Michael Medow was surprised to see Sparty looking blue - and yellow - Tuesday afternoon.
Medow, who walks by the statue at least eight times a week, saw the MSU landmark covered in blue and yellow paint as he passed by at about 2:30 p.m.
“This is a symbol I walk by every day,” the international relations and political theory and constitutional democracy sophomore said. “It was unusual to walk by and see paint all over it.”
Police received a call at 6:11 a.m. Tuesday reporting Sparty had been vandalized, said MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor.
Police have no suspects, but University of Michigan students likely were involved, McGlothian-Taylor said.
MSU plays U-M in men’s basketball today at Breslin Center.
Grounds Maintenance crew members worked from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. powerwashing and scrubbing paint from the statue officially known as “The Spartan,” which is believed to be the world’s tallest free-standing ceramic statue. Equipment and weather problems added to the cleanup time.
Violet Hickey, an eight-year veteran of the hard-surface crew, said people attempt to vandalize the statue about five times a year.
“In the eight years I’ve been here, this is the worst it’s been hit,” Hickey said. “They got approximately nine cans of paint on him.”
MSU was last vandalized by blue and yellow in October 2000 when five men painted blue, block M’s on campus. Ann Arbor saw green and white in October 2000, when its rock was painted with MSU’s colors. The statue was attacked twice in 1998.
The Spartan Marching Band guards the statue during the week of the MSU-U-M football game, but not during the basketball season.
Andrea Poulson, a music therapy freshman and band member, said the band should consider protecting Sparty throughout the year.
“I was upset,” Poulson said. “That’s our mascot. We should have had Sparty Watch.”
Gary Parrott, Grounds Maintenance manager, said it will cost hundreds of dollars in labor and material to get Sparty back to its bronze-colored self.
Parrott said maintenance workers will be back today, cleaning the rest of the paint from the statue and the bricks of its base. A protective coat of clear paint also will have to be reapplied to the statue when the weather dries.
Maresa Pardee, a nursing sophomore and member of the Izzone, the student cheering section for men’s basketball, was appalled by what happened to Sparty. She said she thinks the paint was the handiwork of U-M students.
But the defamation of the statue will increase school rivalry, she said.
“They know they are going to lose anyway,” she said. “The fact that they painted the statue doesn’t mean they are going to win (the basketball game).
“There is nothing they could do to make Sparty look bad. That is 3 tons of school spirit, 3 tons they can’t wreck.”
Pardee said she will go to the game early to harass U-M students.
“I won’t let them get away with that,” she said. “If I had a car I would go down there and put a little green and white on their school.”
But getting to the Diag, the central gathering spot on U-M’s campus, might be difficult, said Matt Nolan, U-M’s student body president. U-M police said they likely would not increase patrols around the site, but students might.
“My guess would be that there will be a crew guarding the Diag,” he said. “I don’t see a circumstance where we could paint Sparty and not get retaliation.”
Although some students are angry about the vandalism, Nolan said it’s good for both universities.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing to see happen,” he said. “In the last few years the basketball rivalry has died away - the bantering picking up shows the rivalry is back.
“It links us as the two premier institutions of the state.”
Staff writers Drew Harmon and Jeanne Chan contributed to this report.
Shannon Murphy can be reached at murphy78@msu.edu
