The Queue
There are many lengthy quotations in The Big House defending amateurism in sport against the relentless encroachment of professionalism, passages I might well quote the next time I bother to give vent to my unremitting hatred of the Olympic Games, but unless you are a loyal son or daughter of the Maize & Blue I'd have to say The Big House might not be for you. There is an unmistakable triumphalism throughout the work, that unassailable Wolverine self-assurance at which the hated Buckeyes, the dastardly Spartans, & the vile Fighting Irish fume, which they detest & denounce as Michigan's "arrogance." The certitude that come what may, win or lose, it's great to be a Michigan Wolverine. I've long expressed it thus: most schools' fight songs exhort the varsity onto victory, but at Michigan our fight song is "The Victors," which presupposes our victory. We play "The Victors" even before the game has begun, much less before it has ended. (That said, the Marching Band don't turn their hats around until the clock ticks down to :00, having learnt that lesson the hard way.) The peerless Fielding Yost expressed this with eloquence far beyond my meager powers, even if he did pronounce Michigan as "Meeshigan":

What you remember as the Michigan Spirit is still throbbingly alive. This spirit is based upon a deathless loyalty to Michigan and all her ways; an enthusiasm that makes it second nature for Michigan men to spread the gospel of their university to the far corners of the earth; and a conviction that no where is there a better university than this Michigan of ours.

Go Blue!

Recently
Len Deighton, SS-GB
Jeffery Deaver, Carte Blanche
Robert M. Soderstrom, The Big House: Fielding H. Yost and the Building of Michigan Stadium

Currently
John Buchan, The Thirty-nine Steps

Presently
Keith Jeffery, The Secret History of M.I.6: 1909-1949
Allen Dulles, The Craft of Intelligence
William F. Buckley, Jr., Saving the Queen

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
The University of Michigan Marching Band, "The Yellow and Blue" from A Saturday Tradition (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: The third verse of "The Yellow and Blue," our alma mater:

"Here's to the college whose colors we wear;
Here's to the hearts that are true!
Here's to the maid of the golden hair,
And eyes that are brimming with blue!
Garlands and bluebells and maize intertwine,
And hearts that are true and voices combine;
Hail!
Hail to the college whose colors we wear;
Hurrah for the Yellow and Blue!"