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Big Man on Campus starts
feeling a little smaller
By MURRY FRYMER
of TheColumnists.com
I read in the paper
that the University of Michigan is going to renovate its football
stadium. The stadium will get about 750 more seats, bringing
the capacity to 108,251, and it will cost $226 million.
That’s a lot of money for 750 seats, especially when you
already have over 107,000, but all the seats will be two inches
wider than the old. Look around at your fellow man and you can
see the two inches are needed.
However, there’s one more new wrinkle. The school has decided
to build private boxes of various sizes and 3,200 indoor and
outdoor club seats. Those will go to the well-heeled fans, mostly
corporations I would guess. Those seats can be claimed as business
expenses and can be leased or sold by the university athletic
department for quite a bit of money.
Michigan, which boasts one of the premier football programs in
the nation, costing who-knows-how-many-millions, obviously needs
to add to the kitty to entice the football players it needs to
keep that program top-notch.
I am not a big sports fan, but I bring all this up because I
am a Michigan grad. In fact this is my 50th anniversary, an awesome
number. I remember seeing doddering old 50th-anniversary alums
on the campus when I was a cherub there. I do not feel doddering,
but I guess it is a good time to look in the mirror
I was invited some weeks back to return to Ann Arbor for a lunch
being given by the Hopwood Award people. The Hopwoods are given
each year to some student achievements in writing and, I am proud
to boast that back when I was a junior at the U. of M. I won
such an award for a short play I had written and submitted.
I guess I was as proud of that as I have ever been over an achievement.
My playwriting professor had had some distinguished writers in
his class over the years. One, Arthur Miller, was my personal
writer/hero and he, too, had won a Hopwood Award. For a few moments
I fancied myself in his league. When you are a junior in college,
you fancy lots of things.
Anyway, I thought about going to that lunch and then decided
it was a very long trip for lunch and the late Arthur Miller
would not be there. And I have to admit that my own writing career
is not enough to seat me at the head table. And, well, who knows
what other reasons I had for passing up the trip.
But one thing that did come to mind was that after 50 years I
might not be able to relate to dear old Ann Arbor town, lyrics
from one of the school songs. When I was at Michigan, I was a
Big Man on Campus, writing the school musical and editing the
school daily and being looked up to by everyone except the pretty
coeds who somehow managed to resist my charms for four years.
Somehow the jocks had the social life I coveted, even without
editing the school paper.
And, my, how well the jocks have done in the 50 years since I
left. When I was going to the college games, Michigan had a rather
weak team in the Big 10 (now 11) and the stadium sat just 70-some
thousand fans, which still seemed pretty big. Back then (and
I’m talking half a century now), the players had to play
both ways, both offense and defense, rather than the specialization
of today. How many of today’s quarterbacks could actually
tackle opposing halfbacks as they had to do back then? How many
of today’s specialized kickers--some who aren’t even
football players--could star at tackle as those kickers had to
do?
So, over the years, the game became bigger and bigger and less
and less is expected from the players. And the rewards for playing
the game, especially at a school like Michigan, have been enormous.
The stars go on to the National Football League and earn tens
of millions of dollars in their careers. And who knows how many
coed-equivalents!
I don’t really know if I will ever go back to Ann Arbor.
I want to, but I guess what I want to see is what no longer is.
The enrollment is about double now or maybe more. The campus
has spread to a new North Campus area, all of which happened
after my years there.
The old Michigan Daily building, where I spent countless hours
covering the news and voicing my earnest opinions, is being refurbished,
too. There might be a memory here or there, but those I fear
even more. It is like looking at the picture of Dorian Gray.
While I feel like a college junior, the face in the mirror tells
me I’m not and the discrepancy might be saddening.
And, anyway, I don’t think the stadium should be expanded
to a ridiculous 108,000 plus. That would hold all of the town
of Ann Arbor, I believe. I especially don’t think there
should be special enclaves for the executives of General Motors
and whatever other companies delve in Ann Arbor and Detroit.
I have been on edge over the years over the enormous athletic
achievements of the university because I have never felt they
represented the students of the school.
Athletes are hired, whether by paycheck or the promise of a future
paychecks. Athletes have to be recruited fervently while students
such as myself had to struggle on our own for admittance. Athletes
don’t need good grades. I did in order to win a small scholarship
which I sorely-needed to help pay the $430 tuition. In other
words, Michigan’s athleticism seems to have little to do
with my own student achievements and I have never thought it
added to the school’s fame. It is a very good school, but
there are other good schools that are famous for their students
and professors and not their football teams.
Maybe I will go back for my 60th anniversary, Then, the stadium
will probably seat 200,000 with TV screens at every seat, since
they will be so far back that half the crowd won’t be able
to see the field.
I am happy to note that many students and alumni have protested
the huge expense of money for the stadium refurbishment and especially
those private boxes for the rich folks. At least that rebellion
is still part of the school. If I were still a student, I would
be writing many editorials. I believe today’s editors are
doing just that.
I really miss the University of Michigan, the one I knew then.
Actually, what I really miss is the student I used to be and
the thrill of winning a writing prize that Arthur Miller once
won, and the dreams I had then. I think I would feel just a wee
bit smaller in a stadium seating over 108,000..
©2006 by Murry Frymer. The Murry Frymer caricature is ©2000 by Jim Hummel. The illustration is from IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA. This column first posted May 29, 2006.
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