What's your best "Michigan Moment" not involving the game itself?
What's your best “Michigan Moment” not involving an actual game? Perhaps a great road trip with your buddies to another campus. Maybe a fantastic tailgate where old friends or even someone famous showed up unexpectedly. Or even a heated debate at a bar or party with an opposing fan where you were able to emerge victoriously. Something like that.
The reason I post this is because mine happened at the 1998 Rose Bowl and watching the game again today on BTN brought back a lot of great memories. My brother and I went out a few days early and were staying in Irving at the Embassy Suites. Embassy Suites for those of you who don’t travel have a free nightly cocktail hour and brother and I were taking full advantage of the free adult beverages when we noticed something odd. Everyone….and I mean everyone around us was in full Washington State Cougar gear and the place was packed. About that time a guy stood up on a little podium with a microphone and welcomed everyone to the official home of some alumnai group from WSU. Needless to say, we were completely surrounded and we were in full Michigan gear.
About this time the guy on the podium said they were going to kick off the festivities by singing whatever the hell the WSU fight song is called. So he then proceeds to pull out a little 3 x 5 index card and starts leading them in song. I realize he’s freaking READING the words (and I was a little drunk) so I stood up and yelled “Put down the card”. He didn’t stop so I yelled very loudly “You’re such a big Washington State fan….put down the God Damn card and sing your fight song from the heart!” He then stopped mid-song and pointed at me and said “oh right – like you guys can sing YOUR fight song without looking at the words” and laughed loudly into the microphone.
Before he could blink I grabbed my brother by the back of his shirt and literally lifted him up onto the table where I quickly joined him in singing the LOUDEST (and probably most off key) version of the Victors the world has ever heard. After we were done the room went completely quiet for about five seconds and then all the WSU fans burst into applause. And the guy on the microphone walked over with a sheepish look on his face and gave me a high five in front of the rest of the group.
Man did that ever start our national championship Rose Bowl week off great. What’s yours?
December 22nd, 2010 at 10:19 PM ^
Walking down the aisle of my wedding last September. We had family friends (they're pros and fantastic*) doing the music for us, and Misopogal had sat with them to pick out all the songs she wanted played during the procession for each person and I had no clue because what do I know from Jewish processional songs and stuff...
Well, when I come out you know what they started playing? The Victors! You know, that version from the commercials...eh I'll embed...
THAT song. But mixed so it goes through the verses and the chorus as I'm walking out and get to the front of the line and turn and they're still playing it before stopping to switch to the BRIDE song but she's standing where I can see her in the door of the barn behind everybody and Wow a woman who would do that for me (pissing off her 90-percent Sparty friends and family something fierce) and she is looking GOOOOOOD and damned if I don't feel like I'm Lloyd Carr about to get a signed letter of intent from the Charles Woodson of marriage.
For any of you getting married, that's the Michigan difference.
* Their son who sat in with them for the ceremony was in MMB.
December 23rd, 2010 at 12:01 AM ^
December 23rd, 2010 at 9:22 AM ^
Heheheh. We thought about it, but we got free parking passes in the gray lot from our wedding planner's bf (who it turns out is also an MGoBlog reader) and ended up on the grass by the right field foul pole of the baseball field. My brother in law set up his Sparty tent.
December 22nd, 2010 at 11:18 PM ^
December 22nd, 2010 at 11:04 PM ^
Walking to the OSU game in the mid 90s...
Someone on Division hung a bed sheet over their balcony with the painted message:
"Fuck the Buckeyes
Fuck the 'shoe
Fuck Brutus
Fuck Archie Griffin
Fuck Script Ohio
Fuck hang on sloopy
Fuck Woody Hayes..."
I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things. My brother and I laugh about this to this day.
December 22nd, 2010 at 11:15 PM ^
losing my virginity in Bursley Lewis ca. 1982
My 1 y.o. daughter kissing a 2 y.o. boy on the 50 +/-, 2 weeks before the LC win over UVA
December 22nd, 2010 at 11:52 PM ^
1. teaching my GF's 5 year old the fight song
2. When i was in college around 2002 me and some buddies of mine went to mongolian BBQ and say Larry Foote, Drew Hensen, and David Terrell entertaining some recruits. One of my buddies was acting like it was no big deal. Then after having his meal cooked he bumped into Larry Foote's massive bicept and ran back to the table like a little school girl. Telling everyone he touched Larry Foote.
December 23rd, 2010 at 3:19 AM ^
I taught my 5 yr old son and 4 yr old daughter "The Victors". Now they sing it all the time. Even though it's not correct, it's so cute to hear them say "hail to the victors value", so I just leave it be. Besides they'll know how to sing it well enough once they become students.
December 22nd, 2010 at 11:52 PM ^
Football related: getting Bo's autograph when I was about 10 years old.
Non football related: defending my thesis.
I'm not sure which is better.
December 23rd, 2010 at 12:43 AM ^
There are a lot but if I wrote all of thim this would become thesis-length (though it will anyway). I was in Florida visiting my grandparents and I was getting ready to fly back to Detroit from Ft. Lauderdale. As I was putting my shoes back on after I was through security I looked up and saw a huge dude, who turned out to be Jake Long. My brother came through and I told him I saw Jake Long and we walked to our gate and he was sitting there; I pointed him out to my brother and he said "Hey, isn't that Chad Henne sitting next to him?' It was. I was wearing a Michigan shirt and hat, so I sent my brother to the gift shop to buy a pen and we went and got autographs. Jake was on the phone (we got our autographs from him between phone calls--I try not to be rude) but Chad talked to us for a few minutes and couldn't have been nicer. They were flying back to Detroit for a golf tournament in Ann Arbor I believe.
December 23rd, 2010 at 1:00 AM ^
Tie between:
1. First time doing entries out of the tunnel. Pregame, 1999, Purdue.
2. Sitting next to Brock Mealer at this year's Notre Dame game.
3. The three Michigan degrees hanging on my wall. Worth every damn penny.
December 23rd, 2010 at 1:23 AM ^
Playing numerous concerts at Hill while I was in high school. I must've played at least 5 concerts there with my high school orchestra, and Michigan Youth Band and Orchestra (I'm a clarinetist). Great music, awesome venue, brilliant conductors. By the time I graduated high school, I knew that building like the back of my hand.
Also, true story - I once lost my pants outside of the Power Center on the way to a concert in the middle of winter. After I realized they were missing, I spent 15 minutes berating people to give them back. Then I finally went looking, and they were sitting on the snow next to a tree, at the crossing of Huron and Glen. It wasn't a pleasant experience when I put them on.
And also, meeting H Robert Reynolds. I don't need to say any more.
December 23rd, 2010 at 7:10 AM ^
it's a good thing i went back and read the subject line of your message AFTER i read the little bit about losing your pants. otherwise, i had a few questions lined up for ya.
December 23rd, 2010 at 3:46 AM ^
Mine would involve being "picked up" by a pretty co-ed on the M swim team while standing in line lost in my thoughts at McDonalds. A life changing day ensued, proving that the most amazing things can happen out of nowhere in Ann Arbor when you least expect it. Nuff said.
December 23rd, 2010 at 7:36 AM ^
December 23rd, 2010 at 7:57 AM ^
When I was thinking about where to attend school and came to visit, walking across the Diag on April 1 1973 (when the Hash Bash was still an illegal, well-attended circus), seeing all the crazies, the miles of hair (on the guys), the music, the get ups people were wearing, and then going to the house where I was staying and finding 25 inhabitants sitting around a little black- and-white television watching "Planet of the Apes" in the dark ...
... and realizing, as a wandering, 19 year-old hippie, that this was somewhere I could live.
And have loved it ever since
December 23rd, 2010 at 8:40 AM ^
I went to school there for ten years, so the moments piled up... Too bad I don't remember most of them (I said ten years). Here are five that stick out:
- Learning to ice skate at Yost.
- Just about every time I played basketball at the Intramural Building
- Something called the Y2J
- Meeting Lloyd Carr in the hotel lobby prior to the 2007 game.
- Living with my brothers on South Fifth. These are times that will only come around once in a life time.
December 23rd, 2010 at 8:49 AM ^
Buying Amadou Ba a shot at Skeeps
December 23rd, 2010 at 9:10 AM ^
i have another one:
buying Zoltan a shot at Rick's the day he got drafted. he was wearing a "Stay Classy, Ann Arbor" t-shirt. after he took the shot, he laserbeamed a UFO out of the sky with his mind.
December 23rd, 2010 at 9:23 AM ^
Does anyone remember "Shakey Jake"? I used to love running into him on State Street and shooting the breeze with him and my buddies. Him and "Bongo Man" were two great characters.
December 23rd, 2010 at 10:33 AM ^
...Shakey Jake. You are missed.
December 23rd, 2010 at 10:34 AM ^
Like others, I have a million of them.
One fairly recent one: I was at a holiday party in Fleming a year or two ago, and some of the men's glee club came around to sing carols. They also sang "The Yellow and the Blue" and I looked around the room and saw more than one high-level administrator getting teary-eyed. Of both genders. And it just struck me (again) how much there is to love about this University, and how deeply people care about it, even the people who all too often get criticized for making tough decisions. And it's not just about the sports.
Even at my most cynical frustrated moments dealing with the bureaucracy and faults, I can never forget that at its core U-M is an incredible place and I am incredibly blessed to be an alumna and an employee.
December 23rd, 2010 at 10:44 AM ^
1.) Hot dog man!!
2.) "Breaking" into the stadium after graduation late one night with a few friends. Had to feel what it was like to stand in the middle of that field before I left good old AA. While hopping the fence out, just my luck, a cop drove by and stopped me. An arrest and some court time later, I got off virtually free of anything. Not my brightest moment, but hey, I can now say I stood on the field of the Big House!
December 23rd, 2010 at 11:17 AM ^
getting the attention of the OSU pep band by having my buddy yell "O-H." I then responed with You-Suck. It was a great moment of classlessness by me, but I felt I liked I owed them b/c we couldn't tackle Troy Smith.
December 23rd, 2010 at 11:18 AM ^
Coming home to NYC for breaks and getting random "Go Blues!" on the street. Also, the Irish pub across the street that is covered in Michigan gear and gives out free drinks to M fans on game days.
December 23rd, 2010 at 11:44 AM ^
There's a lot for me, but what sticks out was standing in front of Touchdown Jesus after the the 2006 ND game, wearing my 1997 National Champs tshirt (and a shit-eating grin), watching the crestfallen ND Marching Band and assorted other Domers file past. It isn't as sweet as it used to be, but man, I love me some noterdamenfreude...
December 23rd, 2010 at 12:19 PM ^
After the 2009 Notre Dame game, Zoltan Mesko came by my tailgate. After getting a picture with him he threw a 40 yard pass to me, I caught it. I asked him if he could punt the ball but he said his leg was shut down for the day.