The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/178977
Friday Night Lights In The Big House When Lloyd Carr took over as the head coach at Michigan, he was prompted to begin a preseason tradition that was his version of campfire tales for football players. It was based on a comment he once read from announcer Keith Jackson, who was what college football would sound like if it had a voice. Carr said, "What Keith said was this: 'Tradition in college football is Michigan Stadium on the Friday night before a game.'" Fans in town for Saturday's game often drift over to the Big House after dinner at the Gandy Dancer, Real Seafood Company, or the classic Fleetwood Diner. They walk into its open gates and sit in the stands or walk on the field. They feel the ghosts of Tom Harmon and Bo Schembechler. They point to the north end zone to tell their children that "there—right there" Desmond Howard stretched out like a slinky to catch a touchdown pass from Elvis Grbac to beat Notre Dame. They soak up the past and pass it on to their children or grandchildren. It is a shrine to anyone wearing the Maize and Blue as much as it is a stadium. It has changed much since Fielding H. Yost authorized the digging of a big hole in the ground at the corner of Main Street and Stadium Boulevard, and it now has a towering press box on the west side and an equally majestic span of luxury boxes on the east side. But what happens on the 100 yards below has never varied, and some of the sport's greatest games, in what is approaching a full century of kickoffs, have been played there. As thrilling as it is to play in Michigan Stadium when it is full of fans, a tradition has developed for the players to take it all in when it is empty the night before a game. file photo