It is hard to be a college football fan and not know about the history and tradition of Notre Dame, but it is damn near incomprehensible why the sports media clings so dearly to a program that was last seen near relevancy in 1993. So I decided to go to the source, Touchdown Jesus himself:
It was clear that I wasn't going to get any answers from TDJ, but at least I'm glad I met him. I had originally planned not to drive through IN because I wanted to see Lake Superior, poke Canada, and invade Michigan from the north, plus I had spent a few days in Indianapolis a couple of years back. The curious thing about driving through Indiana is that I-90 is a tollway through the state, now some places like New York have tollways because they are places people really want to go, my theory is that for IN it is the exact opposite, you're gonna have to pay to get out! (They probably stole that from Jersey)
As I resigned myself to the destination equivalent of an unwanted child, I tried to make the most of it, surely there had to be more than just Notre Dame, and there was! I visited the College Football Hall of Fame, also in South Bend, IN. To be honest I was expecting a Notre Dame shrine, and you can't blame me, but surprisingly this is an objective institution that didn't show much bias outside of the Michigan/ohio st exhibit, read my full review on yelp at http://kanan.yelp.com
My next destination was Ann Arbor! Now I've never made it a secret that I like Michigan, its actually the college football team I rooted for as a child (I was a sucker for cool helmets and bright colors) and I routinely play as UM in NCAA football games. Oddly enough most of my Seattle friends are Michigan alums, so barred the occasional rose bowl I always say Go Blue, I was excited to finally visit!
Unfortunately I was not able to get a good tour of the Big House because of some construction that was taking place, but I did my best to do as much checking out as possible. Afterwards I just walked around campus for as long as my legs would allow me, fortunately it wasn't too crowded.
I could definitely see why Michigan and ohio state are such biter rivals, Ann Arbor and Columbus are like night and day. Columbus sucks, plain and simple, and don't say I didn't give them a chance because I did! Lets start with not being able to get there from an Interstate, WTF?! I drove hours through a series of 2-lane highways that showed me more of the Ohio countryside than anyone should ever see, EVER! I finally get to Columbus, tired and hungry, its night time, I find a McDonald's and THE NUGGETS WERE STALE! Stale Chicken McNuggets are unacceptable regardless of location! Strike 2. I thought it was time to call it a night and headed towards the osu campus area to find a motel, NOTHING! You could argue this is bad timing on my part because orientation was happening, but I blame columbus for sucking. Strike 3, they were out!
Frustrated I decided I wasn't going to stay there and anything I wanted to checkout would have to happen that night. I headed to the Horseshoe, which is a pretty impressive stadium, even at night, unfortunately my camera does not take very good night pics, but you get the gist. Before heading out I stopped downtown, which was much nicer than I expected, unfortunately my mind was made, I was not spending the night in Columbus... Cincinnati was much nicer to me, more on that later :)
Your American Hero,
-AK
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