What's Your Most Unlikely/Surprising Rival Trash Talk Story?
As many Michigan fans prepare to descend upon Bloomington for our game this Saturday I couldn’t help but recall a very unlikely/surprising experience at a Michigan football game in Bloomington a few years ago. I don’t recall the exact number, but I think I’ve now been to 20-25 Michigan neutral/road games in my life. But my very first one was at IU on October 4th, 1997. Our senior year a few of us knew even after only 3 games that we had a very special season unfolding so we just decided last minute to head down to Bloomington for the game.
None of us had been to a Michigan away game so I think we were all quite unprepared for what we saw/experienced. For one thing we were very good that year, but more importantly we were playing INDIANA, in FOOTBALL. This was really the first time I experienced the ever-present Michigan hate outside the friendly confines of our great state.
So here are my three most unlikely/surprising rival trash talk stories. I look forward to hearing about yours. (WARNING – name drop coming up)
1. October 4th 1997 (Bloomington, IN) – A few of us crashed at my HS buddy’s house in the IU student ghetto. We get up, throw on our Michigan gear, drink a beer or three, then head out. I remember thinking that we were going to kick their ass and it would be a very non-confrontational experience in every way. Our guards were certainly down. Nope, from the moment we hit the street we were fielding f-bombs from nearly everyone that we encountered, probably even Jared Fogle come to think of it. Some houses actually had “Fuck Michigan” signs in their front yards. We could not believe it, just kept looking at each other and laughing at our first experience of road Michigan hate. That hate fueled our football team apparently as we won that day 37-0.
2. December 2005 (Manhattan Beach, CA) – I was out having a beer with a buddy of mine (MSU fan). Four sit down at the table next to us. After a few minutes we realize the girl sitting closest to me is Tara Reid, so naturally I start chatting her up. This is a portion of how that went:
Her: “So where are you from?”
Me: “Michigan originally.”
Her: “Fuck Michigan.”
I certainly didn’t see that coming. Turns out most of her family, including her brother that I’m still friends with after that night, went to OSU.
3. July 2012 (Charles de Galle airport, Paris) – I was flying back from a two week business trip tired, hungover, gross, etc. I was wearing my block M hat per usual. Standing in the security line I hear some guy behind me say something to the effect that ‘Michigan sucks and Brady Hoke sucks’. I turn around and it’s some guy wearing an OSU hat. There’s nothing more to this story, but that was the last time and place I thought I’d have to put up with a cooler-pooping truck driver.
Look forward to hearing your similar stories, Fuck Indiana, and Go Blue!
November 11th, 2015 at 12:48 PM ^
and assume you didn't hook up with Tara after that?
November 11th, 2015 at 1:18 PM ^
I did not. We all ended up going out pretty hard that night. At one point some random guy walked by and tried to take a picture of her "whale tail". Her brother tried to chase the guy down. Tough job sometimes, being her brother.
November 11th, 2015 at 12:53 PM ^
going from Detroit to North Carolina through Ohio via US 23. We're listening to the Michigan-Ohio State game. This was back in 2011 when we last beat them. I was driving my minivan with the M Go Blue stickers through Ohio. Just after we scored a touchdown, I'm at a light and we start celebrating. My then 9 year old daughter notice the people behind us flipping us off. We wave to them. The light turns green and we start to go, they pass us, honking and flipping. We wave again. We wind up in front of them in the right lane (they were in the left lane) at the next light, right as the touchdown is reversed by the review. To which they pass us laughing at us and flipping us off some more.
It was the first time my kids had seen the heated part of the rivalry up close. We lauged about it for a couple hours especially after the win. Good times.
November 11th, 2015 at 12:54 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 3:19 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 5:54 PM ^
Went to Bloomington for a UVA-IU game a few years back. No problems at all, except for the note left on my UVA-bedecked car that said "hokeys suck." [Sic.] I still don't know whether the guy was a several-levels dumbass who is bad at trash talk, or showing support in a weird way. The first, probably, but it was such bad trash talk that it was pretty ambiguous.
November 11th, 2015 at 6:22 PM ^
I'm going to go on a limb and say the hokey mistake is one of "staee" level stupidity.
November 11th, 2015 at 12:54 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 12:55 PM ^
michigan/osu game... my dad and i are walking to the golf course to meet up with his friends and this very drunk female osu fan runs up to me and yells at me "spell it", i say spell what? she yells back "ohio" i tell her to fuck off and me and my dad keep walking to the golf course...
fast forward to game time... we get to our seats in section 6, everyone that sits around us has been sitting there for over 20 years so we all know each other quite well... well one couple couldn't make it to the game so they gave their tickets to their daughter and she didn't want to go so she sold them to a scalper... scalper sells them to osu fans... so when we get to the seats the wife is the only one there, she was a very nice person. her husband comes back and starts acting like a douche from the get go and tells everyone sitting around us "are you ready for the ass kicking of your life today???"... my dads buddy looks at him and says "you can root for your team all you want, but as soon as you start acting like an asshole i'm going to kick your ass"... game starts and osu scores the first TD of the game and the douche fulls out his ohio state flag and starts waving it around... it was promptly removed from his hands by my dads buddy again... well as the game goes on tim starts doing his thing on the field and now the wife starts getting PISSED and swearing like a trucker about everything going on...
game is over michigan wins again (loved those cooper years) and my dad is talking to the osu couple and found out that the wife was getting pissed bcause they had already bought and paid for their trip to the rose bowl even though osu still needed to beat michigan and they thought there was no way osu would lose that game...
November 11th, 2015 at 3:20 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 3:59 PM ^
though it was so long ago i remember it like it was yesterday... the first game of the 96 season my dad was giving the couple who gave their tickets to their daughter a hard time about it... i think they were actually pissed at their daughter after that because i never saw her at another game...
November 11th, 2015 at 12:59 PM ^
Iowa fan from this past weekend when I was visiting in chicago. I just heard a voice come from behind say "Jake Rudock!". Of course thinking it was a Michigan fan I turned around to give a smile and the a-hole points to his Iowa shirt, clearly mocking Rudock. Makes me want to get a shot at Iowa in the B1G championship. Probably not the worst but most recent.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:00 PM ^
So I have traveled to a variety of away stadiums over the years with minimal incidents. But in college I was in the MMB and had a couple of stories that fit this narrative. As most MMB members will tell you, after the football team retreats to the locker room the band is left in the midst of enemy territory clad from head to toe in Michigan colors. Thus the MMB gets to experience the drunk and rowdy fans ire after the game.
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I think it was 1995 when the MMB actually went to a Northwestern road game. This was the era when they had those two amazing years and they beat Michigan in a close game. The behavior of this old, rich, suburban "fans" of Northwestern was more rude to us after they stormed the field than even what I saw in three trips to OSU. Screaming profanities in the face of 20-year old band members apparently was the way they celebrated their victory. I chalked it up to the fact that they hadn't won in decades.
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My first trip to Ohio State was in 1994. We were planning to send the Fanfare Band from where our buses were located to an alumni tailgate on the other side of the stadium. They had provided us a State Police escort of a couple of armed officers. They told our director that they could not ensure our safety walking through the parking lot and therefore we couldn't perform. It was scary.
- I think it was on my second trip to OSU in 1996 (though I'm sure the message board will correct me if it wasn't) went much better....until the trip home. We had won the game and while leaving Columbus a State Police car proceeded to pull over 4 of our 7 MMB buses for speeding. Our driver found this funny since the buses had regulators on them that prevented them from going more than 70.
November 11th, 2015 at 3:53 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 1:01 PM ^
vs. Ohio State.
Went on a bus trip from Toledo for the Rockets game against OSU. This was Toledo before they were legitimately any good...I mean, the QB tried to take the opening snap from the GUARD FFS.
Still, cooler poopers were in force yelling at those in Blue and Gold, and one group of "cool dudes" poured beer on a fellow fan outside the stadium. I mean, pick your battles, people!
Oh, and FUCK OHIO STATE (If that wasn't implied here).
November 11th, 2015 at 1:01 PM ^
I was in Seattle Airport wearing my ever-present Michigan sweatshirt when an OSU fan in his red sweatshirt sat down beside me.. I asked if he had found that sweatshirt at a thrift shop or something.. Of course, this was before Macklemore made thrift shops cool..
November 11th, 2015 at 1:04 PM ^
Jogging through my parent's retirement community in NC with a Michigan shirt on. 80 year old leans out his car window to yell Michigan sucks at me.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:07 PM ^
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November 11th, 2015 at 1:23 PM ^
...was gaining valuable experience for his future career, doing the exact same thing.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:18 PM ^
At church in high school when the pastor made a comment about going up to vacation to Michigan. A couple people in the congregation let out some sarcastic boos and several people laughed. A few others jokingly grumbled something about "typical Ohio State fan..." to which one man replied "there is nothing wrong with the Buckeyes!"
Finally, my pastor chimed in and said "other than the fact it's a worthless nut."
November 11th, 2015 at 1:19 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 1:21 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 1:21 PM ^
I was at Hong Kong airport, flight got delayed from rain and I had just graduated a few months back, was wearing a Michigan alumni shirt and I think I had a Michigan tag or something on my bag. An elderly guy walks up to me, easily in his late 60's to 70's and just told me to "Fuck off" and "Go Buckeyes". Shows you that the rivalry is everywhere.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:23 PM ^
Ohio State just kicked Penn State's ass, this was expected. A husband/wife and their 2 young sons were just trying to walk back to their car after the game. The kids couldn't have been more than older than 7-8.
One kid walked from his porch, and walked backwards in front of them for 3 or 4 houses and just told them to go fuck themselves repeatedly. Finally we walked up and told him to stop, I was just disgusted.
Trust me, I know Penn State fans have just as much filth in their fan base, but these people were just trying to walk back to their car.
Runner up- my buddy went to Notre Dame and went to the sugar bowl against Ohio State. Ohio State fans were wearing t-shirts that said, "FUCK JESUS" on the front.
November 11th, 2015 at 3:23 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 1:22 PM ^
Actually, one of the more surprising incidents in my life came just about a week or so ago when I was finally taking down the Halloween decorations from the front yards and replacing them with the Thanksgiving stuff per orders from my better half.
It's warm-ish, so I am out there in a Michigan shirt and ahtletic shorts, minding my own business and clipping out that wound cotton crap they sell so you can make webs in the trees, when I hear this "Fuck Michigan!" in a squeaky middle-school voice. I look down from the stepladder and it is indeed a 12-ish year-old old kid in Spartan gear, standing about ten feet from me.
Because I honestly don't trust the judgment of everyone on my street, I just go back to what I was doing, and this kid honestly stood there for a minute or so seeming to want a reply. He left, but yikes, he's talking to someone over three times his own age like that. More sad than anything.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:27 PM ^
probably already got denied admission....
November 11th, 2015 at 1:45 PM ^
To fifth grade.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:47 PM ^
exactly
November 11th, 2015 at 1:28 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 1:29 PM ^
Earlier this year I went to the Lions/Chargers game in SD. I wore my Lions t-shirt and Bo hat. I rode the trolley back with a few 40-year-old wasted Lions/Sparty fans who could not stop talking about how "Caldwell is Brady Hoke" and how "the Big House is a dump." I tuned them out after about 5 minutes but they could not stop talking about how "Harbaugh might win in 10 years after he gets all his recruits in lol."
They were almost as obsessed with Michigan as I am. It was impressive.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:41 PM ^
At the Gophers game two weeks ago. Dressed as Harbaugh for Halloween I went up to use the restroom during a timeout. While in line I got shouldered by someone walking out of the bathroom and they said "Scoreboard." I couldn't help but laugh at them. It was 3-0, halfway through the first quarter.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:44 PM ^
IU and Illinois were the most surprising. I was at the Denard game where we out scored them and nobody played defense. That Friday night as soon as we were on campus we had a teenager yell "Fuck Michigan!" as we walked by. Totally unprovoked. We were clearly late 30s-early 40s. I would have never had the nerve to yell at adults when I was that age.
Several years earlier I went to a game at Illinois and random fans yelled at us there too. This was probably 2000? The year before they beat us in Ann Arbor on a last second FG. Well at this game in Champagne they were selling t-shirts commemorating the last second win over us from 12 months before. I was blown away. This was my first away game experience (other than MSU)
Penn State, Notre Dame and Iowa were the nicest by far.
Purdue and Northwestern: eh
Wisconsin was not as brutal as I was expecting.
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November 11th, 2015 at 1:51 PM ^
A while back I went to a bowl game between Purdue and Maryland. My brother's a Purdue grad so I packed all Purdue gear and duly looked the part of a Purdue fan. UVA and Maryland fans don't get along but I figured, what the heck, these teams don't know each other from Adam, it's a bowl game, everyone's in a good mood, things will be just peachy. Boy was I wrong. Every Terp fan we met had some shit to say. Nearby our seats was a group of 50s-ish Maryland alums who spent the whole game talking loudly and passive-aggressively about how shitty Purdue was, the Big Ten was, etc. etc. They liked to stare our way until we glanced their direction, look back, and then pipe up loudly as if they were just talking to each other all along.
I'd always figured bad experiences with Maryland fans were just because of the rivalry with UVA, but nah, they appear to be just plain assholes. My brother now thinks so too.
On the other hand, my mom has always insisted the worst fans in the land are Arkansas fans (she's a Texas alum) and there were some Arkansas fans behind us in putt-putt golf and they were the funnest people we met on the whole trip. We weren't playing them, though, so there's that.
November 11th, 2015 at 6:30 PM ^
Maryland fans are trash. I've been to a bunch of Maryland football games, which they invariably lost, and all kinds of stuff was being thrown on the field. I was a neutral at all these games, and so I avoided any nonsense, but it was disturbing to see the behavior.
My niece went on an official recruiting visit at Maryland for lacrosse, and my mother and I were able to accompany my sister and niece to the men's basketball game against UNC that day. Despicable behavior there too. So glad my niece went to Duke. (*chortle*)
November 11th, 2015 at 1:51 PM ^
My family and I lived in Saudi Arabia and I was about 16 catching a flight from Jeddah to Rome. We finally board at 4 am and as I am getting on the plane and groggy, a guy walks up and says in a rather quiet tone: "The last thing I expected on a flight from Nairobi to Rome with a stop in Jeddah is a kid to get on the plane with a Michigan hat. Go Bucks."
I will always remember that story and just love how it proves that no matter where you go in the world, the liklihood of hearing someone say "Go Blue" or acknowledging the greatest rivaly in college sports is pretty high.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:59 PM ^
First road game that I experienced. It rained all day and we won a close, ugly game. A friend was in grad school at Northwestern and was able to get student tickets for our group. So we are sitting amongst NW undergrads who are the biggest group of brats I've ever been around. They weren't talking smack about Michigan really, but just acting like a bunch of snobs. One of my friends had a disposable camera which were commonly used at the time (and it was raining). I remember a NW kid yells something to the effect of "what you can't afford a real camera?" They also knew nothing about football so they had nothing to say about the actual game.
After that experience, beating Northwestern is third priority to me in conference play, after OSU and MSU.
November 11th, 2015 at 2:11 PM ^
Oooh, that camera burn was a real zinger! Reminds me of the time an ND fan at the 2004 road game told me once to "read the rulebook, oh that's right, you went to a PUBLIC school". Love how nearly every Michigan major is ranked higher than ND and they think they are more intelligent than us somehow because they only let in about 100 catholics + 200 athletes every year.
November 11th, 2015 at 2:50 PM ^
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November 11th, 2015 at 3:06 PM ^
I went to the MD game this year. Most of the fans were fine. One guy who came to the game made snarky comments the few times MD gained yards or stopped UM. "Michigan can't even stop Maryland's quarterback, how are they going to stop Cardale!" "Michigan is going to need to score more to beat OSU."
He was a low quality undercover OSU fan wearing MD gear. He left late in the 3rd, quietly.
November 11th, 2015 at 3:11 PM ^
(Warning: location name drop coming) (Warning: major cool story bro coming)
November 11th, 2015 at 3:14 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 3:38 PM ^
I was eating and drinking at a mexican resturant in Austin, TX one evening with a friend. I got absolutley hammered. I was wearing my Michigan hat that night. It was late, I was drunk, and headed to the restroom to take a road piss. I walked into a stall to piss, looked down at the feet in flip flops standing in front of the urnal next to me, thought they were my buddies feet, and started pissing all over them. Apparently those feet were in the middle of a piss themselves so all they could do was dance and yell stop. I kept pissing.... Once I was finished I exited the stall to find an OSU fan (as observed by his hat) fuming at me. He threatend to kick my ass. I laughed in his face, left the restroom, and told my buddy we should leave now......
This memory always puts a smile on my face....thanks for asking!!
November 11th, 2015 at 3:38 PM ^
The summer after my freshman year at UM I was driving to a community college for a summer class (Calc II). I get off the highway and I stop at the off-ramp red light with my window down.
A guy walks up to me and hands out a flyer for some seasfood restaurant.
He sees my Michigan hat and says, "Michigan huh? How about that App State game? Haha, I went to MSU so I have to give you some shit."
I give him a friendly chuckle and continue on my way when the light turns green, leaving him to his business.
November 11th, 2015 at 3:46 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 4:24 PM ^
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November 11th, 2015 at 6:13 PM ^
My story is also from Notre Dame 1998 so I'll just put it here.
A friend and I decide to drive down to South Bend for the game. We didn't have tickets but the friend knew someone that lived near their stadium. We figured we'd hit the tailgates and see about scalping. Nothing was in our price range, which wasn't very high at the time, so we hit a local bar.
The game was a mess. Michigan out possessed and out gained the Irish but ended up losing 36-20. Circumstances called for lots of drinking and we obliged.
Story 1: At one point during the game, I was taking a leak and some random ND fan starting chatting me up.... asked me if I played basketball (#1 opening small talk remark when talking to someone tall). I decided to have some fun with him and told him that I played for ND. I was 24 at the time so certainly didn't look like a freshman, plus I was wearing Michigan fan gear, so I told him I was a transfer from D-II.... I think I said Calvin. Anyway, he asked how "we" were going to be. I told him not very good (they finished 14-16 that season so I wasn't off). Over the course of the game, I had a few more people believing the story, or so I like to remember.
Story 2: On the way back to Ann Arbor after the game, we hit up a Taco Bell somewhere in southern Michigan. While waiting to order, a middle aged couple with two teenage boys, around 15 or 16 years old, get in line behind us. Out of nowhere, one of the boys starts coughing, "Michigan sucks." After around the third time, I have had enough. I turned around, put my arm around the kid chirping, and asked him if he wanted to step outside..... Disclaimer: I absolutely had no intentions of fighting...... As it is, I don't take losing well. Throw in the fact I was still under some influence of a day of drinking and I wasn't going to just let it go. His smirk evaporated and he went silent and I asked him again. He says no. I then asked him to apologize, which he did. The parents heard everything. The dad tried to intervene and I asked him if he wanted to step outside. I didn't feel good about it but I was committed. Thankfully he didn't. The mother? She left us a note on our car lecturing us about what bad people we were for harassing the boys. I am not exactly proud of what I did, especially the part about embarrassing the dad in front his wife and two teenagers. I also I acknowledge that I can be an asshole, especially after a Michigan loss and some beer but, did they not have it coming? I actually like to think that I did these boys a favor. They might think twice about antagonizing someone in the future.
November 11th, 2015 at 4:49 PM ^