Victory rioting in 1989 in Ann Arbor?

Submitted by Volverine on

I'm watching Mike and Mike in the Morning right now, and Mike Greenberg is talking about his two experiences with victory celebrations invlving rioting. 

His first experience, he says, was in Ann Arbor when we won the basketball championship. I was born in 1988, so I have no recollection of this, and google hasn't been very helpful.

Can anyone comment on the topic? It doesn't seem like anything I've seen in Ann Arbor before. 

 
 

ppToilet

April 2nd, 2012 at 7:33 AM ^

We were routinely unruly back in the day. That year (1989) someone got thrown through the window at Dooley's (formerly a good bar near South U and East U). For the next couple years during March Madness the police always was ready (and maybe too eager) to bring out the tear gas.

Ahh.... the good ol' days.

Volverine

April 2nd, 2012 at 7:43 AM ^

My freshman year was 2006 and we opened the football season against Vandy. I don't even think classes had started yet, but I vividly remember somebody throwing an empty keg at a black Toyota Corolla that had Vandy stuff on it. That was my first impression of our student body haha

But other than that, I never really saw anything too crazy. Crazy to think of us as "routinely unruly" haha

J. Lichty

April 2nd, 2012 at 7:52 AM ^

i was there. it was more pandamoneum than riot but there was some prop damage. a few unlucky cars were damaged. i recall a friend of mine jumping on top of a car and breaking and falling through the sun roof. some other cars were tipped. some one climbed a light pole on south u and damaged it.

i was in east lansing one year during cedar village riot - may have been same year - where fences and a moped (no couches that I saw) were burned.

ppToilet

April 2nd, 2012 at 8:09 AM ^

Screwed up - not Dooley's (that became Scorekeepers).  Was it Charley's before they moved?  What was the place before O'Sullivan's?  Or was it MBS that had it's window broken.

Anyway, I'm going to chalk this up to senility, overconsumption of alcohol at the time, or both.

Kids, let this be a lesson, drinking heavily during your youth can have long term effects. Actually, I can also vouch for the short-term effects.  And, drinking heavily in adulthood has other problems too.

Lampuki22

April 2nd, 2012 at 10:57 AM ^

First of all for those of you who suffered through the dark days of the basketball program and the Rich Rod era, I am truly sorry.  Your time will come.

To be at Michigan during our MBB National Championship and then some of the FAB Five Runs was truly amazing, and Special.  We were OK in football during my time.  Rose Bowls were expected and we never really made a NC run. 

Regarding rioting I would call it unruliness like one of the other posters commented.  Everyone went to South U and there were a few cars shaken and light polls were clibed but we are Michigan students with futures who got to where we were by being pretty responsible. This is not STAEE.

My Personal Story:  I lived in S Quad and we were watching the game in various rooms throughout our hall.  Some clown pulled the fire alarm at the end of regulation and we had to evacuate.  The RAs and RDs were pounding on doors and made us get out.  We scattered into frat houses, W Quad, houses whereever we could find room.

My group ended up in a random house behind S Quad with perfect strangers (law students I later found out) who shared their crowded living room and beer with us.  Then it was off to S U as I mentioned. 

 

 

 

jmblue

April 2nd, 2012 at 11:35 AM ^

We were OK in football during my time. Rose Bowls were expected and we never really made a NC run.

Just to clarify what "OK" meant: we won five consecutive Big Ten titles from 1988-92, four of them outright, and went 4-0-1 against OSU.

Lampuki22

April 2nd, 2012 at 11:02 AM ^

Yeah.  we took duffle bags full of beer to the games (once a pony keg) and the guards and the entrance neer questioned us.

We had keg and progressive drinking parties in the Dorm halls, which the RAs knew about and sometimes sanctioned.  

Underage drinking at the bars was never an issue. Wonder if it is now? 

Ahh.... the good ol' days.

 

HermosaBlue

April 2nd, 2012 at 8:37 PM ^

I missed the 1989 riots (was a junior in HS), but I was on hand for the 1991 and 1992 editions, and can attest that things didn't get out of control until the cops rode horses up and down South University trying to clear the streets, knocking people over/down.

After a few runs of mounted policemen up and down the street, some jackhole threw a beer bottle at a cop, just missing his head (and hitting a girl on the other side of the street, carving her face wide open - blood was everywhere), and then the cops let loose with the tear gas.

I had a key to East Engineering (now known as East Hall), as I was involved with a student organization that had offices there, and I dragged a badly suffering Ann Arbor News photographer into the loading dock, with a cop chasing me.  



It was chaos.  But none of it really started until the cops tried to push us off South U.

UMgradMSUdad

April 2nd, 2012 at 7:54 AM ^

From the LA Times article:

"Fireworks filled the sky, at times, and some of the fans stripped off their clothes while perched on rooftops along South University Road on campus."

But no burning couches.  Some riots are better than others.

goblue7612

April 2nd, 2012 at 7:57 AM ^

Driving down to Lexington from Ann Arbor on an extended road trip to watch the game down there. I wonder if we'll see something like that.

JD_UofM_90

April 2nd, 2012 at 8:04 AM ^

I remember that some of the TV station vehicles got stomped on and the hoods got crushed in.  There were a bunch of people standing on a taxi, that eventually got flipped over.  There were some overhanging roofs for some of the businesses on State street that fell down due to the weight of people standing on them.  The craziest thing I remember was that they were making a human pyramid and lifting a guy in the air and he was hanging off one of the traffic lights on an intersection on State, trying to pull it down.  Wasn't really a riot, more like a celebration with benefits....Good times.....

umchicago

April 2nd, 2012 at 4:13 PM ^

I was there and it was on SouthU/Church.  Hundreds, if not thousands, poored the streets.  People standing on the awning of the China Gate collapsed it.  And I guy was being boosted to the traffic light.  I didn't know the guy, but I was one of the dummies boosting him up, since I am kinda tall.

Car roof tops were also damaged.  I'm not aware of any fires or anything like that though.

ILL_Legel

April 2nd, 2012 at 9:21 PM ^

I still have a piece of a traffic light from South U that night.  Pretty sure it was the one on Church. 

Craziest part of the night for me was being hung upside down out of a second floor apartment window (apartment name started with a V is all I remember).  I made some comment about Rumeal not being a great free throw shooter.  A friend's friend picked me up, hung me out the window upside down, and said, "You better hope you are wrong or you are getting dropped on your head."  Thanks Rumeal.

seegoblu

April 2nd, 2012 at 8:06 AM ^

No fear in the crowd, which is the MSU model, just joy.

 

I had friends who shimmied across the wire holding the traffic light in place on the corner of South U and Church and then dropped into the crowd below, like an impromptu mosh pit...oh, and lot's of celebration sex that night.

 

It was a great night in Ann Arbor.

Moe Greene

April 2nd, 2012 at 8:09 AM ^

I watched the riot and then went to the Law Library. At 2am when the LL reading room closed I walked back to South U - there was a drunk guy trying to open up parking meters with a baseball bat, and a bunch of A2 cops standing around.

When I asked them if they were going to do something about this guy, one of the officers said "Oh yeah, we fully plan on it....once he tires out."

/ true story bro'd

danross

April 2nd, 2012 at 8:10 AM ^

I was a freshman, and M won the Big Ten, beat #5 USC in the Rose Bowl and won the hoops national championship. Great year. There were in fact 2 riots that year.



What prompted the first riot was Sean Higgins' put back at the buzzer to beat Illinois in the semifinal. Charleys and Ricks emptied onto the corner in less than 5 minutes.



Once that happened, the 2nd riot after the championship game was obviously happening. As riots go it wasn't pretty. A car parked on South U was overturned and crushed an ATM. All traffic signs were uprooted and landscaping destroyed. Someone tried to go hand over hand from a building out the wire to the blinking red light over the intersection. People were dancing on the china gate roof having scaled the awning.



All of the massive concrete planters and sign poles near Charley's and on south u were put in after 1989 destroyed it all. Thankfully there was no Internet or cell phones, so no lasting evidence other than a few newspaper reports and local news spots.

Yost Ghost

April 2nd, 2012 at 9:31 AM ^

if I would characterize what happend on South U that night a riot. Yeah I saw people jumping on cars and tipping a car over. That dude hanging from the cables/wires for the flashing yellow intersection light was hilarious. The best you can hope for on that deal is a painful dismount. Conversely I was in Seattle for WTO and THAT was a riot. Very ugly deal.

jmblue

April 2nd, 2012 at 11:55 AM ^

Once that happened, the 2nd riot after the championship game was obviously happening. As riots go it wasn't pretty.

What would constitute a "pretty" riot?

A spontaneous gathering of people is not a riot. What happened after '89 Illinois, the Fab Five Final Four games and '97 OSU were massive public celebrations with almost no reported incidents.  The '89 Seton Hall game resulted in some modest property damage, but to call it a "riot" is a major stretch.  The city was not a war zone.  People did not fear for their lives.

AZBlue

April 2nd, 2012 at 12:29 PM ^

If so, somebody might be able to find a picture of AZBlue from one of the papers --- before and after the awnings collapsed during said "riot".



FWIW the car burning etc. was blamed on "outsiders" who came in after hearing of the first "gathering" after the semis victory.



You never forget your second senior year.

Wolverine In Iowa

April 2nd, 2012 at 6:59 PM ^

Good job on this. I remember the car being pushed into the ATM at South U and East U.  I also recall some a-hole trying to light a bandana on fire that he had stuck in the gas tank hole/receptacle of that car (what the hell do you call the thing you put the gas cap on? LOL).  There was also some sketchy business when the fire truck came down South U -- a lot of unruliness the night we won the NC.  There was a Stucci's (ice cream place) there that got its window smashed, I think.

Noahdb

April 2nd, 2012 at 9:01 AM ^

Not only was Hash Bash around the same time, the Grateful Dead were playing Crisler on the 5th and 6th (the second night featuring an excellent Scarlet Begonias>Fire on the Mountain). 

The mood of Ann Arbor was....enhanced, shall we say.

misrara

April 2nd, 2012 at 9:12 AM ^

Lived in U Towers.  We all rushed out onto South U and South Liberty area.  For the first hour, it started out as super cool - mostly all students, everybody cheering and singing the Victors.  Then some crazy dude started climbing out onto the traffic light - which prompted more cheers.  

After the first hour - some friends from East Lansing showed up and the crowd started to get more non-students (townies).  

Once the bricks started going through the windows of stores on South U, my buddies and I retreated back up to U Towers where we watched from the 17th floor.  

Car was overturned.  Chef Jan of the Chinese restaurant got beaten up trying to protect his restaurant.  General embarrasing mayhem.  No couches were burned - thank god for that.  

Finally the police came and tear gassed the street.  

Next time when UofM hit the Final four, the police took precautions and there cops on the roof and cops in riot gear in the street.  Unfortunately we lost that game, can't remember to whom.  

Pasquark

April 2nd, 2012 at 9:15 AM ^

I was a sophmore in college at the time and remember that two days after the national championship game the grateful dead played crisler arena for two nights. They still allowed fans to camp out in the parking lot between shows back then. Anyway, I remember reading in the ann arbor news that the city attempted to blame much of the damage from the "riots" on the fact that the Dead was in town and that it was a result of crazed concert goers and not from students celebrating, even though anyone who was there or watched the news the night of the game witnessed the truth. I recall watching the news on tv showing people hanging from the light posts and stop lights and i believe one of the posts ended up falling on top of people from the weight.
I believe that also ended up being one of the last rock concerts to be held at crisler as well.

CRISPed in the DIAG

April 2nd, 2012 at 9:28 AM ^

That week was a hazy blur of mild psychadelics for me, but there were few out-of-town Deadheads who were remotely aware of the MBB national championship.  The *scene* outside the AA shows, as all Grateful Dead shows until 1994 or so, was low-key.  

Pasquark

April 2nd, 2012 at 9:41 AM ^

While the "scene" outside most dead shows was very low key, if you attended any shows after that spring tour, it was night and day difference because back then you literally could camp out right at the venue and did not have to drive home or to a camp site, so the scene was even more incredible.

Not sure if it was because of these shows or not but prior to that year crisler was good for 1 to 3 good to excellent concerts a year and then they just stopped happening.
The shows i remember occuring were several ozzy shows, a david lee roth show, bruce springsteen had a famous concert there as well as john lennon. Wish they would start bringing some concerts back.

CRISPed in the DIAG

April 2nd, 2012 at 9:15 AM ^

There was nothing sinister or dangerous about those *riots* except for some property damage.  The police were well-behaved, which always helps - no small feat since Hash Bash likely tested their last nerve on Saturday.  I recall a  chinese restaurant (NW corner of S. Univ/Church) losing an overhang under the weight of people standing on it.  Seems like a car was tipped on its side.  Some broken bottles.  So, yeah, it's easy to classify this as a riot because people broke stuff.  I remember shuffling home around 2am both nights through empty streets.  

Ron_Lippitt

April 2nd, 2012 at 9:25 AM ^

That was my senior year, and I'll remember that night for the rest of my life.  Most of the mayhem has already been chronicled here, so I won't repeat anything. 

I was in the middle of the South University crowd in front of the Chinese restaurant, and I remember saying to my buddy that those idiots who had climbed up onto the awning of the restaurant are gonna get seriously hurt.  The were all jumping up and down on top of it, and you could see from ground level that thing wasn't made to support all their weight.  Morons.  When people started getting really nuts, and the dude climbed the light post -- I said to my buddy we should probably go chill out somewhere else.  Thankfully he agreed, because apparently it got completely nuts shortly after we left.

It was a party gone astray with some unfortunate damage.  But I would hardly call it a "riot."  Detroit '67 was a riot.  LA '92.  Those were riots....

El Jeffe

April 2nd, 2012 at 9:25 AM ^

Yeah, as riots go that was not much of one. I think there was some car damage, but mostly it was incredibly drunk, incredibly happy people being incredibly drunk and happy. I myself was a tender sophomore, and at one point was perched upon the roof of some building on South U. I think it might have been the one just to the east of China Gate, but I can't remember what was in that building. Middle Earth?

Anyway, we were contemplating jumping from the building we were on to the China Gate roof, and there was what I recall to be an 8-foot gap. I'm so glad I didn't jump, because I'm pretty sure you would have heard about that night more often as "the one where that drunk idiot jumped to his maiming and/or death on South U."