7
TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com

Meet the men who guard the ‘M’

Theta Xi fraternity 
guards Diag block 
‘M’ during MSU 

rivalry week

By MAX BULTMAN

Daily Sports Editor

The first thing they’ll tell you 

is that they aren’t technically 
supposed to talk to reporters. 
Then they’ll offer you a cookie.

They sit on two couches, with 

three camping chairs adjacent, 
under a large tent in the center of 
the Diag. A white-and-sky-blue 
flag hangs from the north end of 
the tent with an orange unicorn 
in its center. There are three 
students sitting watch, for now, 
but more will arrive soon. It’s 
Tuesday night, and it’s cold out.

A basketball hoop stands about 

15 feet away, the front of its rim 
dented flat, but still usable to pass 
the time this week. From Sunday 
to Saturday, these students will sit, 
eat and pass time in and around 
this tent, waiting for a threat that 
may never come.

These are the men who guard 

the ‘M’ in the center of the Diag 
from 
vandalism. 
Throughout 

the night, appreciative students 
passing 
by 
will 
shout 
their 

thanks. At 10:08 p.m., a student 
approaches the tent bearing a gift 
— more cookies.

“That happens every once in 

a while,” says Brandon Lyons, a 
junior computer science major.

It happens again around 10:35 

p.m.

Since 1999, Theta Xi fraternity 

has been in charge of protecting 
the Diag ‘M’ during Michigan 
State rivalry week. This year, 
Delta Phi Epsilon sorority has 
helped out during the day. Each 
member is required to spend eight 
hours throughout the week at the 
‘M,’ with new pledges required 
to spend 18. There are six shifts 
available, and according to Lyons 
and Ben Lampert, a sophomore 
astronomy 
and 
astrophysics 

major, there has been no problem 
filling the shifts.

As of Tuesday, Lyons estimates 

he has spent six hours on guard 
each night, and while the primary 
cause is to protect the ‘M,’ the 
two Greek houses are also raising 
money 
for 
multiple 
sclerosis 

and cystic fibrosis through a 

GoFundMe page.

Lyons and Lampert are friendly, 

but they aren’t allowed to talk 
freely about the weeklong project 
until the Theta Xi philanthropy 
chair, sophomore business student 
Alex Tarowsky, arrives.

Lyons is studying for an exam he 

has to take Wednesday, and he just 
had one earlier Tuesday, too. But it 
hasn’t stopped him from spending 
large lumps of time on the Diag. 
He likes the bonding, and he is 
invested in protecting the ‘M.’

When Tarowsky arrives, the 

group can finally open up about 
the event.

“(It) really just started with a 

bunch of guys just getting sick 
of Michigan State, just trashing 
the ‘M,’ so they decided to do 
something about it and turn it 
into a big event and a fundraiser,” 
Tarowsky said.

Acts of vandalism between 

Michigan and Michigan State 
during rivalry week have become 
somewhat common. In recent 
years, Michigan fans have been 
suspected of defacing the Spartan 
statue 
in 
East 
Lansing, 
and 

sometime between Wednesday 

night and Thursday morning, the 
Magic Johnson statue outside of 
Michigan State’s Breslin Center 
was vandalized. A yellow block 
‘M’ was painted on the statue’s 
chest, and ‘Beat State’ was written 
on its base.

Last year, the Diag ‘M’ was 

painted 
green, 
which 
Theta 

Xi says was the result of a 
“miscommunication” 
with 
the 

University — a “fluke” that won’t 
happen again. 

And 
by 

spending 
the 

week guarding 
the 
Diag, 

Theta 
Xi 
can 

reasonably 
assure that the 
‘M’ will remain 
intact this year. 
To 
pass 
the 

time, 
brothers 

have done all kinds of things.

They host events, including 

a free-throw shooting contest, 
cornhole and pie-a-Xi. They do 
homework — one pledge, Michael 
Lee, is working on a paper in 
which 
he 
applies 
Freudian 

psychology to German fairytales. 

And, of course, they socialize. 
Tuesday night, they had a long 
dialogue about their favorite 
bathrooms in the house and 
planning how to get a TV to the 
Diag for the next night.

And then there’s the free 

food. Pizza House and the Blue 
Leprechaun 
are 
sponsoring 

the event, and students bring 
them food throughout the week. 
They’ve gotten coffee, pizza and 

many, 
many 

cookies. 
At 

lunchtime 
on 

Tuesday, 
they 

said a walking 
burrito from Get 
Some 
Burritos 

brought 
them 

lunch.

But all of this 

leaves one fairly 
substantial 

question. What happens if a 
would-be-vandal does show up?

“We would do whatever we 

could to make sure this ‘M’ isn’t 
painted,” Tarowsky said. “We 
would push these couches over 
it. I guess we would probably call 
911. We’re gonna get water guns. I 

don’t know why we didn’t do it yet, 
but we want to get water guns.”

None of them were on the ‘M’ 

Sunday, but there is talk amongst 
them about some questionable 
activity.

“There were some suspicious 

looking guys we saw camping 
around,” Tarowsky said. “One of 
them approached us and started 
asking 
questions 
you 
would 

expect, like, ‘How many of you 
guys are going to be here all the 
time? What hours? Do you guys 
ever leave?’ I wasn’t here at the 
time, but apparently he motioned 
to his friends to leave once he was 
done asking the questions.”

Tarowsky 
eventually 
leaves 

the tent, and the night continues. 
Pledges show up for serenade 
practice and a large group of 
brothers plays basketball. Word 
has it that it’s someone’s birthday 
at midnight, and he’ll be spending 
it guarding the ‘M.’ It feels like a 
party already.

By 3:31 a.m., four members 

remain at the tent. Three are 
awake, all on their laptops, and 
one is asleep. The fun has gone. 
They’re simply on duty.

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

All week, the Theta Xi fraternity brothers have camped out in the middle of the Diag to protect the block ‘M’ from being vandalized during Michigan State rivalry week.

“I guess we would 
probably call 911. 
We’re gonna get 

water guns.”

