Two hundred years ago to the day, 26 August 1817, the University of Michigan was founded by act of the territorial government. Originally named the "Catholepistemiad, or University, of Michigania" by the eccentric Judge Augustus B. Woodward, who also played a central role in the rebuilding of Detroit after the devastating fire of 1805 & is the namesake of Woodward Avenue (Michigan's state highway M-1), the university was first sited in Detroit, when these pleasant peninsulas were still the Territory of Michigan, not yet a sovereign state of the Union. The early years of the appallingly named institution were trying & the entity was renamed the University of Michigan in 1821. The university moved to Ann Arbor in 1837, but various difficulties prevented the construction of the campus until 1841. Despite these unpromising beginnings, for two centuries, the University of Michigan has flourished, consistently ranked as one of America's leading universities, a "Public Ivy." The U. of M. is the equal of any American school, public or private, even if some in the ossified coastal establishment will never pardon her for the supposed crime of being proudly Midwestern & a state university to boot.
I could extol the many-splendored glorious of Michigan for hours & hours. I could cite facts & figures & achievements & alumni almost without end. I could regale you with tales of my own halcyon days in Ann Arbor: of tramping up & down State Street to lecture, to discussion, & to work; of walking across the Diag without stepping on the "M;" of cheering 'til I was hoarse in Michigan Stadium & the Yost Ice Arena, experiencing the thrill of victory & the agony of defeat; of writing for the Gargoyle & first lampooning & then inadvertently subverting the democratic process with the F.R.A.T. Party; of almost losing my faith & then finding it again; of late nights at Bell's Pizza & a thousand other adventures. I could praise the University of Michigan without end, but I couldn't even pretend to present unbiased arguments. I could never change your mind. Either you love Michigan, or you don't. Either you understand these words of Fielding H. Yost & your heart soars when you read them, or you don't & it doesn't.
“My heart is so full at this moment, I fear I could say little else. But do let me reiterate the Spirit of Michigan. It is based on 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 world’s distant outposts. And a conviction that nowhere, is there a better university, in any way, than this Michigan of ours.”
I invite you to explore the University of Michigan's bicentennial website, to look back on the last two hundred years & dream of what might be achieved in the next two hundred years, by the grace of God: Why 1817 Matters. Here in this New World, where we are forever innovating, forever reinventing ourselves, not that many things stand the test of two centuries; here in the Middle West, especially, two hundred years is a long time, longer than sacred Michigan has been a state. (The same is true of Illinois, Maine, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, & in fact more than half of the fifty states.) If you reside in sacred Michigan, take advantage of the bicentennial events, if for no other reason that by definition this chance will never come again; if you don't reside in sacred Michigan, you have my pity.
The University of Michigan was founded on 26 August 1817, two hundred years ago today.
Yours, in deathless loyalty to Michigan & all her ways,
Mike Wilson
Michigan Wolverine
Bonus! Song o' the Bicentennial
The University of Michigan Marching Band, "The Yellow and Blue" from Hurrah for the Yellow and Blue (The Last Angry Wolverine)
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