TBT - 
MICHIGAN V MICHIGAN STATE EDITION:     

From 'Little Brother' to 'Walmart Wolverine': Michigan-MSU rivalry buzzwords

fREEP
November 1, 2013    

EDITOR'S NOTE:  A little background info for my Wisconsin and Illinois brethren who may not fully understand the bitterness of the MSU vs U of M rivalry.    

FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2001, file photo, the time clock at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Mich., displays one second remaining in the Michigan at Michigan State NCAA college football game. In the 'Clock Game' of 2001, Michigan fans swear time stood still long enough for Michigan State running back T.J. Duckett to catch the game-winning touchdown as time expired to pull off a last-second 26-24 victory. Michigan versus Michigan State on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015, holds more than provincial interest. The Spartans are No. 7 and the Jim Harbaugh-led Wolverines are No. 12. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

1. "Clock-Gate" - 2001 East Lansing - Gor & I were there -- we almost got in a fight with some very disgruntled M fans on the way out of the stadium. 

Michigan fans swear timekeeper Bob (Spartan Bob) Stehlin stopped the clock when he shouldn’t have in 2001, allowing a tick for Jeff Smoker to hit T.J. Duckett with the winning pass. The Big Ten analyzed the play and called it legit, but also changed its policy on who could run the clock for Big Ten games. 

"I was just laughing. I thought it was funny. (The Spartans) got excited, it's good. Sometimes you get your little brother excited when you're playing basketball and let him get the lead. Then you just come back and take it back."  Mike Hart

2. "Little Brother" --  2007 - East Lansing - I was there

U-M rallied from a 10-point deficit to win the 2007 game.  After five straight wins in the series over MSU, the No. 15 Wolverines were confident entering the game against the unranked Spartans in East Lansing. Hart battled an ankle sprain all game, and with the Wolverines trailing at one point, 24-14, with a little more than 7 minutes remaining, U-M backup quarterback Ryan Mallett entered and fumbled. Hart grabbed the ball and ran for 19 yards, fueling U-M's comeback drive on the way to the 28-24 win. After the game, Hart grinned when making what he thought was a throwaway comment. It became a taunt for the U-M fan base and a personal attack for the MSU alums and fans. Seven years later, it still digs deep on both sides, and that remains U-M's last win at Spartan Stadium.



The game was billed as "No. 1 vs No One."  No One Won.

3. "The Trip" - 1990  - A2  - we played@ Hillsdale that day

Coach Mo, who followed Bo, and who like Darryl Rogers below,  his head coaching career came to an ill-fated end with the Detroit Lions

"He was just calling up to say how he felt about the matter, that they had talked to the officials. He told me they blew it. He said they missed it on the pass interference." U-M coach Gary Moeller, right, quoted by the Associated Press the Monday after the 1990 game, recounting his conversation with Big Ten coordinator of officials Dave Parry  

U-M entered the 1990 game ranked No. 1 in the nation despite being 3-1. The Wolverines drove to the north end of Michigan Stadium and scored with 6 seconds remaining. They still trailed, 28-27. They chose to attempt a two-point conversion. U-M receiver Desmond Howard beat MSU cornerback Eddie Brown and was wide open as the pass came, but Brown tripped him.

 The ball bounced off Howard's hands, no penalty was called, and the unranked Spartans had a huge upset. The apology didn't help U-M much, and it took years for Brown to admit his transgression.




"I find a lot of the things they do amusing. They need to check themselves sometimes. Let’s just remember, pride comes before the fall. ... They want to mock us, I’m telling them, it’s not over. They want to print that crap all over their locker room, it’s not over and it’ll never be over here. It’s just starting. ... I’m very proud of our football team, and I’m very proud of the way our football team handled themselves after the game as well. You don’t have to disrespect people. If they want to make a mockery of it, so be it. Their time will come.”  Dantonio is 6-1 against Michigan since the loss in 2007.

4. "Pride Comes Before the Fall" -- 2007 - East Lansing - again was there

Mark Dantonio went biblical in an anti-Michigan rant after the 2007 loss, stunning reporters in attendance and thrilling Michigan State fans.  

5. "The Comeback" 2004 - A2

In 2004, Michigan State was primed for its first win in Ann Arbor since 1990, leading by 17 with less than 7 minutes left. Then U-M’s Braylon Edwards ripped the game away with two regulation touchdowns, then another in the third overtime of a 45-37 U-M stunner. “It was a game I feel we could have won and should have won,” MSU coach John L. Smith said. “I’m just sick.” 

 Darryl Rogers pictured here bolted for Arizona State and his career came to an ignominious end with the Detroit Lions, the graveyard of head coaches.

6. "Arrogant Asses" - 1978  - A2

There's no official agreement on the exact wording of Michigan State coach Darryl Rogers' comment at the 1978 football banquet, but there's no dispute that he called the Wolverines and their fans "arrogant asses."

Baseball great Kirk Gibson was an All-American wide receiver at State and scored a decisive touchdown in this game. That's Mark Bramer from Traverse City on the right.

Rogers picked up that endearing piece of alliteration from one of his MSU assistant coaches, Dan Underwood, before the banquet. Rogers' public comment was well-received in East Lansing and well-timed — the Spartans were coming off a 24-15 win at Michigan that season, helping them win a share of the Big Ten title. That was MSU's first win in the series since 1969, Bo Schembechler's first season as U-M coach. Unfortunately for the Spartans, it was not a sign of things to come with Rogers. He bolted for Arizona State after a 5-6 season in 1979. His borrowed two-word description of the Wolverines, though, lives on in the rivalry.

Ever been on M.A.C. Boulevard in East Lansing?  If you've ever partied at State chances are you have. 
It's NOT pronounced "MACK" as in the truck.

7. "Moo U"  -  since 1956

Michigan’s eternal dig at MSU’s agricultural origins was referenced in a 1956 Time magazine story on Duffy Daugherty — a sign at the game read “Cream Moo U” — and it has endured through the years.



From MAC (hence Moo U) to MSU with MSC in between! My favorite part of Spartan Stadium used to be the smokestacks outside that still read MSC until they were torn down a few years ago. 

 

Screw the Axe, we got Paul himself!

G. Mennen "Soapy" Williams, heir to the deodorant fortune, Michigan's longest-serving Governor and the man who build the Mackinac Bridge.

8. "The Trophy"

When Michigan Gov. G. Mennen "Soapy" Williams introduced the Paul Bunyan Trophy to the game’s winner in 1953, he couldn’t imagine the “trophy” would be wheeled back and forth 60 years later. At 9 feet tall with the 4-foot wooden Bunyan, a flag for each school and a state map atop a 5-foot base, it also might be one of the largest trophies anywhere. A favorite pastime for the winner? Seeing which player resembles Paul. 

MSU screwed U of M out of the 74 Rose Bowl by casting the deciding vote for OSU after the 1973 Bo & Woody tie.

9. "The Traitor and the Vote" - 1973

After Michigan and Ohio State tied, 10-10, to end the 1973 season and for the Big Ten title, conference athletic directors voted on which team would go to the Rose Bowl. Ohio State won the vote  6-4, with Michigan State’s Burt Smith voting for the Buckeyes. The dagger for the Wolverines? Smith was a U-M grad

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10. "The Pick" - 1997 in East Lansing - I was there. Woodson's 1-handed interception was unreal.

Reading MSU QB Todd Schultz in the 1997 game, Charles Woodson made one of the great interceptions in U-M history, snagging a ball with one hand, a catch few thought possible. “I think they were definitely trying to test me,” he said after the game. “I think it was the wrong move.”

Bob Apisa, a member of State's
"Hawain Connection" from the Mid-Sixties

11. "The Dagger" - 1965 - EL

Daugherty wanted a fall down, ending the 1965 win respectfully with a 10-point lead. But fullback Bob Apisa asked quarterback Steve Juday to hand him the ball for the dive and instead ran for a 39-yard touchdown, sticking it to U-M, 24-7. “Duffy was furious,” MSU guard Tony Conti said. (NOTE: I used to sit next to Tony Conti at Spartan Stadium. He has since passed away).

 

12. "Walmart Wolverine"

Some MSU fans have constructed websites making fun of Michigan fans with no affiliation to the school (NOTE: or going to any college whatsoever). Sometimes shortened to “Walverine.” The lesser-used Michigan counter: “Save-A-Lot Spartan.” 

13.  "The Stake" - 2014 - East Lansing -- My own addition  - I was there

 

Michigan LB Joe Bolden stupidly did this before last year's game and MSU proceeded to run up the score on M by scoring a late touchdown to make the final 35-11 (a score emblazoned on the side of their Cotton Bowl rings by the way).

Said Dantonio "It just felt like we needed to put a stake in them at that point."