Michigan and Slippery Rock

[SW_Mustang]

I happened across a random YouTube comment last night - the commenter stated that Slippery Rock was their favorite college football program. The replies were all from Michigan fans showing support. I thought it might be a troll, but apparently it's a Michigan tradition. At every home game, the score for Slippery Rock is announced and the crowd cheers.

I'm definitely late to the party on this one as there are a lot of articles about it, but I thought I'd share anyway. Apparently, it was started because the stadium announcer thought the name was cool, and he read out the score of the game as a joke. In 1979, Michigan invited Slippery Rock and Shippensburg to play at the Big House, gathering a crowd of 61,000 fans. They've played there twice since.



Here's an old video showcasing the partnership - I find it funny that Brandon Fusco happened to be one of the players invited, as he probably had a longer NFL career than many of the DI players that day:

Michigan Welcomes Slippery Rock back to the Big House - YouTube

There's also this video of the score being read during a game with Notre Dame:

Notre Dame vs. Michigan - YouTube

[laker]

Oh yes, this is quite a story. I'm glad to say that I was at the Mavs 2019 semifinal win in the snow and rain at Slippery Rock.

[RedFromMI]

My father had season tickets to the Big House from the late 70s until about 10 years ago. I would always make my way home for some game (usually in September) that would be a great game...

They always read the Slippery Rock score. To big cheers in the crowd.

[Clydes 'N Rams]

I might be mistaken, but wasn't there also a tie in with one of the "College Sports Scoreboards" at one of the three big networks in the 80's/early 90's with one of the producers being a SR alumni and always making sure the SR score was always shown on saturday evening along with all the D1 scores???

Maybe someone on the board would remember anything about this?

[4nick8]

I might be mistaken, but wasn't there also a tie in with one of the "College Sports Scoreboards" at one of the three big networks in the 80's/early 90's with one of the producers being a SR alumni and always making sure the SR score was always shown on saturday evening along with all the D1 scores???

Maybe someone on the board would remember anything about this?

ABC used to do it in the 70's

[laker]

ABC used to do it in the 70's

I remember them doing that- I'm not sure when they stopped.

[CALUPA69]

The strangest thing is that for those of us who grew up in Western Pa the name Slippery Rock is not at all odd. As a kid my parents took us to Slippery Rock Creek for picnics and it was amazing. Probably similar to me telling someone that I live near Flushing NYC and noticing the odd expression that name elicits.

[SW_Mustang]

The strangest thing is that for those of us who grew up in Western Pa the name Slippery Rock is not at all odd. As a kid my parents took us to Slippery Rock Creek for picnics and it was amazing. Probably similar to me telling someone that I live near Flushing NYC and noticing the odd expression that name elicits.

I get why people think the name is unusual, but after following D2 for the better part of a decade - it's pretty normal to me now.