The M Club banner is a tradition at

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

games. The tradition, started in 1962, is for the

Michigan Wolverines football The Michigan Wolverines football team represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins in college football history. The team is known for its ...

players to leap and touch a maize-and-blue banner as they run onto the field before home games.

Touching the banner

The banner, reading "Go Blue: M Club Supports You", is raised at midfield before every Michigan home game. Michigan players run from the

Michigan Stadium Michigan Stadium, nicknamed "The Big House," is the football stadium for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is the largest stadium in the United States and the Western Hemisphere, the third largest stadium in the world, and the ...

tunnel as the

Michigan Marching Band The Michigan Marching Band (also known as the University of Michigan Marching Band or simply MMB) is the official marching band of the University of Michigan. The band performs at all Michigan Wolverines football home games, select away games, and ...

plays "

The Victors "The Victors" is the fight song of the University of Michigan. Michigan student Louis Elbel wrote the song in 1898 after the football team's victory over the University of Chicago, which clinched an undefeated season and the Western Conferen ...

". As the players approach the banner, they leap to touch it. ''

Fox College Football ''Fox College Football'' (or ''Fox CFB'' for short) is the branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I FBS college football games produced by Fox Sports, and broadcast primarily by Fox, FS1, and FS2. Initial college football broadcasts on th ...

'' in 2021 ran a feature on the banner, calling it "one of the defining images in college football."

Adam Rittenberg Adam Rittenberg (born August 15, 1981) is a blogger and sports journalist for ESPN's college football section dedicated to the Big Ten Conference in college football. Before 2008 when he joined ESPN, he was a sports writer at Daily Herald (Arl ...

ESPN.com ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN. It is owned by ESPN Internet Ventures, a division of ESPN Inc. History Since launching in April 1995 as ESPNET.SportsZone.com (ESPNET SportsZone), the website has developed numerous sections including: ...

described the tradition as follows: "It's an iconic entrance at an iconic stadium to the tune of an iconic fight song. If you haven't seen Michigan touch the banner at Michigan Stadium, you haven't been paying attention." The current version of the banner measures . The banner has been redesigned over the years with slight changes in the school's color scheme. New England Flag and Banner have made the banners in recent years. Between games, the banner is stored at an undisclosed location in Michigan's basketball home of

Crisler Center Crisler Center (formerly known as the University Events Building and Crisler Arena) is an indoor arena located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is the home arena for the University of Michigan's men's and women's basketball teams as well as its women's ...

History

The tradition began in 1962 when Michigan began the season with a 1–5 record. Before the Illinois game on November 10, the M Club received permission from head coach

Bump Elliott Chalmers William "Bump" Elliott (January 30, 1925 – December 7, 2019) was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He played halfback at Purdue University (1943–1944) and the University of Michigan (1946–19 ...

to have the school's

varsity letter A varsity letter (or monogram) is an award earned in the United States for excellence in school activities. A varsity letter signifies that its recipient was a qualified varsity team member, awarded after a certain standard was met. Description ...

winners in other sports line up in two rows on the field, welcoming the football team as it ran onto the field. Michigan defeated Illinois, and the tradition began. According to another account, Michigan hockey coach

Al Renfrew Allan McNab Renfrew (December 21, 1924 – November 10, 2014) was a hockey player (left wing) at the University of Michigan in the late 1940s and a college hockey coach with Michigan Technological University (1951–1956), the University of No ...

asked his wife, Marguerite, to make two banners to drape over the football locker room. She made the banners by hand with help from the school's engineering dean, Bob Hosington, in designing the Block M. The banners were initially hung in the locker room and then moved to the tunnel. After each game, the Renfrews brought the banners home, where they were hung during the week. During

The Ten Year War The Ten Year War was a series of college football games, played from 1969 to 1978, in the Michigan–Ohio State football rivalry that pitted coach Woody Hayes of the Ohio State Buckeyes against coach Bo Schembechler of the Michigan Wolverines. In ...

, the M Club banner was the focus of two incidents involving the

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree ...

. In 1973, the Ohio State players ran onto the field first and, led by

Outland Trophy The Outland Trophy is awarded to the best college football interior lineman in the United States as adjudged by the Football Writers Association of America. It is named after John H. Outland. One of only a few players ever to be named an All-Ame ...

winner

John Hicks Sir John Richards Hicks (8 April 1904 – 20 May 1989) was a British economist. He is considered one of the most important and influential economists of the twentieth century. The most familiar of his many contributions in the field of economic ...

, unsuccessfully attempted to destroy the banner. Four years later,

Woody Hayes Wayne Woodrow Hayes (February 14, 1913 – March 12, 1987) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Denison University (1946–1948), Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1949–1950), and Ohio State University (1951 ...

and the 1977 Ohio State team ran under the banner. Former Michigan All-American

Dave Gallagher David Thomas Gallagher (born September 20, 1960) is an American former professional baseball journeyman outfielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for seven teams, during his nine-year big league career (–). Early life Gallagher w ...

and Michigan's undergraduate "M" men representing other sports sought to physically block and tackle the Ohio State players from passing under the banner. On September 10, 2022, at a game in which a thunderstorm delayed the kickoff until 9:01p.m., the tradition was not followed for the first time in some 60 years.

References

{{Michigan Wolverines football navbox Michigan Wolverines football Sports paraphernalia 1962 establishments in Michigan