What sort of home did you grow up in?
As we approach the spring game, I've been put in mind of the fact that until I was about 16, I didn't even know there was a spring game. My parents andthe rest of my family were and are Michigan fans, but of a certain variety.
Dad is a "state of Michigan" fan, and will cheer for Sparty in all cases where they are not playing U of M. Michigan is his #1, but anything of the state is his number two. His Michigan fandom is most evident in his intense distaste for ND and OSU. Mom is a Michigan fan because dad is, and my granparents and her siblings were and are, but really, if Dad rooted for OSU, that'd be her team. My sister couldn't give a rat's rear end.
Growing up, I never knew the player's names, because my family didn't go in for big time fandom. I knew Timmy B, because Mom thought his name was hilarious. I didn't really become aware of players till round about Henne's freshman season. Oddly enough, I can now talk about players from earlier eras with my dad, and he knows all who I'm talking about. I guess he was a pretty big fan, but it never occured to him to discuss it.
It's weird that, coming from these rather topical fan origins, I should become such a diehard. I mean, my Dad doesn't even know a guy exists until his third game starting. Meanwhile, I pore over recruitng and watch spring games and hang on every word of practice reports. I study UFR's and game evaluations with rapt attention. I follow our players into their NFL careers should they have them. I'm just trying to figure out how from those origins, I got so craze for the Maize and Blue.
What was your M upbringing like?
My brother and I are U of M grads. We were born and raised in Michigan, so I think my Dad was glad we got the Michigan educated at instate rates. My dad loves busting our chops about Michigan, but he secretely roots for them.
owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery.
My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet.
My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy
The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets.
When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds- pretty standard really. At the age of twelve I received my first scribe.
At the age of fourteen a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking- I highly suggest you try it
Oh yeah, and most of the family are huge Michigan fans. My father and uncle went to Cleveland St. Joseph high school. They were good friends with Andy Cannavino, and Al Sincich who went to St. Joe's (As well as Desmond Howard, Elvis Grbac, and Eric Riley). At the time they were too small for Ohio State and didn't even get a 2nd look. Bo didn't seem to think so.
About halfway up the board.
Copy cat
I was born and raised in a 70's/80's Upper Peninsula that consisted of a fractured fanbase of UM, MSU, and - to a lesser extent - Badger fans (there are arguably more U.P. MSU fans in recent years due to the Izzo Yooper influence, and probably more Badger fans in the southern tier of the U.P. since their program's revival in the 90's). My dad was always a UM fan, though, and my first memories of UM football were the Rick Leach glory days during the late 70's. My uncle was a die-hard Bo disciple and high school football coach, so I was also probably brainwashed from listening to him wax poetically about Bo, Leach, Carter, Harold Woolfolk, etc. And don't get me started about Bob Ufer...the man's voice was electric in pre-ESPN/BTN days when I was lucky to witness three UM games per year on TV in the northern hinterlands. I was hooked from early childhood and lived/died with every win/loss. After turning down some lucrative offers to stay "home" to attend college (Michigan Tech...a great school, Northern Michigan, etc.), I opted to attend UM (first UM student of my family) after visiting the campus as a HS junior. I was hooked even further. The academic vibe was unlike anything I had ever witnessed. So my early UM football fandom morphed seamlessly into student-fan, then alum-fan, status. I'm currently raising two children in the cradle of Badger Nation (Madison, WI). I have "allowed" them to be Packer fans since I begrudingly admire the way that franchise is run, although my son proclaims himself a Lions fan. I also feel weird describing Michigan's football glory days to them since they have really only witnessed mediocrity - or less - in their cognizant lifetimes. With out-of-state tuition skyrocketing, I may have to also begrudgingly allow my kids to be Badgers as undergrads. But they can always pursue grad/professional degrees at UM, right?!
I was raised a Mich fan by a fairly die-hard Michigan dad (neither of my parents went to college, they just were raised to understand that Michigan is who you are supposed to root for which, duh). Everything was going fine until my older brother picked State over U of M (their study abroad program is apparently easier to deal with and more affordable), at which point my dad became split. Rather than pick between his son and his team, he now roots for MSU when MSU plays anyone who isn't Mich.
I went to GVSU (had to get out of the east side of state), but never lost my die-hard Michigan fandom, nor did I forget my upbringing. And, let's be honest, DII football is barely football, despite the fact that GVSU owns the GLIAC. I need Michigan football just to survive.
Matters for my family got worse when my little sister decided to go to State. It's just a big mess. Every now and then when I come home, I'll see my dad wearing an MSU shirt and a part of my heart cries.
I grew up a HUGE Notre Dame fan as a kid growing up in Southern California.
Moved to Michigan and remained a fan of the Irish until I met Jerry Faust and his staff. That ended any and all love I had for ND.
I grew up in CA and usually rooted against M. Iowa was one of my favorite teams for some reason. I became a fan when I started grad school, because from then on Michigan was my school. I later went back for a second grad degree and by my last year I probably had more credits than anyone else in the student section despite having gone somewhere else for undergrad. I was in row B that year.
I decided in elementary school that I liked UM best because sparty colors sucked IMO. My Dad is a spartan fan but likes to see UofM do well also. One of my grandfathers couldn't care less. The other was a Diehard Roman Catholic Notre Dame Fan. My sisters would lean more toward State. Mom doesn't care. I remember following closely the likes of Brady and Henson first. Best Brady memory was the game against Penn State his senior year I believe. Benny Joppru (sp?) was one of my early favorites after watching a couple of bootleg plays. Tim B. and Mercury Hayes were the first players I remembered. SO many scattered memories (hell, I even liked Tractor Traylor and Avery Queen lol).
I did'nt learn to hate OSU really until late high school. Had a soft spot (due to family) for ND until college and now I hate them second to OSU.
No family lineage at UofM and I did not go there. Always loved and appreciated the tradition and the colors and the sunny day games watching on TV in the fall. Great memories.
I grew up in a non-descript colonial in suburban Detroit (southern Oakland county), the son of an Indiana grad (dad) and a Michigan grad (mom). Mother knows best, and I found myself in Ann Arbor from 1996 to 2000. In any event, dad grew up in Michigan and was, at heart, a Michigan fan.
My Dad watches the Super Bowl, probably used to watch more sports. My Mom never watched much sports. We never really watched a game together, and I never went to a Michigan game until my senior year in high school (not as a family, I went with friends). They got into GVSU when my cousin played there. That's when they got into football, and now that I go here they root for Michigan, but also cheer for MSU if they're not playing Michigan. We live closer to Lansing, and now that they are "Michigan fans" they realize that their MSU fan friends are annoying. It was awesome when my Mom said that for the first time because I had been thinking that for a long time but she just never understood, plus she's pretty religious.
I was born in Indiana to Catholic IU and Indiana State grads (My mom was a freshman when Larry Bird was a senior. She said he had one hell of an entourage when he walked around campus).
I was raised rooting for IU basketball and ND football, which is natural for Catholic IU fans (so I'm told). I'm even ashamed to say my room was painted half-blue half-white with ND Fighting Irish wallpaper cutting through the middle and an Irish bedspread. My dad and grandpa hate Purdue, so they were the evil school until we moved to Michigan when I was six.
While our house was being built in Brighton, we lived in the townhouses just north of Briarwood for several months. Between trips the children's hands-on museum and visiting the Big House, I fell in love with AA and Michigan. I still wish I had that '97 Rose Bowl sweatshirt.
When I applied to college, I wanted to go to a Big Ten school and narrowed it to IU and Michigan. When IU offered a scholarship that cut tuition to the equivalent of in-state Michigan, it still wasn't a very tough decision: Better school, better sports, cooler people. I'll give Ann Arbor and Bloomington a tie for nightlife and cede the hotter girls to Indiana, but I have yet to regret my decision and now I savor every phone call down to Florida to talk about how Michigan just handed ND their jocks.
I hope I'm making the same phonecall on September 10th!
One funny pre-freshman year story: When my mom, being an ISU grad, saw the ticket prices for student season football tickets, she told me not to order them because it's absurd and I could get better prices. (I thought $21 a ticket was absurd - absurdly cheap)
She told me they used to buy tickets before the game for a few dollars to see the Sycamores play. I then told her that A.) She went to college in 1978 and B.) This is Michigan, not Indiana State.
When my dad came home, she went to him thinking she'd get support. My dad laughed about as hard as I've heard him laugh before and handed me a check to order them. So, no, mom isn't a huge sports fan.
My dad was a Sparty fan and my brother pulled for ND. I was the lone UM fan. Saturdays were not pretty in our house. Luckily for me, my best friend growing up had season tickets to the Big House and his sister never wanted to go. So I was able to escape the madness as they would adopt me as their Saturday son.
Grandfather has worked for UofM for 65 years although now all he does is head usher in Section 1. I was born on campus so it has been thick in the blood as long as I can remember. We watched games religiously. Now that I am in Texas, getting to games is tougher but I sit down with my wife (from West Texas) and my two boys each week with our maize and blue on as well as maize and blue M&M's, sunflower seeds and cookies.
My dad and I can discuss games countless years back and he can recite every QB, RB and WR to come through the tunnel. My grandfather calls me 4 times a week to tell me who he ran into at the fieldhouse and what the latest is on the team.
It's in the blood and it's THICK even though I turned down a music scholarship to go to college in Texas.
BLUE, that is all!
Except I married a bUCKEYE, then converted her, One trip to the Big House.
I grew up my two western grads. My Dad was always a die hard Michigan fan. My mom was raised in Ann Arbor for the first couple years of her life while my Grandfather went to Law school at Michigan. I was raised in Michigan gear. We always went to at least one Michigan football game per fall. Whenever Michigan played western at Lawson arena for hockey we went to the games. We also went to Van Andel whenever Michigan was in a hockey regional. I knew I was going to apply to Michigan. I ended up getting waitlisted for undergrad and chose to attend Purdue over sparty and Michigan Tech. Thankfully I was accepted to Michigan for grad school. My sister is also a Michigan alum.
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<br>My wife is from south Carolina and was indfferent on Michigan before I took her to her first game at Yost an the big house. Since then she is a huge Michigan fan.
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<br>My cousins in my Dad side are all Michigan fans. However my cousins on my Mom's side prefer sparty but they are not obnoxious about. None of them went to state but went to western and Kettering.
Grew up in Pa, but both parents went to State but grandfather to UofM. I knew both schools and cheered for both until the Fab Five, and Ive hated Sparty since.
Who grew up?
April 14th, 2011 at 10:29 PM ^
I'm a first generation Michigan fan. My dad actually rooted for Notre Dame as I was growing up because he like Lou Holtz as a motivator. I don't think he realized how corrupt the little fella was. I started liking Michigan in 1990 after watching Jon Vaughn (with whom I share a first name) run rampant against the Irish. I loved the winged helmets. I've never rooted against Michigan since.
April 14th, 2011 at 11:13 PM ^
Grew up in Livonia and was a Michigan fan since third grade when my MSU graduate of a teacher brought us all cups from a Michigan game (must have been a UM/State game). My sister was a State fan out of spit but now she's a Michigan fan even though she goes to Western. My parents never went to college, but for some reason, they had two sweatshirts with Snoopy and Woodstock on them that said, "Michigan Cheers!" I distinctly remember the 1997 UM/OSU game because I watched it while making out with my boyfriend of the time (it was freshman year in high school, football and making out were the two most important things to me).
The fiance and I are graduates of this fine establishment, were in the MMB, and are now currently hardcore fans deep in the heart of Soonerland.
April 14th, 2011 at 11:20 PM ^
...suprised this quote didn't come up sooner on this thread.
But seriously, great topic. Grew up in middle class Royal Oak (LONG before it beacame chic, hip (?) and over-priced). Latch key kid - Dad was an Architect, Mom worked for Sports Illustrated in an advertising sales office in the Fisher Building in downtown Detroit. In this capacity, there were always "extra tickets" available to the Tigers (Tiger Stadium) Wings (Olympia!!), Pistons (Cobo Hall) and UM Football. My sister, 5 years older, provided the Almost Famous influences, bringing me up on a healthy dose of Led Zepplin, Who, Santana, Stones, Yes, Hendrix, et al.
Pre-Cable (3 network channels, CBC and WKBD Channel 50), my media exposure to UM Football was limited to the annual televised UM/OSU game on ABC, 1 game/year in person at the Big House (always a big deal) and the Saturday evening Al Ackerman-led local news highlights of UM beating the living daylights out of one of the Little 8 (oh how I miss those days). Between the helmets, Bo, the triple option, Big Ten domination and Dennis Frankiln (still to this day, for some reason, my favorite all-time UM player), I was an instant fan-for-life.
My dad was a good enough athlete that his team made the State of Michigan finals in basketball his senior year. Rudy Tomjonovich was a Junior on that team and came off the bench for my dad.
He was smart enough to figure out that education was more important than sports and didn't even play college ball. Sports were never a big deal in our house growing up. He had gone to MSU and it didn't phase him at all that I selected Michigan. (I would have never learned about what kind of athlete he was if it wasn't for my mom and her brothers.)
His career has been such that he just hasn't made time for actively following sports. He reads the papers and will watch if he has time, but it isn't a priority.
Now I'm a Michigan nut, my wife is too, and my three children are nearly fully indoctrinated. They love going to Michigan games and have seen what I'm like during football, basketball, and hockey.
Not sure which is the better way to grow up, but I couldn't change even if I wanted to.
I was alwasy cognizant Michigan had a good football team when I was younger (and the Block M had a certain mystique that captivated me), but it was the 1989 season when I started to discover I bled Maize and Blue. I was in second grade that year and the week of the Michigan-Michigan State game, kids wore shirts to sport their loyalties (as did some teachers). I told my Dad one of those days that week what was going on and if he had any loyalty and he said he liked Michigan State and he DISLIKED BO because he thought he was arrogant. That did it for me--whenever I saw Bo on TV, I thought of him as the hardened grandfather type that may discipline you hard, but would love you to death. How can you hate Bo? So it was from that day forward I rooted for Michigan. 1990 was rough because my dad rubbed it in after the missed Sparty tripping penalty, but 1991 (which was the first full season I can remember watching MIchigan football) was just a blast watching Desmond Howard.
Eventually, my dad relented since my two younger brothers and I all have degrees from Ann Arbor. And I also have told me dad that if he ever met Bo, his dislike for him would probably disappear within 30 seconds.