Now that I bleed Green and White, I would like to see Michigan's basketball program stay down forever. Hopefully this year was an abberration. I hope that Brady Hoke can bring their football program back to a respectable level; only so it can make our victories over them more meaningful. And so they can stop the production of Ohio State's "Golden Pants". I am taking this chance, however, to admit that their hockey team is my "1B" favorite. Don't get me wrong, my hockey loyalties still lie with Michigan State. The embarrassing loss to U-M in the 2nd Cold War still stings. I hope that the new coach can return the program to respectability, which includes making the NCAA tournament regularly. But I recorded Saturday's National Championship game so I wouldn't miss the chance to root for U-M. Here's my best excuses as to why my fandom is excusable.
1. One of my most memorable, vivid childhood dreams involved me playing in a hockey game for U-M. Which is odd, because I hadn't played hockey at the time. I could hear the crunch of my ice under the blades as I skated quickly down the ice for a breakaway.
2. Yost Ice Arena is the best sporting venue that I've ever been to. It has an older, traditional field house feel to it. The acoustics play well and make it a loud environment (you can hear the band playing before you go in the arena. I even used to have a framed panoramic photo of the arena hanging in my parent's basement.
3. They have won 9 NCAA Championships, the most of any team, and never experience the type of "down years" that their football and basketball teams have faced. They have the most NCAA Tournament appearances and Frozen Four appearances of any team.
4. Red Berenson is still coaching. He's in his 70s, and I don't think he looks any different than the day that I went to my first U-M hockey game.
5. The fans are ten thousand times better than the fans at Munn. I recall debates when we were in college whether or not MSU's student section and pep band should sit down or be placed in a different spot so the other fans could see. The typical MSU hockey fans are grandparents taking their little children. The student section was miniscule (I recognize that I am being somewhat hypocritical since I never bought student tickets when I was in college). U-M, however, has a very large student following who were very much in tune with college hockey. I still recall that they were particularly spiteful to a referee named Shegos. And their traditional taunts can be easily recognized at any game. (Side note: I obviously do not enjoy the "If you can't get in to college, go to State" chant, but recognize the truthiness behind that chant since I did not get in to U-M and did indeed go to State).
6. They've got great hockey jerseys. The name "Michigan" stretching diagnonally down the front is my favorite - that style is not used often enough in hockey. Heck, I even like the retro jerseys that they introduced this year.
7. My final, and best excuse, is that my dad took me to a few hockey games every season. I went to a handful of U-M football games, and one less than memorable basketball game, but I really enjoyed going with him to hockey. The most memorable one was one when we got center ice, front row tickets online (it turned out that the person who sold them to the website had stolen them from someone else, but the real owner let us watch the game from her seats because I was 14 at the time). A few years later, when I was looking at the panoramic photo that I mentioned before, I paid closer attention to it and realized that it was taken of that game where we had front row seats. I looked closer and saw our coats right there in front.
As I said before, I hope that MSU's new coach can return the team to greatness and keep it there. But until that happens, I will live vicariously through U-M hockey.
3 comments:
I've been to one game at Yost (when I was a Michigan fan) and one game at Munn (when I was a State fan). Yost was way more fun.
I almost always root for the Big 10 in any post season, so I was rooting for Michigan in the Championship game. But any other time, I'm probably rooting against them.
I'm fine with you rooting for Michigan as long as Michigan State is number one. That's all that matters.
Did you by chance get the "Milestones" video link emailed to you in a message from Simon? I kinda like it.
If not, here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTnZgfpT6M0
I hadn't seen it until now. That's pretty good. I was surprised to learn about the Brody Hall renovation and Wells Hall addition. But they both make sense. OSU has had at least 3-4 construction projects going on at the same time. That's what that football money can do for a University.
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