Michigan
Explaining Michigan football’s history with Slippery Rock
Picture this scenario. You’re sitting inside Michigan Stadium watching the Wolverines take on USC three months from now. It’s a late third-quarter media timeout and you’ve just pulled out your phone to check some out-of-town scores.
Just then, the familiar boom of the PA announcer’s voice comes over the loudspeaker to make a special announcement, and a green “S” pops up on the big screen. You find out that Slippery Rock has just defeated Shippensburg by a final score of 34-21. The crowd erupts as if it’s just watched Donovan Edwards take off for a 50-yard touchdown.
The camera then shows the one random guy in the stands wearing a “Slippery Rock” t-shirt, and the questions start flowing through your head. Why does that score matter? What’s Slippery Rock? How was someone wearing a green t-shirt even allowed in the stadium?
If you’ve been to the Big House before, this probably isn’t an unfamiliar scene. The out-of-town scores run on the scoreboard, but there’s always a special time in the game to announce the Slippery Rock score. Even if you are aware that you’ll see the Slippery Rock score at some point during a U-M game, you might not know the reason why.
First, for some background, Slippery Rock is a town in western Pennsylvania between Pittsburgh and Erie. It’s home to about 3,500 people and Slippery Rock University, a Division II school with about 9,000 students. Its football team, the Lions, went 12-2 in 2023, with its lone losses coming against Kutztown in the PSAC Championship and Division II playoffs.
Believe it or not, the tradition of Slippery Rock’s scores being announced at Michigan football games goes far back. It initially began back in 1959, when Michigan’s PA announcer at the time, Steve Filipiak, went rogue to insert Slippery Rock into his normal list of out-of-town scores to be announced during the game.
However, it wasn’t just some random score that was thrown into the mix, as Filipiak intentionally made a big deal out of it. He would usually save “The Rock” for last and proclaim it as the moment in the game fans had “all been waiting for” before announcing the score.
Soon enough, Michigan’s fans began to anticipate the announcement of the Slippery Rock score during games, and it’s been a Big House staple ever since. Interestingly enough, this wasn’t the introduction of Slippery Rock to the big stage of college football.
The Lions first became known on a national level back in 1936 when the AP Poll was released for the first time. While we’re all familiar with the voting process that’s used today, there was a great debate about how to determine team rankings at the time.
While Minnesota was ranked as the No. 1 team in the first poll, an argument was made for Slippery Rock to claim the top spot thanks to the transitive property. A news article argued Slippery Rock was better than Minnesota because:
Slippery Rock beat Westminster, which beat West Virginia Wesleyan, which beat Duquesne, which beat Pitt, which beat Notre Dame, which beat Northwestern, which beat Minnesota.
The article was read and reprinted around the country due to the craziness of the idea and the obsession with the concept that a place called “Slippery Rock” could even exist. This fascination is still widespread today, as the scores of Slippery Rock games are announced at big schools like Texas and North Carolina as well.
These schools might claim Slippery Rock as their own in a way, but there’s still a special connection with Michigan. The Lions have come to play at the Big House three times. The first of these instances was in 1979, when Slippery Rock was invited to play at Michigan Stadium while the Wolverines were on the road.
The Lions also made an appearance at the Big House in 1981 and once again in 2014. Unfortunately, though, Slippery Rock has lost all three times at Michigan Stadium.
While it might seem like a bizarre tradition for a random Division II school to get a shoutout at every Michigan home game, it’s something that always brings a cheer and helps energize the sleepiest of crowds. It’s a quirky and interesting piece of Michigan’s storied history that all fans should be aware of.
So the next time you’re at a Michigan game and you’re friend asks you where Slippery Rock is or why its score elicited a cheer, you’ll be able to tell them the story of Michigan’s adopted ally and its place in college football lore.
Kyle Whittingham’s staff at Michigan is nearly complete. Position coaches have been hired and now the Wolverines are working on their analysts and assistants to help the position coaches. And Michigan fans heard some positive news on Sunday.
Not only did the Wolverines hire a new safeties coach, with a ton of history as a defensive coordinator, but Michigan will retain long-time coach Fred Jackson, according to MGoBlue where he is listed as an analyst.
Michigan transfer portal tracker: Every player coming in and out of the program in 2026
Jackson was Michigan’s running backs coach from 1992-2014 before he left to coach high school football. But in 2022, he was welcomed back to Ann Arbor under Jim Harbaugh and helped coach the position. He assisted Tony Alford, who was also retained to coach running backs, for the past two seasons at Michigan.
With the tutelage from both Jackson and Alford, Michigan’s run game was fantastic this season. Despite injuries to both Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall, Michigan had one of the top rushing attacks in the Big Ten.
The Wolverines averaged over 210 yards per game on the ground. Haynes had six games of over 100 yards on the ground, Marshall had four, and former walk-on Bryson Kuzdzal rushed for 100 yards once this season when both Haynes and Marshall missed.
More on Jackson and his history in Ann Arbor
He has coached five All-Big Ten running backs at Michigan, led by three-time all-conference first team honoree Tyrone Wheatley (1992-94) and two-time performer Mike Hart (2004, 2006). Anthony Thomas (2000) and Chris Perry (2003) were All-Big Ten first team selections and Tshimanga Biakabutuka earned second-team honors in 1995. Thomas and Hart received distinction as Big Ten Freshman of the Year award winners.
Jackson’s running backs have led the league in rushing four times during his tenure and surpassed the 1,000-yard barrier 12 times, including Fitzgerald Toussaint in 2011. Perry (2003) and Hart (2004) became the first teammates to lead the league in rushing in back-to-back seasons since 1982-83, pacing the Big Ten in both overall and conference play.
He also coached two seasons in Ann Arbor as the Wolverines’ offensive coordinator.
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Michigan State football is identifying targets across the board to being in for visits as the transfer portal window moves along. The latest visit to go public comes from a wide receiver at the FCS level.
Evan James, a Furman transfer, will be taking a visit to East Lansing starting on Jan. 5. A 5-foot-11, 170 pound receiver from Apopka, Florida, James had a breakout season for the Paladins. In 2025 he caught 65 passes for 796 yards and seven touchdowns. He also had seven carries for 72 yards and a touchdown, doing all of this as a true freshman, earning FCS Freshman All-American honors.
After doing this all as a freshman, he will bring three years of eligibility with him to the next school of his choosing. Aside from Michigan State, it is rumored that Boston College and Cincinnati will also be in contention.
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Even before high winds have kicked in from a strong incoming storm system, more than 50,000 homes and businesses were without power across Michigan.
The bulk of these outages are in Mid-Michigan. Clare County had the largest outage tally, with more than 16,000. Mecosta County had more than 7, 500 without power, and Isabella County had more than 6,000 out.
A couple counties in the very western Upper Peninsula were also reporting outages.
These outage numbers are expected to increase by early Monday, as high winds come in as part of this storm system. Sustained winds of 25 to 35 mph are expected, but wind gusts could top 60 mph in some areas.
The issue with the Mid-Michigan outages is rooted in Friday’s ice accumulation. Utility officials said there has been about a half-inch of ice accumulation on trees and power lines in that area through the weekend. Temperatures this weekend did not get warm enough to melt the ice, as they did in other areas. Heavy rain on Sunday froze again quickly, causing a heavier ice load and more outages.
Consumers Energy has said they have crews mobilized to work on outages as they arise with this storm.
To see the latest update on this storm coverage, follow our headlines on the MLive Weather page.
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