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Vol. 38, No. 18
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11-19-2008
By: Adam King Michigan Week rivalry a balancing act at Stillman Hall party It’s tough enough being a graduate of Michigan and working at Ohio State. It’s even tougher when Michigan Week rolls around, when scarlet and gray dominates the landscape and Wolverine trash-talkers abound.
There is one semi-oasis on campus, however, for those determined to maintain their maize-and-blue allegiance: The College of Social Work’s OSU-Michigan party.
The celebration has become a 15-year tradition in Stillman Hall, where those from the “school up north” and those with OSU ties decorate a large room in competing colors.
And even though they strive to be equal, all is seemingly fair game in this friendly rivalry.
OSU patriots have been seen turning Michigan flags upside-down when the UM faithful have their backs turned. And one year, a rather enthusiastic OSU grad student took down the Michigan decorations as they were being put up, not understanding the concept of a shared celebration.
“The party has never gotten old, and it’s all in good fun,” said 30-year OSU employee Dianna Barrett, one of the co-founders of the party and a program director in the college. “A lot of smack is said, but none of it is taken seriously. And really it’s just a good reason to party. We’ve done it for so many years and had so much fun doing it, it’s part of our culture now. We even make it known to faculty candidates and the dean candidates when we conducted a dean search years ago. We’re proud of it.”
It was in Stillman Hall 15 years ago when Denise Bronson, fresh off earning her master’s and doctorate at UM and taking a faculty post at OSU, decided it would be fun to secretly decorate her colleagues’ doors with Michigan colors the Thursday before the big game. Nobody knew who it was since there were about six or seven faculty with UM backgrounds.
Party predictions
College of Social Work OSU-Michigan party founders Dianna Barrett and Denise Bronson prognosticate the 2008 outcome:
• Dianna: OSU 21, Michigan 13.
• Denise: OSU 36, Michigan 21; “I don’t think Michigan can pull this out. I just hope they don’t blow Michigan out of the ‘Shoe.”
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“I, of course, denied it,” said Bronson, now an associate professor.
“The Buckeye fans were quite offended,” Barrett said. “Since we didn’t have a clear culprit we could identify, the Buckeyes thought payback would be bliss. We put scarlet and gray paper and other OSU items on all the doors of our faculty who earned a degree from our rivals. Most took that in good stride and thought it was quite amusing. I say ‘most’ … so the war was on.”
And so was the party, which started out in a small room in the basement of Stillman with a variety of helium balloons. Now it has become a contest of who can out-decorate the other. The first side to lay claim to the room gets the choicest spots, but that hasn’t stopped folks from moving things around.
One of the fun components of the party is seeing what new ideas the college denizens come up with. One of the first additions a Buckeye supporter added was a “Wall of Shame” with photos of all the employed Michiganders (there are four left with a smattering of grad students). And last year, Brenda Davidson, an academic counselor, put the tables in the shape of a Block “O” and an “M.”
Being a good sport, Bronson one year hired the OSU Alumni Pep Band to come perform (although she continues to try to get the Michigan pep band to make a trip). She has something special planned this year but couldn’t reveal it before the party.
“It’s kind of fun being the one at the bottom,” Bronson said. “All the time I was in Ann Arbor, it was a big game but it doesn’t carry quite the significance it does here. So it’s great being a Michigan fan in Columbus because people get so into it.
“Kids in preschool have parties before the game and come dressed in their OSU gear, so people in Ohio get indoctrinated early.”
There are times when the party takes on a life of its own. Barrett used to have a full-size cutout of Brutus, which Bronson stole during Michigan Week 1998. She took pics of Brutus and sent anonymous ransom notes, including one of Brutus dressed in a Wolverine jersey and singing “Hail to the Victors,” the Michigan fight song.
“I wish Denise would get a life-size cutout of a Wolverine so I could steal it,” Barrett said.
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