Fearless Football Fans Pack the Big House

A country at war and anthrax scares popping up from Florida to Nevada didn’t keep the faithful from crowding into the Big House--110,540 of them on Saturday, to be precise.

They poured into the open-air stadium here for the University of Michigan’s homecoming game against Indiana’s Purdue University, the largest gathering of people anywhere in the country this day.

“Let me tell you, if you go into Michigan Stadium and a plane crashes and we all die, that’s the place to be,” John van der Berg, an ardent fan and driver for Federal Express in Kalamazoo, said in front of a friend’s recreational vehicle that sported a flagpole waving three banners: the Stars and Stripes, a University of Michigan flag and a frothy beer mug. “That’s where heaven is.”

Van der Berg had no hesitation joining so many others squeezing into a wide-open potential target bigger than, well, a football field, less than a week after the United States went to war against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Thousands more held tailgate parties in parking lots, driveways and yards amid the sugar maples that are bursting with their orange and red fall colors in this college town about 40 miles west of Detroit.

“I feel safe,” said Ralph Cardillo, a junior from Rutgers University in New Jersey who was shirtless in the overcast 70-degree weather and who had an enormous blue M painted on his chest.

“Security is so tight--there are about six or seven guards at every gate,” said Cardillo, who was visiting friends at Michigan. “They searched me, checked my I.D. But you’ve got to keep living life, like President Bush said.”

Several fans cited Bush’s call for people to return to normal routines, so as not to allow terrorists to disrupt lives further.

“My parents were skeptical about my coming because the stadium’s a great target,” said Shannon Peterman, a Purdue junior studying management who came from West Lafayette, Ind., for the game between the Midwest rivals. “But safety and security are at its height, and nothing’s going to be flying overhead.”

Missing were the light planes that usually circle the stadium trailing banners advertising restaurants, auto dealers and topless bars. After planes slammed into the World Trade Center towers in New York last month, local authorities banned flights within a three-mile radius of the stadium and lower than 3,000 feet.

“We were told that if any planes approach the stadium, F-16s will be available,” an Ann Arbor police officer said. “I assume they’re flying behind the clouds.”

A squadron of F-16s is based at the Air National Guard base at Selfridge, northeast of Detroit.

Fans were searched carefully, leading to huge lines at the numerous stadium entrances. Binoculars had to be exposed; at least one man had his binoculars case confiscated Saturday. Bags were limited to purses and fanny packs and, after Saturday, officials decided that even those will be prohibited for the rest of the season because of the time it takes to examine them.

Manhole covers in the stadium were spot-welded shut so tampering would be evident. Bomb-sniffing dogs checked out the Big House before the game, and state police, Pittsfield Township police and Washtenaw County sheriff’s deputies joined the university’s Public Safety Department and Ann Arbor police to help with security.

Michigan’s players, who won the game, 24-10, seemed committed to not letting the recent tragic events distract them from their quest for a Big Ten championship.

“A lot of people have mixed feelings, but the main thing is you’ve got to focus,” John Navarre, Michigan’s quarterback from Cudahy, Wis., said when asked about playing his first game since war broke out. “You can’t let other things stop our daily lives.”

Jake Frysinger, a defensive linesman from Grosse Ile, Mich., echoed that sentiment. “Seeing all the stuff in the media, it’s a crazy world,” he said. “But you can’t stop doing everything you’ve been doing. You’ve got to let the boys take care of business.”

Patriotism was running a close second to Wolverine fever. Dozens of American flags fluttered alongside University of Michigan banners on portable 30-foot flagpoles protruding from a sea of RVs in the nearby parking lot.

The flagpoles that ring the top of Michigan Stadium, which normally fly the flags of the other Big Ten schools, have been flying the Stars and Stripes since college football resumed Sept. 22.

“We are maize and blue [Michigan’s colors], but we breathe red, white and blue,” said Terry Breaz, who was leading friends in a line dance as Van McCoy’s 1970s disco hit “The Hustle” wafted from his portable stereo.

“After the bombings we yelled louder, we felt stronger,” said Breaz’s wife, Marlene, as Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” blared. “It’s not just a football game, it’s a gathering of Americans.”