year (though I don't regret going, so I could see it with my own eyes, not a tv camera view), because there was this plane that flew WAY too close to the stadium up there...!
February 19th, 2010 at 5:48 PM ^
Bo's near-perfect season ends with a showdown win over Nebraska.
Nobody mentioned it yet, so maybe this isn't overkill:
February 19th, 2010 at 5:54 PM ^
PSU '97 is the one I would have wanted to be at.
Either bookend of the '07 regular season I wish I hadn't gone to.
February 19th, 2010 at 6:58 PM ^
that PSU game is the signature win of the Carr era. Maybe Cooper spoiled me RE OSU; until Cooper came, Bo only broke even against OSU.
February 19th, 2010 at 9:04 PM ^
That PSU game remains the most dominant UM performance of my 20+ year fandom.
Game to trade?... '95 Purdue. I think I'm still defrosting.
February 19th, 2010 at 9:30 PM ^
First and only time I was ever in awe of my own team . . . who the hell are those guys? (The Cap One Bowl comes close . . . who the hell are those caoches?)
Game I wish I was at: '91 OSU - Howard Hiesman pose. Had tickets, but got cocky and stayed home. Took the OSU game a little bit for granted back then.
Game I wish I was not at: '94 Colorado - Stewart to Westbrook. So quiet at 0:00 you could hear the breeze.
February 19th, 2010 at 11:48 PM ^
Those people talking the Northwestern game don't know what they speak of. That was a sauna compared to Purdue. It took a week for my nuts to fall again.
February 19th, 2010 at 9:53 PM ^
This is easily the first game that came to my mind. An absolutely stunning performance from top to bottom on both sides of the ball. Carrot Top was almost tripping over his own feet by the end of the game.
As Archie Bunker liked to say....Those were the days.
February 19th, 2010 at 5:56 PM ^
To this day, I continue to kick myself. I didn't have full season tix at that point, but I shoulda just spent the buc...uh... money to get a ticket and go. One of my current gameday buds takes every opportunity to remind me that he was there and I was not.
That is the only one, though.
February 19th, 2010 at 6:00 PM ^
There are many I would like to have been at.
1940 Michigan vs OSU - Ol 98 destroys the Buckeyes and the whole crowd gives him a standing ovation as he walks off the Horseshoe field
1997 Michigan-OSU
1998 Rose Bowl
But the winner would be:
1969 Michigan-OSU
February 19th, 2010 at 6:48 PM ^
had season tickets for '69. He gave my OSU ticket to a navy buddy (OSU fan), and I sat home and watched on the couch with the navy buddy's two daughters (had crush). I wasn't sure at the time that I hadn't broke even; I know I caught more of the actual play this way. But, you know, geez.
February 19th, 2010 at 6:05 PM ^
Just one? Seriously? Can't I list, like, forty?
OK, just to set an artificial limit on it, then, I'll pick two that I've actually been alive for and actually knowing what's going on (that is, being four year old doesn't count.)
1997 vs. Penn State, and the Orange Bowl vs. Alabama.
The second because of the combination of Big Game and Dramatic Finish, and the first because of the major-league hype that surrounded that game and the really rare and awesome feeling of facing a clash of the titans and thoroughly dominating it.
February 19th, 2010 at 6:12 PM ^
At the big house: 2005 Penn State; 2009 ND
Away from the big hosue: 2005 Rose Bowl vs. Texas (I know we lost, but that was probably one of the best college football games ever played)
Wish I could trade away: I2007 Ohio State. Probably the most boring game ever. I don't remember us getting a first down the entire second half, or something like that. Also, the 2002 Iowa game sucked too.
Games I'm glad I was at: Almost all of them, but particularly, 2002 Washington, 2002 Penn State, 2003 Ohio State, 2004 Michigan State.
February 19th, 2010 at 6:39 PM ^
When Rod Gerald fumbled on that last drive I often wonder how loud the place got.
February 19th, 2010 at 6:40 PM ^
I still can't believe Rich Rod's final play call of having Tate hit Gardner on the screen, who then passed it to a streaking Denard 50 yards downfield... best game I ever missed!
February 19th, 2010 at 6:53 PM ^
Either Braylonfest or the Capital One Bowl in 07, few things in sports beats watching Tebow lose.
February 19th, 2010 at 7:06 PM ^
Why would you want to have seen OSU beat ASU?
97 OSU would have been sweet.
98 Rose Bowl
89 Rose Bowl - we beat USC 22-14.
February 19th, 2010 at 7:06 PM ^
the Cap 1 Bowl.
Wish I'd missed the 07 Oregon dong stomping.
February 19th, 2010 at 7:57 PM ^
Trade out the HORROR with Braylon Edwards Touchdown Party 2004
February 19th, 2010 at 8:04 PM ^
from 1969 through 1978.
My favorite game that I attended was a UM win at home over OSU in 1983. My first UM vs OSU game they lost at home in 1981.
Worse game. I drove from Lawrence, KS to Ann Arbor to see UM lose to Toledo in 2008! The worse game I ever seen UM play period! But got to see the family in MI, so not a total loss of a trip. It was the first home game my wife got to attend.
February 19th, 2010 at 8:06 PM ^
mine is yet to come.
Michigan takes an underrated and under appreciated squad of men who want it more to Columbus and beats the hell out of the Buckeyes...leaving their fans speechless.
why wont i be there? i dont plan on going to any OSU/Mich games in Columbus for fear of my life. their fans are insane.
February 19th, 2010 at 8:26 PM ^
way back when we would routinely shutout teams, I would accelerate the rivalry.
February 19th, 2010 at 8:50 PM ^
I've been super lucky to be at almost every game, good and bad, on this board. I was lucky enough to grow up with parents with tickets and a mom who was too crotchety to go to many of them...thank you, 95 Virginia. I was young, and put up my finger in a "#1" sign, and my dad turns to me and goes: "We're FAR from #1". Burned into my mind.
I would love to go to the 69 game if I could, but I would honestly take Bo's first Rose Bowl over almost every game I've seen.
If I could, I would trade the 07 Oregon game. That was a rough one...I don't remember ever feeling that outplayed in any game. I was just numb the entire game.
Two of my favorites, though, have to be the 03 Notre Dame game (sentimental reasons: first big game as a Freshman with a trouncing put to their cocky asses - 38-0) and 05 Penn State.
February 19th, 2010 at 9:20 PM ^
Michigan beats Washington after getting whooped the previous year. Tyrone Wheatley runs for 235 yards on 15 (!) carries and 3 TDs as a sophomore. Wasn't he hurt, too?
Undefeated season. (sort of)
All-time best performance by one of my all-time favorite wolverines. Wish I could've been there.
February 19th, 2010 at 9:40 PM ^
First time I ever saw Michigan win a big Bowl game in an all out shoot-out. They scored a lot, and we matched them each time.
Up till then, we had to rely on the D to keep the opponent to under 20 points for us to stay close.
February 19th, 2010 at 9:35 PM ^
1997 OSU--that was a great game that I missed due to high school playoffs (we lost).
February 19th, 2010 at 9:55 PM ^
...and I was lucky enough to be at many of them. Favorites: '89 Rose (win over USC, it was cathartic) and '98 Rose (of course!). If I had to pick one I didn't attend, it would be the '86 Fiesta because it was the closest Bo ever came to the MNC, and this coming right after his worst year.
Worst game I wish I hadn't attended: Colorado. I felt sick to my stomach for nearly two weeks afterward whenever I thought about it.
re: The Horror. I completely missed the game coverage because I was traveling. Saw the score flashed in an airport sportsbar and instantly realized it would have taken years off my life if I had seen the game.
February 19th, 2010 at 10:27 PM ^
One I didn't see mentioned was the Dreisbach-to-Mercury Hayes game winning TD game against Virginia. If I remember right at one point that was our biggest fourth quarter comeback ever.
February 19th, 2010 at 11:11 PM ^
I had the tickets sitting in my desk at my office. My boss asked me to sell them on E-Bay. Didn't sell. I was hoping he would say "Hey, take 'em. You work hard for me." Instead he buys his wife a Beamer and tells me to rot. I couldn't afford to buy them. Greatest comeback ever at Michigan Stadium. I could have been there.
February 20th, 2010 at 12:05 AM ^
It feels good to see all the great games I've been to in this list. Ones I most regret missing?
69 OSU. I would have had to been born, but technicalities.
97 PSU - what point is there making the trip if you couldn't be there for that one?
97 Wisky - not a great game, and cold as hell, but it was the one that season I could have realistically gone to that I didn't.
00 Orange - one of the few recent bowls I haven't been to, due to Millenium rates, and some dumb Tom Goss policies.
06 ND - another missed opportunity, just couldn't get the trip to work out. But after putting up with a lot of losses, Remy seemed like a long time in the past, and I wanted to see another win down there.
February 20th, 2010 at 9:35 AM ^
1902 Rose Bowl.
February 20th, 2010 at 10:14 AM ^
I don't get to many games because I live in Indianapolis and I'm a poor college student. But, I was able to attend the Notre Dame game last year with some Michigan fan friends and a Notre Dame fan. It was great being able to rub it in after he talked shit for 2 days leading up to the game. That was one of the most exciting games I've seen.
I also went to the Oregon game the week after THE HORROR. That was a terrible experience. The whole game I told my the old geezers behind me to sit down. They didn't appreciate it when I told them to go home and watch it at home if they wanted to sit down the whole time.
February 20th, 2010 at 10:26 AM ^
Hope you were less of an asshole than at the Oregon game.
February 20th, 2010 at 11:56 AM ^
Tough to pick anything other than '69 OSU. Think about it: we had gone through two decades of almost continual mediocrity (interrupted by one good year in '64), and here we were facing a team that was called the best ever, on a 22-game winning streak - a team that had humiliated us the year before. And we took it to them and launched a new era of Michigan football.
'97 PSU is definitely a strong runner-up. Not only were both teams undefeated, but we had a three-game losing streak to them to pay back. We did and then some.
As for what I'd give up, I'll gladly dispense with Syracuse '98. App State led to a horrible fallout, but it actually was an exciting game. Syracuse was just a gamelong embarassment, made worse by the fact that it was our first home game after the national title (and my first home game as a student).
February 20th, 2010 at 11:50 AM ^
I'd have loved to have been at that game.
I wouldn't give up... my first game in The Big House (back when it was just big). My junior high school football team benefited from one of Canham's promotions. November 16, 1968 was a cold, nasty day. The sleet did not make it any more pleasant. I sat in the shadow of the press box trying to stay warm while Ron Johnson stayed warm by rushing for 347 yards on the grass against Wisconsin.
I hate Toledo.
February 20th, 2010 at 12:58 PM ^
1969 OSU
3OT against MSU
and the Cap1 against UF
I was at both The Horror and Oregon games. My son was seven at the Horror and he made me leave, he said "dad, I want to go. I can't stand to watch Michigan play like this."
If nothing else I know I am raising him right on one front. We left at halftime and caught thew fourth qtr at home. My temper was getting the best of me at the stadium.
February 20th, 2010 at 1:04 PM ^
February 20th, 2010 at 1:00 PM ^
was bothering him more. He admitted that to me later on. I would have stayed, but it was obvious he was not happy.
We don't do bandwagoneering A-HOLE.
February 20th, 2010 at 1:02 PM ^
Now that is a logical reason to leave the game. Large crowds bother many people. I retract the bandwagonneering comment.
February 20th, 2010 at 1:38 PM ^
So noted. We're good here.
EDIT: I gave you back the point I negbanged earlier, in retrospect the "a-hole" comment was out of line.
February 20th, 2010 at 3:12 PM ^
The scars build character. And the chicks dig them.
Now, there were a few dozen opposing fans I'd like to kill...
February 20th, 2010 at 3:26 PM ^
...the 05 Penn State win (which I was at) for a win against App (for which I was also at).
Trading "Henne to Manningham!!!" for "and the kick is good"
is that sacrilegious?