Michigan Football Traditions List

~Michigan Football Traditions~

Scroll down for a list and classification (and grouped by importance) of each Michigan Football tradition, originally drafted in 2013.  See the Guidelines at the bottom of the page for more context.  Note that traditions grouped within a particular class are not ranked against each other in importance, the rankings only apply to the order of the classes themselves (e.g., Yost Class – these are the most sacred Michigan Football traditions, Schembechler Class the next, and so on.)

Yost Class:

  • Michigan Stadium (1927)
  • All-time college football wins – 1000+ and counting (1879)
  • Winged Helmet (1938)
  • Ohio State Rivalry (Ten Year War, The Game..) (1897)
  • 12 National Championships (1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1918, 1923, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1948, 1997, 2023)
  • The Victors Fight song (1898)

Schembechler Class:

Crisler Class:

Oosterbaan Class:

Bump Class:

Under Further Review/Bull Pen:

  • Pump It Up (2021)
  • Team issuing a charm/pendant for beating Ohio State (2021)

Guidelines:

  • Individual game or career accomplishments are verboten beyond events that transcend the field.  Heisman Trophies count.  The Desmond Heisman pose counts.  Braylonfest does not. 
  • A tradition must take on a particular facet unique to the Michigan football experience or history.  “Tailgating”, for instance, is certainly a gameday tradition but not distinctly a unique Michigan tradition.
  • Traditions are grouped based on their subjective importance.  Traditions can move up or down over time. Traditions that fade away will be marked with R.I.P.
  • Traditions we don’t all like (Mr. Brightside) or are viewed as distasteful or uncreative (see the 4th-down “You Suck” chant) are still traditions.
  • Michigan Marching Band traditions are numerous and deserve their own listing.  In fact, they do – the MMB Wikipedia page has an excellent list. I tried to cite the most popular here.

Thanks for all the input from Craig Barker of The Hoover Street Rag, David Durham of @mgoshoe and the readers of this site.   

17 Comments

  • Dan

    September 17, 2013 at 9:51 pm

    Do you have any information of the origins of the varsity awards? Do second letter earners receive a watch; Do third letter earners receive an M blanket? I don’t know much about these traditions, but I have heard references to them.

  • Matt

    September 17, 2013 at 10:26 pm

    I think you’ve got a great thing going here, but maybe some adjustments could be made.
    How about re-classifying based on the originator (Yost/Crisler/Bo/Revelli/Canham/etc.) or the era the tradition originated in? And I suggest the MMB alone is worthy of both Revelli and Cavender groupings. To wit: IMO, the backbend and catching the baton (or mace) after it’s tossed over the goal post are two distinct “traditions.”

  • Bruce Towar

    September 17, 2013 at 11:59 pm

    Big House moniker; Carl Grapentine, “Ladies and Gentlemen…”; Cheerleaders handstand race across endzone*
    * do they still do this?

  • Alix

    September 18, 2013 at 10:01 am

    This may be lumped in with other MMB traditions, but after wins, the MMB plays the “Victors Waltz” and does the entire post-show with their hats on backwards.

  • Teddy

    September 18, 2013 at 4:11 pm

    How about Keith Jackson and the “ghosts of Michigan Stadium”. I believe Lloyd started the tradition of taking the team inside a dark empty Michigan Stadium on Friday night before fall camp ended.

  • Dennis Stover

    September 19, 2013 at 8:14 am

    How about adding the Slippery Rock University scores. This must date back to at least the ’50s as our high school band director (UM grad under Revelli) introduced us to it in the late ’50s. Great that Brandon or others restored the tradition during the past couple of years.

  • Buddy Moorehouse

    September 19, 2013 at 5:11 pm

    I love this, Greg. Definitely agree that you need to add the Slippery Rock scores. These are way down the list (maybe Kipke Class?), but how about the talking traffic-lady cop at the corner of Stadium and Main entertaining the crowd as they’re waiting to cross; and the MMB drumline pregame show on the steps of Revelli Hall?

  • Dan B

    September 19, 2013 at 9:19 pm

    love the list, its absolutely brilliant.

    my only comment is to say that I think winning the Big Ten should be the Yost Class. I think beating Ohio and winning the Big Ten go hand in hand (because usually they do!)

    besides that, I think its pretty spot on!

  • Howard Scully

    October 12, 2015 at 2:39 am

    Hey, Greg, great list. Suggestion or two: a portion of the MMB (pep band?) would walk around to different sections of the stadium and play a few themes: Dudley Do-Right; The Flintstones, I believe; and the one for which everyone yelled, Bullwinkle. When they played the latter, fans would put their hands up to the sides of their heads to make “antlers” and cheerleaders or band members would run around crazily.
    Here’s a clip: https://youtu.be/xKbKLRjSx9s
    I thought doing this at games was hilarious and should be listed, at least in the Oosterbaan or Crisler class.

    Also, “Popcorn”: jumping up and sitting down at random. Do they still do that? Maybe Bump class.

    Do you have a Yost Ice Arena hockey game tradition list? (e.g. “Two minutes remaining… THANK YOU!”, “Goalie! Sieve!”, “Phone!!!”, “We want mooooore goals!!!”) That’d be fun to compile.

    Cheers and Go Blue from a ’94 alum.

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