Michigan

Yesterday, Saturday, March 11, 2017, the University of Michigan Wolverines hosted the University of Pennsylvania Quakers in men's lacrosse at Michigan Stadium, otherwise known as "The Big House," in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  The home team won, 13 to 12. Over the years, the two schools have rarely competed in intercollegiate sports.  Yesterday was an exception.  However, back in the academic year 1962-1963, they competed in one of the most important competitions of my life.

The above academic year was my senior year at Oswego High School.  No longer needing to study either American History or Latin, my academic load was minimal.  That allowed me to concentrate on my college applications to Cornell, Harvard, Brown, Georgia Tech, Case Tech, Brandeis, Penn, and Michigan.  

I believe in visiting a college before applying to it.  That way, a student can get a sense about whether they would fit in or not.  I recall my brother Joel's first time at Dartmouth College was his arrival as a freshman in September of 1950 when I was only five years-old.

My parents were not believers in college visits.  Of the eight colleges I applied to, I had only visited two prior to sending out my applications. The first was Penn, my brother Paul's alma mater.  I especially remember Thanksgiving of 1958 when we attended the annual home game against Cornell, which the Big Red won, 19-7.

In the spring of 1962, my parents and I drove from Oswego to East Lansing, Michigan to visit my brother Ted who was a student there at Michigan State University.  I convinced my parents to pass through nearby Ann Arbor to check out the University of Michigan.  As I recall, we just drove through the campus.  The only stop we made was in front of Michigan Stadium, which I briefly entered.  I was impressed with what I saw of the university.

In the fall of 1962, after all my applications had been mailed, I received a thin yellow envelope, the return address of which was from the University of Michigan.  Later, I learned that thin envelopes were usually bad news, containing quick matter-of-fact rejection letters.  I received one from both Harvard and Brown. However, without any worry, I opened the above envelope which contained the excellent news that I had been accepted to the freshman class at the University of Michigan.  More information would be forthcoming in future larger envelopes.

As Michigan was the first of the eight to respond, I felt joy at having somewhere to go the following year when I would be a high school graduate and free of my mother's very strict rules.  I was going to Michigan.  I was going to be a Wolverine.  I was going to wear the maize and blue.  I would sing "Hail to the Victors."

However, the following March (1963), I received a second such envelope, this one a very thick white one from the University of Pennsylvania which announced my acceptance into its freshman class.  Penn had been my first choice.  Because of my brother Paul, I knew so much more about Penn than any of the other five that accepted me.  I also liked that it was located in a big city, Philadelphia, which appealed to me after my years in small town Oswego.  I wanted to experience how the other half lived.  Ann Arbor was a college town, with a population then of only about 67,000, a larger version of Oswego.  

Well, as everyone should know by now, I went to Penn and am happy I did.  I got a great education and am a proud alumnus.  

However, in the summer of 1967, after my Penn graduation, I moved to suburban Detroit, Michigan where my brother Ted was living.  As a result, I met my first wife, Bonita, who was then a senior at the University of Michigan.  During the time we dated, I spent a lot of time on the campus and in the city of Ann Arbor.  We went to a football game in September at the Big House, where Michigan defeated Duke University, a school I would become familiar with forty years later when I lived in central North Carolina.  The score was 10-7.

During Thanksgiving week of 1991, my family and I were visiting Bonita's relatives in suburban Detroit.  I convinced my teenage daughter, Rachel, it would be a good idea to take a tour of the nearby University of Michigan campus.  Unfortunately, it was a very cold day.  Every time, we moved outdoors, Rachel asked when we could go back inside.  I was convinced she would never go to Michigan.

However, the next September (1992), a friend invited Rachel to a football weekend at Michigan.  She loved it and applied to be a Wolverine.  She was accepted and matriculated there the following September of 1993.  

In November of 1993, Bonita, my son, Bret, and I traveled to Ann Arbor for Parent's Weekend.  Bret and I went to a football game at the Big House against Purdue, which Michigan won, 25-10.  In October of 1994, the three of us returned again to visit Rachel. Bret and I sat in the student section for the Michigan State game, which Michigan won, 40-20.  Unfortunately, all the students stood the whole game, which was bad for Bret and me.

In December of 1994, Penn's men's basketball team visited Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor to play Michigan.  Rachel was at the game, while Bret and I watched on TV from our home in New York. Penn won this time, 62-60.    

It was in Rachel's senior year that I got a chance to attend some classes at Michigan.  One was a lecture about the Vietnam War, which I recalled from my youth.  In a second class, in which both Rachel and I were present (but not sitting together), her professor discussed the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, which I also remembered vividly.  I was an active participant in that class.

In April of 1967, we returned to the Big House for Rachel's graduation.  I was a proud Michigan parent.  

I recently had a dream I was a student at Michigan where I met three of my old friends from Oswego.  Strange!

Perhaps the next generation of my family will return to study at the University of Michigan. That would be great.