My Trip to The Big House

This past Saturday I made my first trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan. I went with Rich Palmer who has season tickets. He is a huge Michigan football fan and I could care less about the team, but I have always wanted to go to The Big House. We left at 8:00 am for a 3:30 pm game. This gave us plenty of time to do some tailgating and exploring what Ann Arbor has to offer. The city had a great college town feel to it. A lot of local shops and restaurants that have character and history. The campus of Michigan was larger than I expected. My favorite building was this one:

It looks like an old castle and I love old castles.

Anyway, on to the experience. We show up to the stadium and it was very under-whelming from the outside. I was expecting something more like the University of Tennessee's stadium. You know, on the outside it should look huge and it didn't. After driving around the stadium the looked for a place to park. We could either park on a golf course for $40 and tailgate there or park in someone's front yard for $20 and tailgate with the house. We chose the house. It was strange pulling up into someone's front/side yard but this is tradition. Everything was tradition. You could feel the tradition all around you. If I had to guess, I would say that going to a Michigan football game felt the same in 1950 as it did Saturday. The same house is letting cars park in its yard and the community is wrapping its arms around a team.

We set up shop and pull out the snacks. I wasn't shocked when everything that we pull out has the Michigan logo on it. If you don't like Michigan then this whole scene would have made you throw up in your mouth, but if you appreciate passion like I do then you would have been disappointed if there was anything else. Tailgating was good not great. The weather was not the best, for it rained most of the time, but the closer we got to game time the better the weather got.

It was game time and we head to the stadium. Remember, at this point I am very under-whelmed by the stadium. I mean this is suppose to be The Big House. You know, the stadium that seats more people than any other football stadium in America. I see all the people in their school pride. By the way, why does Michigan fans have the ugliest hats? Seriously I think there should be a sign when you enter into Ann Arbor that says, "Bad Hat, USA". I really should have taken pictures, but I digress.

It's time to go in. We go to our section to enter. Now here is the number one thing that I didn't know about the stadium. You enter in at about the top of the stadium. Most of the stadium is below you. It is like a big bowl and you enter in on the rim. Right when I stepped into the one level monster bowl it hit me. Once again I felt the tradition. I was swept away by the crowd of fans. I was amazed by the band and let's be honest, college bands are normally not that impressive. I knew just by walking into the stadium why so many show up. It was all about the feel. Now don't get me wrong. It was not about the feel of the cold, hard metal bleachers or the feel of the concrete that was poured in the 1920's. It was the excitement. It was the feeling that you are now apart of something much larger than yourself. It had a wow factor that you didn't get until you experienced it.

The football game was OK. The Michigan fans were scared until the second half when their team decided to play football. That was another feeling that I felt that day. You could tell that everyone in the crowd thought it was the Appellation State game all over again but this one turned out a lot better. The cheers were good not great. My favorite one was when they other team had to punt and the whole stadium started doing what looked like the Florida State tomahawk chop and at the end of it yelled, "You Suck". Rich said this was a sign to tell them to go back to their bench but it was way to much like Florida State's motion.

Overall it was a great trip. It was great to hang out with Rich. It was great to have very good seats. It was great to feel tradition. Sometimes I get so caught up in what is going to be next that it surprises me to stop and do something that has been the same for over 70 years and really enjoy.

I am not ready to say, "Let's Go Blue", but I will always appreciate The Big House. If I ever get the opportunity to go again it will be an easy Yes. Thanks you Rich for the experience and next time the weather will be better.