My friend Jack is a Traitor - From Alumni Blue to Nebraska
I have met many people in my day that are UM alumni with graduate degrees from elsewhere... when push comes to shove they are UM fans through and through.
I have met many people that grew up out-of-state (or even State fans) and root for their local college team, but then attended UM and are now UM 1st - local team 2nd.
For the first time I have met an actual UM alumni who is an outright traitor.
My former friend, Jack, grew up in Lincoln to a father who is a Nebraska alumni. Huge Cornhusker fan. He went to UM and during the infamous Alamo Bowl he pulled for UM.
But now, in the aftermath of Nebraska to the Big 10, he has declared that he will be wearing Red in the Big House the first chance he gets.
Any other stories of people turning their back on UM in favor of a rival/opponent?
I don't see too much of a problem with it, if I went to a different school than M I'd do the exact opposite and root for Michigan all the time.
I know my unoffensive grammar and thought out stances may cause you to disbelieve this, but I may be starting at OSU soon. I moved down to Columbus because I had an 'in' for a bartending position at a campus club. Aside from all the shit I get being a die hard Michigan fan, it has been a pretty fun few years.
Now I have a fledgling event bartending business that has really taken off, a great house, and a wife and kid (who will either be a Michigan fan or a eunuch, his decision). Taking the gamble and moving deep into enemy territory has paid off. The only drawback is that I had to learn how to breathe solely through my mouth.
If anyone is curious, I may even get up the balls to wear a Michigan jersey to class. I'm thinking Biakabatuka? If anyone is extra curious, I'm going back to school for business and/or computer programming. While the event bartending thing is great, I see it peaking at $15,000 a year net. Not enough people get married on Tuesday nights to pay the bills...
"Michigan fan or a eunuch, his decision"
Words to live by.
Biakabatuka is an excellent choice but I'd support a Desmond jersey for use in Columbus.
Desmond and Biakabutuka both wore #21.
What is the name of the business/bar? I want to make sure I patronize my own kind.
My business is called Ohio Event Bartending. I don't own a bar (yet...) so it's just weddings, company events, and private parties. In between events I moonlight at a bar called Lucky's in Marysville. Every once in a blue moon I'll be down at Frog Bear, I tend to stay away though because their bartenders don't make shit anymore. I've also bartended or managed at Skye Bar and Old Bag of Nails. The best place I can recommend for Michigan support is Signatures in Gahanna. The owner (or former owner, I'm not sure) is a Michigan alum. I knew a few people who worked up there. It's worth giving them your business. Frog Bear had a cool thing going for a while, it was the official away team tailgating destination for all home OSU games. The bar would be 60/40 or 70/30 for the Buckeyes on most games, but it was really cool hearing different sides of the bar talk smack after trading touchdowns...
...in cases like this. Once we start winning with regularity and he hears the fight song played repeatedly touchdown after touchdown, my quarter says he'll be back in blue.
The Blue is back. Resistance is futile.
There's a girl I know who grew up an Ohio State fan and didn't give it up even though she goes to Michigan.
She is completely shunned and ignored for one day a year.
..365?
I understand Jack's plight. I respect people who can't bring themselves to root against their true team, regardless of where the tuition checks go.
Nevertheless, may he suffer the indignities of many losses to his intra-conference rival.
she just graduated from grad school from UFlorida. She said the tailgates were better (with gator meat), fans were more into football, not to mention that they had a better team. She met Tim Tebow and said he was the nicest guy ever. She said she's asked all the time which team she would cheer for if UM played UF and she says Florida every time.
Hard to respect a person like that.
See username.
changed her mind based on aesthetics?
For an alum to do this? Inconcievable.
I know alums on the faculty at tOSU who still wear the maize and blue to class.
Moe is puzzled.
grew up as a huge Wisconsin fan, and maintained this throughout his entire time at Michigan.
If I had gone elsewhere, there's no chance that I would have abandoned Michigan as my #1 team.
For the first time I have met an actual UM alumni
Are there two of him?
...and more to the point: English
The kind of logic that leads to the OP is the same logic that leads to "YOU HAVE TO BE AN ALUM TO BE A FAN" style posts. College affiliation has absolutely nothing to do with rooting interest.
While many people stay true to their first love in a college even if they don't attend it and it doesn't trouble me at all because I would have stayed a michigan fan even if i didnt attend the school ...
To say college affilation has nothing to do with rooting intrest is also incredibly wrong. Many die hard Michigan fans were not fans before they can to the university. This is espically true of the east coast kids who came here because the either A. didn't get into the ivy they wanted to get into or B. chose Michigan because they wanted a great acedmic school with the balance of the great lifestyle and sports. These kids rarely are fans of Michigan until they are here, but when they get here they become die hards.
Further example. One of my buddies who is a basketball fanatic is from utah. He grew up in slc with utah as his team. When he got to campus last year, he converted to be a Michigan first fan and cheered for umich when we played utah in basketball (don't scoff at it being a mwc team cause after all in the last 2 yrs they have beat us in the 2 money sports)
Of course it was a generalization on my part, but the point needs to be made: Any idea that your rooting interests MUST be determined by where you were educated is flawed.
I'd ever heard was from the daughter of a college coach. Met her at an alumni sports bar for a Michigan bowl game. She and her date had to leave a bit early to go the OSU alumni bar for their bowl game. Her dad had been a coach at MSU, but moved on to Michigan just in time for her to enroll (and graduate) and, naturally, become a fan. But now her Dad was coaching at tOSU and she had to root for them too. However, she did confess that she'd gone to games in Columbus, where her young sister was enrolled, and confirmed my impression that OSU fans are much ruder than ours.
[This is obviously confidential, so don't do too much historical research and figure out who her dad is, or somebody's going to be in trouble and/or disowned. Not that I know if he's still there...]
This split isn't as unusual as it sounds. Given the large number of Michigan alums and fans in Ohio, it's quite a frequent occurrence to have close friends or relatives with a connection to OSU. You see a lot of "cheer for OSU 11 weeks out of the year" Michigan fandom as a result.
I have friends at from my undergrad Purdue who call me a traitor for rooting for Michigan. I was a raised a Michigan fan. I chose to attend to save my parents money (scholarship) while attending a great engineering and science school. I ended up at Michigan anyways for grad school. I will root for Purdue except when they play Michigan. However, Hope is making question that personal fandom rule...I hope Rich Rod crushes him this fall.
If you want a good story of mixed allegiances, talk to Travis Turnbull's younger sister. She is a Purdue alum.
If people couldn't change loyalties like this, Ohio State alumnus Bo Schembechler never would have been our head coach.
Still, going to Michigan but being a bigger fan of another school is pretty weird.
Everyone mentions Bo to make this point, but Gary Moeller's an even better one. Bo only went to OSU for grad school. Mo played at OSU and was the team captain his senior year.
You could throw our current coach into the conversation as well.
I was particularly excited to see them join the conference. I lived in Lincoln for 10 years and saw them each Saturday in their glory in the 90s. I was a Husker fan first, but years later moved to Michigan and then attend UofM. Today I am a loyal Michigan fan and now have a club seat. But I would cheer for Nebraska in any game - but against Michigan. And do get upset when they lose...though not as mad as when Michigan loses....
and why?