5/30/2023 0 Comments Year walk grave![]() ![]() Prout’s father spoke about the mythology of Schembechler and what it’s meant for his son to experience everything that comes with Michigan football. Prout has had more than 100 surgeries for various ailments in about 17 years, and he’s been an honorary team member for each of the past four seasons. More people peered out from the crowd and spoke about their memories of Bo. And for the first time in probably 15 years, I don’t think, I know, we’re going to Columbus with the better team, and I know that Bo would love this team.” But I think we can all feel it, that the pendulum is starting to swing back. We just didn’t know that it was gonna drop this hard. We knew that the other shoe was gonna drop. “We had some great times with this rivalry in the ’80s and ’90s,” Holzhausen says. ![]() For some, the memories are just as strong. Harbaugh was not there this year, but he likes to equate the Ohio State game to Christmas Day. ![]() Jim Harbaugh came to this Grave Walk in 2015, his first year as head coach. I know a lot of you are like me, and as we’ve seen Ohio State throughout this season, we’ve seen how we’ve played through the season, we started to drool a little bit thinking about this Saturday.” “In 2018, it is gonna be Michigan again,” Holzhausen said. Michigan, of course, has not beaten Ohio State since 2011, and as these people descended on the graves of program legends, the current Michigan team was wrapping its practice. Holzhausen played the clip, then spoke his own words about Schembechler and the spirit of togetherness he still evokes, now with people huddled around his resting place. No coach is more important than the team. Of course, it was the famed Schembechler speech, the one they still commemorate with T-shirts and banners. As the people grew hushed, Holzhausen played an old clip of Schembechler through portable speakers. The first stop is the grave of Bo Schembechler, the idol of this town, the man who led the Wolverines for 21 years and went 11-9-1 against Ohio State.įlashlights flickered, and everyone gathered round Schembechler’s headstone. They walked, finally, across one street and into the cemetery, the darkness and community almost making all this feel normal. Under a bright moon, clouds moving slowly through the dark sky, the maize and blue mob trekked through campus, past freshmen on longboards and girls giggling as they marched through the cold. If I was there last week, I might have lost my cookies in the first quarter. If anyone was talking, they were probably telling stories about Michigan football. On the half-mile walk from Ingalls Mall to Forest Hill Cemetery, the crowd’s mood was quiet, almost reverent, in the 30-degree night. Many of the past 21 years have indeed felt like some sort of football purgatory, but this year, everyone seems confident things have changed. Known as a Michigan superfan, Holzhausen has been leading these Grave Walks during Ohio State week since 1997, the last time the Wolverines won a national title. If these Michigan fans are Dante venturing through Purgatorio, Holzhausen is their Virgil. “All right,” Jeff Holzhausen bellowed just after the clock chimed. And this year, perhaps more so than others, these fans sought some sort of reconciliation, some sort of connection, some sort of faith and hope by way of the spirits that shaped their program. Tuesday night, five days before two college football teams play an important game, a group of Michigan fans ventured to visit three graves. Now the Wolverines are 10-1 entering the latest installment of The Game, and you probably know what’s at stake. Religious overtones have followed this team through its season-opening loss at Notre Dame’s holy ground, on through its atonement and victory against Michigan State and beyond. But they do this before the Ohio State game annually at Michigan, where the football team is in the midst of what these people believe is a redemptive season. Not all organize walks through graveyards at night. Many schools honor their past and value their tradition. ![]()
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