If you read the quotes on the link below, and then the letters in today's Dispatch Mailbag, apparently there is one thing OSU and Michigan fans and even players can unite on. As my good friend Scott Miller emailed me in response to yesterday's stories, "First time I have ever heard anyone from Michigan make any sense!"
I'd like to share one of the letters from today's mailbag that I think says a lot, a well composed email sent to the Dispatch by Tristin Pruss, a Michigan Fan.
Editor: As a Michigan alumnus and lifelong fan, one date is the first one marked on my calendar every year. It is a time to celebrate with friends and family, to look forward to whatever surprises the day holds, and to mark the passing of time - the ending of one season and a transition into winter and the long wait for the next.
Sure, bowl games (and, in the near future, a conference championship game) may often await, but those are uncertainties that are fluid. The regular-season finale between Ohio State and Michigan, however, is a bedrock of tradition that fans have relied upon to stay the same, amid the ever-changing tides of modern collegiate athletics. And there is no reason why that should have to change.
Let's remember these words, borrowed from HBO's brilliant production, Michigan vs. Ohio State: The Rivalry: "One of the things that makes the Michigan-Ohio State game so great and separates it from other sports rivalries is not only does it happen once a year, but it happens at the same time every year.
"You feel you are a part of something that stretches from before you existed and will be here long after you are gone the way it was with our grandparents, the way it was with our parents, the way it is with us, the way it's going to be with our children and grandchildren. The cold, dark, forbidding sky of that late November day in Ann Arbor or Columbus it does set the tone for the whole winter with either being the victor or having been humiliated by your rival."
Go Blue, (and just this once) Go Bucks. - Tristan M. Pruss
Thanks Tristian. We have never met but I think I would like you.
Go Bucks, (and reciprocating just this once) - Go Blue.