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Seems like a good time for a community roll call

Posted on August 4, 2026 at 02:26:55 PM by Paul

This group has existed in some form since, I believe, at least the fall of 1996, which was the first football season for Greg's VV board, the one where you could see the entire post without even clicking on it. I joined on 1/1/1997. Tell us when you joined, roughly at least, and maybe one thing about yourself. My one thing: I wrote a book about this community (among other things). The beginning of the first chapter is below:

The first faint shiver of what one day would become this book came to me on the afternoon of New Year’s Day, 1997. I was surfing the Internet, with the vague idea of finding someone to talk to about the University of Michigan’s football team, which had just lost its bowl game to Alabama in a particularly absurd and excruciating manner. (The Wolverines were driving deep in Alabama territory in the fourth quarter. They – we -- had the lead, and were on the verge of scoring an apparent game-clinching touchdown, when quarterback Brian Griese tried to get rid of the ball as he was being hit by a blitzing defensive back. The resulting pass looked like something a small child would throw in a backyard game of catch; the ball fluttered forward for about five yards before landing in the arms of an Alabama linebacker, who immediately raced 88 yards downfield for the game-winning score).

I had just discovered the cyberworld, and I didn’t really know where to look. I don’t recall what search engine I used in that faraway time – Google didn’t even exist yet – but somehow or the other I stumbled onto a message board dedicated to discussing University of Michigan sports, meaning, of course, mainly football.

The very first post I remember reading on the board was an agonized jeremiad from “Brent,” that went into great detail about why this game illustrated exactly why, as he had been pointing out at length for two seasons now, the hiring of Lloyd Carr as Michigan’s head coach had been an unmitigated disaster. Indeed, only the most self-deluded of the board’s optimists could still possibly believe that things could get appreciably better as long as Carr remained in that position. (It would be uncharitable to point out that one year later to the day Michigan would win college football’s national championship).

On the other hand, Brent noted, the rejection by what he called the board’s “sunshine blowers” of his prophetic insights on this subject was only to be expected. (I would discover that “sunshine blowers” and “excellence demanders” were technical board terms, used to insult posters considered either unduly optimistic or too pessimistic). After all, the Gospels recorded how, in Biblical times, “they didn’t listen to Jesus either,” he reminded them -- or rather, us, as I read on in rapt fascination.

“Now in no way am I comparing myself to Jesus Christ,” Brent hastened to add. Somehow this nuanced caveat was lost on the rest of the board, which, already roiled in the kind of bitter arguments and recriminations that I soon learned were the inevitable products of any Michigan loss, unleashed a furious barrage of scorn and sarcasm against the self-styled prophet in our midst.

Here, I realized at that moment, are my people. And, nearly a quarter of a century later, I’m still there.

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