The wave at Michigan Stadium 1984
We talked about this last week, how we brought the wave from Seattle to the Big House in 1983.
This wave footage is from the '83 season, the conclusion of the Ghostbusters halftime show (that's why the marching band is wearing sheets) though I don't know the exact date/game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79soqk-Oxts
EDIT: XtraMelanin correctly pointed out that Ghostbusters was released in '84. June 8, 1984 to be exact. So this had to be from the 84 season, which went to hell after Harbaugh broke his arm.
When I see this..............performed at the Big House.
Otherwise.......could care less.
how much less could you care?
Two less.
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a mediocre pop song which for some reason has caught on with the alumni and truck drivers of Ohio.
The video is from 1984. The wave (started in 1983) was mainstream at Michigan by then, so they incorporated it into the halftime "Ghostbusters" show. The announcement over the loudspeakers was part of the show.
I'm sorry I missed the discussion of the wave at the game against UW in 1983.
I attended that game; so close.
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- Regular
- Regular
- Slow
- Fast
- Reverse
- Split
I don't remember the sheets to save my life, but was there for this. I also have a very clear memory of Bo getting pissed off about it during a game and turning directly toward our section. The way I remember it was him shouting, "Brimley! Shut up and sit your ass down!" Yep. That's what he said.
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Love it or hate it, Michigan does the best wave in the entire world. A stadium that's a wide bowl holding 110.000 people could not be a more perfect place for it.
film.
wave is fun. remember it big time at tiger stadium during the series.
I was a the ALCS in 1984. The wave was impressive there!
"History and experience tell us that moral progress comes not in comfortable and complacent times, but out of trial and confusion."
-Gerald R. Ford
I wonder if the introduction of the Wave to Tiger Stadium was a huge step in making the wave a widely known thing because it was 1984, the Tigers were getting national attention and everyone following sports got a chance to see it.
Of course, the next year, the so-called Bleacher Creatures did their own rendition of the "Tastes Great, Less Filling" campaign with much more salty chants, so never let it be said that we're not willing to innovate in SE Michigan.
According to wikipedia, yes, that's how it was introduced to the rest of the world...
Entry...
University of Michigan
In the early fall of 1983, the Michigan Wolverines played the Huskies in Seattle and brought the wave back to Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. A letter to the sports editor of The New York Times claimed,[10] "There are three reasons why the wave caught on at Michigan Wolverine games: It gave the fans something to do when the team was leading its opponent by 40 points, it was thrilling and exciting to see 105,000 people in the stands moving and cheering, and Bo Schembechler asked us not to do it." The fans responded to his request by doing more waves, including "Silent Waves" (standing and waving arms without cheering), "Shsh Waves" (replacing the cheering with a "shshing" sound), the "Fast Wave," the "Slow Wave," and two simultaneous waves traveling in opposite directions. The following spring, fans who had enjoyed the wave in Ann Arbor introduced it to the nearby Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The Tigers won the World Series that year and appeared on many televised games throughout 1984, so people all over America saw it.
to this! The wave is one of mankind's greatest inventions!
I was also there, and was in Tiger Stadium much of 1984. Everything you say is true. Michigan really spread the Wave to the masses, even if it didn't invent it.
WH, didn't you mention recently that you had the video from the original Michigan Stadium wave, which was a very organic creation by the cheerleaders and surprisingly spread to the entire stadium? I would love to see that video.
My only consolation is we are on our way back to this level of football elevated to NFL standards. Also, I don't think I ever saw players play this physical for RR and Hoke.
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and hungover as a motherf#%@&r
All about Boone's Farm chugging and Whiskey the dog. Girls never left the stadium.
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There was a game in 1983 where we did all the cheers in silence. Back in those days if the crowd made too much noise the team would lose all its time outs and then get penalties when there were no time outs left. In response we did the cheers (I remember the wave and Let's Go Blue! in particular). I think it was the Purdue game.
It was surreal! I had been going to games since I was 6 in '67 and had gone to every game since probably '70 or '71 outside of the '78 season when I was away at boarding school and this was just so different than anything that had ever happened at Michigan Stadium it felt like a revolution of some sort (not the kind we really need), it was magical and it was hilarious, it felt like a fantastic new toy and a drug, it was addicting!
I went to watch a football game and a weird happening broke out! The blue bloods and the blue hairs who never did anything more boisterous than tennis applause, kids, families and students were all doing this crazy shit that nobody had ever heard of in thier lives a moment ago! It was a moving sculpture and mass performance art with the viewers also being the performers. It felt like something had really happened, like something had changed, it felt like things were possible somehow even though it was ostensibly meaningless. It sure was fun anyway!
Does anyone remember if the variations happened that day or was it just the standard speed & direction that day? Whether it was that day or not I remember the first slow-mo wave being mesmerizing! haha. The first hyperspeed wave had people rolling in the aisles.
Speaking of fan antics, how about the tradition of passing women up the stands in the student section body surfing style, which was replaced with passing up blow up dolls when body surfing was squashed. Beach balls being tossed around. Footballs being tossed around when kicks went into the stands. TP being thrown en mass into the end zone on touchdowns, then marshmallows, and of course streaking!
The only game I could not make was the first due to work! But got every other game of my Junior year. I think we were all happy shutting out NU at halftime. I think IA whipped us on the road the following week, then things went down hill.