I sent Josh a fairly nice e-mail yesterday and got a nice reply in return from him. I would post some of his comments here, but I don't want Jim breathing down my neck. He did say that the article was basically meant to talk about how great a sports town and community Ann Arbor is and not as a cut to North Dakota. I think he meant well, but his pen misconstrued his words a bit. He even mentioned a possible follow-up article about North Dakota and that being his last article. We'll see if it happens. If you want to see the comments, PM me w/your e-mail address and I will forward the exchange we had to you. He's a college kid winding down his four years and much like when I graduated from UND in 1992, he's gonna miss Michigan. I can't say I blame him.
Dagies, you need a psych exam if you think the WCHA Final Five can in any way, shape, or form compete with the Rose Bowl. Being a former North Dakota boy myself and having visited Michigan Stadium for the Penn State game back in 1999, I can honestly tell you walking into the place for the very first time gave me goosebumps. I grew up 20 miles from a town of 800 people. Our black and white TV carried two stations: NBC and ABC. From the time I was 5 years old, I could hum "Hail to the Victors" in my sleep and dreamed of someday being Anthony Carter or Desmond Howard. A stadium holding 108,000 people...or 1 in every 6 North Dakotans...wow. I thought it was incredible. Regardless of whether or not you like football or sports in general, the atmosphere is second-to-none. Throw in a couple of F-14's flying overhead since it was Veteran's Day weekend and well, I hope you get the picture. I sat next to 40 year + season ticket holders who had been to 14 bowl games in their lifetime, including 7 Rose Bowls. Me having attended about 10 Final Fives and 3 Frozen Fours pales in comparison.
Just my two cents...