Brief history of the "Go Blue" banner

The pre-game tradition of the Michigan players racing out of the tunnel and leaping into the air to touch the "Go Blue: M Club Supports You" banner while the Marching Band plays "The Victors" is one of the most recognizable game day traditions at University of Michigan football games. The tradition dates back to 1962 when Bump Elliott was the Head Coach of the Wolverines. Although the graduate "M" club made the permanent banner, it was the undergraduate "M" club that started the tradition with a simple yellow block "M" on a six-foot wide strip of fabric. On the Friday practice before Michigan's 1962 Homecoming game against Illinois, the "M" club assembled all the non-football letterwinners to form two lines as the players ran off the field towards the locker rooms in Yost Field House. The club was given permission by Coach Elliott to form the the flag tunnel before the game the next day, and the rest is history. As an interesting aside, the "Go Blue" banner measures approximately 40 feet long x 4 feet wide and has been stolen twice during its forty-plus year history. It was also "attacked" by the Ohio State football team in 1973. Go Blue!

*Note: Much of the historical information contained in this post came from an article in the M Letterwinners Club's Winter 2003 newsletter (.pdf format).

Banner Performance

Every home game one of the most exciting moments prior to kickoff is when the Michigan team comes roaring out of the tunnel and the players leap up and touch the M GO BLUE banner on their way to the west sideline. Against CMU, however, the geniuses from the M Club who were holding the banner on the North side of the field had the banner all twisted up which kind of ruined the effect. (Click here to see photo gallery; go to 3rd photo to see the twisted banner). I think they need to hold a remedial Banner Raising class so those members can learn how to raise and hold the banner upright without looking like a bunch of doofuses.

While I am on the subject of pre-game pomp and circumstance, I want to address a question I was asked by a reader about the coin toss ceremony. Joining the two team captains (LaMarr Woodley and Jake Long) at mid-field for the coin toss was 5th-year senior Obi Oluigbo. For the coin toss in week one the two team captains had been joined by 5th-year senior Darnell Hood. The reason Oluigbo and Hood were out there for the respective coin tosses was because they each had been selected to serve as the special teams captain during the respective games. Go Blue!