Rebuilding Rob

As tradition has it, today – the Saturday after America’s Thanksgiving – also marks the annual Michigan – Ohio State football game.

Fans of both schools, and even some people in the media will tell you that it is the greatest rivalry in college sports. I think they’re certainly an argument for that, though there are some schools that would say otherwise: the Army-Navy game, the Alabama-Auburn rivalry immediately come to mind. But I think the rivalry really grew to prominence, on a national level between 1969 and 1978, a period that was known by both universities as “the 10 year war“ during this time, Ohio State head coach Woody Hayes, and Michigan’s Bo Schembechler hyped this rivalry, each seemingly having utter hatred for the other school.

As a native Michigander, rooting for the University of Michigan came to me naturally. Ann Arbor is much closer to the metro Detroit area than East Lansing, the home of Michigan State University. So from a regional standpoint, it made sense that I watched more Michigan football growing up than I did Michigan State. Furthermore, Michigan has always been the more prestigious school, both academically and athletically, than Michigan State. Sorry, Spartan fans, but you know it’s true.

Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time realizes that baseball is my first sports love. It always has been and always will be. But baseball doesn’t go year round, so I’ll get into football just to pass the time. But growing up in Metro Detroit, it was difficult. For most of my life the NFL is Detroit Lions have been absolute garbage. So Sundays were depressing for two reasons as a kid: one because I knew school was starting the next day and two because I knew the lines were usually in for a good beat down.

Saturdays, however, were a different story. Growing up, I always knew that the Michigan Wolverines were going to be one of the better football teams in the Big Ten. Likewise, the Michigan – Ohio State rivalry was a big deal. Some of your Michigan would win. Some Ohio State would win. But more often than that the game, or is it’s referred to locally “The Game” would determine which team was going to win the Big Ten championship and represent the conference in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day

As student myself, I attended Eastern Michigan University, a smaller but still division one university located roughly 15 minutes from U of M‘s campus. Eastern news, historically, a teaching college. In fact that one time, eastern Michigan University to produce more teachers in any other school in the state. So the school worked out for me very well. It gave me the college downtown campus atmosphere, without being too overwhelming Like the larger schools, including Michigan and Kid 1’s very own University of Wisconsin.

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However, my experience in Ypsilanti and very much tainted my perceptions U of M. While I was in school, I worked part time at an Office Depot store in Ann Arbor. Many of our customers were either students, employees or professors at Michigan. Within the town, people often refer to the school as simply “the university“.

The customers I interacted with were very entitled about the fact that they went or worked at Michigan. In fact, they would often remind me when they were making a purchase or calling to look for an item with that “I work at the university“ as if giving me that bit of information will magically make me step-and-fetch or kowtow to them. Worse, yet there were times when our store would be out of stock on a particular item. Some university employees actually got upset and said something like “I don’t think you understand. I work at the university.“ As if we had a separate stock room for Michigan employees.

Unfortunately, this level of arrogance permeates every aspect of life at the University of Michigan. They are somewhat megalomaniacal, not unlike fans of the New York Yankees or the Dallas Cowboys. They are so self-absorbed and feel like no matter what their teams do, they are still the best.

To be clear, U-M is one of the greatest institutions of higher learning, certainly in the United States, if not the world. And their undergraduate library is absolutely unparalleled. The absolute treasure trove of knowledge and information contained therein is almost difficult to conceive.But that doesn’t excuse the arrogance

Like so many other things in life, the perception of the University of Michigan I built up as a child and my true experience interacting with U of M students and employees created a great sense of disillusionment within me. In my heart of hearts, I still root for their athletic teams. But on one level, I want to see Michigan lose. Must admit that I do want to see that massive Wolverine ego put in check every now and then. Now my childhood loyalty towards the University of Michigan is even further tested; with kid 1 attending the university of Wisconsin.

In spite of this twisted love, hate, toxic, abusive relationship I have with the university of Michigan, I still pump my chest about the fact that as of today, it has been 2191 days since the Buckeyes beat the Wolverines in college football.

But I’ve got a bad feeling that that clock is going to get reset back to zero today 

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related (and perhaps, not-so-related) posts:

• Teacher Armor and the Saturday Clearing
• The Extra Day: A Ten-Year Memory
• Of Training Wheels and Christmas Lights
• Charity Starts at Home (And I’m Back in My Childhood One)
• The Muscle of Empathy

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The article “Me and the Michigan Wolverines? It’s complicated.” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.