How did you become a Michigan fan?
then East.
like the navajos in WW II.
black dog barks at midnight.
Be sure to drink your Ovaltine.
spies. dark agents. we're watching you closely.....
My father was a Spartan, though he never talked much about college or sports, other than the occasional reference to Earl Morrall. I grew up in the early Bo era, so the Tigers, Red Wings, Pistons, Lions, and Michigan are the teams the Flint area newspaper and TV stations covered. I was hooked by the time I was 10-12 years old.
Jk. I was 9 during the 1997 season, the earliest I can remember, and I recall going insane with my brother + next door neighbor after we beat Wazzu. Few years later my dad went back to get his degree and the rest is history... My family has been blue since I can remember.
We moved to Michigan my sophomore year of high school. Of course, I rooted for Michigan over Ohio State, so it started. UofM was the best affordable school hands down. Back then, you didn't apply to endless colleges. For me, it was between Michigan and Northwestern. In '77, tuition, room & board, etc., ran about $3,500. Times have changed. I'm really glad I ended up at Michigan, although my roots aren't nearly as deep as those with multiple family members and generations who went there.
IT WAS WHEN THEY CHOOSED ADDIDAS AND GOT RIDZ OIF NIKE!!
Not really.
1980 Michigan/Ohio State was the first game I recall seeing on TV. Then the 1981 Rose Bowl.
Genetics.
I'm the first UM alum/graduate in our family, but I always remember my Dad listening to Bob Ufer in the 70's and 80's. Saturday afternoons always meant UM football on the radio. The rare TV appearances were also cherished. I was hooked for life from an early age.
I didn't go to my first game until I was 20, but it was a pretty amazing place then, too.
Actually, it still is.
I moved to Ann Arbor when I was 7. In California, everyone plays soccer on the playground. In Michigan, everyone plays football. To learn football, I followed the home team.
Remy Hamilton's field goal against Notre Dame in 1994. I was 8, and wanted to turn the game off and pout after ND took the lead with a minute to go. Dad forced me to watch until the end, and a lifelong obsession was born.
I was born and raised in Ann Arbor with 2 U of M grads as parents, so it was inevitable. However, the first time I became self aware that I was indeed going to be a Wolverine fan for life was when I was 7/8 years old. My mom was a part of the booster club for the women's basketball team on the early 90's and got me a spot as one of the permament ballboys for that team (along with my sister and coach Mattison's daughter).
This translated to also being the ballboy for a bunch of men's basketball games during the second season of the fab five. Always hanging around Crisler Arena (in the tunnel, on the court, in the locker rooms and offices), including talking to and playing around with members of the fab five, etc... (Jalen was kind of a dick, Juwan was by far the nicest) cemented my fanhood. So while football is always number one, Michigan basketball is that much more special for me personally.
Leroy Hoard.
Former Penn State family here on the east coast, dad is a Nittany lion... i was planning on going there before a michigan alum family friend suggested I look at UM... on the plane ride home from visiting Michigan i had already made up my mind, but before I told my dad he said "I can't believe I'm saying this, but that is a special place and I won't be angry when you go there" ... whole family has fallen in love with michigan and actively follow the sports even without me---- even dad when we are not playing psu. Needless to say, we will never forget his visit for "Touchdown Manningham!"
Born and raised.
all of my life. I grew up on the west side of the state, and always remenber loving Michigan. Every Saturday in the fall, my younger brother and i would plug the radio in outside, and throw the football the whole game. I have since moveed to ohio, and my fandom have become even stronger.......I told my children if they wanted to wear red, they better find a new home.
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I came to Michigan for my MBA and have always been a huge sports fan so it was pretty natural for me to add following Michigan to my repertoire. I also decided to live here after completing my MBA and thus am always surrounded by it. Just happened a bit by accident and osmosis, but now even if I move I will still be a die-hard and will ensure the kids keep singing, "The Victors".
I was a young kid and saw a highlight of AC scoring a TD. Not a 100% sure it was the Indiana game, but my memory likes to think it was. (I was 5 after all). Loved the uniforms and fight song. The obsession really took off a few years later with with the Tarpley, Grant, Joubert BB teams and subsequent football teams.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M3jVy_kJR4
I grew up (and now live) in Lansing. My cousin who played football for MSU urged me to go to Michigan to "get out of the house." It was some of the most selfless and soundest advice I ever received.
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My dad used to attend games with his father, passed it on to me. First memory of a Michigan game I can vividly remember was the 1997 Nat'l title game when I was 10 years old.
I was born into it. My dad passed his fandom onto my brother and I.
Many of my best childhood memories are of tailgating Michigan games as a little kid, throwing the football around, eating BBQ, watching my dad work scalpers until he got a deal he was satisfied with, and the anticipation of entering into the stadium.
Growing up ( in the 90s), we didn't have the internet (in my house at least) or cell phones so the only time I saw Michigan was during the actual season, if ESPN classic was showing an old Michigan game, or if my dad decided to pop in an old taped game (he recorded every Michigan game on VHS for about 20 years. He still has them all in a cabinet in his basement).
The Point: Seeing Michigan play in that first home game of the season every year was extra special. The anticipation of seeing the winged helmet and the team run out of the tunnel under the banner as a young kid was just incredible.
I think I speak for many of us when I say that Michigan football is not just about a team we root for, it's part of the very fabric of who we are. It's something that is often passed down from generation to generation between father and son. I wouldn't trade those memories for anything. When I have kids, I look forward to pass on to them my love for Michigan and the tradition will continue.
I remember reading this article in the dentist office while waiting for my exam.
http://www.si.com/vault/1989/04/17/119748/the-right-man-for-the-job-ath…
A few weeks later, UM won the national title behind Rumeal's free throws.
Was hooked ever since.
Sitting on an LZ in 1969 with some Ohio guys listening to the game on the radio, did it for me. Daughter also went to Johnson Elem. in Milford.
Telling two stories here -- me and my best friend.
Me: Decided to go to law school and was determined to get into GWU Early Decision (free ride). I didn't get the full ride, so I began applying all over, though Georgetown was my clear #1 (I've always loved D.C.). I only applied to Michigan because I received an application fee waiver.
After I got in, I went to Preview Weekend to check the place out and I simply loved it. Everybody was incredibly smart, but the attitude of the law school is "we are smart, but we aren't gonna be dicks about it." I love that "let your work speak for itself" mentality. Also, realizing that I could go to a school with a huge sports culture after I went to a smaller college was a big selling point.
I still was divided between Gtown and Michigan, but I was underwhelmed by Gtown when I visited, and I eventually chose UMich. One of the best decisions I've made.
My best friend: No connections whatsoever except for me. I convinced him to come visit for the Michigan-Indiana game where Jordan Morgan was an inch away from winning us the B1G at the last second, and he was hooked by the atmosphere. We went to the same college and he went to a non-sports law school, so it was really a matter of giving him a school with a sports culture to root for and Michigan is certainly that.
Both of my grandparents went to Michigan and my grandmother grew up in Ann Arbor. My grandfather said that with a war coming, he searched for the best engineering school he could find, and without even visiting, hopped a train from New Jersey to Ann Arbor. He ended up graduating as a naval architect and still tells me that i have to visit Michigan's towing tank. A somewhat quick funny story about how they met at Michigan:
they did not know each other when they first attended UM, but the were both part of the orchestra. My grandfather saw a girl that he wanted to ask out, so he called her one night and asked her out on a date. However, he got her number mixed up and wound up calling my grandmother instead. On the phone, my grandmother thought she was talking to someone else as well, so when they both arrived to the date, they were very surprised. the rest is history.
As to how I became a Michigan fan, since my grandparents both went there, i never really had a choice :) But i would have to say the moment that did it for me was when time was put back onto the clock against Penn State in 2005 and Michigan drove down the field at the end to win it. Simply amazing.
Earliest memory of watching American Football defintely includes hearing Keith Jackson's voice talking about The Big House/The Rose Bowl ("The grand daddy of them all"). Always loved the uniforms and fight song. I remember Butch Woolfolk and Jamie Morris; definitely recall the hit on sideline against Penn State. I remember seeing Dave Boston and Woodson pushing and shoving; Desmond doing the pose and at first thinking no way is he going to catch that wait wait is there a cha - BLOODCLAAT HIM REALLY CATCH DA SUMN DEH? Saw Steve Emtman (sp) being quite the annoyance; I recall being VERY nervous when Michigan played...Ryan Leaf and Washington State. I recall the stomach ache when Rocket Ismail ran two touchdowns back (1989?). Had moved to America and attended Bishop McNamara when a classmate was being recruited pretty heavily by OSU and Michigan; I was rooting HARD for Mark to go to Michigan. Said Lloyd Carr called while he wasn't home yet told him if he wanted to go to Michigan that he'd have been there for the phone call - so he ended up going to OSU. Ew.
but he had the grace to let me cheer for UM. For some reason very early on I dug Michigan's uniforms, and really loved the players of that era. Butch Woolfolk, Rick Leach, Stan Edwards, Bubba Paris, AC. In those days I usually had to listen to games on the radio on Saturdays. Michigan just wasn't on TV save for a couple games a year. I would live for catching a few highlights on Michigan Replay on Sundays and I would cut all of the game photos and articles out of the Sunday Detroit News and Free Press (my dad bought me both) and I would put them in an official Michigan scrapbook, which I still have buried in a box in my basement.
I don't have a memory of NOT being a Michigan fan. But mostly I can thank my Sparty father, bless his heart, who would take me to Ann Arbor to see the team I loved once or twice a year, not the one he loved. I've often told my wife that if my son was a huge Sparty fan or Buckeye fan, I don't know if I could be as gracious as my dad. Thankfully my son is 100% blue and I don't have to face that choice.
made a lasting impression on a 6-year old kid living in Winnipeg watching UM v Minnesota football.
I said to my dad, "Those are claws on those helmets!"
Then he replied (in an imagination-induced Keith Jackson drawl), "No, son, those are the winged helmets of Michigan."
Done deal.
so I was taught to love Michigan from birth. However, as you can (kind of) see in my profile pic, I met Chris Webber (along with Jalen Rose) at age 4 (and no, I'm not trying to start a Fab Five argument. I met them in the summer of 92). I've never thought about cheering for anyone else.
Grandfather got his JD at Michigan. Mother attended for 2.5 years before the money ran out. Mother really pushed me to go to Michigan. I did and I'll never regret becoming a Michigan man as opposed to attending Penn State or Boston U (two others who accepted me).
BTW...there's nothing like doing the pre-game show in the Michigan Marching Band for the first time.
I've done my best to try to convince my youngest kid to attend Michigan, but he prefers William and Mary or Virginia. Maybe grad school at Michigan?
But what the hey.
Michigan wasn't really on my radar in the beginning. But in my elementary years I met one of my best friends, who ended up going to U of M and now is a contributor to this blog, and over time M just grew on me. I had/have no family in Michigan, nor knew any alumni at that time. Now I know several in Ann Arbor, who I also now consider some of my good friends. My first football game was Purdue 2007, first hockey game was Western in 2008, and finally made it to Crisler in 2013 to see UMass-Lowell. I have been fortunate enough to do two bowl games as well (Gator Bowl 2010 season - not so good, and Sugar Bowl 2011 season - SO GOOD). Since 2007 I try to do one Michigan football game per season, and if that weekend happens to coincide with basketball or hockey, that's great, too.
I'm originally from Atlanta and graduated from Georgia Tech, so my blood is old gold and white, but the Maize and Blue is more intertwined now than it's ever been.
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I started following them in 1969 when I was in grade school. All through high school, I wanted to go to UM. I went to my first game in '73 vs. illinois and was hooked. I got in, attended from 74-78 and got my BA in 1978.
1977. Eight years old. Riding in the car with my dad and grandpa on the way to the hardware store. Listening to UM put the wood to Texas AM on the radio. The game was just background noise during the ride, but I remember Ufers stupid horn and the crowd noise. Stuck with me. And I really only put it down during a brief period when I dropped out of school.
The same St. Joes that produced among others, Desmond and Grbac. However, my father's friends were Andy Cannavino, and Al Sincich. Not too many people remember Al which is surprising to me, because the guy started at Nose Tackle and he probably weighed 210 lbs soaking wet. Tough son of a bitch.
When their friends went there because Woody told them they were too small to play in the Big Ten my father started rooting for Michigan.
That's where I got it from.
This was during the 97 national championship season. The first day he came into the classroom, everyone thought he was Charles Woodson besides me. Everyone was like "OMG Charles Woodson!" But I was like, "NO THAT'S TAI STREETS!!!!" He taught me how to read a clock.
And the rest is history.