I have a few that I’ll list here and let y’all mention the rest..as there are so many cool things that used to be part of the game experience in my 50+ years attending games that turned into, to quote Kansas, “Dust in the Wind” Listed are 3 out of an extensive list of favorites.
No. 1 - The Organic “Go Blue” Split BH Cheer: long before the cheerleading squad starting holding up signs to direct the fans when to do the cheer, it was a spontaneous cheer where, divided by the 50 yard line, the north side of the stadium would very loudly scream in the direction of the south side a huge “GO” with everyone swinging their arms ending aggressively pointing to the south side, as if they were throwing “GO” like they were launching a volley of spears, with they south side reciprocating in the same way with an aggressive “BLUE”, with the arm swinging to a point. It was visually intimidating and very loud, when the Big House was basically a giant subwoofer, blasting any crowd noise up into the clouds. Don’t know when it stopped, but the cheerleader directed cheer is nothing compared to the old spontaneous cheer back in the day.
No. 2 - The Giant Beachball Inflatable Penis: It seemed to make an appearance at every game for 15 years or so. Sometime in a lull in the action, someone near the student section would inflate a huge, at least 7 ft tall, beach toy penis that was batted around the north side of the BH that lasted for a distracting long time every home game. I haven’t seen the Penis Beachball thing in a long time, but I crack myself thinking of how Gus Johnson and Klatt would handle a fox game of the week broadcast at the BH where it would be impossible to keep the 7 ft penis out of Red Zone shot. I mean, Gus is capable of saying literally anything, you just never know how he would react. Klatt would follow Gus’ direction and say something of such dry wit, that the viewing audience that were not Alumni wouldn’t notice the joke pass over the heads. The Beachball Penis was one of the last relics of the ribald 60s and 70s games on the corner of Stadium and Main, and I miss those days when “Wine and Cheese” definitely did not apply to Michigan fans who were pretty rowdy 30 years ago.
No. 3 Murder Wolf: After the highly dangerous attempt at having a real live Wolverine in an Iron cage on Michigan’s sideline in the ‘30s that nearly ended in disaster, Michigan gave up on having a mascot for decades. Side Note: have you ever seen the Nature Show on the comeback of the Wolverine in the wild? The Wolverine was pretty chill just doing his thing, not getting real violent even catching prey. That all changed when the Wolverine got into it with a huge Canadian Brown Bear that I was in awe watching. The Wolverine just flipped the switch and turned into a fury of loud roars, powerful forelegs with razor sharp claws gouging the much larger bear, and bearing a truly frightening set of fanged teeth that appeared to be inches long..I’ve never been more intimidated by an animal before..and neither had the Brown Bear, who made a business decision and exited, stage left, with the Wolverine biting and clawing until the bear broke out in a full retreat at full speed. The Lions actual real Lion mascot couldn’t hold a candle to just how dangerous a live Wolverine that even an iron barred cage proved to be totally inadequate holding an agitated Tasmanian Devil like creature, only it’s nearly the size of a mountain Lion and 10x more vicious that both. Still, a part of me has a fantasy where Michigan plays a team with their own live Mascot. Our real Wolverine the students nicknamed “Godzilla” meets Uga the 11th who aggressively barks at “Godzilla”, who responds by eating Uga the 11th in under a minute with the broadcast truck frozen in shock and fails to cut away from application of The Law of the Jungle live in 4k on 80in. TVs across AmerIca. Alas, it’s just another one of my violent fantasies that will never happen. Tell you what, there aren’t many land predator on this planet I’d pick over a full grown Wolverine. An Adult Grizzly, A hungry Wolfpack (but that’s many against one cheating), I’d take the Wolverine over an Alligator, Think I’d have to go with a Polar Bear, The highly toxic Kimono Dragon. One bite and the Wolverine would eventually drop from the Dragon’s (let’s just call it a Dinosaur) highly toxic saliva, and maybe a giant Boa Constrictor, and a hunting party of female Lions, as they are the ones who are the “Queens of the Serengeti” …that’s about it.
So Michigan went without a mascot for decades, until the Alumni Association decided they would have a mascot costume made that would be worn on the sidelines, adding to the game experience. I don’t know who made the Wolverine mascot costume, but you need to google a pic of it yourself to really understand how badly it was made and looked. It was a monstrous, ill fitting, asymmetrical, bad homemade Halloween costume that didn’t resemble a Wolverine in the least. But, of course, the students absolutely loved the mascot, and gave it the name it forever be known for “Murder Wolf”. So Murder Wolf became the semi-official mascot for decades, and though I don’t remember seeing Murder Wolf, apparently the mascot costume was worn until it literally disintegrated sometime in the late 70s-early 80s, and the University absolutely did not want another Murder Wolf costume made. I remember that the AD wanted to create a more kids-friendly cartoonish mascot like sparty’s hilariously ugly mascot, and the students and a large segment of Alumni pushed back hard. Rich Eisen was the Executive Editor of The Michigan Daily back then, and he wrote a scathing acerbic editorial against the adoption of a cartoon mascot as you’d expect from a 21 yr old Rich Eisen…he laid waste to everyone and gave no quarter. He finished up with a defining statement that Michigan already had a mascot, Murder Wolf, and attacked the AD for wasting money on R&D for a mascot no Michigan Man would ever allow inside the Big House, and should spend a fraction of that amount on a new Murder Wolf costume for next generations to enjoy. I don’t think Michigan ever made the 80s cartoonish wolverine mascot, but Murder Wolf never made it back inside the BH again. I’m fine with Michigan not having some dumb clownish mascot, but I’d be thrilled if they brought the retro 60s Murder Wolf mascot back..just as disturbing as the original!
So there are 3 to start, there are so many more I left for you guys to list. Have at it!
Argus
michigan.rivals.com
