Neal Rubin: U-M fans show up for team, undeterred by snow, Southwest, TCU
GLENDALE, Arizona − Samantha Awad loves her Wolverines enough to fly in from Montclair, New Jersey, to see them. At the Fiesta Bowl on Saturday, she was loving them from afar.
She'd paid $400 apiece online for what were arguably the worst seats in State Farm Stadium: fourth level, diagonally upward from the corner of the end zone, last row.
But to her right was her 12-year-old daughter, Royce, and to her left was her dear friend from Birmingham, Renee Alsarraf, and down below were Michigan and Texas Christian, battling for a spot in the national championship game.
"We're here," said Awad, U-M Class of '97. "It's New Year's Eve. It's Arizona."
It was enough. "Bucket list," Awad said. And in a smartly designed 67,200-seat stadium that's only 16 years old, she noted, "at least it's better than the worst seat in the Big House."
A gusty, cloudy day had turned sunny and promising an hour before kickoff as TCU and Michigan fans tailgated, in some cases sharing impromptu fellowship and beers. With no history of rivalry between the schools or even their conferences, the 14-team Big Ten and the 10-team Big 12, hostility seemed almost inappropriate.
Furthermore, with Dallas-based Southwest Airlines melting down last week just in time to undercut travel plans, harrowing arrivals were a shared experience.
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"We gave up and drove," said Annie Coates, 48, a Michigan booster by marriage who used to live in Grand Rapids and now teaches in Chicago. "It wasn't bad. I'd never seen some of those states before."
Michiganders being migratory creatures, plenty of attendees were here long before the team.
Real estate appraiser Steve Ellsworth, 61, for instance, grew up in Clio but moved to Phoenix in 1995. A Western Michigan alum, "I wanted to go to Michigan, but the grades got me," he said
Steps away, Amanda Redmond was wearing a blue T-shirt with a map of Ohio at the bottom in yellow, or maize if you prefer. The map was explained by the words above it: "Blink if you hate ..."
Redmond, 35, grew up in Dearborn Heights and followed her future husband to Arizona four years ago.
"I haven't seem 'em play in five years," she said. "I'm way overdue. I'm feeling it."
As a Michigan devotee, her views on Ohio State University did not need explaining — and that explained her hesitation as she identified her new home town, the westernmost suburb in metropolitan Phoenix.
It's called Buckeye.
Redmond was playing washers, a harder-edged, smaller-target relative of cornhole. All around, excitement was in the air, along with footballs and beanbags. Generosity was rampant: have a beer, have a bratwurst, have a button.
Amanda Kelly, a Minnesotan, has been fond of the Wolverines since the Fab Five era in basketball. She had neglected to bring anything maize and blue beyond her high-heeled blue suede boots, however, so she approached a gentleman at a tailgate and asked where he had acquired his properly colored badge that said BEAT TCU.
I told him, 'I need more Michigan gear,' " she said. "He pulled another one out of his pocket and said, 'Here you go.' "
"She's collecting," said her husband, Dave, 61, who in an unrelated football note is the father-in-law of Detroit Lions offensive tackle Taylor Decker. "We'll see how much she can get by the end of the day."
That particular gathering had begun with a few small clusters and grown to 60-some people. The tailgate on an F-150 went down, the lift gate on a Jeep went up, and conviviality broke out.
Nursing an Ultra near old and new friends was someone whose attachment to the Michigan program is in heavy rotation on Detroit television — attorney Mike Morse, who's featuring edge rusher Mike Morris and a cluster of his teammates in his commercials.
"I've come to love these players," he said, and his 14-year-old daughter, Lexie, is at least as attached. Her two older sisters opted for other colleges, but she wants to be a Wolverine ... and a personal injury lawyer.
By a highly unofficial estimate inside the stadium, the purple-and-white-wearing fans of TCU slightly outnumbered the throng backing Michigan.
Even inside, and even amid the tension of actual competition, there was minimal apparent acrimony.
One 20-something man with a faded TCU T-shirt and an expensive haircut was walking through the concourse in the second half bellowing, "Down with Michigan," adding the classic thumbs-down gesture in case his meaning was unclear. but his two buddies opted not to join him.
"Cut it out," one said.
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By then, Michigan did in fact appear to be going down, behind 34-22 with the Horned Frogs on the move. Things got better, then worse, then even worse than that, and the final score was 51-45 in favor of disappointment.
Up in Section 402, row 22, one consolation lingered for Awad. She was in the house, after years of jeering from Royce and her older sister, Brooklyn.
"Mom," they'd say after yet another beatdown from Ohio State, "why do we always lose? I don't care what it was like when you were in school."
What it was like, back in '97, was an NCAA championship. It turns out that for now, even after a drubbing of OSU, there won't be another one.
But quarterback J.J. McCarthy is only a sophomore, running back Blake Corum's injured knee is getting plenty of rest, and from high above the field, Awad could already see next year.
Next year has yet to arrive for Neal Rubin, whose University of Northern Colorado Bears have mostly floundered since Division II championships in 1996 and '97. Reach him at NARubin@freepress.com, or via Twitter at @nealrubin_fp.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: U-M fans show up for team, undeterred by snow, Southwest, TCU
