It was a Saturday was riddled with discontinuities. There was a disconcerting fact that floating up by the fire ring and we don’t know how to deal with it gracefully. Let’s get the whole troubling thing out of the way. The issue is about M’s this week, so let’s dispense with that business first.

The University of Michigan is where some of us went to college. We told the story of one of our adventurous Aunts this week since the pen-names showed up in some other paperwork. She was our modestly-famous Great Aunt Bly. She was the last of her generation still breathing and a memorable keeper of some memories. Dad’s generation was the baby of his crowd, and his older sister was an adventurous woman who drew a fairly deep wake in her academic waters.

Aunt Rhoda had achieved her RN degree before serving as a Visiting Nurse in Long Island, New York during the Depression. Her experience was valued, and an offer came in to set up a School of Nursing at the school out west in Ann Arbor. Dad got a job with Ford after he convinced Mom to marry him, piled the bags into a Model A Ford and drove to Detroit to start their lives after the Second War.

You may have heard that there are some football rivalries in that part of the Midwest. The biggest one for Michigan traditionally are those people from Columbus, Ohio. The level of emotion surrounding the annual game between U-M and OSU in normally enough to set off fire alarms in some of the viewing rooms as we determined how the Michigan Wolverines were going to disappoint us this year.

There has been a curious change in both college and professional sports since the pandemic. Cancellation of a Major League Baseball game- the annual All Star event- was just one of the cancellations that signaled the intrusion of social conflicts into the sporting world. We have always loved the college and pro games, but the entry of politics caused us to put a little distance between the games and our social lives.

Then this strange year popped up and gave us a good gobsmack, right on the kisser. There used to be a professional football team in Washington. There was a struggle over the team’s formal name, which in the great cavalcade of this year’s chaotic change was also being changed from one thing to another.

We had not tuned into a NCAA game yet this year, and there were two key areas of impending doom for the Wolverines. First, there are new teams admitted to the Big Ten Conference which no longer is composed of ten teams. That is part of getting used to the future, since we have been following the Old Big Ten conference teams for sixty or seven years. It was habit forming, but found our interest waning amidst transgender NFL advertising campaigns.
There is some history to be accommodated, of course. Maryland is one of the new teams in the league, but we go back a fair ways with the Terrapins since they are locals here in DC. There is some controversy associated with the game this year. They have expanded the schedule to a dozen games to accommodate the new arrivals. That has been fun, but on This 2023 Season, Michigan had opened up undefeated, ten wins in a row.

They have done this on occasion in the past, but there are some interesting numbers in the statistical luggage, plus some unusual current events. Michigan’s football program has been subject to some intense scrutiny this year with Coach Jim Harbaugh serving a two-game suspension for something called “sign stealing.” It has been more emotional than usual, so let’s take this from the top.

Rutgers and Princeton played the first college football game- the one with pads- in 1869. Since that contest, Michigan and a handful of other programs have had regular winning programs and provided much excitement to their fans. In Michigan’s case, that amounted to starting this football season with a record 990 wins in program history. That harvest of wins include eleven National and 44 Big Ten Championship season led by three Heisman Trophy Winners. supported by 85 Consensus All-Americans.

You probably can count better that we can on a game Saturday, but someone pointed out that despite the impressive haul, there have only produced five championships since 1948- the year Mom and Dad drove to Detroit. So this was an unusual season, even without Harbaugh on the sidelines.

We decided to watch the game, since both squads were of some interest. Michigan had performed at about the level at which they were ranked, which had been Number Two most of the year. And undefeated after Game Ten. We had a suspicion how our young men could manage to ruin out afternoon, since we have seen those numbers compiled over a lifetime as well.
We assumed they would drop behind in the Third Quarter, struggle valiantly and then through a controversial play, manage to ruin the most amazing start for a record program with a record start. That is about where we were, sharing vague memories of distress back across the years. Maryland team looked motivated and engaged, and conveyed the sense that they wanted to add to their pwn significant record book. “Remember that year Michigan came in here un-defeated and we kicked their butts?”

It did not turn out that way, to our mild surprise. There was some vigorous response by Maryland at the end of the third quarter, but Michigan rose up and stopped the Terrapins when they needed to. Now, they are facing a highly unusual new dozenth game next Saturday with the Buckeyes . They are an old and traditional foe, those guys from Columbus, currently ranked #2 (Michigan) and #3 (Ohio State). It could be one of those magical encounters, or another of those mischances that litter even legendary programs.

And we are adapting to new times. We have already thought through some of the complications with additional games, untraditional teams and all that. We recall that Mom had a Michigan degree in Education, but also was first in her family to attend college- in Ohio! And that our Grandfather, a noted running back in his Ohio high school football team fought for Ohio in the Great War.

Both his grandfather and uncle had arrived in the Ohio River Valley in time to serve on both sides of the American Civil War. We understand one of those sides lost, so we will put the emotion about next week’s aside for the moment. But even if there is an unfavorable result, we hasten to remind you we have both sides covered, you know? It would be nice to keep a thousand wins for a couple weeks!

Copyright 2023 Vic Socotra
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