University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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A STADI BY CORTNEY DUEWEKE Hoards of people - stu- dents, alumni and visitors - lined the streets in their journey to the stadium, dressed from head to toe in maize and blue Michi- gan garb. Scalpers paced in front of the Union and clustered on State Street, while children and adults packed into Michigan Sta- dium to be part of one of the largest crowds in the country on that day. The contagious crackle of ex- citement throughout Ann Arbor on a football Satur- day was obvious even to newcomers. Football was a deep- rooted tradition in Ann Arbor, and became a word that was inextricably linked with the University ' s name. Many believed that no other college in the coun- try had the fortunate bal- ance of exceptional aca- demics and athletics that the University had. We have the best foot- ball team in the country, said Andrew Sigman, a re- cent economics graduate. Around the community, you can see that everyone ' s excited. I still go to every football game; I don ' tthink I ' ve missed a game the whole time I ' ve been here. Sigman said he no longer had a set football Saturday schedule, as many people did, but noted that the long trek to the stadium from North Cam- pus was formerly part of his usual routine. We had to ride the bus and walk, he explained. I was usu- ally ready to go to sleep by r g y Catching a football, two students partici- pate in tradition before a football game. For many fans, football Saturdays were filled with their own aspirations of athletic stardom; students played impromptu games across campus before the game at Michigan Stadium. photo by Mike Cutri the time I got there, but then I gotall excited again. University alumnus Kurt Muendelein, Jr. .graduated in 1964 and had attended nearly 70 University foot- ball games since his fresh- man year. There ' s a cer- tain mystique about being in the Big House with over 100,000 people, he said. CONTINUE: Although he claimed that ON PAGE 2: he never really did much before the games when he was a student, 34 years later he began coming to Ann Arbor hours in ad- STORY Michigan Life 21

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At the Bagel Factory, juniors Mark Vruginovich, Nate Provost, Sarah Huggett, and Will Hyunh grab a bite to eat before the game. Most fans ate something before going to the stadium to avoid paying a lot for lunch, photo by Mike Cutri vance to take his daughter, an LSAjunior, out to lunch. STORY Industrial and opera- CONTINUED tions engineering junior FROM PAGE 21 Brian Burstein was very su- perstitious about the games. In ' 97 when we won the National Champi- onship I taped every game on a new tape, hoping somehow it would con- tinue the undefeated sea- son, he admitted. If we lose a game, I refuse to wear whatever I wore that day to the next game. I came to this school A STADI for the football tickets, he said bluntly. I love Michigan football! closer to all these strang- But not everyone was ers, he said. And it ' s cold as enthusiastic about the outside, and sometimes it subject. I don ' t go to the rains. football games, said Nomatterwhatattitude Adam Barker, a junior film one had toward football, major. I ' d much rather sit the current of energy that and watch them in the ran through Ann Arbor on comfort of my house, in- football Saturdays was un- stead of being stuffed in deniable. Whether stu- with 15 million other dents attended these people. games only during college Every year it seems or for many years beyond, they paint the seats closer the spirit and excitement together, so you ' re getting they evoked in the com- munity overflowed beyond just the physical bounds of Michigan Stadium. UM OF energy 22 Football Saturdays Gathering momentum, the crowd heads toward Michigan Stadium. Gradually, more and more fans joined the crowd processing down State and Hoover Streets. photo by Mike Cutri