Would you still be a fan if...

Submitted by canzior on

You knew Michigan was never going to win a title in your lifetime? I have a few friends here in the DC area who are Cubs fans, and I am admittedly a fair-weather Pistons fan, and much more of a Red Wings fan than a hockey fan. I don't know that I've ever watched a hockey game the Wings weren't playing in. I stop watching once their championship hopes are dashed. 

Every year there is a hope that your team will win, and if not this year, you hope they build for the future. But if you knew, right now that Michigan (God forbid) or any team that you root for would not win a title before you died...would it affect your fanhood? Would you care a little less?  

BlueInWisconsin

July 29th, 2017 at 1:26 PM ^

Only the ultimate front runner fan would say that winning a championship has anything to do with it. Either you are a fan or you're not. You love it or you don't. I've always hated the pathetic "walmart wolverine" monicker that Sparty throws around. But if you say that without championships you aren't a fan then guess what... you are one.

jmblue

July 29th, 2017 at 1:31 PM ^

Do Big Ten titles not count under your definition of "title"?  If not, I'm curious what you think of Bo Schembechler...

Wolverine 73

July 29th, 2017 at 1:40 PM ^

You wouldn't care if we beat OSU and MSU? ND? Other rivals? If we won the Big Ten? Those things don't matter? Or get you excited? There is plenty of joy to be derived from college football even without a NC trophy.

grumbler

July 30th, 2017 at 12:41 AM ^

I'd go further in old codgerdom and say that I'd like the B10 and Pac12 to say "fuck it" to the playoffs and just send their champions to the Rose Bowl.  Then we'd never win a national championship, and I'd be delighted.

Yeoman

July 29th, 2017 at 1:51 PM ^

I am now reasonably certain there will never be a World Series; at this point there's nothing left but a couple of HOF inaugurations and the occasional ESPN Classic replay of that awful Rick Monday home run in '81...but I'm still a fan.

Changing allegiances just because of poor performance is something I don't understand.

Yeoman

July 30th, 2017 at 7:10 PM ^

But the last 18 months or so I've started to think you might be right. Sometime around that MLB network documentary last year I felt the tide starting to turn.

Even if it happens, it means a new expansion team when I'm 65 or so. It took ten years last time to build a truly competitive team, and that was with everything going right in the front office. I'd be 75; I wouldn't have much time left. Not that I would complain. (This of course assumes it's not an existing team that moves--there'd be some cosmic justice if it were Miami.)

And those busloads of fans coming down from Montreal for Raines today (not to mention one last chance to give the finger to Bud Selig), 13 years after the team ceased to be...what could possibly be a better answer to the O.P.?

maquih

July 29th, 2017 at 2:04 PM ^

I personally couldn't care less about the mnc. It's a bunch of voter bullshit that has no guarantee of actually putting the best teams against each other. Now the conference title I do care about, it's purely based on results on the field. Most importantly it usually involves beating ohio. Either way, I would gladly forfeit the conference title for the next hundred years if it meant we beat ohio guaranteed.

Vengeful Barbarian

July 29th, 2017 at 2:55 PM ^

if I knew for sure that Michigan, with Harbaugh as coach, would not win a championship in my lifetime I'd go to the doctor asap and get my health thoroughly evaluated, because that would mean I was about to die very soo.

fksljj

July 29th, 2017 at 2:56 PM ^

I will always love this team whether they go 0-12 or 15-0. The lions have never won a Superbowl. As much as they frustrate me, to the point of even talking shit about them, they are still my team.

UM Griff

July 29th, 2017 at 2:58 PM ^

My love for Michigan has outlasted divorce, major career upheavals, and other hobbies that have come and gone. It is in the blood.

Macenblu

July 29th, 2017 at 3:16 PM ^

Steven Threet, Nick Sheridan, and Justin Feagin quarterbacked our team for a year and I still drove 9 hours to come to the home games. I think that pretty much says it all

the Glove

July 29th, 2017 at 3:30 PM ^

It wouldn't. It would be a shame though to only be rooting for big 10 titles but it's been a hell of a long time since we had one of those either.

mgobleu

July 29th, 2017 at 3:40 PM ^

I went all the way across the country just to watch Dwayne Jarrett and John David Booty torch us, I sat through The Horror©, the field goal fiasco (aka, V. Toledo 2008), tried (and failed) to warn the M defense in 2010 that Wisconsin was running the same play over and over and over (they never did stop it)... My soul dong has been sufficiently beaten and battered over the years, yet I check this damn website multiple times DAILY, even in the dog days of OT just for any tidbits of info... I think you're asking the wrong people.

mickblue

July 29th, 2017 at 3:55 PM ^

Has always been an important part of my life and always will be. No matter what. In fact there have tough been times in my life when all I really had to lift me up were fall Saturdays with Big Blue home and away.

cali4444

July 29th, 2017 at 4:36 PM ^

than the destination."  We've got the perfect coach for our university, a guy who develops talent and uses his resources to his advantage. Its all I can ask for.  I'm going to enjoy this journey and if it doesn't lead to a title, then so be it.  Because of this staff, I'd remain a huge fan even if I knew a natty wouldn't be accomplished,   

Zoltanrules

July 29th, 2017 at 6:55 PM ^

Have been a diehard UM fan since 1969. Football didn't win a title for 28 years, basketball was "only" 20 years. 

Hell beat Ohio State and MSU I'll be totally happy.

MGoblu8

July 29th, 2017 at 7:00 PM ^

Yep, I would. I love the Lions (though I wonder if they purposely make it hard sometimes) and I love the Ohio Bobcats. Whether or not they win championships doesn't really change that, but I am genuinely disappointed when the Lions flame out every year.

deejaydan

July 29th, 2017 at 8:00 PM ^

About the only thing that would cause me to lose my fandom is if similar things happened at Penn State with Sandusky and if they hired someone that did with Hugh Freeze did... I've always appreciated Michigan as a school/team that did things right.  I'll also add the Tressel firing.. the team needs to do things the right way.  That's the way Michigan has always been, and always should be.

 

Durham Blue

July 29th, 2017 at 9:57 PM ^

100% yes.  I love my alma mater.  I spent four of the best years of my life there.  I will be pushing hard for my daughter to go there when she is looking into colleges.  She is only 6 weeks old so I have a lot of time to convince her.  Go Blue until the day I die.

UM Fan from Sydney

July 29th, 2017 at 10:15 PM ^

I will always watch Michigan football games. After watching every single RR and Hoke game, I think my allegiance is proven.

MaizeMN

July 29th, 2017 at 11:41 PM ^

I will always be a fan. And even in the years that we don't win it all, there are many reasons to root for and be proud of our fellow Wolverines.

Also, since '97 exists, it's a moot point for me.

uminks

July 30th, 2017 at 8:01 AM ^

Just like Bo turning our program around from some lousy seasons in the late 50s and 60s, Harbaugh will turn us back into national title contenders. I do believe he will win a national championship within the next 5 years. I hope he stays as our coach until he's 70 and does not try the NFL again.  Even if he does go NFL in 5 to 10 years he will have turned our program around and will pick a good successor.

But yes, I would still be a big Michigan fan if for some reason our program goes of the rails. Even if I was not an alum, I would still be die hard maize and blue.