But people are overlooking one of the most critical components to Michigan's success this fall -- my lucky t-shirt.
Way back in September, I wore this shirt for the season opener against Vandy. I wasn't even aware it was lucky shirt at the time. I had no idea the significance this shirt would have upon the 2006 campaign that Saturday. It was simply...clean. And one of my favorite shirts.
First, a little history because to really know this shirt is to love it.
I had purchased the tee several years ago in A2. And it wasn't some cheap 2-for-1 piece of crap either. This was a Champion. But it was just a shirt.
Or so I thought.
As you can tell from the picture, it has that well-worn faded look. And I'm proud to say, it acquired this naturally. Over time. This wasn't that store bought "lived in" look that all the kids are wearing today. College kids today don't know how good they have it, with their damn hats that are already perfectly rounded and frayed right off the shelves, and their shirts pre-faded from day one. Back when I was in school, you had to earn that look from wash after wash after wash (or from walking nine miles to class in the snow because for some reason you got an off-campus apartment in Ypsi).
In any event, after that Vandy game, as chance would have it, I happened to wear the same shirt the following weekend for the CMU game (yes, washed, fuckers). And while it was only a couple of wins against less-than-stellar opponents, since I noticed I'd worn it twice, I decided then and there this would be my Saturday gameday shirt for the 2006 season. Don't ask why. I just did.
Little did I know the impact my decision would have on the college football landscape this fall.
In hindsight, the unexpected powers of this shirt are still just as much of a surprise to me as they probably are to you, the reader. Especially since, when I made the fateful decision to go with this shirt in 2006, with a September road game against #2 ranked Notre Dame next up on the Wolverines' schedule, the sort of game Michigan hadn't won since something like the Truman administration before this season, I assumed the shirt would soon go back to the bottom of my drawer and into its normal, random attire rotation.
Then magic struck: Michigan crushed Notre Dame.
Right then and there, I knew my -- and my shirt's -- importance for the rest of the season. Michigan fans -- nay, dare I say the entire Wolverine nation -- were now counting on us. Me...and my shirt. So each week, when I did my laundry, I made sure "The Shirt" was there. I washed it, dried it and set it aside. To be worn only one day each week from this moment forward -- Saturdays.
And so it has been each weekend. And so it shall be this Saturday, when "The Shirt" makes the trip with me to Columbus. Luckily, in those most hostile of environments, I have learned over the course of the season that the shirt's powers are so strong, that it may be worn under other clothing or sweatshirts, thus preventing similarly superstitious (and drunk and rowdy and mean) Buckeye fans from spotting said shirt and, shall we say, removing it from my person before the game.
So, I will wear it. Hidden among the masses. And you, Buckeye Nation, you cannot stop my shirt, you can only hope to contain it. Kneel before Zod! (Uh, sorry, AMC is on in the background).
And if Michigan should win this weekend on its way to a National Title (where "The Shirt" would also travel), I have decided to either permanently retire the shirt or sell it on eBay. I figure, even non-Michigan fans, when they get wind of the powers this shirt possesses -- taking a 7-5 team with a defense like a sieve and turning into one of the greatest in Wolverine history -- offers will pour in from across this great country.
So, dear Michigan fan, when you give thanks for Ron English and Mike DeBord, when you praise Mike Hart, Mario Manningham and LaMar Woodley and all the other fine players on the team, when you pay homage to the football gods for all the wonderful things that have happened to the 2006 Meeeechigan Wolverines this fall, don't also forget to give a little nod to me. And my lucky shirt.
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40 comments:
Ooooo! Aaahhh! Hardwood floors Yost? Moving on up in the world are we?
Props on the shirt. I too have tried a new attire ritual this year. One where I wear my Anthony Thomas away jersey for road games and my Desmond Howard home jersey for home games, with the Nike block M t-shirt underneath of course. And I wear the opposite color hat for each jersey.
I haven't cut my hair since the season started and I'm waiting till after Saturday before I cut it again.
But wait OSU hasn't lost since you have worn that shirt either. Maybe in truth your shirt is what has caused the Buckeyes to go undefeated and what will cause them to win Saturday.
Can you wait to cut your hair until after our game in January? That'll be important too.
With all due respect to your hair and the shirts I think my football glasses need to be thanked as well. In games 1-8 I watched Michigan play from home and drank out of my football glasses, which caused Michigan to have resounding success. Then I went to the Northwestern game so I did not get to drink out of my football glass. We were rewarded with the worst football weather I've been a part of, and a "bad" game. The following weekend I watched the game from a bar (again without my football glass) and Ball State had a huge surge at the end. Last week I went back to watching the game from home and drinking out of my football glass. We all saw what happened.
Don't worry everyone, I'll be watching the game from home and I have my football glasses safely locked away so no Buckeye fans can break them.
I have another possible explanation for Michigan's rebirth this season, though it requires me to take some blame for the failures of last season. A couple years ago I was a senior in high school but a life long Wolverines fan. I had to choose between going to Michigan or Emory University. I went to Emory.
Due to what must have been my decision not to go to Michigan, devestation in Ann Arbor ensued, and my beloved football team went 7-5. For reasons not ENTIRELY related to this, I decided to transfer to Michigan. Now that I finally decided to come to Ann Arbor, all is right with the Michigan football universe. Coincidence? I hope not...
No seriously i have a weirdly similar story. I found a maize and blue braclet strung together just lying on a random desk, so being a Michigan freak i randomly picked it up and put it on. I've worn it all season...and theyve won all sesaon. No lie right now its so close to breaking, but I'm trying my hardest to keep it together. I've been wrapping it up now when i take showers, and it's holding on by one more string. Man i really hope it last through this weekend...I just thought that was really a funny coincidence when i heard about the lucky shirt lol.
I've got a pretty swagg pair of purple athletic shorts I've worn to every game this season, except Ball State.
I attribute our struggles against BSU to their absence, and I attribute our struggles against NWU to the Power of Purple™.
I will be in attendence this Saturday, decked out head to toe in Maize and Blue, with the exception of one gaudy pair of athletic shorts, which I will wear underneath my pants.
I thought I had the lucky jersey. Let's both wear them Saturday, just to be safe.
Yost wear that shit proudly in C'hole.
GO BLUE!!
Hope if you both wear something that powerful, it doesn't cancel each other out.
I have a new pimp-ass OU shirt I want to break in as a lucky one; and I have a game this weekend that is perfect for it. Baylor Bears - how I love you.
I'll start the bidding at $20 (after the season when Michigan wins it all) if it can help the Longhorn defensive problems. Actually, if it can really do that then I guess I should fork over a couple hundred, but the wife might have some qualms about that.
Weird. I have the same story except my shirt is the "worst state ever" shirt courtesy of mgoblog that was delivered just days before the Vandy game. It has been worn 11 times, and I could have sworn IT was THE lucky shirt.
PS I had an undefeated shirt in '97 too, so I know my lucky shirts.
I too have a shirt to wear. I thought about wearing my Henne jersey, but remembered I wore that during the Alamo Bowl & also remembered my 'I Heart Hart' shirt has been worn a lot & everytime it is worn we have won easily. So, I will be wearing it saturday. I encourage all fans to wear their lucky junk on saturday.
PS- I just saw the Dead Schembechlers piece on espn.com. Those people are freaks. And, buckeyes wonder why people think they are out of cobtrol lunatics.
My husband and his buddy have got clothes that they only wear on gameday as well and some of it is scary at this point!!! Boxers that are barely hanging together, jeans that have enough holes that others must be worn under so they aren't arrested for indecent exposure. They wash them after each game of course, but now they go into the delicate cycle!! The one guy won't even buy a new wallet until after the game.They even have a table reserved at the local bar where they watch the game each week!!
For some reason, I was watching the Notre Dame game with the 2003 student section shirt on the couch next to me. After Henne threw his INT, I hung it on the doorknob of our guest room.
The shirt has not moved since.
I have been wearing the same cock-ring since kickoff of the Vandy game. And while yes, bloodflow has been shall we say "constricted" at times, I'm not taking that thing off I wake up at 10 AM on January 9,2007 in the bathroom of my motel room somewhere outside Glendale.
Ah, the power of college football...It makes 10 year-olds out of us all!
I just hope the person who buys this shirt on Ebay uses it for something like clean, renewable energy. Needless to say, we must not let this shirt fall into the wrong hands!
LOL, H2.
"One shirt to rule them all"
I can see Yost at home stroking his shirt and mumbling about something "precious".
If you win a NC, be wary of Ohio St. fans trying to cast the shirt into the fire of a burning couch.
Yost - I hear ya, babe. I went to my first A2 game in 1985, as a young gal with my Aunt (season ticket holder since '69). At age 13, UM football was my first true love. I went to home games (Sec. 19, Row 29 - over by the cowbell wielding Batman and the wall climbing cheerleader guy) with her for the next 20 years -- missing one game (vs. Iowa one year, and we lost).
I moved to AZ in early '05 and didn't get to a single game that season - the fateful 7-5 crap year. The first time in 20 years I didn't get to ONE GAME, and the season went to shit.
I flew home this year for the home opener.......and the rest is history.
I'm going home at least once every season for the rest of my life if it kills me.
Yost, keep the shirt, enshrine it if you have to. Just never let go of hope. And maybe I'll get to see you over in Glendale in January. :-) (Maybe I can even lay hands on your shirt?? Sweeeeet.)
Keep the faith, brotha! GO BLUE!!
-CH in Mesa
Thank you. Not to you, but to your shirt.
My senior year at Michigan at an early season game, my buddy and I caught beach balls other fans were tossing around and popped them. We put the beach balls on our heads, and we came back and won the game. We wore those popped beach balls on our heads to every home game for the rest of the year and we never lost a home game again that season. My biggest regret from college is throwing away that ball...
Wrong, wrong, wrong. You should never wear the same Michigan shirt/attire for more than 1 game. Once you wear it once for a win all of the luck is worn out of said shirt and may actually create a luck backlash that will look something like a 7-5 season. I've kept it switched up every single game and intend to do so for the OSU game.
I also have a lucky shirt. I ordered it along with a teeny michigan cheerleader outfit for my niece back in september. The first time I wore it was for the Notre Dame game and we all saw what happened there. I decided it was lucky and refused to wash it for the rest of the season due to a fear of washing the luck off. The only time I didn't wear it was for the Ball State game because it was Ball State for fuck's sake and I thought we didn't need the luck. Well, needless to say, I will be weraing my season old, unwashed lucky shirt from the moment I wake up on saturday.
I had the lucky shirt for the Tigers in the playoffs this year. Until they went to the World Series, then I blogged about it, and well all the wheels fell off. Hope yours it a bit more luckier than mine.
Whatever has worked for anyone this year don't go and fuck it up by changing now. I don't care if you sacrifice a chicken and dance around it while howling at the moon, just don't change your routine. I am however taking a new approach to the OSU week. Last year I wore a different UM shirt every day and rotated hats, and they lost. This year no UM gear until gameday not even the UM boxers which is tough since that only leaves me with two decent pairs.
Funny story - I am here on a project in texas (originally ny) and we have people fly in from all over. I have a USC colleague. He has stayed over a college football weekend only twice since last year and both were the times USC lost (NC and Oregon State). Since he has to be here on the weekends at such a critical point on the project and he has to work the weekends, he flies out to LA catching the red eye, and flies back at night THE VERY SAME DAY.... yeah.. college football does bring out the 10 year old in us!
I have worn the same buckeye t shirt every single Friday to work down here in Georgia. I then wear the same buckeye shirt on saturdays (different shirt). So do my lucky 2 beat your lucky one? we will see on Saturday
I need to add something too, as sad as it is. I wore my Woodson jersey to every game the last 4 years and to every game i've watched. however, starting with the ND game I forgot to put it on. And haven't worn it since, other than to the NW homecoming game (which we didn't look particularly good in). So anyhow, I will not be wearing it this weekend. Everyone needs to do their part and wear (or in my case leave hanging in the closet) that one lucky piece of clothing. OHOWIHATE!
i have been wearing UM jerseys for 12 straight weeks now. i figured as long as they're winning, i'll keep wearing them, because i wasn't expecting a ND BEATDOWN. but, the streak is still alive. i also haven't washed my UM athletic shorts since before the vandy game.
Well this is good to hear...now I have something to blame Brady's game against U of M this year on! Good luck against the Buckeyes I hope you do the same to them as you did to us Irish!
I knew something stunk around here.
I drink a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper during every game, I may be giving myself diabetes in the process but it's definetely worth it.
Just so you know, once you call attention to something lucky, it immediately loses said luck. Better find something else lucky to wear or else tOSU will win Saturday. Count on it.
This really upsets me because I knew that nobody else would think of a thing like a lucky shirt and I knew it was only me causing them to win...dam(head down shaking it)It is my Woodley Kills people not guns kills Original shirt. NOBODY CHANGE A THING!! GO BLUE!
Got a Cat 3 weeks before the season. Named him Mazen (as in Maize and Blue)... 'nough said!
That's funny my lucky sweatshirt has also made Michigan 11-0.
I have a pair of J Crew sox and old girlfriend got me back around 91 or 92 that are blue with maize and white tripes near the top. as long as we win, i do not wash them (sorry!).
they won us a nat'l championship (even if we had to share it).a nd i hope they do the same this yr (i think my girlfriends hopes so too so that i wash them)
Your lucky t-shirt is just part of the reason, I haven't worn the cursed jersey during a game all year either.
yea i got a lucky jersey, havent washed it, but havent worn it for ALL games. When i do i put it on when it starts and take it off after its over. I even put it on the same broken ass hanger i pulled it from early season. my ex thru the hanger away and i flipped out, took it out of the garbage, and put the shirt back on it. It will be worn proudly Saturday
Glad to hear im not the only superstious dork!]
(yea i probaly spelt that wrong for all the smart ass Buckeye nation but least i can pronounce it!)
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