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efore I pulled my first opera-
tion with the UM Patriots as
an undercover reporter, Kevin
Irrer looked me in the eyes and
said, "If we don't like you, we won't call
you again."
I laughed. He wasn'tkidding.
Thirty minutes earlier, I was told to
meet a man in the corridor outside of
the art gallery in the Duderstadt Center
on North Campus. My contact told me
nothing about the upcoming operation,
except to come alone and not to look sus-
picious.
About a week before that, at about
3:30 on a Tuesday morning, I woke up to
an impossible phone call, the kind of call
that starts the long, slow thrill of a spy
movie.
The person on the other line coughed
directly into the phone before grunting
"Hello?" I didn't recognize the number.
"This is Kevin from the UM Patriots,"
he said. "You called me earlier today.
Tomorrow is National Pirate Day. We're
going to make a grappling hook and fly,
a pirate flag from the Graduate Library.
Do you want in?" He couldn't have been
more articulate, but I still had no idea
what he was talking about.
After the group's iconic run through
the Fishbowl, during which Blinky
chased Pac Man through the rows of
computers, all of campus wanted to
know who was beneath the costumes. I
had gotten his phone number the previ-
ous day from another photographer and
left a message for the Patriots, but they
didn't call back, and I more or less forgot
about it.
And so I did what any reasonable per-
son would do with an exam scheduled
for the next evening and an impossible
caller on the phone - I told "Kevin" that
I was probably dreaming the conversa-
tion and to please call me the following
day to prove he did indeed exist.
If the Running of the Pac Man was
held20years ago,those fortunate enough
to be sitting in the Fishbowl would have
told their friends, and later, maybe their doing this?
kids if they decided to come to the Uni-
versity, but it would have stopped there.
Today, you can all see the prank thanks Back to North Campus.
to digital video, cheap film editing pro- I asked around until I found the art
grams and YouTube.com. museum and tried to look like an engi-
And many of us have. Their pranks neer. Two men were standing outside
havebeenviewed nearly15,000times on over a cardboard box. They looked
YouTube. The Pac Man stunt has been pleasantly suspicious. I walked over and
imitated (poorly) by students at the Uni- said the password they instructed me to
versity of Washington. The Ann Arbor use, which was, "Hey, are you guys from
group has a fan group on Facebook that UM Patriots?"
includes Michigan football star LaMarr . Fifteen minutes later, I was in the
Woodley and 21 other members. Itsweb- front row;of an Engineering 101 lecture
site (www.umpatroits.com) has six dif- at the Chrysler Center, trying to keep my
ferent pranks you can see and has been camera hidden. A person to the left of
getting solid traffic since it was first me paged through a magazine. The stu-
uploaded. dents in the row behind me all seemed to
But now the group faces the same be learning how to spin their pens. The
mind-numbing task as any group of professor was plugging his laptop into
artists: How do you top your prior suc- the projector with one hand and holding
cess? Then how do you top that one? a silver thermos with the other. None of
How do you form a group that will stay them could have been prepared for what
fresh after the founders graduate? And came next
what's probably the most interesting Kevin, dressed inconspicuously in the
question of all: Why the hell are you See PATRIOTS, Page 6B
_;
, x
Sooner
or later,
you'll die, and right
before you do, you
may think 'Damn,
I wish I ran around
in the library during
my college years
dressed up was
PaCman.'"
PHOTOS BY FORESTCASEY/Daily
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT:
Randy Wan poses as Superman in tront of the cast of UM
Patriots characters
Members of the Valentines Day Ninjas prepare for the
operation on North Campus by distributing candy and
paper throwing stars.
The Ninjas huddle beneath the Lurie Bell Tower, their
preparations videotaped by UM Patriot Kevin Irrer (cen-
ter), who joined them for the day.
The Orkin Man and a Giant Bug do battle on the rooftop
of the Forest Street Parking Structure.
The exterminator and the bug in the Chrysler Center on
North Campus' during an Engineering 101 lecture.
of