Bundled up Michigan football fans braved shivery temperatures Saturday, standing in the snow along State Street, all to cheer the university’s new national champion team at a parade in Ann Arbor.
An estimated 50,000 students and fans stood along the parade route and outside the U-M President’s House on South University Avenue wearing maize and blue hats and scarves, to protect them from the blustery, windy conditions.
The parade started at 4 p.m. outside the president’s home and stretched about three-quarters of a mile, ending at Schembechler Hall.
The Wolverines on Monday defeated the University of Washington Huskies by a score of 34-13 in the College Football Playoff National Championship game in Houston to secure U-M’s first national title since 1997.
Similar to the parade for the 1997 team (which was held in January 1998), fans braved frigid conditions. A crowd estimated at 100,000 or more “shrugged off temperatures in the mid-20s to cheer the Wolverines as they wound their way through downtown Ann Arbor and the heart of their campus,” a Detroit Free Press story from Jan. 11, 1998, said.
On Saturday, a crowd about half that size, according to an estimate given by the University of Michigan Police Department, also braved temperatures in the mid-20s but it felt more like the single digits.
More: Michigan football championship parade details: Where you need to be Saturday
After the parade, fans were to meet the team for a 7 p.m. celebration at the Crisler Center indoor arena next to Michigan Stadium.
Here are some snippets of what Free Press reporters and photographers saw along the parade route:
Fans want ‘one more year’ of Coach Harbaugh
The crowd went crazy when head coach Jim Harbaugh reached the end of the parade in a red fire truck. Fans spilled into the streets chanting, “One more year.” The fans followed the truck as far as they could before it turned off State Street. -Christina Hall
Generations of Michigan fans celebrate the football players
The Wynalda family from Ann Arbor watched as the parade approached. Taylor, 30, and her husband Mike, 31, met at the University of Michigan in 2014. He was a swimmer. They brought their 2-year-old daughter, Dawson, to the parade.
They’re here to celebrate the players.
“These student-athletes are so special,” Taylor said.
She said her whole family are U-M fans, with her grandparents meeting on campus in 1939.
“We’re celebrating everyone,” Taylor said. “It’s a team.” -Christina Hall
Thousands cheer, chant ‘Let’s Go Blue’
The parade set off with a semi-truck towing a Michigan-emblazoned trailer, with the color guard and marching band behind them. Thousands cheered from the sidewalks along the route. Fans chanted “Let’s Go Blue” and many cell phones were out as fans got photos and videos of the parade. A few brought seats but most were standing, trying to get the best look. Bringing up the rear of the parade, which lasted about 20 minutes, was a red vintage fire truck carrying Jim Harbaugh and the University of Michigan football players on top of the truck bed. –JC Reindl and Christina Hall
Meanwhile … Harbaugh ‘believed’ to have an interview with LA Chargers
Before the parade started, NFL.com reported the architect of Michigan football’s success, head coach Jim Harbaugh, is “believed” to have an interview set up with the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers next week. -Andrew Birkle
More on Harbaugh: Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh reportedly set to meet with Los Angeles Chargers next week
Fans wear their lucky gear
Rafat Mustafa, 42, of Dearborn Heights; his daughter Maya, 19, and son, Nael, 11, stood near Schembechler Hall at the end of the parade route. Rafat Mustafa had one maize pompom on each side of his head under his hood. They were good luck pompoms from the University of Michigan versus Ohio State University game he said he attended with his sister.
“We don’t know how often we’re gonna experience this atmosphere,” he said, as a sea of maize- and blue-clad fans lined the sidewalks. “We don’t know the next time we’ll witness a championship. We want this experience.”
He said the last time he attended a parade like this was when the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup. -Christina Hall
Fans, no matter the weather
Season ticket holders Jim and Sally Tamm, in their 60s from Ann Arbor, lined up along South University, where the parade was set to begin. They just got back from the national championship game in Houston.
When asked why they were braving the cold to watch the celebrate the team, Sally Tamm said: “We were here in 1997 and saw the parade (in January 1998) and just wanted to see it this year, too.”
Her husband Jim said of the cold: “It doesn’t matter; we’re not fair weather fans.” -JC Reindl
‘Ann Arbor is frozone! Who’s got it colder than us? Nobody!’
Sarah Freedman, 38 and from Ann Arbor, stood on State Street holding a yellow sign with blue letters that said, “Ann Arbor is frozone! Who’s got it colder than us? Nobody!”
Freedman said she grew up on Dewey Avenue in Ann Arbor and has been immersed in the University of Michigan. She went to the last parade in 1998 with her mom, Jane Deering, a U-M graduate.
When they lived on Dewey, she said she used to sell cookies before football games and her brother sold parking at their house.
“I’ve been waiting 26 years,” she said. “I watch every game. I’m just really proud of this team.”
Freedman, wearing an “M” necklace and a Michigan mask and hat, said she was excited and not cold as she waited for the parade to start. She got here about 2:30 p.m. and expected to see more people, she said, as the sidewalk started to fill in.
“The diehards will be out,” she said. -Christina Hall
Some fans brave the cold, while others get their gear (indoors)
About an hour and half before the parade was scheduled to start, a few fans had found spots near the start of the parade on South University. Moises Rodriguez, 31, was shivering even though he wore plenty of layers and was tucked under a blanket. Rodriguez left his home in Ottawa, Ohio at 6 a.m. and got his chair set up outside at 10:30 a.m. Ten of his friends were supposed to join him but they all backed out because of the weather. To him, though, the cold weather and the drive was a small price to pay for what the University of Michigan football team had given him and other fans.
“Let’s hope people show up,” Rodriguez said. “I hope we can pay them back.”
Vincent Jacobson, 22, wouldn’t describe himself as the biggest Michigan football friend compared to some of his friends, but still the senior found a spot near a tree right off South University Avenue at 1 p.m. so he could get a good view of the parade.
“It’s once in a lifetime,” Jacobson said.
In the few hours preceding the game, it appeared many fans had found a different, warmer spot to congregate: The M Den, the official merchandise retailer of Michigan athletics located on South State Street, where the line to pay started on the second floor and weaved down the stairs and across the store to the cash registers at the front. – Adrienne Roberts
2024-01-13 21:56:15
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