Fans of MSU and traffic-dodging, we have some unfortunate news.
"The Spartan," commonly known to all as Sparty, is getting a new home after 59 years at the intersection of Kalamazoo Street and Red Cedar Road. Once the addition to Spartan Stadium is complete, the 9-foot-7 inch hunk of terra cotta Spartan-love will take root in the addition's atrium, while a bronze replicate is to replace the ceramic Sparty at the intersection.
Bronze Sparty, though, will not be perched amidst that confused Bermuda Triangle of cars, bicycles and pedestrians. The impostor will move backward a few yards and set up shop on the fringe of Demonstration Field. The concrete island on which Sparty now stands will be no more, and motorists and freshmen walking in from the Brody Complex will be able to breathe easy during the campus commute.
Wedding parties, marching band sentries and drunken revelers, do not despair. The $500,000 bronze replacement will have the same backdrop that the current Sparty provides, and will actually be more accessible to pedestrians. Accidents at the intersection - replete with three stop signs and three crosswalks - will presumably decline and the old, ceramic Sparty will evade more wear and tear. The traditional symbol of MSU heritage will continue to stand proud, and frankly, it looks as if it will be difficult to tell the difference between new and old.
Fixing a dangerous intersection and taking care of history - huzzah and kudos, MSU, for killing two birds with one stone.
The most affirming aspect of this Sparty transplant, though, is the manner in which alumni responded when Sparty was in need. Unlike the way they respond at Breslin Center or Spartan Stadium when the Spartans are in need, they leapt to their feet and emptied their pockets on this one. Congratulations to students as well, who raked in more than $100,000 in donations. When a totem of our collegiate experience needed your help, you responded.
To the current Spartans who have spent the better part of a decade as undergraduates in East Lansing, you know what a difference six years has made on this community. The tailgate at Munn Field is a fossil. Corporate businesses have chipped away at local merchants in a slow march to turning East Lansing into a suburb. Riots have charred our national reputation and there's a palpable - albeit wavering - sense of unrest between students and everyone else.
Sparty has watched all of that happen without a hint of changing the determined look on his face. He might be crumbling and we don't truly know if he's really the largest free-standing ceramic statue on Earth, but dag nabbit, he's someone who has never given up on the spirit that Spartans around the globe still believe in. He's deserving of a hero's treatment, and any effort in securing that demands acknowledgment.
Many schools around the state can't boast a large-scale representation of school spirit. We've been lucky to have Sparty at the intersection of Kalamazoo Street and Red Cedar Road as long as we have. Plus, reducing a few fender benders at the same time doesn't hurt, either.
