Why did people throw toilet paper and later marshmellows
I haven't sat in that section since the late 90's, so I'm not sure if that tradition continues...
for a whole section in the 80's and 90's?? Poor Northwestern was so brutally awful back then....I think they lost like 20 in a row at one time...
...that definitely happened and I definitely witnessed it in person.
My mom, who was a student in the 1960s, still remembers friends who would bring as much Boone's Farm as they could carry, but of course that was the pre-Bo days (and the Boone's Farm was pretty much the most entertaining aspect of the game sometimes in that period in her opinion) so the tradition of general mischief in the south end zone had a different tone to it back then.
Freshman in 1969 and stayed for MSE after 1973 season. Boone's Farm Apple wine and Strawberry Hill. Periodically, someone would stand up in the student section and chug a bottle until empty-to a cheering student section. Obviously, they were roundly booed if they did not finish the bottle.
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My first year at U of M was 1972. It's a miracle that I survived, let alone graduated. The number of green glass wine bottles in the student section at football games was staggering. About midway through the second half, someone would shout "Pass them up" and waves of empty bottles would end up inundating the students in the top few rows of the stadium.
Mr. Flood's Party was my favorite bar. After I graduated, Michigan raised the legal drinking age back to 21.
I seem to remember a party store on/near the NW corner of Stadium and Main (I think there's a Sprint store there now). In the early 80's, that was our first stop for something cheap and alcoholic, which we technically had to "sneak" into the Stadium, but nobody really tried to stop you. I think that store's profit from just one Saturday could've paid a semester's tuition.
Of course, that store also contributed to numerous piles of vomit from the students who weren't used to so many liquid refreshments. You'd look over at some coed with a pink puddle o'puke at her feet and say, "So ... was this your first sloe gin?"
Ah, memories.
it was a gas station. I'm thinking it was mid-1970s when the business was sold and the gas pumps were pulled out.
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It wasn't from 9/11. I think 2004 they banned them. I remember a bunch of people sent in complaints (damn these people I thought at the time) after the 2003 Ohio State game.
This one flag was pretty high up near the 35 yard line and was on a very long pole. I don't know why that game brought complaints--maybe the wind was up so the pole was being held lower than usual.
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We did it because we were drunk and throwing marshmellows is fun. (We mostly threw them at each other, not the field. Yes, the ones on the field were only a small fraction of the total marshmellow content.)
Also, the stadium staff was waaaaaay more laid back in those days. I recall one time when I smuggled a wine skin full of booze in. I set it down only to look up and see a staff person in a yellow jacket staring right at me. He smiled and gave me the thumbs up. I don't think that would happen today, which is sad. it's college, afterall.
was easy, but truth be told - weren't you already hammered by the time you walked through the gates?
When most of the games were at noon, and a few were still at 1? Hell no. I was a nice drunk like the rest of college students, but even I respected the "wait until you don't taste your toothpaste anymore before you have a beer" rule of morning drinking, and by the time the day was day enough to start imbibing you almost had time to finish two drinks before walking down to the stadium.
The flasks (or in my case a bottle of coke that was 75% not coke) were the only way to get a buzz unless you were a truly committed drinker, and to be honest, we are all still University of Michigan students.
because I was still drunk from the night before...
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Toilet Paper
Getting on TV was still a relatively new experience, and affecting what so many people were watching was kind of a thrilling thing. You'd see the rolls of toilet paper flying down after the first touchdown of the game and think to your young self "wow it would be so cool to be the guy who threw the toilet paper roll."
It really did look festive, like instant confetti or ticker tape. Anyway they stopped when I was 8 or 9 so I never got to throw a roll of TP.
Marshmallows
I was definitely around for this tradition. It was 99% college students being inebriated (sneaking alcohol or a joint into the stadium was pretty easy pre-9/11) and wanting to throw something harmless. A lot of the mallows went at other students--friends sitting a few rows down and a section over, or a group of girls you walked in with.
But there was a mini-game of trying to disrupt the TV crews and the opposing band with them. You tried to aim it so your mallow would pass as close to in front of the camera as possible to screw up their shot, or once they started to bring clear plastic shields, you tried to thunk it off the shield or lob it over. Also by the late '90s the TV crews had these big sound-catching clear plastic radar/dome things, which were as tempting as an opponent's sousaphone. I don't recall there being any real point to the marshmallows. Just a bit of goofy gameday atmosphere.
I still have about a quarter-roll of "Wipe Woody" TP that I found in a box while packing boxes preparing for moving some 20-25 years ago. I packed it in a couple layers of ziplock bags and stored it with some keepsakes.
Some day I'll pull it out and pass it down to my children. I'm sure they will be thrilled.
And they'll pass their "Urinate on Urban" TP down to their kids.
Ahhhh VC....I got all my cheap cigars there.
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That would have been first Whiskey in 1968 and then a couple of years later joined by her daughter Brandy (not to be confused with a certain former lineman).
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We didn't have smartphones so we had to resort to physical entertainment. I was undergrad in the early to mid 90s and I recall some guys behind me during the 92 or 93 Northwestern game who made a slingshot out of surgical tubing. They were able to launch a wad of marshmallows onto the 50 yard line.
I also recall a game where I got hit with a similarly sized wad of marshmallows. I picked it up and was going to try to hit the tuba player in the opposing band as they walked near us. I threw it as hard as I could but it stuck to my fingers and my release point was too low. I beaned the dude in front of me right in the ear. It turned completely red. I apologized and felt like a jackass. If I had a smartphone all that unpleasantness would have been avoided because I would have never looked up from it.
I know how to spell marshmallow. I was poking fun at the OP who wrongly spelled it.
His smores must suck.
I threw a shitload of it.
We threw TP streamers because they looked super-cool.
Check it out @ 10:03:
Harbaugh didn't have his knuckle in Bob Tabachino's asshole for that snap.
did impromptu kazoo bands make it into the 80s and 90s? (I presume kidnapping and passing opposition cheerleaders up to the top row was phased out fairly early on).
would always try to throw the TP through the goal posts! I guess it was kind of like streamers and would be soft if it hit anyone. KSU fans in the 90s threw bolts and washers at NE, KU and OU players and their fans. Now that was ridiculous! I think I remember the marshmallows after I graduated and had season tickets from '87 through '89. Though some fans were throwing ABC gum!
IIRC, the marshmallows got banned because people were soaking them in water, drying them out, and turning them into rock hard projectiles.