Demise of the mlive forum

Sort of sad to see it go. I was looking back and realized I've been posting on it since I think 1995 or so. I started my involvement with the Hall of Fame Bowl, now the Outback Bowl, in 1987, the year that UM, led by Gary Moeller when Bo was in the hospital, beat Bama in the first ever game between them Jamie Morris was the mvp but it was Demetrius Brown's 4th down pass to John Kolesar in the last seconds that brought UM from behind for the win.

I started out in the bowl organization like most do, at the bottom. By 1995 I'd worked my way up the ladder and on Nov 4 of that year, attended my first game as a bowl rep in East Lansing for the UM MSU game. Tony Banks had a huge game and MSU pulled off the upset 28-25 in freezing weather. Any show of emotion in the press box is grounds for expulsion and I kept having to go outside in the cold to vent my frustration where nobody could hear me.

Two weeks later I was in Happy Valley again as a bowl rep. That was the game where the PSU fans pelted Mercury Hayes with iceballs and Joe PA grabbed a mic and said he would forfeit the game if they didn't stop. That's the Joe PA I prefer to remember. UM lost that game as well and I began to think I was a jinx.

Finally I got to go to my first game in the UM pressbox. It was against mighty #2 OSU with Eddie George. The Rose Bowl reps were there to give the bid to the Rose Bowl to OSU after they won. Timmy B went for 300+ and UM won in a stunner. The Rose Bowl reps had to invite NW to the Rose bowl by tv. My jinx was over. At that game I had the pleasure of meeting Joe Falls and Mitch Albom. Also Angelique Chengelis and Bob Wojo. I also met two guys from the AA News one of whom was Rich Thomaselli and the other I can't for the life of me recall even though I can see his face right now.

All the above wanted to talk to me to get me to say that our bowl, now the Outback, was going to take UM since they had won the big upset. I truthfully told them that two teams that had beaten UM, MSU and PSU, were currently playing up in East Lansing and that the winner of that one would also have to be considered, which is NOT what they wanted to hear! We had a conference call later that night after PSU scored in the last seconds to beat MSU. UM had been to our game two years earlier. PSU had never been to our game, had a better record and beat UM. We took PSU and I heard about it from the above media and the AD staff at UM. Can't please everyone.

During all this Thomaselli I think mentioned this new website that he and the other guy whose name I can't recall had started in order to talk about UM football. I told them I was a dinosaur about computers but they took my email address and sent me instructions as to how to log in and post. Initially Rich and the other guy were active posters and initiated a lot of topics and had dialogues with the other posters. Rich left not long there after and the other guy left about a year after that. Their replacements didn't participate in the forum like they had.

PSU brought a huge crowd to our game to play Auburn which also brought a huge crowd. The game was played in a deluge at the old Sombrero. The crown on the field there was huge and there was little drainage. There was maybe a foot of water along the sidelines and by the benches. If there was a pileup along the sidelines the refs had to quickly come in to avoid the players on the bottom from drowning!

UM did come back to our game the next year and lost to Bama in he last seconds. I was forgiven by the UM media and people. The next year of course UM won the NC.

There were some very interesting characters on that early forum. I may be the only one who was still there at the end. The most interesting was a guy named Alexandre. He was a Frenchman raised in North Africa and was a grad student in some sort of arcane engineering at UM. He had never seen football before and loved it and became an astute observer of the game. All of us on the forum shared some interesting conversation about all sorts of topics not just UM football. When he left to go back overseas I felt like I had lost a long time friend.

There were many other quality posters on the forum over the years. Can't possibly name them all. But I'll give a shout to two other oldtimers like me: Shoes and Cali. I actually met Shoes at a taligate at one of the games. Nice guy. Never met Cali sadly. Unfortunately there were the mosquitoes, of which Az was by far the worst. Hope this forum never lets him or his ilk on here.

Hopefully we can continue the tradition here. I promise the next post won't be so long.

Flabue-welcome back. Alexandre was unique and a good poster. Last I recall he had taken a job in Dubai. He may have checked in a couple of times from there and then that was it.

Cali is absolutely a good (and bright guy). Have met him and Panthers for beer and pizza a couple of times.

Hey Shoes! Hope this forum can be kept more civilized!

Good to see you FBF1, and yet another great story. I remember Alexandre, bobincols, & others. Remember when WashRick used to take a poster of the year poll? Good times.

Maybe we can get something similar going like that again!

Listened to a clip from the Rich Eisen show in which Aaron Rogers was discussing Tom Brady. Among other things he said that he watched every snap of Brady's 2007 season. He said that the two things that stand out are Brady's (often subtle) pocket movement and his eye discipline. In effect he rarely locks on a receiver.

FlaBlueFan----good to see you again...after all these years!  I have not visited that troll-infested forum (MLive) since this one was established...and even this one a fraction of the frequency as I did the former, due to a job change (for the better---MUCH the better) in the interim.

One other great regular from MLive, besides (most of) the regulars here and those you named above was ANDY_GO_BLUE...who has since changed his poster name to "Wolverine Historian" when posting YouTube skits on the web. A very appropriate moniker, as few people (with your exception!) are more up on all things Maize and Blue than he. I don't know what happened to him; I had his personal e-mail, via which we two corresponded through about 2014, but it seemed to be disconnected thereafter.

You may also remember "CANADA ED"???  He passed away a couple of years ago...so said my Upstate NY friend who himself was once "GrayGhost"

Of course you ARE familiar with BLUEROSES,  Eh?  Linda (as she's normally called) retired from her career job as Smith College' Art Museum's curator, just last year. Only through the web did I learn that, years earlier, she tragically lost her kid brother due to a pulmonary at the ripe young age of 56.

Anyway, good to see a fellow old-time poster. And I DO mean (in my case, anyhoo) OLD TIME: yours truly is 66 today!!!

Hey Mike! Great to hear from you and the other former great posters on the old forum. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! if it makes you happy I've got a few years on you! Thanks so much for updating me on some of the great posters from the past. Gray Ghost still posts on the football articles forum on mlive but did not on the fan forum to my knowlege.

I registered on this forum a long time ago. I confess that I continued to post on the old forum out of lethargy. Plus again I confess that as an old trial lawyer I got a perverse pleasure out of beating up on Az and the other trolls. But its good to be here.

Sorry to hear about Canada Ed- I liked him.

flabluefan1 wrote:

Hey Mike!  Great to hear from you and the other former great posters on the old forum.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  if it makes you happy I've got a few years on you!  Thanks so much for updating me on some of the great posters from the past.  Gray Ghost still posts on the football articles forum on mlive but did not on the fan forum to my knowlege.

I registered on this forum a long time ago.  I confess that I continued to post on the old forum out of lethargy.  Plus again I confess that as an old trial lawyer I got a perverse pleasure out of beating up on Az and the other trolls.   But its good to be here.    

It was kind of enjoyable to see you beat up on "the broker's assistant."

chuckle oops did I really say that?

LOL, repeatedly, and it was hilarious.

I took a break from all forums for several years, resumed a year or so ago.

I couldn't get back in this one until I got the Topic'it app, it logged me right in.

It's good to see the old names!

I just checked, my last post here was Feb of '13. Glad to be back!

Sent from Topic'it App

Likewise 'dog great to have you back. We can certainly use more traffic here.

Thanks 'shoes!

Sent from Topic'it App

Also 'shoes, JH recently offered a TE from Paw Paw for '19.

Wolverdog16 wrote:

Also 'shoes, JH recently offered a TE from Paw Paw for '19.

May have to check him out next season.

happy Birthday Mitch Mike. you not that fare ahead of me in age I am sure we watched a few games together.

Hey there Flabluefan!

I was on the forum as long ago as 2002 I think. It could have been earlier. Some old memories are coming back. I started there the year I broke my heel and was stuck at home.

My first year there I think I "wrote" a song near the end of the year called The Ballad of Jim Tressel. The song was to the tune of The Beverly Hillbillies. I added a different verse every day the week leading up to the game. There was a lot of shit going on at o$u at the time and every day I had something different to write my verse about. The entire song turned out to be hilarious.

I wish I had a copy of that song.

Good to see you and the others.

joe wrote:

Hey there Flabluefan!

I was on the forum as long ago as 2002 I think. It could have been earlier. Some old memories are coming back. I started there the year I broke my heel and was stuck at home.

My first year there I think I "wrote" a song near the end of the year called The Ballad of Jim Tressel. The song was to the tune of The Beverly Hillbillies. I added a different verse every day the week leading up to the game. There was a lot of shit going on at o$u at the time and every day I had something different to write my verse about. The entire song turned out to be hilarious.

I wish I had a copy of that song.

Good to see you and the others.

Dude, I actually remember that! For the life of me I can't remember the actual lyrics and I didn't frequent that board too much back then as those were my Michigan days but I remember that!

So we finally got the few good posters from mlive over here! All it took was having them shut down their site. OK whatever, welcome back fbf1, 'dog, etc. I was hoping that you'd come here after the demise of "the other forum" as I thoroughly love your stories. I do feel the need to proclaim my observation: "Wolverdog" and "Wolverdog16"?

This forum is much better, but now I fear some of the trolls from MLive will slip in and ruin it over here.

Wolverdog16 wrote:

I just checked, my last post here was Feb of '13. Glad to be back!

Sent from Topic'it App

Welcome back dog , great to see you posting again

fishgoblue22 wrote:

This forum is much better, but now I fear some of the trolls from MLive will slip in and ruin it over here.

Won’t last long though, one report and admin gets rid of them for good

Bo: The Topic'it app I'm using added the 16 for some reason.

fish: Doesn't one of "us" have "banishing" powers here?

Joe: you ol' sidewinder, have you got the same cell number?

Sent from Topic'it App

wshoes wrote:

Wolverdog16 wrote:

Also 'shoes, JH recently offered a TE from Paw Paw for '19.

May have to check him out next season.

Thursday Aug 27 @ Otsego. Let me know if you'll be around.

Sent from Topic'it App

the artist formally known wrote:

happy Birthday Mitch Mike. you not that fare ahead of me in age I am sure we watched a few games together.

A little spell-check (or word-check) might be in order there, TAFK!!!  But thanks for the B'Day wish.

And should our long-lost friend FBF happen upon this riposte: just to let him know that all these years haven't, ahem, "changed me that much":  

I'm sure you, TAFK, gave us no chance at West Lafayette last week: how could a [wannabe] Artist think we could take down a team coached by a Painter?????

BOLEACH7: Thanks dude, it's good to be back!

It is good to see some of the old names here. I started on MLive in 2002 as fishgoblue1, but when I returned from Afghanistan that account didn't work anymore so I changed to fishgoblue22.

I have to say that I'm not that proud of some of the levels I stooped to on that forum in the later years. I sure did let AZ get under my skin when he would make fun of my disabled son.

Anyway, I'm not disappointed to see the forum closed.

Let's keep it fun and on topic for the most part.

I hear ya fish.