It's a Go Green Weekend

The Laker football team is racking up a big win over Cass City tonight and the MSU Spartans are favored to beat the Ohio State Buckeyes by three and a half points tomorrow night. 

I'd say it is a "Go Green" weekend. 

Spartan Satisfaction

Michigan State won today's Rose Bowl game and we were there for the entire process. We started the day by viewing the Rose Parade in Pasadena and then went to the football game.

I am so completely tired from walking to and from the game, walking around Pasadena, and viewing football and parade, that all I can say is that there is great, great satisfaction in Spartan Land tonight. The Spartans have won the Rose Bowl and that is very cool indeed.

Spartan Legends

Game Seven -- Santa conducts the SMB during the Pregame Show

Today's game wrote the history book on this year's Spartan senior class as they beat Minnesota and went down in Michigan State University football history as undefeated in Big Ten play this fall.

From a fan's point of view, it has been quite a season.

There were two stadium evacuations due to lightning strikes, one during Game 1 and then again in Game 2. Game 6 against Michigan was played in rainy miserable weather. Game 7, today, was sunny but really, really cold.

Was weather a factor? You bet. Those first two games toughened up a Spartan squad (and the Spartan Marching Band). Players on the field and in the band learned persistence and patience as delays meant that one game lasted beyond midnight and another was played in rain, minus the thunder and lightning.

We fans have made more third down noise this year than in any other year. We've chewed out the refs and cheered for the drumline. We sputtered every time Mr. TV Man strolled onto the field and delayed the game with commercial time.

At the end of the seasons, MSU is first in the Legends division of the Big Ten and advances to the Big Ten Championship game against Ohio State next Saturday in Indianapolis. I'm quite a fan, but I will be watching from the comfort of my living room where I will not have to wear two coats and wool socks, a scarf and hat, and double pair of gloves just to watch the Spartan Marching Band in the best college football pregame show in the nation.

Go State!

Artwork: Whoops

The Big Game in East Lansing between Michigan State and Michigan was on my brain when I took a moment last Friday morning for artwork. I knew that I had a stretch of fifteen or so minutes to spend, so I hauled out the big watercolor palette and went to work.






This pen and ink sketch, accented with watercolor, looked pretty good to me at this point. I liked the color and the shapes. "Not bad," I told myself.

In my weekend anticipation mode, I pulled a big WHOOPS when I decided to add a cast shadow in Payne's Gray to the composition. Then I figured that maybe the shadow could be overtaken by a double lined border. Then I thought, "Well, gee, Wanda, just add some background."

After I was done composing, and painting, and talking to myself, this was the end result -- a journal page with a big blob of gray.

It's how you learn, this practicing and knowing when there is a WHOOPS. Maybe I will paste something over the blob. Tissue paper, or a torn chunk of brown grocery sack paper. Even better, maybe that's where my ticket from the game should go, right over the gray blob, since Michigan State's undefeated Big Ten record is definitely brightening up the autumn football scene in this household!

Go State!

If I had my head on my shoulders I could find the MSU band hat that I'm wearing in this 1994 photo. I still have that hat, even though it is a tad bit worn out!

Today is Michigan Day when all of Michigan (well, a lot of Michigan) directs attention toward whichever stadium is hosting the big game. The University of Michigan will travel from Ann Arbor to East Lansing today to take on the Spartans of Michigan State University at 3:30 pm at Spartan Stadium.

It's always a big, big deal for those of us who are fans of both teams. We'll be in our usual seats, just around the corner from the south end zone, cheering for the Spartans and following the SMB, Spartan Marching Band, from their practice field to Spartan Stadium.

Here's hoping for good weather and a Spartan victory. (Sorry, John and Don.)

Go State!

Spartan Marching Band Album

Today's halftime show theme was "Superheroes" and these twins were outfitted for the show. Their dad, Cormac Cannon, Associate Director of the Spartan Marching Band, enjoyed a moment with his family before the game.

Two campus police on bicycles escort the marching band to their practice field after the game. 

Tubas in a row mark the end of a long day of college football for the Spartan Marching Band. 

Copyright 2013

Wanda Hayes Eichler

It Is Hard To Do Art On Football Saturdays

There are some things that I try to do each day. I brush my teeth, I eat, I write my blog, I knit, I drink two cups of coffee, and I try to do art.

But, when football Saturdays come three in a row, well, then, it is hard to do art on football Saturdays!

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Marching Band Practice

Under blue skies on Demonstration Field, the Spartan Marching Band practiced this afternoon. Their third performance day, at tomorrow afternoon's football game with Youngstown State, just might be the first game of this season without any rain. For two weeks straight, the band and team and football fans have been evacuated from Spartan Stadium due to heavy rain and lightning in East Lansing.

Tomorrow's halftime show, featuring a James Bond theme, includes a jazzy version of "Goldfinger" that should rock the stadium. At practice today, the band was in fine form and worked hard perfecting the music and marching that make them the Number One reason to see a football game at Michigan State.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Another Go Green Day

It's another "Go Green, Go White" day tomorrow as Michigan State takes to the field for the second home football game of the season. Here's a photo from two years ago, taken in the south end zone, looking north.

The scoreboard on the north end has been changed into a digital wraparound board that flashes and streams and moves constantly, so this photo is already vintage quality.

Imagine the muscle power of the flag bearer who hoists the really big MSU flag. I guess that when you are a young person, you can do cool things like carrying a giant flag in a football stadium.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Football Storm

Spartan Stadium was evacuated shortly after the beginning of the second quarter in East Lansing last night due a heavy thunderstorm with frequent lightning activity. Our seats are close to the south end zone and we, along with close to 60,000 other Spartan fans, were drenched in the downpour that preceded the emptying of the stadium.

The game resumed after an hour with the band taking the field late at night for their first halftime show of the fall football season.

The image above was taken about ten minutes before we left the stadium for cover in the hallways underneath the stands. The orange clouds billowed with activity as the storm made its way across the skies.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

The SMB Bandos

Oh how I love this photo of all the Spartan Marching Band "bandos" from our family. Taken in the fall of 2002 when Peter was marching mellophones, here are Pete and Wendy and Will and Liesl.

The first game is tonight and the SMB will be there in full force, doing a Michigan themed rock show for the half time. Think Eminem (Warren) and Bob Segar (Dearborn) and Kid Rock (Romeo) and Stevie Wonder (Saginaw. Very cool.

March to the stadium is at 7:15 pm from Adams Field and, yes, I am on my way to the game, 'cause, yes, we are Spartan fans, and especially SMB fans, in this household.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

SMB at Bowl Game

The Spartan Marching Band, in their Spartan "S" formation, moves down the field during their pregame performance at the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl in Tempe, Arizona last night. Michigan State played Texas Christian University in the bowl game. That's the TCU band lining the edge of the field, waiting to perform next.

Peter Eichler, colorguard instructor, and Xavier Boudreaux, SMB drum major, chat before the game. Band staffers are carrying one of the ladders that the directors of the band stand on during performances.

Michigan State came from behind and won the game by one point. It was pretty cold in the stadium, but we were excited to win the bowl game.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Bowling in Tempe

We are bowling in Tempe along with the Michigan State Spartan Marching Band this weekend. Last night we watched the band perform at the Phoenix Zoo's Holiday Lights event. After almost a half hour of majestic marching band music they loaded into seven buses and headed over to a restaurant that is on the top of a butte on the south side of Phoenix.

Here we are at Rustler's Rooste -- Clay, Peter, WJ and Ed -- after having a cowboy dinner of meat, meat, meat, meat and apple pie. Not really. There was some salad and beans and a dinner roll.

Tonight is the actual Bowl Game. Michigan State plays TCU. We are the Spartans and they are the Horned Frogs. How much crazier can college football get? Frogs, cowboys, meat, zoo lights and Sparty.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

I See You On TV

There were two very familiar figures watching the Michigan State football game from the side lines yesterday. Daughter Liesl, wearing her prized band jacket, is framed in the gray oval with John Schwarz, Spartan Marching Band visual assistant.

Both Liesl and Schwarz (we call him by his last name) are band alumni; both played trumpet during their band years. That's MSU's quarterback, Andrew Maxwell, on the field. State lost a heartbreaker to Nebraska in the last seconds of the game which was broadcast nationwide on ESPN2.

So, today's blog post is "I C U on TV." Got it? And yes, I did have to rewind the DVR and pause it to get this shot.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

If You Can, Give Back

Ed and I are extremely fortunate. We know that. So we try to give and give back. Schools played an important role in our lives and last night was a give back night. Along with Ed's brother Neal and his spouse, Annie, we were honored at the Friday night football game for having donated a new scoreboard for the Laker football field.

Here we are with four of the players from the football program, at half time, in front of the new scoreboard with LED lights that are easy to read day or night. Neal is on the school board and heard about the need for a better scoreboard, so he and Ed stepped up to the plate (oh no, a baseball analogy in a football conversation) and gave money to get the new scoreboard in place.

Neal and Ed are both alums of the Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port system. Annie just retired after a fulfilling career teaching Chinese, music and more with the EPBP schools. And me, well, I did teach there for one semester in 1972-73, long enough to get to know some of the great students this system produces.

Thank you, Laker Athletes, for the very cool football and stadium blanket that you gave to each couple. I am especially impressed by the football which is autographed by the 2012 team. I realize that I have been going to MSU games longer than some of you have been on this planet.

My hope for each of the athletes who plays in sight of this scoreboard is that they will come to know when it is good to keep score and when it is time to put scores behind and walk away. 

I'm still working on that one myself.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Spartan Moon

A full moon, the second one of August and thus a blue moon, rose over Spartan Stadium last night. Most football fans were engrossed in the game with Boise State and probably noticed the small soft orb for only a minute.

Clouds drifted by and blocked the moon. The new giant video screen and the glaring stadium lights almost blocked sight of the moon.

But celestial objects have an eternalness that football lacks. By the end of the game as the Spartan Marching Band played the last strains of Michigan State's hymn-like alma mater, the full moon gloriously took to the sky in all its silvery, autumnal wonder. It was a night to remember.

Oh yes, Michigan State won the game.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Snow Clumps and Football

The snow came in big clumps toward midnight last night. I turned on an outside light, opened a door and took this image through the screens. You can see one of the Adirondack chairs in the right background if you look carefully.

We are already thinking "GO GREEN" today since it is the day of the Michigan State versus Georgia bowl game in Tampa, Florida. All who are loyal Midwesterners should be cheering for the Big Ten teams that were totally shut out in last year's bowl games.

So, here's the how the photo above looks to me in my Michigan State frame of mind.

Go State! Beat Georgia. And, good luck to the Big Ten teams in bowl games. Let's go bowling and win!

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler


December Blues

This cobalt blue vase with red and gold berries was supposed to be something artsy for today's blog post, but after watching Michigan State's football team lose to Wisconsin on Saturday night, maybe the blue stands for the disappointment that we Spartan fans are feeling.

Ed even turned to me during the game and asked if we should order tickets for the Rose Bowl. Not this year, I guess.

I'm proud of the team and the Spartan Marching Band. We had lots of great moments in the Saturdays of watching football and following the band this fall. Go State!

Copyright 2011

Wanda Hayes Eichler



Finn at Adams Field

Finny enjoys the big old nut tree that's next to Adams Field at MSU before the football game on Saturday. Just about every little kid who comes to watch the Spartan Marching Band before the game climbs on the low lying limbs of this welcoming tree.

Scores of huge trees, many over 100 years old, dot the north side of the campus near the Union. Like unspoken treasure, their branches rise in testament to the enduring goodness of nature and the enjoyment of small boys swinging on their limbs.

Copyright 2011

Wanda Hayes Eichler

Drill and Clean

The last home performance of the season is on Saturday, but it is Friday night and the Spartan Marching Band Color Guard is practicing. Seen through a window of Dem Hall, the guard works on its drill for the half time show at the Indiana/MSU game. Drill and clean is the name of the game. Get the routine right and make it shine.

The distant figure in the center pane is my youngest child, Peter Eichler, co-director of the Color Guard, and a graduate of Michigan State and Laker High School. This photo was taken while Peter's dad and I waited outside the practice hall and chatted with jazz music students who were waiting for their turn at using the practice facility.

Copyright 2011
Wanda Hayes Eichler