Hail to the Spartan Victors?

I do not remember where I was driving when I saw this banner. The incongruity prompted me to stop and take a picture. I found it again in my archives but it had been edited and the date was too current now. 

We mostly lived in Michigan for about 30 years off and on from 1977 to 2011, almost 20 years continuously from 1979 to 1999. The hometown rivalries are between the Michigan State University Spartans (green and white) and the University of Michigan Wolverines (blue and maize). 

Never much for team sports and certainly not college football, the fact is that we lived in and around Lansing until 1999. My daughter and I made good use of the MSU campus. I had a community library card. We skated the grounds, rented canoes, and explored buildings when classes were out. 

But Laurel’s freshman year was at the U of M before we met. She returned to work at the University and take a graduate class when we were living in Ann Arbor and attending Eastern Michigan University 2005-2010. So, our loyalties are somewhat conflicted.

 

But, as I said, I don’t follow sports. So, there was one time I was working for a software firm in Lansing and some of the programmers were MSU graduates; everyone else was an MSU fan. I caught a cold the week of Thanksgiving and missed a day of work that Wednesday and spent the weekend in bed recuperating. The Michigan-Michigan State game was televised (oddly) and I caught snatches of the last quarter as I surfed the channels. When the game was over, the Green and White band came out and played “Hail to the Victors.” 

 The next Monday, they were talking about the game, and going to school, and learning the MSU fight song at orientation. And I said, “Hail to the Victors” and they said, “WHAT?!?!” And I explained that I caught the end of the game and the Spartan band played “Hail to the Victors.” And they said, “That’s because we lost. The band salutes the winner by playing their song.” Oh…

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Hook ‘em Horns! 

Good-Bye Redskins 

Why a Level Playing Field? 

Big Bang Theory: More Friends than Seinfeld