The Big Chill: An Aptly Named Event

The boys, with red cheeks and hot chocolate.

The four of us went to The Big Chill, which was an outdoor hockey game between U of M and MSU. A hockey rink was installed on the field of UM Stadium for the occasion. Over the last few weeks, a number of other hockey games, from kids' leagues to high school to college, have been played there, but this was the biggest game scheduled.

We helped set a Guinness record for the largest crowd ever to watch a hockey game: 113,411 people. I don't think our names will be in the book, but if they are, I hope they spell our names right. There was a similar game at MSU's stadium a few years back, which was the largest crowd to watch a hockey game to date, but it wasn't an official Guinness record because no one invited the Guinness people to witness it.

At the end of the national anthem, there was a flyover by a stealth bomber. It was awe-inspiring - it looked like a space ship and made almost no noise. I heard later that it also took all of our pictures and samples of our DNA as it passed over.


A picture of the Wolverines beating the daylights out of the Spartans.

We were able to see the puck and the game surprisingly well from our seats. We were concerned we wouldn't be able to see much, but when we got there and saw how it was set up, we weren't worried any more.

UM won, 5-0. MSU fans like me had a happy moment in the middle of the game when the puck went past the UM goalie for a goal, only to have it called off by the referees. I don't watch much hockey, but it's not unusual for goals to be called back for some infraction or another. Each time UM scored a goal, fireworks went off, and at the end of the game there was a fireworks show. Fireworks were sent up from the field and the tops of the luxury boxes. It was a good show and a lot of fun overall. (If you click on the stadium picture above to enlarge it, you can see the pads with the fireworks laid out across the 5-yard line.)

The weather wasn't too bad, fortunately. The forecast had rain in it for a while, but yesterday morning it showed the rain and snow holding off until well after the game ended. Some us were making use of the little hand-warmer packs on our hands and toes. The boys also slurped on hot chocolate at the second intermission to fend off the cold.

I hope you're all staying warm these days, but still have some time to get outside and have some fun.