They rushed to the intersection of Church Street and South University Avenue, where the crush of people swelled. Within minutes, it had become a sea of maize and blue. They bobbed up and down, holding their phones in the air and shouting with joy. One minute, they chanted the famous riff from the White Stripes’ anthem, “Seven Nation Army.” The next, they sang in unison that, “IT’S GREAT … TO BE … A MICH-I-GAN WOL-VER-INE.”
And on this night, during the final hour of Monday, April 6, it really must have felt so. After all, Michigan basketball had just defeated Connecticut, 69-63, to win the national championship for the first time in 37 years.
“This is awesome!” bellowed Akash Saini, an 18-year-old freshman from Chicago. “So glad. Go Blue! It’s fantastic. … To see everyone running around, having a good time, moshing and listening to songs, there really is nothing better than this kind of experience.”
Saini relished the wild scene that unfolded along this strip of bars and restaurants adjacent to U-M’s central campus.
Young men scaled lampposts and trees, twisting their bodies to secure spots on each of the branches.
Street signs were ripped from their moorings and passed around before policemen confiscated them and tossed them into a nearby construction site. From an unknown source, fireworks burst suddenly, illuminating the sky in this student-rich pocket of Ann Arbor. The atmosphere was electric and the energy palpable as undergrads, alumni and fans reveled in Michigan basketball’s glory.
All the while, law enforcement officers from Michigan State Police, Ann Arbor Police and U-M Police monitored the situation a few yards away, standing guard as they fanned out across a section of road just beyond Good Time Charley’s and The Brown Jug. As of 3 a.m., only two people were arrested and no serious injuries were reported, according to a statement posted by the Ann Arbor Police Department.
The city, population and its property emerged relatively unscathed after a few hours of bedlam along South U and parts beyond.
Celebrate the Wolverines’ national championship!
“It’s insane,” George Jacob, a 2022 U-M graduate from Sterling Heights, said while roaming on Church Street.
Just as they did on the January 2024 night when Michigan won the College Football Playof title, Jacob and a group of friends raced over to this area after watching the game at Pretzel Bell, a popular downtown spot located approximately a mile away. But this time, when they arrived, it felt different. It seemed rowdier, he said.
As Jacob observed, “There are so many more people.”
They all braved the frigid temperatures that dipped hour by hour.
Erin Rosenberg was among the mass of people who endured the chilly conditions. The 1998 Michigan alumna and devoted Wolverines fan brought her two sons, Max and Eli, along to share in the euphoria.
“It’s a great feeling,” she said. “I hope they remember it forever.”
But as midnight approached, bedtime called and the Rosenbergs decided to head home. Many others, though, stayed and continued to bask in the afterglow of victory, determined to preserve the raucous, rapturous celebration as long as possible.
Down at the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house on Washtenaw Ave., a group of young men and women roared and shrieked in delight as flames shot in the air. What appeared to be a couch had been set ablaze. Around 12:10 a.m., firefighters arrived to extinguish it. They then went directly across the street to douse the smoldering embers from a burned object on the property of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. When they did, a pack of young men standing near the entrance of the house cheered.
“Thank you!” they shouted. “We love you!”
That fire – and more than 40 others, according to the city’s fire department – may have been put out. But the party was still burning hot. In the early-morning hours, joyful undergrads were seen running together across U-M Diag in the center of campus. The adrenaline rush from a magical night had yet to subside, coursing through the heart of this jubilant city.
“This is what Michigan is about – winning the natty,” Saini said. “It was awesome to see everyone coming together.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ann Arbor goes wild after Michigan wins championship: ‘It’s insane’
Reporting by Rainer Sabin, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
