How/why did you become a Michigan fan?

Growing up in northern Minnesota and hating the Gophers, probably due to attending UMD hockey games and having their fans shout "Gopher Rejects" at my heros, and not having cable, i latched on at a young age, I loved the helmets, loved Bo, and loved the way Glenn Rice shot the ball. Then Desmond and the Fab Five came along at the same time as my parents divorce, and gave a nice little escape to every thing. It is still a perfect escape from everything. Go Blue. 

I would love to hear Maizens story

I was nine and my brother was a freshman in the Res College and my dad and I came up for a game. It was probably Bo's worst loss that season but I was hooked. The deep dish pizza afterwards also was the best I'd had (Lamplighter's maybe?).

Both parents are grads. Applied to one school - Michigan.

It goes back to the 1969 Ohio State Michigan game. I wasn't even a glimmer in anyone's eye at that time, mind you, but that is when my father became a Michigan fan, and I came by it that way.

What sealed it for me was my dad taking me to the 1988 Ohio State game. That started a lifelong bond. With my dad and Michigan.

 

Desmond and Fab Five when I was a youngster

My family would have pushed me that way, but I watched Charles Woodson and I was hooked far more than my dad/grandpa ever were.

Back when I was 5 years old (early 90's) I was watching collage football with the family and Michigan was playing Michigan state. My favorite color was blue so I rooted for the Blue team. Ever since then I have been a fan of my alma mater.

My dad's whole side of the family is from Michigan. He was born in Ann Arbor, but that's not really the reason. 

Before I went to Michigan, I really didn't care all that much about college athletics. Was definitely more of a pro guy. So I couldn't have told you the first thing about college sports, or the difference between Rutgers and Alabama. Barely even knew what school I wanted to go to. All I really knew is I wanted to go to school far from home, as I had no desire to stay instate and make my college experience an extension of high school. 

Applied to a lot of different schools: IU, BU, BC, Michigan, Tulane, College of Charleston, Fordham, Delaware, Elon, SLU, Quinnipiac, Northeastern and so on. Unfortunately this was a stage of my life where I didn't make a lot of decisions for myself. I applied to places because my parents thought they were good options for me. Got into everywhere except BC, and I visited a good chunk of the schools I got into. I was almost dead set on Tulane until I got into Michigan in December and my parents convinced me to visit. At the time I figured it was another three day weekend and a way to get out of class. But after I left Ann Arbor, Tulane wasn't even a thought anymore. 

Michigan was the first and only school where I visited and didn't feel like I was going through the motions of the visit and asking the same stupid questions. My tour guide was amazing, the campus and town were beautiful (even in a fridgid February), got to sit in on classes, and just got a feel for the whole area. I immediately felt at home, whereas every other visit felt like a chore I had to complete. Plus, getting to see the Big House for the first time and see a Michigan hockey game was just the icing on the cake. Saw school pride in a way that I'd never seen before. A place where you were truly part of something bigger than yourself, and the feeling was just contagious. 

There were no second thoughts, no re-considerations. One of the best decisions I ever made. The fact that half of my family is from the state and several members of my immediate family are also alums is just icing on the cake. 

Grew up and still live in Ohio, but my dad was a big Michigan fan and the first game I watched of Michigan was Michigan v Ohio State in 2006. As a 7 year old I loved their helmets and uniforms and joined my dad and became a Michigan fan. Never looked back, been a die hard fan since, and hope to transfer there at some point to continue my college education or go their for my masters. Go Blue! 

I began to love sports at the age of 7. 1997 was a good year for Michigan athletics. I shared my fandom of Boston teams with friends and family but Michigan was mine.

was a huge Michigan fan and took me to games early in my life.  We had a tradition of making sure we were at the house for the bowl game no matter where we were and when it was.  I was a kid sleeping in the car when AC caught that pass against Indiana and he was raking the leaves at a fellow church member's house.  He came running to the car to wake me and jump up and down in celebration.  FIgured if it meant that much to him it meant that much to me.  

My parents came to the US from Argentina after Med school and found work in Detroit. Eventually they moved to AA and my mom went to work for the university. I was born shortly after and have been maize and blue ever since. We moved to FL eventually and I couldn’t afford out of state tuition, nor would I have gotten into UM anyway thanks to my teenage angst and lack of motivation in high school, and a wasn’t accepted to grad school there either, so I never went to UM but I still consider myself a Wolverine as my birthright and I hope to work it teach at UM one day so I can make my allegiance official.

my Dad was a sports fan, and though he grew up in ohio - I only remember him as a Michigan fan.  He took me to football, basketball at Yost (totally cool as a kid), hockey (the rink was at the corner of Hill and 5th - where I tailgate for football now), and also baseball games.  As I kid - I got all my school stuff from Follet's (IIRC) on campus with all M logos.  In 5th and 6th grade after school I walked from St. Thomas to the baseball field and the team let me be the bat boy for all home games.  Not many fans back then ... just people that loved the game. 

The family moved back to Indiana in 1967, but by then my blood was maize and blue and it's been that way ever since.  

Go Blue! 

Mom's side of the family were all Wolverines. Aunt and Uncle are alumni. 10 family members have held tickets in the same section, same row, same seats since 1973. They finally gave up a ticket and let me go to a game at the age of 8.  After that, I got every extra ticket available. 

I took ownership of my 2 tickets (within the 10) in 2001 when I graduated from Toledo. You will have to pry them from my corpse when I die.

Go Blue!

My story is similar to those above -- grew up in A2, both parents affiliated with Michigan, first public events memory of the 1973 Rose Bowl snub, first song I learned to pay on the clarinet was (probably a kids version of) The Victors, etc.

I was born into a family of sadomasichists.

Moved to Michigan when I was 4. Then this happened:

My dad was a Princeton grad, my mom was an Oregon State grad (the good OSU) so I had no connection to Michigan. I always have loved sports, so when Cazzie appeared on our black and white TV I was hooked. Mom was great, she was not even upset when I rooted for Michigan over Oregon State in the 1965 Rose Bowl.

Attending Michigan for college was icing on the cake.

The radio. I asked who we wanted. He said Go Blue. He was actually born in Ohio. I was maybe 9 or 10. In retrospect, thank God!!!

My maternal grandparents graduated from UM in 1922 & 1924.

My uncle graduated from UM Law.

I always thought I was the third generation, but family research has uncovered a great-grand uncle who earned his law degree in the 1880s, so my wife and I are actually the fourth generation.

My first UM memory is watching the 1965 Rose Bowl on television.

Four generations went there in my family. My grandmother graduated in 1928 (she was Bennie Oostebahn's english tutor), my parents met there, my uncle went there, my brother played football there from 1976-1980 and his son went there and was in the marching band. Me, had I even been able to get in, I would have ended up like Blutarsky in animal house with about the same grade point average.

Instead I've had season tickets for 31 years.

Born in AA, Dad went to UM for his MBA, mom worked at the university hospital as a nurse.  My parents were fans and even though we moved out of MI when I was just 2 years old and have never been back since, I grew up watching UM sports as a kid and my parents always bought us UM gear for gifts.  The unfortunate part is I was born in the late 70s meaning I grew up in the 90s which set an unrealistically high expectation for me.  It's been hard watching UM in the past 10 years, especially against OSU in football, when I grew up watching them beat them.  Either way, I'll be a fan for life.  It's a part of my childhood, family, and culture.  Now as an adult my male pit mix dog is named Harbaugh and my female boxer is named Maizey and I fly a UM flag off the post by my front door.

My Dad played and coached there, my whole family bleeds Maize and Blue and we are from Ohio so those victories (few and far between lately) are the sweetest of them all. 

I was born with a condition called Fibular Hemimelia (for those that don't know, it's the same thing that "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius has, save I only had it in one leg, not both....oh, and I didn't get the psychotic rages he gets either).  When I started trying to walk, around 3-4 months old (yes, we walk early in my family), my parents took me to University Hospital to be evaluated.

My right foot (what there was of it) was amputated when I was about 4 months old, and I spent the next 17 years visiting University Hospital for prosthetic leg work.  The two men who did the actual build, "adopted" me as a nephew, seeings as I was their youngest patient, and it was easy to carry me into the lab while they worked on my leg. having me sit on the workbench and watch.

Having spent so many trips through Ann Arbor, to go to the hospital that enabled me to walk, I naturally gained a  love for the University and campus, even though there was a lot of physical pain over the years.  It was never a question for me to love the University of Michigan.

I had some doctors who were assholes, and I had some who were saints.  I had prosthetists who were cold and unfeeling, and I had two who treated me like their own.  Through it all, I grew to feel at home, even with all that was going on with me in those trying times.  I was poked and prodded and folded and stretched by med students, twisted and shaped by intstuctors and technicians.  But the one thing I learned is I was being cared for by a University system that values patients. 

I wouldn't be able to walk the way I do today, without the start I got at U of M.  It's always been a natural fit for me.

I'm a first generation college grad. I didn't matriculate loving Michigan or even liking football. But the tradition and pageantry were so engrained and special, and the student involvement was so nearly complete, that a young kid wanting to tap into the Ann Arbor social consciousness could barely do better than to invest in football tickets. Like everything involving the cost of my ties to Michigan, it became instantly excessive and forever-until-and-beyond-now has proved to be worth it.

Anyway, I graduated in 2016 with a B.S. (L-S-A) in (1) Cellular and Molecular Biology and (2) political science. I've bounced around the Big Ten since, earning an M.D. at Penn State and am presently a Ph.D. candidate in Biochemistry at Indiana. For sake of friendliness, I tend to tell the Nits and Hoosiers I meet that I'm a fan of their programs, too (while acknowledging it's to a lesser extent), but the truth is that Michigan came first and basically nothing else matters.

My paternal great-great-great grandfather established a farm in Augusta Township in 1834, which remained in family hands for 125 years.

My great-grandfather owned and published the Ann Arbor Argus newspaper for several years around the turn of the century (1900), was briefly city treasurer, and wrote editorials for the Detroit Free Press.

Naturally, my grandfather spent most of his childhood in Ann Arbor, and he eventually attended UM as an undergrad from 1901 to 1905, and a few years later came back for his master's. Those four undergrad years were Yost's first four years, and the photo below of the 1904 game at Ferry Field against Chicago is in his photo scrapbook I have now. I don't think my grandfather took the photo himself, as I've seen the same shot published elsewhere. I'd guess it was taken by a commercial photographer who sold print copies.

In 1917 grandpa came back to A2 and taught physics at U-M. By then my dad had been born, and they lived in houses on Packard and then Wells before my grandfather accepted a teaching position at Mizzou in 1920. My father wanted to attend U-M himself after HS graduation, but by then the Depression was in full swing and attending an out-of-state school was out of the question, so Missouri it was for him.

By the time I had to make a decision about college, I only applied to three schools: Swarthmore (my brother went there but I only got wait-listed), Kalamazoo College, and Michigan. It wasn't really much of a decision, and I was lucky enough to see "Touchdown Billy Taylor" and "Johnny Wangler to Anthony Carter" in person as an undergrad myself.

even though i'm a 4th generation and i have two nieces who are 5th generation.  but mom died during high school and i had a decision to make:  play hockey 45 min from home or 12+ hours from home at my other college choice.  

been a blessing in so many unpredictable ways.  go blue! 

I grew up a Michigan fan. It's just what I've come to know and love. How that happened is my mom worked for UM growing up. UM paid for the food on the table and the roof over our heads. UM paid for vacations and allowed my brother and I to play travel sports. UM paid for a lot and now I'm an employee here and have been for over 15 years and it's paying for my food and my roof. I have a passion for the athletics but an appreciation for everything else that it's allowed me to accomplish and I'm happy that I get to contribute in some way to this great institution.

Born and raised in Michigan and grew up in an irish/catholic house. My mom, dad, grandpa's and gandma's on both sides and all aunts and uncles are die hard Notre Dame fans. 

Me and my brother decided that wasn't for us and became Michigan fans. It was the game in 1986 that made me a Michigan fan! I'll never forget ND missed a field goal with about 10 seconds to go to preserve Michigan's 24-23 victory!! Oh how sweet that was!! 

I'm ready for Michigan to beat them in South Bend to start the year off and shut my dad up!! The guy is still talking about 2014...

Have been and will be a Michigan fan for life!! Go Blue!! 

 

First UM football game was 10/17/1981 when I was 10 years old because I remember Iowa's punter Reggie Roby kicking a ball higher than I thought humanly possible.  I think my dad was pissed at his father-in-law who was Irish and loved ND so pretty sure he told me "To hell with ND and that settled it.

Never really a question of loyalty after that.  After visiting the campus only applied to UM early and was accepted.  27 years of heartbreaks and triumphs - personal and school related - still proud of my school.

Moved to Ann Arbor at the age of 2, where my dad took a teaching job at UM.  We lived in the Old West Side neighborhood, and I remembera few years later watching a game with my dad on our black-and-white TV in the basement (My guess is that it was Michigan-Missouri in 1975, in part because I have a vague memory of trying to process what a "tie" was around the same time, and the internet now tells me Michigan had tied its two previous games).  At any rate, when Michigan scored, we'd rush outside to hear roar of the crowd, and the loudspeaker off in the distance.

Needless to say, those were simpler times.

I'm not sure if I saw a game in person that year.  The first one I remember seeing was a 70-14, second-half romp over Navy the next year.  I was the first kid in my class to learn my 7's on the multiplication table.

Also saw some great basketball (Ricky Green, Phil Hubbard) and hockey (Dave Debol!) teams and players.  Favorite baseball memory was actually when the Reds held their post-strike, mid-summer edition of spring training at Fischer Stadium.  I was 11, and just hung all out all day there, catching foul balls and trying to get autographs..

Paul Jokisch visiting our kindergarten class in Ann Arbor is the earliest UofM football thing I remember. I was born in A2 though... it was Michigan and the Tigers for me as long as I can remember.

I cried... and then I realized michigan was where I wanted to go to college.

Then I did.  

I cried once while I was at school over football, that was when we beat WSU, won the rose bowl, and we stood on top of the world.

jdon

 

I was born into it. All of my family supports Michigan for everything. Oh and a lot of my family went there.

My grandparents used to vacation in Palm Springs every year, and in January 1987, they took the trip to Pasadena to see the parade and the game. They brought t-shirts home to NJ for my sister and me, mine had a really cool snarling wolverine on it, and 15 years later, I had a degree from the University of Michigan. If not for the proverbial flip of a coin, I could have ended up a Sun Devil...