Victory rioting in 1989 in Ann Arbor?

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.

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.

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.

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.....

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.

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

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.

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.

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.  

is such an over used word these days.

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.

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.  

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....

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."