After a “Children of Yost” Twitter post on Monday morning suggested the idea, residents on the back side of Mary Markley hall used lights in their dorm rooms to spell out “Fuck OSU” Monday night, ahead of Saturday’s rivalry football game between the Wolverines and Buckeyes.
Children of Yost, the informal account associated with Michigan Hockey’s student section, issued the challenge to Markley residents by tweeting out a picture of of Markley in 1977 with the same message spelled out on the back side on the building.
“Yo, Markley residents. Find a way to pull this off again,” the tweet read.
The group’s call to action was answered that same day, with residents posting on social media about efforts to spell out the message.
Engineering senior Teddy Tran tweeted a picture at 5:40 p.m. Monday of a group of students appearing to be organizing the feat for that evening.
“Lo an behold,” Tran said in the tweet. “A group of people are organizing this pretty well!”
Tran said in a tweet he does not take credit for organizing the message, but did help spread the word about what was happening.
“A group of other people put a lot of effort into organizing the whole thing,” the tweet read. “I just helped spread the word! Pretty incredible feat tbh.”
Monday night at around 8 p.m. — roughly 13 hours after Children of Yost first issued the challenge on twitter at 6:45 a.m. — pictures began surfacing of the buildings exterior with the message. The Children of Yost Twitter account congratulated the residents shortly after.
In 1977, the year when Markley residents were first documented as sending the message ahead of the Ohio State game, legendary Michigan coach Bo Schembechler led Michigan to defeat Ohio State in Ann Arbor by a score of 14 to 6 to win the Big Ten. The team finished the season with a loss in the Rose Bowl to Washington and a record of 10 wins and 2 losses.
The 10 win and 1 loss football team has similar aspirations this year, hoping to not only beat Ohio State and play in the Big Ten Championship Game on December 3rd, but also potentially earn a trip to the College Football Playoff.