If you bleed green in true Spartan fashion during rivalry week, there’s nothing more poisonous than a little maize and blue.
And if you hail to the victors, your skin crawls this week at the sight of the Red Cedar River - not just because of high E. coli counts.
Whether it’s making bets on the winner of Saturday’s game, harassing old high school friends from the opposing school or planning road trips to vandalize the Diag, many people in the MSU community turn a little meaner - and a little greener - during rivalry week.
“I think this year’s rivalry is worse, since we’ve been losing and because we won last year,” history senior Erika Jackson said. “People want us to win again.”
Jackson, a member of the Spartan Marching Band, will travel to Ann Arbor with the band for the game. Although she said she’s definitely not a Michigan fan, she can’t say she hates them.
“I do have friends who go there,” she said. “But I’m not exactly fond of the fans there. They have their moments. Being in the band, they’ll be really rude and throw things at us.”
Not only does Jackson express her Spartan spirit with the band at the games, but throughout this week she helped guard Sparty from any Michigan defacing.
“It has to do with tradition and with pride,” she said. “We have a really traditional mascot and when Michigan tries to vandalize it, it’s a direct cut on us.”
Some area leaders also take part in the fun of being in-state enemies.
MSU President M. Peter McPherson will be sitting in U-M President Lee Bollinger’s box during the game. McPherson said the two Big Ten chief executives see each other so many times throughout the year, that each year’s big game is a chance to relax.
“It’s a tense competition between the two schools,” McPherson said. “The rivalry has been there as long as I can remember, but it is just a game.”
MSU Trustee David Porteous has vested interest in this week’s big game.
A member of a Reed City rotary club, Porteous, along with fellow Spartan supporters, will be forced to sing the Michigan fight song in public if the Wolverines triumph Saturday.
“Because I’m such a terrible singer, I think everyone will be rooting for MSU,” Porteous said.
East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows could face a similar fate if the football team continues its losing skid.
Meadows has a bet with Ann Arbor Mayor Ingrid Sheldon that whichever city’s school loses must fly the opposing school’s flag over city hall for 24 hours.
The loser also must wear the opposing school’s colors and sing its fight song at the next televised city council meeting.
“I’m not afraid of singing in public, although I do hope Mark has the honor of singing the Victors,” Sheldon said. “I’ll send him a CD so he can get the tune implanted in his head.”
But whether MSU wins or loses in the big house Saturday, some MSU fans said life will still be same in East Lansing.
“It’s not life or death,” psychology junior Jason Harris said. “It’s just two really big schools within a couple of hours of each other. I hope we win, but I really don’t see how it’s possible.”
State News staff writer James Jahnke contributed to this report.
