Where did the term "Big Blue" come from?
So I'm currently in NJ doing an internship for a Civil Engineering company. Being the intern, I am out in the field a lot doing inspection for roads and in the process come across a lot of police officers. In talking to most of them I am asked where I go to school and after I reply the University of Michigan they go "Ohh, Big Blue right?!" After hearing a few recruits mentioning "Big Blue" and then hearing most of NJ calling the Maize and Blue incorrectly I am just wondering it's origins.
Lee Corso started calling us that back in '06 or so.
"Big Blue" is Kentucky, not Michigan.
the further from "Goooo Biiiig Reeeeed" (GO BIG RED) we can get, the better.
Anyways, we must be true to Maize, which anyone will tell you is a bold and arrogant shade of yellow.
The only problem with focusing on Maize (as we probably should) as opposed to Blue, is the cutesie nicknames a la Big Blue.
I guess we could always stick with the Maize 'n' Blue, but it doesn't roll of the tongue quite as well.
people who clearly didnt go to michigan
Sounds about right. I hate when people call us that, makes me think of IBM.
not as much as when people call UM the "wolves" instead of the wolverines, but it's right up there.
That's almost as bad as when I tell people I go to the University of Michigan and they say "Ohhh Michigan State?" That really annoys me.
I get that a lot too. It's even more annoying when it comes from a beer-belly-wielding older cop in New York who was sent over to quiet down your party and is instead half-assedly trying to hit on drunk chicks while he writes down the real contact information from your obscenely fake Maine license without batting an eye. He said, "Oh, so you're a Spartan fan?"
however much people confuse Spartants and Wolverines, it doesn't happen nearly as much as I get called a Hokie.
Woot
Not G-Men as Chris Berman would have you believe. Not NY Football giants.
The use of Big Blue came from the Big Blue Wrecking Crew nickname for the NY Giant's. It has morphed into Big Blue as a nickname. If you are around Giant's fans, Big Blue is the most common nicknames.
The guys are probably Giants fans who are confusing their nickname with M fan's use of "Blue" to describe M - as in "Go Blue"
and when i said I went to M they said Big Blue also
It goes back way before Corso. I was in Canada in 1983, and the guy who owned the inn said he got a lot of visitors who were fans of the Big Blue Michigan Wolverines.
There are lots of "Big" colors out there: Big Blue (Kentucky), Big Red (Nebraska), Big Orange (Tennessee), etc. People in NJ probably just assumed it applied to Michigan as well. That's an honest mistake. I don't like when some of our own fans adopt it, though.
and that is John U. Bacon
who divined it from Fielding H. Yost...
Tom Beaver
IBM or Luc Besson.
Our football players can hold their breath underwater MUCH longer than any other school's football team.
I never gave it too much weight, people called my old high school (DeWitt) the same thing once in a while. I just figured it applied to any school with blue as a predominant color.
Big Blue comes from people liking the Giants nickname and misapplying to Michigan.
Wooo, Wolverine Nation is the best! Big Blue is gonna rule! Can't stop the wolves, brah.
I dedicate this Heisman to the Wolverine Nation. I love the Wolverine Nation. God Bless the Wolverine Nation.
whoever started using it for Michigan should be shot
Big blue is the New York Giants, not Michigan.
I thought it was from Paul Bunyan. I knew he was a Michigan fan.
Babe the Big Blue Ox was actually the Michigan mascot until they realized that it was a fictional being, and that wolverines are just that much more bad ass than an ox could ever be, no matter how ginormous.
in the movie Old School, which not too many people know was filmed at the University Of Michigan.
"You're my boy Big Blue!!"
It comes from when you catch a big tuna. Now that's a "big blue." It has nothing to with Michigan.
Big House + Maize and Blue = Big Blue?
where it CAME.
I do KNOW, however, that I want it to MARCH its ASS right back to THAT PLACE and THINK about what it's DONE.
These New Jerseyites whose favorite football team is also called Big Blue by some might be holding Michigan in high regard if they share their nicknames so freely.
I know the giants are called big blue. and sometimes you hear the media call us that. we really aren't big blue, but I don't really care. big blue. sounds cool to me. theres more than one big red (nebraska and wisconsin) so i don't care if they call us that.
What really bugs me is when people say our colors are "blue and gold" thats an easy way to tell they don't follow michigan very close. also (mentioned above), when they call us the "wolves".
Also you can tell that someone isn't a real osu fan whey the refer to the team as just "ohio", and I hear that quite a lot.