A decade later, this game is still special

JOHN LEROI Out of Bounds

Ten years and 14 days. That was the last time anybody in East Lansing has been this excited about playing Michigan. Ten years and 14 days ago, more than 77,000 people crammed into Spartan Stadium, a complex that somehow looks even more gigantic than Michigan Stadium, to watch what was the greatest Spartan team in two decades.

I was 11 years old that day. I remember that it was very cold. I remember my brother and I stuffing ourselves into sweat pants and turtle-necks that just had to be green. I remember Demetrius Brown throwing seven interceptions that day and I asked my dad, "If Bo is such a good coach, why didn't he yank that guy after the first five?"

For more than 18 years, I lived just around the corner from Michigan State's campus. When your father works there and your mother takes classes, it's hard not to bleed Green.

I remember everything about the 1987 season, when Bobby McAlister, Lorenzo White and Michigan State's famed, but forgotten, fourth-quarter defense took the Spartans to the Rose Bowl. They beat Southern Cal and finished with a No. 8 ranking, the first time they cracked the top 10 all year. They haven't been back since. A loss to Northwestern last week ruined the Spartans' chances of making a return appearance.

Sure, Michigan State has beaten Michigan since that day; in 1990 when the Wolverines were the top-ranked team in the country, and again two seasons ago with a 28-25 victory in East Lansing. But not since Oct. 10, 1987 has there been so much anticipation and such an outpouring of support.

This game means everything to fans who who have lived in East Lansing. Forget Ohio State. This isn't just about water cooler bragging rights and silly bets between colleagues. It's about 11-year-old kids who grew up loving one team and hating the other, even though

they were never taught to do so.

Of course things change. I grew up. I don't have the same hatred coursing through my veins for the University of Michigan like I once did. But no matter how old I get, or how many of those kids grow up and attend the other school, there will always be memories. I still know which kids in my fifth-grade class rooted for Michigan and which ones rooted for Michigan State.

Those kind of kids are still out there. This rivalry means more to them than Saturday morning cartoons and Halloween candy. Somehow, helping dad rake leaves before the game isn't so much of a chore when The Game is your reward.

It's funny. You can pack thousands of people, hip-to-hip, into the stadium and it still smells better than the week before. It can be bitter cold and somehow, it feels warmer. The game moves slower, every play matters.

And we must wait a decade before that feeling creeps back. Every year the game is big for Spartan fans. There's always a chance they can upset mighty Michigan. But in 1987, they didn't need an upset, just a great college football team. People knew going into the game that Michigan State didn't just have a chance, they had a right to win the game.

This year that feeling is back. Sedrick Irvin looks an awful lot like Lorenzo White (though his number is one off). The Spartans' defense just as ferocious now as it was then.

In East Lansing, it's not the talk of the town, it is the town.

No football game has been this special in the town for a long time. Now, 10 years and 14 days later, it is again. Now, I am a member of the media, and I'm not supposed to care who wins. Maybe I don't. Maybe I just long for that excitement again. Maybe a decade wasn't too long to wait.

And maybe, just maybe, a bunch of fifth-graders are feeling exactly what I felt 10 years ago.

Maybe I am feeling it again, too.

- John Leroi can be reached via e-mail at jrleroi@umich.edu

10-24-97