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Growing up, most of my weekends in the fall were spent watching Michigan football at some point with my father. My dad is a proud alumnus of the school and he comes from a long lineage of Michigan Wolverines. Both of his brothers went to school there, as well as his nephews, parents, and so on. My brother and I wound up at Yale and Princeton, respectively, and I think he was OK with that given the strong academic standing of those schools, but we otherwise had a good chance of following in his footsteps.
Being a Michigan fan was fun growing up. For one thing, it gave me and my dad something to bond over and to talk about. We also got to watch some really amazing players. Specifically, I remember rooting for Tom Brady before he was Tom Brady. I think me and my dad were the only people in New England who really knew who Tom Brady was when the Patriots drafted him in 2000. And this does not mention other Hall of Famers like Charles Woodson or Desmond Howard, and current stars like Aidan Hutchinson or Jabrill Peppers.
There have been many ups and downs along the way. We got a national title in 1997 but also found ourselves coming up short many times, rotating through various coaches over the last thirty years or so until finally getting some consistent success under Jim Harbaugh. My dad is an emotional fan of the team and perhaps a bit pessimistic, so he would often be chastised by my mother for bringing a little bit too much passion into his viewership. I think I learned this from him because I exhibit the same traits when cheering on my favorite Boston sports teams.
Because Michigan and Ohio State always play each other right after Thanksgiving, I always made it a habit to watch that game with my dad. Even when I would come home from college to see my family, I would figure out some plan with my parents to watch that game together. Between 2001 and 2019, Michigan had only won twice against Ohio State. I had come to accept that this was basically an automatic loss every season. This made it all the more special that Michigan finally broke through a couple years ago and has now won three in a row. I remember watching that first win with my dad at the new apartment my wife and I had moved into at the time and he was elated.
I often joke to people when explaining that I am a Michigan fan that Princeton cares more about its Mathletes than its football team. That’s not really true, and Princeton has actually had a very good FCS (1-AA) team since I started attending the school in 2006. They have produced several NFL athletes, and more recently, Andrei Iosivas, a wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals, is among the best we have seen in recent history. But Princeton doesn’t compete for national titles due to Ivy League restrictions and the games are sparsely attended. It just isn’t the same atmosphere and obviously from the perspective of what people care about nationally, it hardly registers on the scale.
In the last decade, I’ve had the opportunity to take my father to Ann Arbor for two games. The first time I went, it was just me, him, my mom, and his brother and sister-in-law (who are also both alums and die-hard fans). The second time we went, my brother and his boyfriend tagged came as well, and we had the opportunity to reconnect with my father’s nephew and his family – also an alum and also big fans. The best way I can describe these experiences is similar to the way people describe how “the days are long but the years are fast” with a newborn child. When you’re staying at a Residence Inn in the midwest somewhere to see a college football game with your family, as you are experiencing the moments, some of it can seem fairly straightforward. It is in hindsight that you look at the memories that were made where you almost sort of miss experiencing it, because we very well may never get to do that again.
The last few years were tough for Michigan fans. They made it to the semifinals two years in a row and got blown out both times. This year, I was really nervous when Michigan drew Alabama in the semifinals. I figured this might be the third straight year that we met the same fate. Fortunately, we overcame the historical demons and pulled through and then went on to win a national title.
If there is one other thing I want to say about my father as it pertains to this story, it is that he is a pretty simple man. He’s a very well-respected lawyer who is constantly winning awards for thought leadership in his field, and you would never know it because he is a pretty quiet and humble guy. He’s not interested in too many hobbies outside of work and likes to live a quiet life. This always made shopping for him for birthdays or other occasions quite difficult. I say this because being a fan of the Michigan Wolverines is the one constant interest he has had throughout his entire life, and I am grateful that he passed it onto me, and that we had the opportunity to celebrate Michigan victories when I was a ten year old and again more recently as an adult.
Jeff Kirchick 