Wanted to share my group's experience for RU's first trip to the Big House.
Friday
Flew into Detroit Friday night. Ann Arbor is about a 30-35 minute easy drive from the airport all highway. Stayed in a nice hotel about 8-10min outside of downtown. The hotel was packed Friday night with Michigan fans. I did notice a car in the parking lot with Jersey plates and a R magnet on the pack. Also ran into a small group in the lobby Friday night. Ended up bar hopping to a few places Friday night on State Street in downtown Ann Arbor. We were at the "post grad" bars which seemed to be 22-30 year olds. The bar & downtown scene was relatively quiet to what I was expecting.
Game Day
Met up with a friend who lived in Ann Arbor (Michigan alumn, RU law school grad). We parked at one of the golf courses across the street from the stadium. I found it really odd they parked cars just kind of wherever on the golf course. There was a TON of space, not cramped at all. We walked to a few other tailgates closer to the stadium which were more or less what you'd experience at any lot in RU- except perhaps a bit more spacious. I did not notice any significant police presence during any of the tailgate spots. People were stopping us all over and welcoming us to the Big House/Michigan/Ann Arbor. Very genuine and nice about it. Saw a few RU tailgates/fans here and there as well.
We had possibly the best seats in the entire stadium. On the 50 yard line, behind the RU bench, in the row directly above the tunnel where both teams enter/exit. Bought these of stub hub about 3-4 weeks before the game. Have some cool videos of the teams coming out of
I would say the stadium was 90% full 10 min before kickoff. Announced attendance was 109k. I was actually surprised to not see as much red in the stands as I thought I was seeing outside the stadium. Both the width of the seats and the rows are completely unreasonable. I'm 6'3" and my knees were either dug into the guys back in front of me or straddling him the entire game. Not even a comfort complaint - literally just didn't fit.
Michigan's band is huge and excellent. But man do they play the fight song ad nauseum. They also piped in the band, crowd noise,and EDM music. Had a few people remind us this wasn't the Big House at its best due to the opponent. Lots of people still talking about how much hype there was for the Mich St game.
Michigan Campus & Observations
The first thing I noticed was that everyone, anywhere in Michigan wore Michigan gear EVERYWHERE. And I'm not talking about gameday - the other 4 days we were there as well. I joked with my Mich alum friend about it and she said it's true. People wear Michigan apparel ALL the time, students, adults, children. Also every single person we talked to GUSHED about Michigan. Most of them having no idea we were visitors. We're talking about like how a townie talks about the glory days and how great our coach is etc. All our Uber drivers knew everything about Michigan and most were not affiliated with the school. The pride in the school and its place in the town/state was palpable at all times. The campus was very integrated and well connected with the town itself. It was one-in-the-same, but not in a Penn St/Morgantown type of way. Instead the town and campus complimented each other, rather than one only existing because of the other.
RU Perspective
Many have said before that Michigan is what RU should be striving for. In the past, I was like "duuh sure", but now I see why the comparison is made. There are very many things that are similar regarding the size of school, how the campus is in a "small" urban area. I want to dig into this conversation more because I think there are many (seemingly simple) things RU can do to move towards it. It would take decades and thinking back on how people explained what RU was like before my time, it seems RU has already made massive strides towards it.
Congrats if you've had the attention span or interest to read all of that.
Friday
Flew into Detroit Friday night. Ann Arbor is about a 30-35 minute easy drive from the airport all highway. Stayed in a nice hotel about 8-10min outside of downtown. The hotel was packed Friday night with Michigan fans. I did notice a car in the parking lot with Jersey plates and a R magnet on the pack. Also ran into a small group in the lobby Friday night. Ended up bar hopping to a few places Friday night on State Street in downtown Ann Arbor. We were at the "post grad" bars which seemed to be 22-30 year olds. The bar & downtown scene was relatively quiet to what I was expecting.
Game Day
Met up with a friend who lived in Ann Arbor (Michigan alumn, RU law school grad). We parked at one of the golf courses across the street from the stadium. I found it really odd they parked cars just kind of wherever on the golf course. There was a TON of space, not cramped at all. We walked to a few other tailgates closer to the stadium which were more or less what you'd experience at any lot in RU- except perhaps a bit more spacious. I did not notice any significant police presence during any of the tailgate spots. People were stopping us all over and welcoming us to the Big House/Michigan/Ann Arbor. Very genuine and nice about it. Saw a few RU tailgates/fans here and there as well.
We had possibly the best seats in the entire stadium. On the 50 yard line, behind the RU bench, in the row directly above the tunnel where both teams enter/exit. Bought these of stub hub about 3-4 weeks before the game. Have some cool videos of the teams coming out of
I would say the stadium was 90% full 10 min before kickoff. Announced attendance was 109k. I was actually surprised to not see as much red in the stands as I thought I was seeing outside the stadium. Both the width of the seats and the rows are completely unreasonable. I'm 6'3" and my knees were either dug into the guys back in front of me or straddling him the entire game. Not even a comfort complaint - literally just didn't fit.
Michigan's band is huge and excellent. But man do they play the fight song ad nauseum. They also piped in the band, crowd noise,and EDM music. Had a few people remind us this wasn't the Big House at its best due to the opponent. Lots of people still talking about how much hype there was for the Mich St game.
Michigan Campus & Observations
The first thing I noticed was that everyone, anywhere in Michigan wore Michigan gear EVERYWHERE. And I'm not talking about gameday - the other 4 days we were there as well. I joked with my Mich alum friend about it and she said it's true. People wear Michigan apparel ALL the time, students, adults, children. Also every single person we talked to GUSHED about Michigan. Most of them having no idea we were visitors. We're talking about like how a townie talks about the glory days and how great our coach is etc. All our Uber drivers knew everything about Michigan and most were not affiliated with the school. The pride in the school and its place in the town/state was palpable at all times. The campus was very integrated and well connected with the town itself. It was one-in-the-same, but not in a Penn St/Morgantown type of way. Instead the town and campus complimented each other, rather than one only existing because of the other.
RU Perspective
Many have said before that Michigan is what RU should be striving for. In the past, I was like "duuh sure", but now I see why the comparison is made. There are very many things that are similar regarding the size of school, how the campus is in a "small" urban area. I want to dig into this conversation more because I think there are many (seemingly simple) things RU can do to move towards it. It would take decades and thinking back on how people explained what RU was like before my time, it seems RU has already made massive strides towards it.
Congrats if you've had the attention span or interest to read all of that.
