Michigan will try to help bitter but grieving rival Michigan State heal, days after devastating tragedy
It should be an evening of nostalgia, as sport does best in our lives: Hey, remember those athletes who conjured up the memories you’re still talking about 10 years later? Well, they’re back in the building and you can thank them again.
The ongoing national tragedy of indiscriminate mass shootings will draw much attention from Michigan’s reunion of its 2013 Final Four team Saturday night at Crisler Arena. In many ways, UM will honor the three beautiful young people whose unlimited future they were robbed of and those who loved them, reminding us that sport is another thing that sport does better than anything else in our lives. And lately, too often, our games have been required to help us deal with the aftermath of senseless violence.
Arielle Anderson, Brian Fraser and Alexandria Verner weren’t even born when the late Jack Buck, the legendary baseball announcer for the Cardinals, stood in front of a microphone in the infield of old Busch Stadium six days after 9/11 and asked a simple four-word question asked, “Shall we be here?” He himself replied: “Yes.”
There is no reasonable amount of time to wait after a disaster of this or that magnitude before normal life can resume. We pause, we reach out to the person closest emotionally or geographically, or both, and then we continue, still confused about how our society allows these things to happen.
Michigan State will play basketball at rival Michigan on Saturday, six days after a man shot dead three MSU students with a gun for reasons that may never really be clear. The schedule had called for a game on Wednesday, but that was postponed along with all other events and classes on campus. You could have canceled this one and the next one and the next one and the next one and there would never be enough time. So it makes sense to play this one.
Michigan’s athletic department underscores this by adding several elements to the game’s presentation aimed at acknowledging the horror and honoring those lost. During warm-ups, UM players wear specially designed shirts, and special shirts are distributed to student group Maize Rage, both of which reaffirm UM’s support for MSU. The student fans display a “Spartan Strong” flag. The pep band will play Michigan State’s alma mater. And there will be a moment of silence.
All of these are nice gestures, especially just after the UM-MSU rivalry morphed into a bitter post-game confrontation in the tunnel beneath Michigan Stadium last October, resulting in criminal charges against several MSU players and a $100,000 fine US dollars led by the Big Ten Conference. The conference cited the participation of seven Spartans players in the brawl in its statement, which was attended by only two Wolverines. The MSU player facing the most serious charges, Khary Crump, pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor assault/battery and was sentenced to one year probation and community service.
Wouldn’t it be so much better if the artificial hostility that usually reigns in a sporting competition was all that needed consideration during Saturday night’s Spartans-Wolverines game?
In a speech delivered on campus Wednesday, Spartans basketball coach Tom Izzo revealed that his son Steven, a walk-on who played for his father, arrived at the scene of the shooting 10 minutes after the shooting, and led him to a more intimate understanding of the events.
“Sometimes we don’t understand it because we didn’t go through it,” he said. “That little moment brought me a little bit closer to understanding.”
Izzo has been at Michigan State for 40 years, starting as a research assistant to Jud Heathcote, rising to become his heir apparent, and then rising to a head coaching career in the Hall of Fame that began in 1995 and has eight Final Four appearances and one NCAA championship made him the most prominent person on campus.
“I don’t like the place. i don’t love the place I live in the place,” he said. “I am also a father of two Spartans myself. I can’t imagine what you’re all going through. But I know that as a campus community, we can offer our support to both you and each other. look around look next to you Shake someone’s hand. Introduce yourself to someone you don’t know. This is us, and this is what we must be at this time.”
Izzo was the ideal person to deliver this speech because he makes a living helping young college-aged people overcome obstacles and challenges and even heartbreak, but more often than not, those elements are made by a game that the Participants love even when they lose. It wasn’t all about the agony of defeat, however. He saw his players through the deaths of loved ones. One of the greatest Spartans, All-America guard Cassius Winston, lost his brother in the fall of 2020 when Zachary Winston committed suicide by walking in front of a moving train. The Spartans also had to play afterwards.
“We have come for many different reasons: to heal, to grieve, to honor our victims, to face fear – which is what you need to do many times in your life,” Izzo said. “Whatever you feel, it’s all valid. Everyone’s emotions are different… We all process trauma in very different ways.”
On Saturday night, the Michigan State community will process it with 40 minutes of basketball against the team Spartans like to beat the most. Whatever the outcome, it won’t feel like it did seven days ago. At least for now.