OT Your hometown and fandom origins
I've not seen a thread like this and I thought it would be interesting and build a greater sense of community if we all shared a few things:
1. Where you were born/hometown
2. How you became a UM fan
3. (optional) high school you attended
I'll start. Born in Battle Creek (Mich, for those who aren't from mich) and went to Athens (just south of B.C.) until high school when my family moved to Omaha, NE. (On a side, the timing of the move couldn't have been better as it was in '97 when UM and Nebraska shared the NC; needless to say there was much smack talking that occurred that year)
Became a UM fan in about 4th grade because all my friends who had older siblings liked UM and hated State and OSU (in other words, it was cool to like UM and not cool to like State). Plus I was into comic books and thought it was pretty awesome that a team was named the wolverines since Wolverine was my favorite comic book hero.
What about you guys?
August 15th, 2009 at 3:22 PM ^
1. Bay City, MI
2. Grew up watching with my older brothers.
3. John Glenn HS, Home of Joe Denay, former UM Offensive Lineman from 99'-02'
August 15th, 2009 at 3:24 PM ^
I am from Watchung, NJ, but I was born a Wolverine.
My mom is from A2, and not only went to Michigan, but was a founding member and was the FIRST TEAM CAPTAIN in Michigan Varsity Women's Basketball history. Shes awesome.
Im now about to start my sophomore year in Ross School of Biz.
August 15th, 2009 at 3:27 PM ^
1. Livonia, MI
2. Grew up wanting to go to UM, rooted for UM as long as I can remember. Went to UM, graduated with my BA with distinction from LS&A in '07.
3. Dearborn Divine Child HS
August 15th, 2009 at 3:38 PM ^
You know what? I wholeheartedly agree that I deserved to be negged for this. Absolutely.
August 15th, 2009 at 3:56 PM ^
How dare you call LIVONIA your hometown. Tsk.
(set sarcasm detectors to "overwhelming")
August 15th, 2009 at 4:09 PM ^
Talk about faux pas. I lived in Livonia for about 15 years growing up and not even I made such a heinous mistake.
August 15th, 2009 at 3:59 PM ^
If I had to take a wild guess...and for once it wasn't me that negged you. I'd say it was one of those fucking Shamrocks from Dearborn Detroit Novi Northville Milford Redford Southfield Catholic Central.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:11 PM ^
I'm not even from Michigan but every one of those guys I have met has been a bit of a dbag about their school. Dudes need to calm down, it's effing high school.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:14 PM ^
My brother is a CC grad. It's kind of tempered by his time in the (comparatively) ghetto Livonia Public Schools, but he's a bag nonetheless.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:21 PM ^
Hell, I didn't go CC for two reasons:
1) All the kids I couldn't stand from grade school (Livonia St. Michael's) were going there.
2) Was afraid I'd turn gay.
So there.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:24 PM ^
He'd probably be angry to hear you say that, but luckily most dbags have not grown thumbs, and thus struggle to type on these here internets.
Filling out the application to State is somehow less difficult and does not require thumbs.
August 15th, 2009 at 3:28 PM ^
Born and raised in Scranton PA. Played baseball through high school. Same city as, and Illinois TE Hubie Graham, Penn State OL Eric Shrive. And Penn St. 3 rd string QB Matt Mcgloin. And Nebraska linebacker Sean Bodtmann. So you could probably guess that Penn St. fans infest my city, along with an equal number of wretched ND fans. I am the only UM fan i have come across. Everyone including my family wonders how i became a fan,and we get the regional broadcasts here of UM and I've loved Michigan since i started watching the games when i was 9.
August 15th, 2009 at 3:30 PM ^
1. Pittsburgh, PA
2. Moved to Michigan in 95'.. Friends had season tickets and my parents followed. Sister went to UM, then I did. Been blue forever.
3. Forest Hills Central HS, Grand Rapids
August 15th, 2009 at 6:26 PM ^
1. Born in California while my parents were there for a working vacation. I was almost immediately shuttled back to Metro Detroit. Growing up, I lived in Westland, Farmington Hills and, primarily, Livonia.
2. My dad was a super fan. No alums in my family, but my father was a season ticket holder for years and made sure everyone in our family were Michigan fans. Alum, 07.
3. Livonia Stevenson
August 15th, 2009 at 3:35 PM ^
1.) Grandville, MI.
2.) Parents are alums, season tix, et al.
3.) GHS.
August 15th, 2009 at 3:39 PM ^
1. Born and raised in Minnesota where my dad moved for a job (currently live in IA)
2. Mom and Dad both grew up in St. Claire Shores, all extended relatives live there, some UM grads,
Was born with maize and blue blood
August 15th, 2009 at 4:05 PM ^
1.)Chillicothe, OH.
2.)Picked Michigan in 1989 basketball bracket. Didn't know anything about the team. Everybody told me I was stupid and that 3 seed team couldn't win it all. The rest is history.
2.)Picked Michigan in 1989 basketball bracket. Didn't know anything about the team. Everybody told me I was stupid and that 3 seed team couldn't win it all. The rest is history.
August 15th, 2009 at 3:56 PM ^
1) Cleveland, OH
2) Grandfather was a professor at UM. It trickled down.
First UM memory is when Biakabutuka ran wild against tOSU (was in early grade school). And being from Cleveland, '97 is the only title I've experienced in any sport. So it definitely goes down as one of the best years of my life, no doubt!
August 15th, 2009 at 3:59 PM ^
1. Nashville, TN
2. Before I was born, Mom and Dad lived in AA when Dad was getting his LLM at the Law School. Vanderbilt was my team as a kid, but Dad would always watch a Michigan football game when it was on. I went to UM (Residential College class of '91) in part to get out of the South and to go to a big university.
3. Just to see if anyone else is an alum, I went to The University School of Nashville k-12.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:03 PM ^
1.a) No, I don't own a gun or a snowmobile, because
2.) Moved to Ann Arbor at the age of 2. Grandpa was a Professor of Engineering and took me to every home game from about 1985 until 1997, when I
3.) Graduated from Pioneer and left for Evanston. Hence the handle, hence my relief that my two teams are on hiatus for a couple years.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:10 PM ^
I was born in Ann Arbor and have lived within 10 minutes of the Stadium for most of my life... I went to Pioneer. Some of my most distinct memories are related to UM football, although I can't say I became an earnest every-single-day-obsessive fan until '02, when I was twelve years old. My mom graduated from UM and took me to occasional games in the late 90s-early 00s. The first game I can remember watching was the Rose bowl in '98, and for the next 4 or 5 years I followed with increasing intensity. Until '02, I wasn't really able to comprehend why we ever lost a game; Syracuse was especially crushing to me. Following the team up and down the rankings, I felt proud that a team so close to where I lived was recognized as so good; during my formative years I got increasingly into sports, and football, especially Michigan football, was easily the most fun and most sentimental team to root for.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:11 PM ^
1. Born in Detroit, raised in Grosse Pointe Park.
3. High school is GP South
2. Because everyone growing up in Michigan is either a U-M fan or a State fan, and my dad's a U-M grad so I was raised correctly.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:16 PM ^
I actually knew one kid who was an Ohio State fan. It wasn't random, his parents were alums, but he was doubly annoying because he'd picked State as his number two team.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:19 PM ^
And what street in the Park? I lived on Notre Dame in GP City, then at the corner of Grayton and Kercheval, and then on Nottingham below Jefferson.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:26 PM ^
Graduated in 2000. I lived at the corner of Audubon and Vernor. Moved there when I was three - until then, we lived in a house on Outer Drive literally one house away from Mack.
The funny thing is, with the possible exception of Notre Dame because you didn't mention which block, all the places you mentioned are no more than a block away from people I know: my grandma used to live in those condos on Notre Dame next to the Village; a cousin of mine lived on Grayton between Kercheval and Vernor; and two of my best friends lived on Nottingham, just on the other side of Jefferson.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:35 PM ^
wooooooooooooo fellow GP homies, you know the struggle.
I didn't go to those ghetto GP Public Schools though.
August 15th, 2009 at 5:00 PM ^
Liggett: When South just isn't preppy enough.
(I don't know if you went to Liggett. You might have gone even further up the scale and hit up U-D. Who knows.)
August 15th, 2009 at 6:55 PM ^
haha...no Liggett for me...I went to the now closed Harper Woods Notre Dame.
August 15th, 2009 at 7:00 PM ^
I had no idea that Harper Woods ND closed. When did it close?
I saw a really, really, really bad show with a bunch of really, really bad local bands in the cafeteria there once.
August 15th, 2009 at 7:24 PM ^
It closed in 2003 I believe.
August 15th, 2009 at 7:30 PM ^
2005.
August 15th, 2009 at 7:33 PM ^
well...maybe that is right...my little bro was a freshman when they closed and he's going into his sophomore year of college now.
August 15th, 2009 at 7:36 PM ^
I just wiki'd it.
August 15th, 2009 at 7:31 PM ^
About four years ago.
I remember my mom threatening me with going to Notre Dame if I didn't pick my grades up in middle school. Glad I didn't go, mainly because I think it would suck if my high school was closed.
Edit - weird, I replied to the post above CGC's. I do assume an actual alum would know better than I would about it.
August 15th, 2009 at 5:13 PM ^
yup, it was rough on the mean streets of Grosse Pointe. You never knew when some guy in tassel loafers and a pink LaCoste shirt with a sweater knotted around his neck would come after you with his paddle tennis racquet if he thought you put a door ding in his Eldorado.
Wahoo, we lived on Notre Dame just a few houses from Vernor close to Maire School.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:16 PM ^
While now the Schembechler years have acquired the soft golden glow of unblemished happiness, I don't mind saying that there was a considerable amount of frustration that went along with all the victories. And, believe it or don't, there was no small amount of criticism directed at Bo himself during the early '70s because of the losses to OSU in '70, 72, the tie in '73 that felt like a loss, and '74. Because of the criminally stupid rule the Big Ten had back then limiting bowl game participation to the Rose Bowl and nothing else, all those losses to OSU meant Michigan got to stay home for the holidays. As bad as it felt last year to not go to a bowl game, nobody could claim it was somehow unfair, because we went 3-9 and truly earned that suckitude. Imagine going 50-4-1 over a five-year stretch and going to one fucking bowl game during those five years (and losing that one bowl game in the bargain, to Stanford).
At one point during the '73-'74 time period, there was graffiti written on the walls above the urinals in two or three bars in town that said, "Fire Bo and hire Linda Lovelace — she doesn't choke on the big one." If you young whippersnappers don't recognize the name, wikipedia has the story.
August 15th, 2009 at 7:44 PM ^
Goes to show that the grass is always greener.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:17 PM ^
1. Chicago
2. Grew up supporting NW but stopped following college sports at about the age of 10. Rekindled the love when I decided to go to Michigan.
3. Big suburban high school no one here knows.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:22 PM ^
1. Grew up in Hancock, MI but currently living in Bellevue, NE.
2. Michigan Tech alum but UM football fan since birth.
3. Hancock High School.
Rockin Loud which Omaha high school did you go to?
August 15th, 2009 at 5:06 PM ^
Sweet, I live just down the road in LaVista/Ralston. Might be buying a house in Bellevue in the near future.
August 15th, 2009 at 10:58 PM ^
Just saw your high school question.
I went to Papillion-LaVista, class of '01 (when there was just one papillion high school)
August 15th, 2009 at 4:23 PM ^
1. Troy, MI
2. Both parents went to U-M, so I grew up with it. 1989 (when I was in the fourth grade) was the first season I paid attention to, although I didn't really understand what was going on. I have a distinct memory of watching the Rocket Ismail ND game with my dad. The next week I complained to my friends at school, "We shoulda never kicked it to him!" - not that I even knew what that meant.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:33 PM ^
I had the same experience. Anytime I see or hear about the Rocket I think of watching my dad's blood pressure rise as he was screaming "Why are you kicking to him?"
August 15th, 2009 at 4:37 PM ^
1. Beaumont, TX
2. Dad attended Southern Cal and Colorado, Mom went to Purdue. We moved to Cincinnati, OH when I was 6. Saying that there are a lot of Michigan fans in Ohio is an understatement. I went to a catholic school and you were either a Notre Dame fan or a Michigan fan. I fell in love with the helmets and uniforms as a kid and that was basically it. It didn't hurt that some of my best friends were Michigan fans.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:46 PM ^
1) I grew up in Shelby Twp. MI
2) I really just started getting into sports in 5th grade during the 1997 season. (Obviously it was a good year to be a young sports fan around Detroit.) But I don't think I'll ever forget when I became a hardcore Michigan fan though. A couple of days before Christmas 2004, we were having a big family party at my parents house and I got my acceptance letter in the mail, one of the happiest days of my life. Then I sealed it forever with a huge block M tattoo on my arm last summer.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:46 PM ^
1) myrtle beach SC
2) i didn't like michigan till i came here as a student
August 15th, 2009 at 4:47 PM ^
1. Sterling Heights, MI. Grew up in Michigan but moved to Chicago as a teenager. Now in NYC, but I kind of consider Ann Arbor my hometown, (home is where the heart is, no?) and someday I'd like to move back.
2. Third generation Michigan fan. It's encoded in my DNA. I was one those babys the parents deck out in U-M gear. First game was in '91 agasinst Northwestern. In third or fourth grade I did a book report on 'Bo.' Also an alum, class of '06.
3. Loyola Academy, Wilmette, IL.
August 15th, 2009 at 5:07 PM ^
1. Northville, MI
2. Parents are both alums, season ticket holders for football, basketball, and hockey, never really given the choice to do anything else. My sister has undergraduate and graduate degrees from UM. I'm also an alum, graduated in '08. Hoping on grad school as well.
3. Northville High School
So, yeah, I'm legit.
August 15th, 2009 at 5:27 PM ^
1. I was born in Beijing, China, but was raised in Windsor/LaSalle Ontario, just across the border. Live in Northville, MI now.
2. Wasn't really into football or anything until high school, but then I started watching and all my friends liked Michigan. I guess all my friends cheered for the Lions too so it was a good thing I didn't pick up on that. I think the turning point was the 2004 Michigan/Michigan State game. I remember watching a true freshman leading the Wolverines and Braylon being his usual dominant self (I played receiver in HS too). I was one of the only people from my high school to apply to American colleges, and I got into Michigan and ended up going here. I'll be a senior next year!
3. Went to Sandwich Secondary in LaSalle.