After Michigan football team clinches national champion, it now faces a frigid parade

The 2023 University of Michigan football team became just the second team since 1948 to claim a national championship when it beat Washington 34-13 at Monday night’s College Football Playoff title game in Houston, the program’s first national title since it went 12-0 in 1997.

On Saturday, the 2023 and 1997 teams will likely share another, although less coveted, experience: Frigid temperatures during the celebratory parade in Ann Arbor.

Brian Griese, with the Rose Bowl MVP trophy, and Charles Woodson, with the Heisman, ride in a Jeep and wave to the crowds gathered on State St. during the celebration parade for the University of Michigan football team in 1997 in Ann Arbor.

Michigan is being hit with what could be the biggest storm of the year thus far. Snow and strong wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour are expected through Saturday in Ann Arbor.

When the parade is scheduled to start at 4 p.m., it’s forecasted to be 27 degrees, but with wind gusts of 44 miles per hour, it’ll feel like 6 degrees, according to AccuWeather.

As of Friday evening, the parade was still scheduled for Saturday. A University of Michigan press release from Wednesday announcing the parade said more information would be provided later as the parade is weather-dependent. However, as of Friday evening, few other details about the parade were made available.

“We are expecting some weather, but we had weather in ’97 when we had the championship parade for the ’97 national championship teams,” Dave Ablauf, an associate athletic director at the University of Michigan, told WXYZ Wednesday. “We’ll all work together and find a way to make sure it happens.”

At the parade for the ’97 team on Jan. 11, 1998, a crowd estimated at 100,000 or more “shrugged off temperatures in the mid-20s to cheer the Wolverines as they wound their way through downtown Ann Arbor and…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/michigan-football-team-clinches-national-110525358.html

Author : Detroit Free Press

Publish date : 2024-01-13 11:05:25

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