25 Things We Love About Michigan Football Saturdays: #20 Ticket Stubs & Programs

If I ever - ever - start a countdown list on this blog again, somebody please just smack me in the f*cking head.  Son of a bitch!  The problem with these lists is that I feel compelled to do them once started.  But then blogging, rather being the fun hobby I enjoy as an escape, becomes like a job and/or homework.  Something I have to do (like make fun of people who still think Tressel was an innocent scapegoat).  And that defeats the whole purpose of blogging.  For cryin' out loud, this countdown was started so that its finish would coincide with the home opener.  But that plan's already gone to shit.*  Oh well, I digress.  Because today we somehow reach...

#20: Ticket Stubs & Game Programs

This dual item (they really do go hand-in-hand) harkens back to my childhood.  I don't think anybody who started going to Michigan games as a kid didn't love leaving A2 with a game program and a well-preserved ticket stub as souvenirs.  Sure, the bigger ticket items like a hat and a shirt were nice, but the actual ticket and corresponding program were a way to relive the game again that night and for months (or years) to come.

Just looking at this cover and
reliving what happened still hurts

Personally, I would get home from the game, still sky-high from the experience, then immediately begin browsing through the program again.  Memorizing tidbits about the coaching staff from their bios (holy crap, Fred Jackson has been there forever!).  Marveling at how old the players all looked when I was a kid (18, 19, 20 and 21, my ass!  These were grown, old men).  Trying to figure out that scheduling chart at the end of the program with all the Big 10 teams (when indeed it was just 10).

And the ticket stubs.  I'd collect mine, saving them along with the other important worldly possessions of an eight year old: comic books, some piece of crap from a cereal box, that gift your grandma gave you that you never played with but your mom wouldn't let you throw away.  Yet while the comic books, cereal box toy and gift quickly did vanish, I kept those ticket stubs for years, each one bringing forth a small smile of remembrance.  The first Big House game I'd ever been to; some crappy blow out game in which the outcome was never in doubt (remember those days?).  My first Michigan-Ohio State game (when we won those, too).  And other "special" games.  A big play.  A great comeback.  Special memories with my friends or family.  All from an old ticket stub.

Then, when I got older, while I stopped saving the ticket stubs and became a season ticket holder.  And if you are also a season ticket holder, there is nothing - and I mean nothing - that can get a grown Michigan Man as excited (okay, a few things) as getting his season tickets in the mail.  It's, well, like this...



Actually, I think a Michigan Man getting his tickets in the mail is slightly more excited than that.  Maybe it's just me.

* No, this won't be the last time I bitch about this countdown.  Hell, in time, the bitching may actually overtake the countdown content.  Which might even be more entertaining for you, the loyal MZone reader.  It'll be a cyber-meltdown for all to enjoy.  Grab some popcorn and stay tuned!