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My weekend as a traitor by Marilyn King Somewhere in the distance, the faint sound of a cowbell being hit with a stick is heard. The familiar, rhythmic beat that is one of many stand cheers at a football game. But once the clicking is done, instead of proudly shouting, “Go State!,” I find myself announcing, “Go Blue!.” Looking around, I wonder if anyone can tell that I don’t actually belong here. I don’t actually go to U of M. But here I am, in the Big House football stadium, cheering as if they were my own team. My weekend in Ann Arbor was not that different from one at State: party, football game and friends. Only this time, the football team usually wins and the friends were ones I had not seen in months. I have been to the University
of Michigan’s
football stadium (deemed The Big House) before. My older
sister is in the marching band, so I went to a couple
games at U of M with my parents to show our support. From what I
remembered, these games were crowded, crowded, crowded. I couldn’t
see a thing. Everyone stood nearly the entire time, even in the regular
seats. As an uninterested teenager, I basically sat
in my seat until half-time when I could see the marching band, which
I really liked. This time, the game was different. The Big House was not as crowded as it usually is, due to the fact that it was about 40 degrees outside and raining like crazy. This didn’t bother me too much. After all, it rains in East Lansing every day. Not only that, but from where I was in the student section (I took my friend’s roommate’s ID and claimed it as my own so as not to pay a $27 validation charge on my ticket), I could actually see the field! What a concept. However, my U of M friends were
quick to tell everyone I was from State. Maybe I’m
imagining it, but I swear I was the target of many, many
glares. As the student section filed in, I noticed
that almost everyone was wearing maize, one of Michigan’s school
colors. In the student section at State’s football games, only
the “Corner Blitz” students
wear a matching shirt; the rest just wear some sort of Spartan shirt
or hoodie. My friend said that it is supposedly more
intimidating to the other team when all the students are in the same
color. (Maybe we should take this into consideration at the next Spartan
football game?) As far as stand cheers at U of M go, I must
say that ours are so much better. Sure, U of M does “key play” and
other basic stand cheers. But where's the originality, such as our
“First
down, bitch!” and other assorted inappropriate cheers. I laughed
to myself when one side yelled “Yellow!” and the other side
yelled “Blue!.” We
know what your school colors are, thank you. “Go Green!/Go
White!” Just seems to make much more sense to me. I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t participate in the U of M cheers. After hearing the U of M marching band performances for almost four years now, I know everything from their fight song to the cadences the band does (this weekend it was “Go Michigan, beat the Wildcats, go!”). Although our marching band is very good, I must admit I am very partial to the U of M marching band, because, really, they are something else. So in the end, U of M beat Northwestern. Surprise, surprise. I enjoyed myself at the game. I enjoyed myself in Ann Arbor. But would I consider giving up my green for a shirt of maize and blue? Never, never ,never. |
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