Yes, you read that right: The Detroit Lions are hosting Monday Night Football.
The Lions have gone longer without winning an NFL Championship in one city than any other team: 57 years, since 1957. (The Arizona Cardinals haven't won one since 1947, but have moved twice since, from Chicago to St. Louis in 1960, and to Phoenix in 1988.) Think about it: The last time the Lions won a title, "Jailhouse Rock" was on the charts, the baseball Giants and the Dodgers were in the process of moving to California, and the Jets, the Mets, the Nets, the Islanders and the Devils didn't even exist yet.
It's not that the Lions have been terrible the whole time. Even as recently as 1999, they'd been to the Playoffs 6 times in the preceding 9 years, getting to the NFC Championship Game in the 1991 season, although they got slaughtered by the Washington Redskins.
But then their great running back Barry Sanders retired, and within 2 years, they had fallen to 2-14. In 2008, they put together the first 0-16 season in NFL history. (The Tampa Bay Buccaneers went 0-14 in their first season, 1977.) In 2007, '08 and '09, they lost 19 straight games (well short of the Bucs' having lost the first 26 in franchise history, breaking all NFL records); from November 2007 to December 2010, they went 5-47.
Amazingly, they bounced back, making the Playoffs in 2011 -- but their last 2 seasons have again been losing ones, and the Lions remain a joke, above and beyond not having won a title since "Super Bowl -IX." The Giants should beat them, and are currently 5 1/2-point favorites.
Disclaimer: While I have been to Detroit, and I did see a game at Tiger Stadium, it was not against the Yankees, and the Tigers' new home, Comerica Park, was then still under construction. I have no firsthand knowledge of what the ballpark is like. I have, however, been around Tiger fans, both at the old yard and in their visits to the old Yankee Stadium. So I have a pretty good idea of what the game experience will be like.
Before You Go. The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press (or "Freep") websites should be consulted before you decide whether to go. While the game will be indoors, you will be spending some time outdoors. Monday afternoon is forecast to be in the low 70s, and Monday night in the mid-50s. Most likely, you'll be staying overnight if you go, so let me add that Tuesday's weather is set to be about the same. But since this will be early September, Detroit's placement in the Midwest snowbelt should not be a problem.
UPDATE: A January 30, 2019 article in Thrillist said that Michigan was 2nd only to Minnesota in how bad Winter was -- noting that people in Alaska, which came in 3rd, were "different" and could handle what is obviously worse in terms of statistics: "Winter in Michigan begins well before Thanksgiving and stretches far past Easter, which makes for four-to-six wearisome months of always-gray, always-cold, always-drizzly, but-rarely-snowy-in-a-good-way misery.
I should also note that Detroit is a border city. The Detroit River, connecting Lakes Huron and Erie, is one of the few places where you can cross from north to south and go from America to Canada. Windsor, Ontario -- the closest thing to a "South Detroit," making that line in the Journey song "Don't Stop Believin'" problematic -- is considerably safer, and, like Detroit itself, has a gambling casino.
If you want to visit, you'll need to bring your passport. You can use either the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel or the Ambassador Bridge. The current exchange rate is US$1.00 = C$1.32, and C$1.00 = US 76 cents.
Tickets. In spite of Detroit's reputation for crime and poverty, and the team's reputation for ineptitude, the Lions averaged 64,137 fans per home game last season -- given Ford Field's capacity, nearly a sellout. Getting tickets may be difficult, especially since this is a Monday Night Football game. Remember, Detroit is in Michigan, home of the Wolverines and the Spartans, prime Big Ten Country: These people love their football. Even their bad football.
In the Lower Level, Sideline seats go for $199, and End Zone for $99. In the Upper Level, the "Roar Zone," they're $54.
Getting There. Detroit is 600 land miles from New York. Specifically, it is 616 miles from Times Square to Cadillac Square. Knowing this, your first reaction is going to be to fly out there.
Except... Wayne County Metropolitan Airport is 22 miles southwest of downtown. A taxi to downtown will set you back a bundle. There is a bus, SMART (Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation) bus Number 125, that goes directly from the airport to downtown, but it will take an hour and 20 minutes.
Also, do you remember the Seinfeld episode where George Costanza had a girlfriend, played by a pre-Will & Grace Megan Mullaly (using her real voice, you'd never recognize her as W&G's Karen), and he had to accompany her to a funeral in her hometown of Detroit? "It's kind of an expensive flight," George said. This was not just George being his usual cheap self: At the time, over 20 years ago (wow, it's been that long), it was expensive, more expensive from New York to Detroit than it was to the further-away Chicago.
It's actually cheaper now, but not by much: A check of airline websites shows that, while flights can by had for under $700 round-trip, most will be more like $1,500 -- and you'll have to change planes in Chicago. That's right, you'll have to overshoot Detroit to go to Detroit.
Too rich for your blood? The news gets worse: There is no good way to get to Detroit, and that's got nothing to do with the city's reputation. Forget the train. The only Amtrak route in and out of Detroit is to and from Chicago, which in the opposite direction.
The most direct route is the Lake Shore Limited, formerly known as the Twentieth Century Limited when the old New York Central Railroad ran it from Grand Central Terminal to Chicago's LaSalle Street Station. It leaves New York's Penn Station at 3:40 every afternoon, and arrives at Union Terminal in Toledo at 5:55 every morning. From there, you have to wait until 6:30 to get on a bus to Detroit's Amtrak station, arriving at 7:35. The station is at 11 W. Baltimore Avenue, at Woodward Avenue, 2 1/2 miles north of Ford Field, so walking there is not a good option. The number 16 or 53 bus would take you down Woodward.
In reverse, the bus leaves Detroit at 9:30 PM (meaning you'll need at least 1 night in a hotel for this game), arrives in Toledo at 10:45, and then you have to hang around there until the Lake Shore Limited comes back at 3:15 AM, arriving back in New York at 6:23 PM. Total cost: $190. A lot cheaper than flying, but a tremendous inflammation in the posterior.
How about Greyhound? Yeah, ride a bus for 14 hours to Detroit, there's a great idea. (Rolleyes.) Actually, having done it, I can tell you that it's not that bad. Two Greyhound buses leave Port Authority every day with connections to Detroit.
One is at 5:15 PM, and arrives at 7:20 AM, with a 1 hour and 35 minute stopover in Cleveland in the middle of the night (but you won't have to change buses, in case you want to stay on the bus and sleep). The other leaves Port Authority at 10:15 PM, and you will have to change buses in Cleveland, arriving 6:50 AM and leaving 7:50, arriving at 11:25 AM. Despite having to change buses, this one is actually faster, taking 13 hours and 10 minutes, as opposed to the single through bus ride, taking 14 hours and 5 minutes.
Compared to most of Detroit, the bus terminal, at 1001 Howard Street, is relatively new and quite clean. It was just about within walking distance of Tiger Stadium, which really helped me in 1999. It's also not a long walk to Ford Field, but I wouldn't recommend this. Better to take a cab, especially if you're getting a hotel. Round-trip fare: $131 if you make an advanced purchase, $310 if you're buying at Port Authority. So Greyhound is also far cheaper than flying, possibly cheaper (and definitely not much more expensive) than Amtrak, and less of a pain than Amtrak.
If you decide to drive, the directions are rather simple, down to (literally) the last mile. You'll need to get into New Jersey, and take Interstate 80 West. You'll be on I-80 for the vast majority of the trip, through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. In Ohio, in the western suburbs of Cleveland, I-80 will merge with Interstate 90. I point this out merely to help you avoid confusion, not because I-90 will become important -- though it is for "How to Be a Yankee Fan in Chicago" and some other cities. In Ohio, you'll take I-80's Exit 64, and get onto Interstate 75 North. This will take you into Michigan. Take Exit 50 for Grand River Avenue. Follow the ramp to Woodward Avenue.
If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 5 hours and 15 minutes in Pennsylvania, 3 hours in Ohio and an hour in Michigan. That's 10 hours and 45 minutes. Counting rest stops, preferably halfway through Pennsylvania and in the Cleveland suburbs, and accounting for traffic in both New York and Detroit, it should be about 12 hours.
I strongly recommend finding a hotel with a good, secure parking garage, even if you're only staying for one game.
Once In the City. The city, and its river, were founded in 1701 as Fort Ponchartrain du Detroit du Lac Erie (Day-TWAH, strait of Lake Erie), by Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac, for whom the downtown Cadillac Square and the brand of car was named.
Detroit's centerpoint, in culture and in terms of address numbers, is the Woodward Fountain, where Woodward, Michigan and Gratiot Avenues come together, with Cadillac Square just off to the east. Woodward is the East-West divider.
Since the July 1967 race riot, Detroit has become known as a city of poverty, crime, decay, and poor city services, the kind of place where even Batman would fear to tread. The legendary comedian Red Skelton once said, "In Detroit, you can go 10 miles and never leave the scene of the crime." It's no wonder the RoboCop film series was set there.
There was a Nike commercial a few years back, in which young basketball players were seated, yoga-style, in front of a TV screen, on which their "master," a fat black man with a turban and sunglasses who looked nothing like an athlete, was dispensing wisdom. At the end, after the Swoosh logo was shown, the camera went back to one of the students, who asked, "But, Master, what if we behave badly?" And the Master lowered his shades, looked over them, and said, "You go to Detroit." This was in the early 1990s, when the Pistons had begun to fall from their 1989-90 "Bad Boys" championship teams, and going to Detroit was not a good option in any sport -- indeed, the only Detroit team doing well at the time was, strangely, the Lions, who were then a perennial Playoff team thanks largely to Barry Sanders.
I once saw a T-shirt that read, "I'm so bad, I vacation in Detroit." As I mentioned, I have. (I'm not saying I'm "bad," or a "hard man," just that I went.) Newark had a race riot 2 weeks before Detroit's. In May 1999, I saw Detroit, and I realized just how far back Newark had come, by seeing how far Detroit had not.
In the 1950 Census, Detroit was the 4th-largest city in America, after New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, with over 2 million people just within the city limits. "White flight" after the '67 riot has led to the Detroit metropolitan area having roughly the same number of people it had then, about 5.3 million, but within the city limits the number has dropped from over 2 million to just 680,000. The suburbs are beautiful, but the city itself is a hole, and good men (and a few bad ones) have busted their humps trying to get it back on its feet.
One of the good men who's tried was Mike Ilitch, probably the most famous American of Macedonian descent, who ran Little Caesar's Pizza, and owns the Tigers and Red Wings. He rebuilt the city's historic Fox Theater, put Little Caesar's headquarters in the building above it, and had Comerica Park built across the street. He, and many others, including Pistons Hall-of-Famer turned major area businessman Dave Bing, who served a term as Mayor, are trying, they really are. (Ilitch died in 2017.)
But Governor Rick Snyder, a Tea Party Republican, has ordered a State takeover of Detroit's finances. Apparently, he didn't learn the lesson of Hugh Carey, New York's Governor in 1975, who found another way to get New York City's finances back on their feet. In Detroit's case, as in every other place in which it's tried, austerity hasn't worked.
As for you, the potential visitor, the fear of crime should not keep you away. As with Yankee Stadium during the depth of New York's crime wave from the late 1970s to the early '90s, the ballpark is probably the safest, best-protected place in town.
As recently as 1950, the city was 83 percent white, 16 percent black. By the time of the 1967 riot, it was about half and half. Now, it's 82 percent black, 8 percent white, 7 percent Hispanic, 1 percent Asian. But Wayne County, which includes, but is not limited to, the City of Detroit? 52 percent white, 40 percent black, 5 percent Hispanic, 3 percent Asian. Oakland County? 77 percent white, 13 percent black, 6 percent Asian, 4 percent Hispanic. If there's another city in America that's that segregated, I'm not aware of it.
Detroit will never escape the stigma of the 12th Street Riot in July 1967. But it previously had race riots in 1863 and 1943. Even Benton Harbor, in Western Michigan, on the east coast of Lake Michigan, had race riots in 1960, 1966, 1967, 1990 and 2003.
Detroit is a weird city in some ways. It often seems like a cross between a past that was once glorious but now impossible to reach, and a future that never quite happened. (That observation was once made about the remaining structures from New York's 1964-65 World's Fair and the Astrodome in Houston.) Art Deco structures of the 1920s and '30s, such as the Penobscot Building (the tallest building outside New York and Chicago when it opened in 1928, the tallest in Michigan until 1977) stand alongside abandoned, boarded-up or chained-up stores.
But alongside or across from them, there are glassy, modern structures such as the Renaissance Center: A 5-tower complex that includes, at its center, the 750-foot tallest building in Michigan (the tallest all-hotel skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere), and, in one of its 4 outer towers, the headquarters of General Motors (although the RenCen was originally financed by Ford).
Downtown also has the Detroit People Mover, a monorail system that is part of the suggestion of Detroit trying to get from 1928 to 2028 while jumping over the difficult years in between. Like the Washington and Montreal Metro (subway) systems, the company running it prides itself on the artwork in its stations. It has a stop called Times Square, but it won't look anything like the one in New York. It has a stop called Bricktown, but it won't look anything like Brick Township, the sprawling Jersey Shore suburb off Exits 88 to 91 on the Garden State Parkway.
The Grand Circus Park and Broadway Street stations are both 3 blocks from Comerica Park. The DPM also has a stop at Joe Louis Arena, home of the Red Wings. It's cheap, only 75 cents, and it still uses tokens, although it also accepts cash. Be advised, though, that it stops running at midnight, except on Fridays and Saturdays, when it runs until 2:00 AM. Bus fare is $1.50.
ZIP Codes in the Detroit area start with the digits 480, 481, 482 and 483, and the Area Code is 313, with 248 (overlaid by 947), 586 and 734 serving the suburbs. Detroit has no "beltway." The sales tax in the State of Michigan is 6 percent, and does not go up in either the County of Wayne or the City of Detroit. As with New York, Chicago and a few other cities, the electricity in Detroit is run by a company with the name of the inventor of the electricity industry (if not the light bulb): Detroit Edison Company.
Going In. Opening in 2002, Ford Field is, of course, named for Detroit's greatest corporate icon, the Ford Motor Company. William Clay Ford Jr., a.k.a. Bill Ford, great-grandson of Henry Ford, is the company's CEO and the Lions' vice-chairman and operating owner. His mother, Martha Firestone Ford (granddaughter of tire baron Harvey Firestone, a close friend of Henry), is the team's majority stockholder and thus the actual "owner."
The closest parking lots to the stadium are $25, but most nearby lots can be had for as little as $15. This is a far cry from parking at Tiger Stadium, which usually had people boxed in, resulting in tremendous traffic jams both before and after the game (and, every bit as much as the crime and the condition of the stadium, was why the Lions wanted to get out and built the Silverdome). It also involved local kids being willing to "Watch your car, Mister?" for a small fee. Translation: "If you pay me $5.00, I'll make sure nobody damages your car. If you don't pay me, I'll make sure somebody, namely myself, does."
The area around Comerica Park (named for a Midwest-based bank) and Ford Field (home of the NFL's Lions, across Brush Street from Comerica, and named for the automaker), at the northern edge of downtown Detroit, is called Foxtown, after the Fox Theater, which, as I said, Tigers/Wings/Little Caesars owner Mike Ilitch had restored. The stadium can be entered from gates on Brush, Beacon and St. Antoine's Street, with Montcalm Street also bordering it. The official street address is 2000 Brush Street.
Unlike most indoor stadiums, Ford Field allows a large amount of natural light to reach the artificial FieldTurf field, thanks to immense skylights and large glass windows at the open corners. The windows along the ceiling are frosted, to mimic the automotive factories that are prevalent in the area.
The southwest corner provides the seating bowl and concourse with sunlight year-round, and also offers fans a view of downtown. Of course, that sunlight could allow for real grass, but the Lions haven't played a home game on real grass since Thanksgiving Day 1974. (They had 2 more games that season, both on the road, missed the Playoffs, and moved into the Silverdome the next season.)
Unlike most football stadiums, Ford Field is laid out, end zone to end zone, from east to west, instead of from north to south. The NFL has a rule against this type of construction, so that the sunlight cannot be a major distraction to the players on the field. The NFL had to give permission for the construction, because the Hudson's warehouse, incorporated into the stadium (a la the B&O Railroad warehouse at Camden Yards in Baltimore) to hold some skyboxes, would have required alterations otherwise.
The natural light is not a distraction to the players in a day game, because the light only reaches as far as the sidelines, leaving the field still properly lit with the combination of artificial stadium lighting and sunlight. And this won't matter to you anyway, because it will be a night game.
Ford Field hosted Super Bowl XL in 2006, won by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the final game of the career of Detroit native Jerome Bettis; and the 2009 NCAA Final Four, the only one ever held in the State of Michigan, won by North Carolina, overcoming a "home-court advantage" for Michigan State in the Final.
Ford Field has hosted the U.S. national soccer team once thus far. Appropriately, for a city on the U.S.-Canadian border, it was against Canada, on June 7, 2011. The U.S. won. It hosted 2 games of the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup. (UPDATE: It will host the Final Four again in 2027.)
One would hope that the same would be true of the Lions, who, after all, are a football team. It is. The Breadstick offers deli sandwiches, stadium fare, and a full bar. This open space gives guests a chance to grab something to eat and a spot to sit before, during or after the game. Located on the second level concourse above gate A.
The Lions work with their team's most recent living legend to present Barry Sanders Fresh and Fit Meal stands, in sections 115, 126, 137, 217, 234 and in the Huntington Club. A Barry Sanders Fresh and Fit Meal which includes a turkey sandwich on whole grain bread, carrots, apples, juice and one limited edition Barry Sanders trading card by Topps. If that's "too healthy" for you, another Heisman Trophy winner who wore Number 20 for the Lions has a stand: Billy Sims' Barbecue, at Section 139.
What is "Detroit style pizza"? It's rectangular, with toppings such as pepperoni and mushrooms, and is differentiated from the styles of New York and Chicago with a thick, crispy bottom crust. There's also "Coney dogs," Detroit's variation on hot dogs, topped with chili, cheese and onions. These are also popular in Cincinnati, but not at Coney Island.
Team History Displays. While the Lions haven't won a title in over half a century, they do have 4 NFL Championships, and that's more than any team except the Giants, Green Bay, Chicago, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Dallas and Washington. (Cleveland, despite not having won one since 1964, also has 4. The Colts have 4 if you combine their Baltimore and Indianapolis periods. And Philadelphia just won their 4th last season.) The title banners hang over one end zone: 1935, 1952, 1953 and 1957.
They have separate banners for their Playoff berths of the pre-AFL-NFL merger era (1935, '52, '53, '54, 57), the rest of the 20th Century (1970, '82, '83, '91, '93, '94, '95, '97 and '99), and the berths they've had thus far in the 21st Century (2011, '14 and '16).
However, they have not won a World Championship since 1957, and have not played an NFL Championship Game, under any name, since then -- which means they have never played in a Super Bowl. The only other teams for which this is true are the Cleveland Browns, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Houston Texans -- and the Jags and Texans are far newer franchises than the Lions and Browns.
Along the skyboxes, the Lions have a display for their retired numbers. Number 20 has specifically been retired for Barry Sanders, running back, 1989-98. However, it has also been worn by Hall of Fame cornerback Lem Barney, 1967-77; and Heisman Trophy-winning running back Billy Sims, 1980-84, who was on his way to a Hall of Fame career until he landed on his knee on the Metrodome turf, and never played another down.
When Motown singer Marvin Gaye unsuccessfully tried out for the Lions in 1970, he offered Barney and running back Mel Farr the chance to sing on his next album. It was What's Going On, and the 2 Lions earned gold records for it.
The others are as follows: 7, Earl "Dutch" Clark, quarterback-defensive back, 1934-38; 22, Bobby Layne, quarterback-placekicker, 1950-58; 37, Doak Walker, runningback-placekicker, 1950-55; 56, Joe Schmidt, linebacker, 1953-65; 85, Chuck Hughes, wide receiver, 1970-71; and 88, Charlie Sanders (no relation to Barry), tight end, 1968-77. Hughes had a heart attack during a game on October 24, 1971, and remains the last of the 5 NFL or AFL player to die directly as a result of something that happened during a game.
The Lions also honor "Pride of the Lions," including several Hall-of-Famers, but also some who haven't made it. They are:
* From the 1935 NFL Champions: Clark.
* From the 1940s: Center-linebacker Alex Wojciehowicz.
* From the 1952-53 NFL Champions: Layne, Walker, offensive tackle Lou Creekmur, cornerbacks Jack Christiansen and Jim David, safeties Yale Lary and Don Doll. Guard Dick Stanfel played 4 seasons with the Lions, including these 2 title years, and is in the Hall of Fame, but is not listed among the Pride of the Lions group.
* From the 1957 NFL Champions: Layne, Creekmur, Christiansen, Lary, Schmidt, and guards Harley Sewell and John Gordy. Running back John Henry Johnson was also on this team, and is also in the Hall of Fame, but was only a Lion for 3 seasons, and is not listed with the group.
* From the 1962 team that went 11-3, and was the only team to beat the Green Bay Packers all season, but missed the Playoffs because they finished 2nd to the Packers in the Western Division: Lary, Schmidt, receiver Gale Cogdill, defensive tackles Alex Karras and Roger Brown, linebacker Wayne Walker (no relation to Doak), and cornerbacks Dick "Night Train" Lane and Dick LeBeau.
* From the 1970 NFC Central Division Champions: Karras, LeBeau, Charlie Sanders, Barney, and center Ed Flanagan.
* From the period in between the 1970 and '83 Division titles: Defensive end Al Baker.
* From the 1983 NFC Central Division Champions: Sims, defensive tackle Doug English, and placekicker Eddie Murray (not to be confused with the 1st baseman on that year's World Champion Baltimore Orioles).
* From the 1991 NFC Central Division Champions: Barry Sanders, running back Mel Gray, receiver Herman Moore, offensive tackle Lomas Brown, linebacker Chris Spielman, safety Bennie Blades, and punter Jim Arnold.
* From the 1990s Playoff teams: In addition to the preceding, running back Cory Schlesinger, center Kevin Glover, defensive end Robert Porcher.
Lane was named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary Team in 1994. He, Christiansen, Layne, Schmidt, Barney and Barry Sanders were named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Football Players in 1999. Lane, Schmidt and Barry Sanders were named to the NFL Network's 100 Greatest Players in 2010.
The Lions have also had an unusually high number of Heisman Trophy winners play for them, even for an old team, 8: Doak Walker, 1948; Leon Hart, 1949; Howard Cassady, 1955; Steve Owens, 1969; Billy Sims, 1978; Barry Sanders, 1988; Andre Ware, 1989; and Desmond Howard, 1991.
The Michigan Sports Hall of Fame is located at Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit. Among those already mentioned, these have been elected: Clark, Wojciechowicz, Layne, Doak and Wayne Walker, Schmidt, Christiansen, Lary, David, Hart, Creekmur, Lane, Karras, LeBeau, Barney, Charlie and Barry Sanders, English, Sims, Murray, Spielman, Lomas Brown (but not Roger), and Moore.
Also: Original Lions owner George Richards, 1930s running back Leroy "Ace" Gutowsky, 1940s running back and later Supreme Court Justice Byron "Whizzer" White, 1950s coaches Buddy Parker and George Wilson, 1950s running backs Cloyce Box and Bob "Hunchy" Hoernschmeyer, 1950s receiver Terry Barr, 1950s lineman Les Bingaman, 1950s broadcaster Van Patrick, 1963-2014 owner William Clay Ford, 1960s linebacker Mike Lucci, 1970s-80s defensive tackle Doug English, and 1990s kicker Jason Hanson.
The Lions have had 12 Heisman Trophy winners, more than any other NFL team: Frank Sinkwich, 1942 Georgia running back, with the team 1943-44; Doak Walker, 1948 Southern Methodist University (SMU) running back, 1950-55; Leon Hart, 1949 Notre Dame end, 1950-57; Howard "Hopalong" Cassady, 1955 Ohio State running back, 1956-63; Steve Owens, 1969 Oklahoma running back, 1970-74; Billy Sims, 1978 Oklahoma running back, 1980-84; Barry Sanders, 1988 Oklahoma State running back, 1989-98; Andre Ware, 1989 University of Houston quarterback, 1990-93; Gino Torretta, 1992 University of Miami quarterback, 1994; Desmond Howard, 1991 Michigan receiver, 1999-2002; Ty Detmer, 1990 Brigham Young University quarterback, 2001-03; and Reggie Bush, 2005 University of Southern California (USC) running back, 2013-14.
The Lions have played on Thanksgiving Day every year of their Detroit existence, except for 1941 to 1944. Richards was a local radio executive, and he thought playing on Thanksgiving and broadcasting the game on the radio would boost listenership. Although the Lions lost the 1st game to the Chicago Bears, 19-16 on November 29, 1934 (Thanksgiving Day would be moved to the 4th Thursday in November in 1940), the national broadcast was a success, and the Lions gained a popularity well beyond Michigan.
This season, the Lions will play the Bears on Thanksgiving for the 17th time. They've played the Green Bay Packers 21 times, including every year from 1951 to 1963. They've played the Minnesota Vikings 5 times, but never the other team that used to be in the old NFC Central, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They've played the Giants only once, in 1982; and the Jets twice, in 1972 and 1985. Outside of their NFC North opponents, the team they've played the most often is the Kansas City Chiefs, 4 times.
The Lions' record on Thanksgiving is 37-38-2. (UPDATE: Through the 2018 season, 37-40-2.)
Detroit had also hosted Thanksgiving games in 1920 (the Heralds lost to the Dayton Triangles), 1925 (the Panthers lost to the Rock Island Independents), 1926 (the Panthers lost to the Los Angeles Buccaneers) and 1928 (the Wolverines beat the Triangles).
Stuff. The Lions have souvenir shops throughout Ford Field, selling jerseys, T-shirts, jackets, caps, pennants, helmets turned into various doodads, etc. The main store, the Lions Pro Shop, is in the southwest corner of the stadium.
Don't expect to find team DVDs there. There aren't too many available even on Amazon.com. A notable exception is NFL: A Football Life: Barry Sanders, part of a series.
When your team isn't in a glamorous city, and hasn't won the NFL championship game since it was still called "the NFL Championship Game," not "the Super Bowl," books about it are hard to come by. For whatever reason, there doesn't seem to be a retrospective about the Lions' 75th Anniversary -- probably because that was in 2009, in the wake of their previous year, the 0-16 year. But in 1993, another anniversary year and a time when the Lions were a lot better, Mike Miller wrote Lions Pride: 60 Years of Detroit Lions Football.
Chris Willis wrote Dutch Clark: The Life of an NFL Legend and the Birth of the Detroit Lions. Bob St. John wrote Heart of a Lion: The Wild and Wooly Life of Bobby Layne, about the Hall-of-Famer who quarterbacked the last 3 Lion titles. John A. D'Annunzio wrote When the Lions Roared: The Story of the Detroit Lions' 1957 NFL Championship Season, about the last title.
Charles C. Avison wrote Detroit: City of Champions, telling of how the city produced champion after champion in the Great Depression and World War II: The Tigers winning Pennants in 1934, '35, '40 and '45; the Lions debuting in 1934 and winning the NFL Championship in 1935; the Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup in 1936, '37 and '43; and Alabama-born, Detroit-trained Joe Louis winning the Heavyweight Championship of the World in 1937 and keeping it until his first retirement in 1948. Back then, Detroit was a city where anything was possible.
During the Game. You do not have to worry about wearing Giant or Jet gear in Ford Field. Maybe if it was Chicago Bears or Green Bay Packers stuff. Or if it was a Pistons game and you were wearing Chicago Bulls stuff. Or if it was a Red Wings game and you were wearing Chicago Blackhawks or (due to their nasty late 1990s, early 2000s matchups) Colorado Avalanche stuff. Or if it was Ohio State stuff at Michigan. But for a Lions game, you can wear just about any opposing team's cap, jersey, jacket, whatever, and no one will give you a hard time based on that.
The Lions never had cheerleaders until 2016. Their mascot is Roary the Lion (a play on the name "Rory"). The Lions have a fight song that dates to their founding days, the 1930s:
After the Game. With Detroit's rough reputation, I would recommend not hanging around downtown after a night game. If you want a postgame drink or meal, you're better off sticking to your hotel.
You may have heard of Detroit's classic sports bar, the Lindell Athletic Club, better known as the Lindell AC. USA Today once called it the Number 1 sports bar in America. The late Lions star and actor Alex Karras had a part-ownership, and it got him in trouble with gambling that led to his suspension for the 1963 season. Shortly thereafter, it moved from its original 1949 location to its more familiar one, at Cass & Michigan Avenues. The owners gave out free drinks the night the Tigers clinched the 1968 Pennant.
In 1969, former Yankee player and future Yankee manager Billy Martin, then managing the Minnesota Twins, saw his pitcher Dave Boswell sucker-punch 3rd baseman Bob Allison there, and Martin knocked Boswell out, leading to his own firing. Ironically, Martin's next managing job was with the Tigers. It was Lindell owner James "Jimmy B" Butsicaris who recommended to Billy that he sign speedy center fielder Ron LeFlore, then doing time for armed robbery at Michigan's infamous Jackson State Penitentiary. (LeVar Burton starred in the film One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story, and Billy played himself.)
Sadly, it's gone. But the move of the Tigers out of Tiger Stadium hurt the bar, and it closed in 2002. The Stanley Cup, which the Wings had won a few months earlier, was a guest of honor at the closing ceremony. Another famous Tiger Stadium bar is still open: Nemo's, at 1384 Michigan Avenue at 8th Street. By all means, visit the Tiger Stadium site in daylight -- but not at night.
Giants gather at the Town Pump Tavern, 100 W. Montcalm Street at Park Avenue, 2 blocks from Comerica Park. Harry's Detroit Bar is also said to be a Giants' fan haven. It's right over the Fisher Freeway overpass from Comerica and the Town Pump, at 2482 Clifford Street, near the famous Cass Tech High School. Be warned, though, that over the freeway is not an area to traverse at night.
Expatriate Jet fans are said to gather at Cobo Joe's Smokehouse BBQ & Sports Bar, 422 W. Congress Street at Cass Avenue, across from the Joe Louis Arena/Cobo Hall complex. Cheli's Chili Bar is owned by hockey legend and Detroit native Chris Chelios, at 47 E. Adams Avenue, across Witherell from Comerica and thus a short walk from Ford Field.
If your visit to Detroit is during the European soccer season, which is now in full gear, most of the better choices to watch games are in the suburbs. Thomas Magee's is the home pub of the Detroit branch of the U.S. national team fan group, the American Outlaws. 1408 East Fisher Service Drive, in the Lafayette Park neighborhood, a 5-minute walk from Comerica Park and Ford Field. SMART Bus 34 to Gratiot and Russell.
Another possibility is the Red Fox English Pub. Definitely not to be confused with the now-defunct Machus Red Fox restaurant, where Jimmy Hoffa was last publicly seen. This one is at 100 S. Main Street in Royal Oak, about 14 miles northwest of downtown. Bus 498 to Woodward & 11 Mile.
Sidelights. For all its problems, Detroit is a great city, not just a great football city or even a great sports city.
On February 3, 2017, Thrillist made a list ranking the 30 NFL cities (New York and Los Angeles each having 2 teams), and Detroit came in 19th, in the bottom half. They wrote:
Detroit has character, dammit. Many of the people who would bash it have never experienced the wonders of one of America'smost underrated pizza styles, taken in the tranquil beauty of Belle Isle, or emerged as an improbable hero at a rap battle hosted by Mekhi Phifer. Indeed, Detroit is an underdog all of America can get behind. If only the same could be said for the Lions.
UPDATE: On November 30, 2018, Thrillist published a list of "America's 25 Most Fun Cities," and Detroit, for all its problems, came in 20th.
At any rate, check out the following – but do it in daylight:
* Site of Tiger Stadium. The first ballpark on the site was called Bennett Park, after Charlie Bennett, a catcher for the NL's Detroit Wolverines, who didn't play there. Bennett Park opened in 1896, for the Detroit team in the Western League, which became the American League in 1901. However, the team we know as the Tigers (so named because the orange stripes on their socks evoked not just tigers but the teams at New Jersey's Princeton University, also called the Tigers) are officially dated from 1901.
After the 1911 season, the wooden Bennett Park was demolished, and replaced with a concrete and steel structure, opening on April 20, 1912 (the same day as Fenway Park in Boston) and named Navin Field, after Tiger owner Frank Navin. He died in 1935, and his co-owner, Walter Briggs, expanded the place to its more familiar configuration in 1938, renaming it Briggs Stadium. In 1961, new owner John Fetzer renamed it Tiger Stadium.
The Tigers played there from 1912 to 1999, and the NFL's Lions did so from 1938 to 1974. The Tigers won the World Series while playing there in 1935, 1945, 1968 and 1984; the Lions won the NFL Championship while playing there in 1952, 1953 and 1957. (The '52 Championship Game was played in Cleveland against the Browns; the '53 and '57 editions, also against the Browns, at Tiger Stadum.)
In addition, early NFL teams the Detroit Heralds played there in 1920 and '21, and the Detroit Panthers in 1926. Detroit's own Joe Louis defended the Heavyweight Championship of the World at Tiger (then Briggs) Stadium on September 20, 1939, knocking Bob Pastor out. The Three Tenors -- Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and José Carreras -- sang at Tiger Stadium on July 17, 1999.
A youth baseball field is on the site now. Northwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Trumbull Street, 1 mile west of Cadillac Square down Michigan Avenue (U.S. Route 12). Number 29 bus from downtown.
* Comerica Park. Home to the Tigers since 2000, the team has seen the good (Pennants in 2006 and '12), the bad (a nosedive that cost them the American League Central Division title in 2008), and the ugly (losing an AL record 119 games in 2003). The official address is 2100 Woodward Avenue, but Woodward does not border the park; Witherell, Montcalm and Brush Streets, and Adams Avenue, do.
* Joe Louis Arena and Cobo Center. Opening in 1979, while Louis was still alive, this 20,000-seat building was considered very modern at the time. Now, "The Joe" is likely to be demolished in 2019.
The Red Wings have come a long way from the building's early days, when they were nicknamed the Dead Things, winning 4 Stanley Cups in 6 trips to the Finals between 1995 and 2009. It's considered one of the loudest arenas in the NHL: In 1992, a writer for Hockey Digest compared it to Chicago Stadium, the now-demolished home of their arch-rivals, the Chicago Blackhawks, and said that, if the visiting team scores 2 early goals, the Chicago fans quiet down, but Detroit fans stay loud throughout the game.
The Joe hosted college hockey, including the Great Lakes Invitational, in the week between Christmas and New Year's. Michigan Tech is the host, with Michigan and Michigan State usually participating, and a 4th team in rotation -- this year, it's Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. (Comerica Park hosted it in 2013, since the NHL Winter Classic of January 1, 2014 was being held there between the Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs.)
The Joe also hosted the 1980 Republican Convention -- right, the GOP meeting, and nominating union-buster Ronald Reagan no less, in a majority-black, heavily union city, in an arena named for a boxer who struck a blow for racial equality. (Then again, in 2012, the Democrats met in conservative Charlotte.)
The Joe was built next-door to Cobo Center, which was named for Albert E. Cobo, Mayor from 1950 to 1957. Its centerpiece, a building originally known as Cobo Hall, has been Detroit's major convention center since its opening in 1960, and, following the rejection of a plan to demolish it and put a new Pistons-Red Wings arena on the site, it recently underwent a renovation and expansion.
It includes a 12,000-seat arena that was home to the Pistons from 1961 to 1978, the Michigan Stags of the World Hockey Association in the 1974-75 season, and a convention complex that includes the city's famed annual auto show. It is known for some legendary rock concerts, including the KISS album Alive! and area native Bob Seger's Live Bullet. Unfortunately, it may be best known for the January 6, 1994 attack on Nancy Kerrigan during a practice session for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
Cobo Hall hosted a fight for the Heavyweight Championship of the World on November 18, 1970, with Joe Frazier remaining Champion by knocking out Light Heavyweight Champion Bob Foster. As you might guess, Joe Louis Arena also hosted one, on June 12, 1981, just 2 months after Louis died: Larry Holmes remained Champion by knocking out former Champion Leon Spinks.
600 Civic Center Drive at Jefferson Avenue. Each arena has its own station on the Detroit People Mover.
* Site of Olympia Stadium. From the outside, it looked more like a big brick movie theater, complete with the Art Deco marquee out front. But "The Old Red Barn" was home to the Red Wings from 1927 to 1979, during which time they won the Stanley Cup in 1936, '37, '43, '50, '52, '54 and '55. In 1950, they hosted Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and Pete Babando's overtime winner defeated the Rangers. In '54, they had another overtime Game 7 winner, as "Tough Tony" Leswick hit a shot that deflected off Doug Harvey, the great defenseman of the Montreal Canadiens. (In hockey, the shooter is still credited; in soccer, this would have been officially listed as an "own goal" on Harvey.)
The Olympia was also home to the Pistons from 1957 to 1961, the Falcons in the NBA's inaugural season of 1946-47, and the site of some great prizefights, including Jake LaMotta's 1942 win over Sugar Ray Robinson – the only fight Robinson would lose in his career until 1952, and the only one of the 6 fights he had with LaMotta that LaMotta won.
Despite Detroit being his adopted hometown, Joe Louis only had 1 fight at the Olympia. On March 21, 1941, he knocked Abe Simon out. It had just 1 other fight for the Heavyweight Championship of the World, on March 7, 1951, the 2nd of 4 fights between Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott, with Charles retaining the title by a unanimous decision.
Elvis Presley did 2 shows there early in his career, an afternoon and an evening show on March 31, 1957. (If you think that's a lot for one day, he did 3 shows at the Fox Theater on May 25, 1956.) He returned to the Olympia on September 11, 1970; April 6, 1972; September 29 and October 4, 1974; and April 22, 1977. The Beatles played there on September 6, 1964 and August 13, 1966. (However, it was in the Detroit area -- specifically, on the University of Michigan's radio station in Ann Arbor -- that a disc jockey started the 1969 rumor that Paul McCartney was dead. In a 1989 interview, Paul said, "'Paul is dead'? I didn't believe that one for a minute.")
It was the neighborhood, not the building, that was falling apart: Lincoln Cavalieri, its general manager in its last years, once said, "If an atom bomb landed, I'd want to be in Olympia." It was not a nuclear attack, but an ordinary demolition crew, that took it down in 1987. The Olympia Armory, home of the Michigan National Guard, is now on the site. 5920 Grand River Avenue, corner of McGraw Street, on the Northwest Side. Number 21 bus. If you're a hockey fan, by all means, visit – but do it in daylight.
* University of Detroit Stadium. Also known as Dinan Field and Titan Stadium, this was the Lions' 1st home, from 1934 to 1937, until what became Tiger Stadium was double-decked. The Lions played and won the 1935 NFL Championship Game there, beating the Giants.
The previous NFL team in the city, the Detroit Wolverines, played there in their lone season, 1928. Built in 1922 and seating 25,000, the University's suspension of its football program in 1964 doomed it, and it was demolished in 1971. The school, now known as the University of Detroit Mercy (it's a Catholic school), has since put a new, multipurpose, artificial turf field on the site. 3801 McNichols Road at Birchcrest Drive. 016 Bus.
* Silverdome. Originally Pontiac Metropolitan Stadium, this stadium was home to the Lions from 1975 to 2001 (after which they moved back downtown to Ford Field), and very nearly became home to the Tigers as well, before owner John Fetzer decided to commit himself to Tiger Stadium.
Heisman-winning running backs Billy Sims and Barry Sanders ran wild for the Lions here, but the closest they got to a Super Bowl was reaching the NFC Championship Game in January 1992 – unless you count hosting Super Bowl XVI, 10 years earlier, the beginning of the San Francisco 49er dynasty led by Bill Walsh and Joe Montana.
A little more luck was had by the Michigan Panthers, who won the 1983 USFL Championship; and the Pistons, playing here from 1978 to 1988, reaching the NBA Finals in their last year there. It seated 80,000 for football, set an NBA attendance record (since broken) of 61,983 between the Pistons and Boston Celtics in 1988, and 93,682 for a Mass by Pope John Paul II in 1987.
In 1994, it hosted 4 World Cup matches, including 1 by the U.S. and 1 by eventual winner Brazil. It hosted 2 games by the U.S. national soccer team, in 1992 win over Russia and the 1994 World Cup draw against Switzerland. Elvis had his biggest crowd ever at the Silverdome, 60,500, on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1975.
In August 2010, the dome hosted a friendly between Italian soccer giant A.C. Milan and leading Greek club Panathinaikos – appropriate, considering the area's ethnic makeup. In January 2011, it hosted a Don-King promoted boxing card. In 2013, the roof was deflated as an energy-saving measure. In 2014, the owners auctioned off the contents of the facility, including seats and fixtures. It was finally demolished on December 4, 2017.
The site is at 1200 Featherstone Road, Pontiac. Getting there by public transportation is a pain: The Number 465 bus takes an hour and 25 minutes, and then you gotta walk a mile down Featherstone from Oakland Community College. So if you didn't drive in (or rent a car at the airport), unless you have to see everything on this list, or if you're a Lions fan living in New York who has to see it one more time, or if you're a soccer nut on a pilgrimage to all World Cup sites, I'd suggest skipping it.
One idea for the Silverdome was to make it the home of a Major League soccer team. Detroit is the largest metropolitan area in North America without a Major League Soccer team. Detroit City FC plays in the 4th tier of American soccer, at Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck, a 7,000-seat high school football stadium, 5 1/2 miles north of downtown. Number 10 bus. The closest MLS team to Detroit is the Columbus Crew, 204 miles away. However, the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry may complicate that. The next-closest team, Toronto FC, may be preferred by Detroiters.
* The Palace. Home to the Pistons since 1988, they won the 1989, 1990 and 2004 NBA Championships here, and almost won another in 2005. The Detroit Shock won 3 WNBA Championships here, and, as a result, every time a title is won, the address changes: Currently, it's "Six Championship Drive, Auburn Hills, MI 48326." However, the Shock moved to Tulsa in 2010, so unless the NBA tries again with a new WNBA team, only the Pistons (theoretically) will be able to change the address to "Seven Championship Drive."
Unfortunately, the 22,000-seat building's best-known event isn't a Pistons title or a rock concert, but the November 19, 2004 fight between the Pistons and the Indiana Pacers that spilled into the stands, becoming known as "the Malice at the Palace." Even the WNBA had a rare brawl there, between the Shock and the Los Angeles Sparks in 2008. Lapeer Road and Harmon Road, Auburn Hills, off I-75. Don't even think about trying to reach it by public transportation: You'd need 2 buses and then a half-hour walk.
* Little Caesars Arena. The new Detroit arena seats 20,000, and is already being nicknamed "The Baddest Bowl in the NHL." It is home to the Wings, the Pistons, and the Great Lakes Invitational.
It will rotate with the Xcel Energy Center as host of the Big Ten hockey tournament, and has already hosted 2018 NCAA Tournament basketball games. 2645 Woodward Avenue at Henry Street, across Interstate 75 (the Fisher Freeway) from Comerica Park and Ford Field.
* Mack Park. The Negro Leagues' Detroit Stars played here from 1920 to 1929, featuring center fielder Norman "Turkey" Stearnes and pitcher Andy Cooper, who would both be posthumously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. A senior citizens' complex, the Fairview Apartments, is on the site now. 3568 Fairview Street at Mack Avenue, about 5 miles east of downtown. Bus 7 will get you within a 15-minute walk.
* Hamtramck Stadium. After Mack Park burned down in 1929, they moved into this nearby facility for the 1930 season. Pronounced "Ham-TRAM-ick," this city is actually completely surrounded by Detroit. But between the Mack Park fire and the start of the Great Depression at the end of the year, the Stars' fate was sealed.
New teams with the name would occasionally be revived. At its peak, Hamtramck Stadium seated over 8,000 people. However, the decline of the Negro Leagues and the "industrial leagues" in the 1950s doomed it to high school use, it hasn't been used at all since 2012, and its sideline wings have been removed, reducing its capacity to 1,500. Nevertheless, it is 1 of 12 Negro League ballparks still standing. 3201 Dan Street.
When the Dodge Brothers (who later sold the car company bearing their name to Chrysler) opened an auto plant in Hamtramck in 1914, it became a hub for Polish immigration. However, the Polish population of the city has dropped from 90 percent in 1970 to 22 percent today. And Arabs and South Asians have moved in, making it Michigan's most internationally diverse city.
Nevertheless, if you want the best kielbasa, kapusta, golumpkis and paczkis this side of the Oder, this is the place to go. Hamtramck Town Shopping Center, Joseph Campau Street and Hewitt Street.
Detroit City FC plays in the 4th tier of American soccer, at Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck, a 7,000-seat high school football stadium, 5 1/2 miles north of downtown. All of these Hamtramck locations can be reached via the Number 10 bus.
Detroit is the largest metropolitan area in North America without a Major League Soccer team, although there is a drive to get an expansion team. The closest MLS team to Detroit is the Columbus Crew, 204 miles away. However, the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry may complicate that. If, as is currently planned, the Crew are moved to Austin for the 2019 season, the closest MLS team will be Toronto FC, across 228 miles of southern Ontario. The next-closest will be the Chicago Fire, 286 miles.
* Holy Redeemer High School. In the 1946-47 basketball season, the Detroit Gems played in the National Basketball League at this school. They may not have been redeemable, going 4-40. The next season, they moved, and became the Minneapolis Lakers. And so, this is where the Los Angeles Lakers franchise began. 5679 Vernor Highway, about 3 miles west of downtown. Bus 1.
* Site of Cadillac Athletic Club. Housed in the Masonic Temple from 1895 to 1935, this auditorium hosted a fight for the Heavyweight Championship of the World on April 6, 1900. Jim Jeffries retained the title by decision over John Finnegan. A bank building is now on the site. 411 W. Lafayette Blvd. Fort/Cass station on the People Mover.
Only one site in Michigan, outside Detroit and its immediate suburbs, has ever hosted a Heavyweight title fight: The Floyd Fitzsimmons Arena hosted Jack Dempsey's defense against Billy Miske on September 6, 1920. Southeast corner of Fair Avenue & Britain Avenue, about 3 miles east of downtown in Benton Harbor. The resort town is all the way across the State, on the shore of Lake Michigan, 186 miles west of Detroit, and 99 miles by road "east" of Chicago (but considerably closer as the crow flies). Amtrak goes to Benton Harbor.
* Motown Historical Museum. As always, I'm going to include some non-sports items. Detroit is generally known for 3 good things: Sports, music and cars. The Motown Historical Museum is the former Motown Records studio, which company founder Berry Gordy Jr. labeled "Hitsville, U.S.A." His sister, Esther Gordy Edwards, now runs it, and it features records and costumes of performers such as the Supremes, the Temptations and the Four Tops. 2648 W. Grand Blvd., on the North Side. Number 16 bus.
* Henry Ford Museum. The centerpiece of the nation's foremost automotive-themed museum is a replica of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Henry Ford himself established the museum: "I am collecting the history of our people as written into things their hands made and used... When we are through, we shall have reproduced American life as lived, and that, I think, is the best way of preserving at least a part of our history and tradition."
It contains the fascinating, including early cars and bicycles, Henry Ford's first car (his 1896 "Quadricycle"), Igor Sikorsky's prototype for the helicopter, the bus Rosa Parks was riding in when she refused to give up her seat to start the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott, and a Buckminster Fuller "Dymaxion house."
It also contains the macabre, with the chair Abraham Lincoln was supposedly sitting in when he was assassinated at Ford's Theater in Washington (the theater owner was no relation to Henry); and the chair, and the rest of the car as well, that John F. Kennedy was definitely sitting in when he was assassinated, the back seat of in the 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible limousine he was riding in through downtown Dallas.
Next door to the museum is Greenfield Village, which Ford imagined as a kind of historical park, a more modern version of Colonial Williamsburg – that is, celebrating what was, in 1929 when it opened, considered modern American life, including a reconstruction of the Menlo Park, New Jersey laboratory of his good friend Thomas Edison. Ford and Edison were both friends of rubber magnate Henry Firestone (whose tires certainly made Ford's cars easier to make), and Firestone's family farm is reconstructed on the site.
Please note that I am not excusing Henry Ford's control-freak attitude toward his employees' private lives, nor his despicable anti-Semitism, nor his failed union-busting in the 1930s. To be fair, he did give his black auto workers the same pay and benefits as his white ones. But I am recommending the museum. It's a tribute to the role of technology, including the automobile, in American life, not to the man himself. Oakwood Blvd. and Village Road. Number 200 bus to Michigan Avenue and Oakwood Blvd., then a short walk down Oakwood.
* Greektown Historic District. Although Detroit is famed for its Irish (Corktown, including the site of Tiger Stadium) and Italian communities, and has the largest Arab-American community of any major city, its best-known ethnic neighborhoods are Greektown and the Polish community of Hamtramck. New York's Astoria, Queens has nothing on Detroit's Greektown, which not only has some of the country's finest Greek restaurants, but also the Greektown Casino, which is at 555 E. Lafayette Street, at Beaubien Street. Greektown Station on the People Mover.
* Mariners' Church. On my 1999 visit to Detroit, I discovered this church by accident, walking past it without realizing it was there until I saw the historical marker. Every March, it holds a Blessing of the Fleet for every person and ship going to sea. Every November, it holds a Great Lakes Memorial Service for those who have lost their lives at sea within the past year.
The most famous of these ceremonies was for the 29 men lost on the iron ore freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. Built and homeported in Detroit, the Big Fitz was commemorated by Gordon Lightfoot, whose 1976 song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" mistakenly, but poetically, called the church "The Maritime Sailors' Cathedral." (Edmund Fitzgerald himself was the president of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, which invested in the ship's construction, because it was heavily invested in the ore industry.)
170 E. Jefferson Avenue, at Randolph Street, across from the Renaissance Center. If you're going to visit the church, be careful, because Randolph Street empties into the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.
* Spirit of Detroit. In front of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, the city hall named for the 1974-93 Mayor, stands a marble monument with a bronze statue of a kneeling man, the seals of the City of Detroit and Wayne County, and a Biblical inscription, from 2nd Corinthians 3:17: "Now the Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
In his left hand, the 26-foot-high kneeling figure holds a gilt bronze sphere emanating rays, to symbolize God. The people in the figure's right hand are a family group. The statue was dedicated in 1958, 4 years after the Municipal Center opened. In recent years, a large jersey has been placed over it when the Tigers, Pistons or Wings have been in their sport's finals.
As yet, this has never been done for the Lions, who haven't been to an NFL Championship Game since 1957, 9 seasons before they started calling it the Super Bowl. So they do it for Thanksgiving week. 2 Woodward Avenue at Jefferson Avenue.
* Monument to Joe Louis. Erected in 1986, on a traffic island at the intersection of Woodward & Jefferson, it is a 24-foot-long arm with a fisted hand suspended by a 24-foot-high pyramidal framework. Since it is a monument to Louis, the great black heavyweight champion, the arm and fist are black bronze.
* Colleges. The University of Michigan is 44 miles west of downtown Detroit, in Ann Arbor. It is possible to reach it from Detroit by bus, but it will take 2 hours: You can take the 851 bus to the airport, and transfer there to the 787.
Michigan Stadium is at 1201 S. Main Street at Stadium Blvd. "The Big House" has hosted UM football since 1927. Its peak attendance is 115,109 for Michigan's 2013 win over Notre Dame. In 2014, it set new records for highest U.S. attendance for soccer (109,318 for Manchester United beating Real Madrid in the International Champions Cup), and for highest attendance anywhere on the planet for hockey (105,491 for the NHL Winter Classic, the Toronto Maple Leafs beating the Detroit Red Wings). In 2018, it again hosted Man United, but they lost to Liverpool in front of 101,254.
Adjacent is Crisler Arena, named for Herbert "Fritz" Crisler, the UM football coach from 1938 to 1947, who, in another connection between Princeton University sports and the State of Michigan, had previously coached Princeton's Tigers, and brought his "winged" helmet design with him, making Michigan's "maize and blue" helmets among the most famous in college football. Elvis sang at Crisler Arena on April 24, 1977. The other sports facilities, including Yost Arena (hockey) and Fisher Stadium (named for Ray Fisher, who pitched for the Yankees in the 1910s before they got good and then coached at Michigan, including Charlie Gehringer), are adjacent.
Michigan State University is 88 miles northwest of Detroit, in East Lansing, adjacent to Lansing, the State capital. Greyhound runs 4 buses a day from Detroit to East Lansing, at 8:00 AM, 12:10 PM, 2:20 PM and 7:40 PM, and it takes about 2 hours. Two buses go back to Detroit, at 3:40 and 5:55 PM. $38 round-trip.
Spartan Stadium, formerly Macklin Field, is at 325 W. Shaw Lane at Red Cedar Road, which is named for the river that bisects the MSU campus. Jenison Field House (the old basketball arena, where Magic Johnson starred on their 1979 National Champions), Breslin Events Center (their new arena), and Munn Arena (hockey) are a short walk away, at Kalamazoo Street & Birch Road.
According to an October 3, 2014 article in The New York Times, UM has a decided, though not overwhelming, advantage in fans in the Detroit area. Only around the State capital of Lansing do you get an edge for MSU.
The Detroit Wheels of the World Football League played at Rynearson Stadium, on the campus of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, closer to Ann Arbor than to Detroit. This team may have been even worse than the 0-16 2008 Lions: They lost their 1st 10 games before finally winning one, 15-14 -- ironically, away to the team that ended up winning the league title, the Orlando-based Florida Blazers. Then they dropped their next 3 before running out of money and folding, forcing them to cancel their last 6 games.
They ended up playing only 4 home games -- 5, if you count a game in London, Ontario -- and never topped 15,000 in attendance at a stadium that seated 22,000. Opening in 1969, Rynearson Stadium now seats 30,000. 799 N. Hewitt Road, 32 miles west of downtown Detroit. Hard to reach by public transit.
In addition to the preceding, Elvis sang in Michigan at Wings Stadium (a minor-league hockey arena, now named Wings Event Center) in Kalamazoo on October 21, 1976 and April 26, 1977; and the Saginaw County Event Center (now the Dow Event Center) in Saginaw on April 25 and May 3, 1977.
Detroit is a weird city in some ways. It often seems like a cross between a past that was once glorious but now impossible to reach, and a future that never quite happened. (That observation was once made about the remaining structures from New York's 1964-65 World's Fair and the Astrodome in Houston.) Art Deco structures of the 1920s and '30s, such as the Penobscot Building (the tallest building outside New York and Chicago when it opened in 1928, the tallest in Michigan until 1977) stand alongside abandoned, boarded-up or chained-up stores.
But alongside or across from them, there are glassy, modern structures such as the Renaissance Center: A 5-tower complex that includes, at its center, the 750-foot tallest building in Michigan (the tallest all-hotel skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere), and, in one of its 4 outer towers, the headquarters of General Motors (although the RenCen was originally financed by Ford).
Downtown also has the Detroit People Mover, a monorail system that is part of the suggestion of Detroit trying to get from 1928 to 2028 while jumping over the difficult years in between. Like the Washington and Montreal Metro (subway) systems, the company running it prides itself on the artwork in its stations. It has a stop called Times Square, but it won't look anything like the one in New York. It has a stop called Bricktown, but it won't look anything like Brick Township, the sprawling Jersey Shore suburb off Exits 88 to 91 on the Garden State Parkway.
People Mover train, in front of the Renaissance Center
The Grand Circus Park and Broadway Street stations are both 3 blocks from Comerica Park. The DPM also has a stop at Joe Louis Arena, home of the Red Wings. It's cheap, only 75 cents, and it still uses tokens, although it also accepts cash. Be advised, though, that it stops running at midnight, except on Fridays and Saturdays, when it runs until 2:00 AM. Bus fare is $1.50.
ZIP Codes in the Detroit area start with the digits 480, 481, 482 and 483, and the Area Code is 313, with 248 (overlaid by 947), 586 and 734 serving the suburbs. Detroit has no "beltway." The sales tax in the State of Michigan is 6 percent, and does not go up in either the County of Wayne or the City of Detroit. As with New York, Chicago and a few other cities, the electricity in Detroit is run by a company with the name of the inventor of the electricity industry (if not the light bulb): Detroit Edison Company.
Going In. Opening in 2002, Ford Field is, of course, named for Detroit's greatest corporate icon, the Ford Motor Company. William Clay Ford Jr., a.k.a. Bill Ford, great-grandson of Henry Ford, is the company's CEO and the Lions' vice-chairman and operating owner. His mother, Martha Firestone Ford (granddaughter of tire baron Harvey Firestone, a close friend of Henry), is the team's majority stockholder and thus the actual "owner."
The area around Comerica Park (named for a Midwest-based bank) and Ford Field (home of the NFL's Lions, across Brush Street from Comerica, and named for the automaker), at the northern edge of downtown Detroit, is called Foxtown, after the Fox Theater, which, as I said, Tigers/Wings/Little Caesars owner Mike Ilitch had restored. The stadium can be entered from gates on Brush, Beacon and St. Antoine's Street, with Montcalm Street also bordering it. The official street address is 2000 Brush Street.
Unlike most indoor stadiums, Ford Field allows a large amount of natural light to reach the artificial FieldTurf field, thanks to immense skylights and large glass windows at the open corners. The windows along the ceiling are frosted, to mimic the automotive factories that are prevalent in the area.
The southwest corner provides the seating bowl and concourse with sunlight year-round, and also offers fans a view of downtown. Of course, that sunlight could allow for real grass, but the Lions haven't played a home game on real grass since Thanksgiving Day 1974. (They had 2 more games that season, both on the road, missed the Playoffs, and moved into the Silverdome the next season.)
The natural light is not a distraction to the players in a day game, because the light only reaches as far as the sidelines, leaving the field still properly lit with the combination of artificial stadium lighting and sunlight. And this won't matter to you anyway, because it will be a night game.
Ford Field hosted Super Bowl XL in 2006, won by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the final game of the career of Detroit native Jerome Bettis; and the 2009 NCAA Final Four, the only one ever held in the State of Michigan, won by North Carolina, overcoming a "home-court advantage" for Michigan State in the Final.
Ford Field has hosted the U.S. national soccer team once thus far. Appropriately, for a city on the U.S.-Canadian border, it was against Canada, on June 7, 2011. The U.S. won. It hosted 2 games of the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup. (UPDATE: It will host the Final Four again in 2027.)
On September 12, 2017, Thrillist had an article ranking all 31 NFL stadiums. Ford Field was ranked 15th, just in the upper half, calling it "an aesthetically pleasing indoor stadium with lots of natural light, good sight lines, and a host of dining options."
(UPDATE: But on November 4, 2020, MoneyWise had a very different opinion, ranking Ford Field 10th on their list of the worst NFL stadiums. They cited the roof not being retractable, the concourse being tight, and concession lines for that "host of dining options" being very long.)
Which is a nice segue into:
Food. When I visited Tiger Stadium in its final season, 1999, it had great food, including the very best ballpark hot dog I've ever had. Since they were owned by Little Caesars mogul Ilitch, and before that were owned by Domino's Pizza boss Tom Monaghan, food is taken very seriously by the club. This is, after all, Big Ten Country, where college football tailgate parties are practically a sacrament.
One would hope that the same would be true of the Lions, who, after all, are a football team. It is. The Breadstick offers deli sandwiches, stadium fare, and a full bar. This open space gives guests a chance to grab something to eat and a spot to sit before, during or after the game. Located on the second level concourse above gate A.
Why a team in a city with a big Polish population would name a concession stand Poletown, and stock it with Mexican food, I don't know. But, in Section 120, Poletown has Poppin' Nachos layered with tortilla chips, cheese, and deep fried jalapenos; plus Baked Potato Fries with loaded dip.
The Lions work with their team's most recent living legend to present Barry Sanders Fresh and Fit Meal stands, in sections 115, 126, 137, 217, 234 and in the Huntington Club. A Barry Sanders Fresh and Fit Meal which includes a turkey sandwich on whole grain bread, carrots, apples, juice and one limited edition Barry Sanders trading card by Topps. If that's "too healthy" for you, another Heisman Trophy winner who wore Number 20 for the Lions has a stand: Billy Sims' Barbecue, at Section 139.
What is "Detroit style pizza"? It's rectangular, with toppings such as pepperoni and mushrooms, and is differentiated from the styles of New York and Chicago with a thick, crispy bottom crust. There's also "Coney dogs," Detroit's variation on hot dogs, topped with chili, cheese and onions. These are also popular in Cincinnati, but not at Coney Island.
Team History Displays. While the Lions haven't won a title in over half a century, they do have 4 NFL Championships, and that's more than any team except the Giants, Green Bay, Chicago, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Dallas and Washington. (Cleveland, despite not having won one since 1964, also has 4. The Colts have 4 if you combine their Baltimore and Indianapolis periods. And Philadelphia just won their 4th last season.) The title banners hang over one end zone: 1935, 1952, 1953 and 1957.
Along the skyboxes, the Lions have a display for their retired numbers. Number 20 has specifically been retired for Barry Sanders, running back, 1989-98. However, it has also been worn by Hall of Fame cornerback Lem Barney, 1967-77; and Heisman Trophy-winning running back Billy Sims, 1980-84, who was on his way to a Hall of Fame career until he landed on his knee on the Metrodome turf, and never played another down.
Billy Sims, Lem Barney, Barry Sanders.
A Heisman winner, a Hall-of-Famer, and a man who is both.
When Motown singer Marvin Gaye unsuccessfully tried out for the Lions in 1970, he offered Barney and running back Mel Farr the chance to sing on his next album. It was What's Going On, and the 2 Lions earned gold records for it.
The others are as follows: 7, Earl "Dutch" Clark, quarterback-defensive back, 1934-38; 22, Bobby Layne, quarterback-placekicker, 1950-58; 37, Doak Walker, runningback-placekicker, 1950-55; 56, Joe Schmidt, linebacker, 1953-65; 85, Chuck Hughes, wide receiver, 1970-71; and 88, Charlie Sanders (no relation to Barry), tight end, 1968-77. Hughes had a heart attack during a game on October 24, 1971, and remains the last of the 5 NFL or AFL player to die directly as a result of something that happened during a game.
* From the 1935 NFL Champions: Clark.
* From the 1940s: Center-linebacker Alex Wojciehowicz.
* From the 1952-53 NFL Champions: Layne, Walker, offensive tackle Lou Creekmur, cornerbacks Jack Christiansen and Jim David, safeties Yale Lary and Don Doll. Guard Dick Stanfel played 4 seasons with the Lions, including these 2 title years, and is in the Hall of Fame, but is not listed among the Pride of the Lions group.
* From the 1957 NFL Champions: Layne, Creekmur, Christiansen, Lary, Schmidt, and guards Harley Sewell and John Gordy. Running back John Henry Johnson was also on this team, and is also in the Hall of Fame, but was only a Lion for 3 seasons, and is not listed with the group.
* From the 1962 team that went 11-3, and was the only team to beat the Green Bay Packers all season, but missed the Playoffs because they finished 2nd to the Packers in the Western Division: Lary, Schmidt, receiver Gale Cogdill, defensive tackles Alex Karras and Roger Brown, linebacker Wayne Walker (no relation to Doak), and cornerbacks Dick "Night Train" Lane and Dick LeBeau.
* From the 1970 NFC Central Division Champions: Karras, LeBeau, Charlie Sanders, Barney, and center Ed Flanagan.
* From the period in between the 1970 and '83 Division titles: Defensive end Al Baker.
* From the 1983 NFC Central Division Champions: Sims, defensive tackle Doug English, and placekicker Eddie Murray (not to be confused with the 1st baseman on that year's World Champion Baltimore Orioles).
* From the 1991 NFC Central Division Champions: Barry Sanders, running back Mel Gray, receiver Herman Moore, offensive tackle Lomas Brown, linebacker Chris Spielman, safety Bennie Blades, and punter Jim Arnold.
* From the 1990s Playoff teams: In addition to the preceding, running back Cory Schlesinger, center Kevin Glover, defensive end Robert Porcher.
Lane was named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary Team in 1994. He, Christiansen, Layne, Schmidt, Barney and Barry Sanders were named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Football Players in 1999. Lane, Schmidt and Barry Sanders were named to the NFL Network's 100 Greatest Players in 2010.
The Lions have also had an unusually high number of Heisman Trophy winners play for them, even for an old team, 8: Doak Walker, 1948; Leon Hart, 1949; Howard Cassady, 1955; Steve Owens, 1969; Billy Sims, 1978; Barry Sanders, 1988; Andre Ware, 1989; and Desmond Howard, 1991.
The Michigan Sports Hall of Fame is located at Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit. Among those already mentioned, these have been elected: Clark, Wojciechowicz, Layne, Doak and Wayne Walker, Schmidt, Christiansen, Lary, David, Hart, Creekmur, Lane, Karras, LeBeau, Barney, Charlie and Barry Sanders, English, Sims, Murray, Spielman, Lomas Brown (but not Roger), and Moore.
Also: Original Lions owner George Richards, 1930s running back Leroy "Ace" Gutowsky, 1940s running back and later Supreme Court Justice Byron "Whizzer" White, 1950s coaches Buddy Parker and George Wilson, 1950s running backs Cloyce Box and Bob "Hunchy" Hoernschmeyer, 1950s receiver Terry Barr, 1950s lineman Les Bingaman, 1950s broadcaster Van Patrick, 1963-2014 owner William Clay Ford, 1960s linebacker Mike Lucci, 1970s-80s defensive tackle Doug English, and 1990s kicker Jason Hanson.
The Lions have had 12 Heisman Trophy winners, more than any other NFL team: Frank Sinkwich, 1942 Georgia running back, with the team 1943-44; Doak Walker, 1948 Southern Methodist University (SMU) running back, 1950-55; Leon Hart, 1949 Notre Dame end, 1950-57; Howard "Hopalong" Cassady, 1955 Ohio State running back, 1956-63; Steve Owens, 1969 Oklahoma running back, 1970-74; Billy Sims, 1978 Oklahoma running back, 1980-84; Barry Sanders, 1988 Oklahoma State running back, 1989-98; Andre Ware, 1989 University of Houston quarterback, 1990-93; Gino Torretta, 1992 University of Miami quarterback, 1994; Desmond Howard, 1991 Michigan receiver, 1999-2002; Ty Detmer, 1990 Brigham Young University quarterback, 2001-03; and Reggie Bush, 2005 University of Southern California (USC) running back, 2013-14.
The Lions have played on Thanksgiving Day every year of their Detroit existence, except for 1941 to 1944. Richards was a local radio executive, and he thought playing on Thanksgiving and broadcasting the game on the radio would boost listenership. Although the Lions lost the 1st game to the Chicago Bears, 19-16 on November 29, 1934 (Thanksgiving Day would be moved to the 4th Thursday in November in 1940), the national broadcast was a success, and the Lions gained a popularity well beyond Michigan.
This season, the Lions will play the Bears on Thanksgiving for the 17th time. They've played the Green Bay Packers 21 times, including every year from 1951 to 1963. They've played the Minnesota Vikings 5 times, but never the other team that used to be in the old NFC Central, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They've played the Giants only once, in 1982; and the Jets twice, in 1972 and 1985. Outside of their NFC North opponents, the team they've played the most often is the Kansas City Chiefs, 4 times.
The Lions' record on Thanksgiving is 37-38-2. (UPDATE: Through the 2018 season, 37-40-2.)
Detroit had also hosted Thanksgiving games in 1920 (the Heralds lost to the Dayton Triangles), 1925 (the Panthers lost to the Rock Island Independents), 1926 (the Panthers lost to the Los Angeles Buccaneers) and 1928 (the Wolverines beat the Triangles).
Stuff. The Lions have souvenir shops throughout Ford Field, selling jerseys, T-shirts, jackets, caps, pennants, helmets turned into various doodads, etc. The main store, the Lions Pro Shop, is in the southwest corner of the stadium.
Don't expect to find team DVDs there. There aren't too many available even on Amazon.com. A notable exception is NFL: A Football Life: Barry Sanders, part of a series.
When your team isn't in a glamorous city, and hasn't won the NFL championship game since it was still called "the NFL Championship Game," not "the Super Bowl," books about it are hard to come by. For whatever reason, there doesn't seem to be a retrospective about the Lions' 75th Anniversary -- probably because that was in 2009, in the wake of their previous year, the 0-16 year. But in 1993, another anniversary year and a time when the Lions were a lot better, Mike Miller wrote Lions Pride: 60 Years of Detroit Lions Football.
Chris Willis wrote Dutch Clark: The Life of an NFL Legend and the Birth of the Detroit Lions. Bob St. John wrote Heart of a Lion: The Wild and Wooly Life of Bobby Layne, about the Hall-of-Famer who quarterbacked the last 3 Lion titles. John A. D'Annunzio wrote When the Lions Roared: The Story of the Detroit Lions' 1957 NFL Championship Season, about the last title.
Charles C. Avison wrote Detroit: City of Champions, telling of how the city produced champion after champion in the Great Depression and World War II: The Tigers winning Pennants in 1934, '35, '40 and '45; the Lions debuting in 1934 and winning the NFL Championship in 1935; the Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup in 1936, '37 and '43; and Alabama-born, Detroit-trained Joe Louis winning the Heavyweight Championship of the World in 1937 and keeping it until his first retirement in 1948. Back then, Detroit was a city where anything was possible.
During the Game. You do not have to worry about wearing Giant or Jet gear in Ford Field. Maybe if it was Chicago Bears or Green Bay Packers stuff. Or if it was a Pistons game and you were wearing Chicago Bulls stuff. Or if it was a Red Wings game and you were wearing Chicago Blackhawks or (due to their nasty late 1990s, early 2000s matchups) Colorado Avalanche stuff. Or if it was Ohio State stuff at Michigan. But for a Lions game, you can wear just about any opposing team's cap, jersey, jacket, whatever, and no one will give you a hard time based on that.
A recent Thrillist article on the NFL's most obnoxious fans ranked Lions fans 26th, in the bottom quartile, the least obnoxious:
Telling
someone you’re a Lions fan is basically an extension of telling someone you’re
from Detroit. And the response is generally the same: People just feel kind of
bad for you and want to tell you that everything’s going to be OK, even though
they know they can’t say that with any confidence. Until Calvin Johnson
came along, the only player's jersey you saw Lions fans wear at home games
was... Barry Sanders (even on kids born after Sanders retired).
Let’s just say the Joey Harrington jersey era was short lived. Even when the
on-field squad has had their occasional adversarial personality (looking at
you, Suh), it’s hard for a fanbase that so thoroughly knows nothing but bad
things to muster up much in the way of offensiveness.
From September 1 to 7, 2017, during the NFL National Anthem protest controversy,
FiveThirtyEight.com polled fans of the 32 NFL teams, to see where they leaned politically. Not surprisingly, Detroit, a multicultural city with a heavy union presence, had the 2nd-most liberal fanbase in the NFL, trailing only San Francisco: 19.5 percent more liberal than conservative.
FiveThirtyEight.com polled fans of the 32 NFL teams, to see where they leaned politically. Not surprisingly, Detroit, a multicultural city with a heavy union presence, had the 2nd-most liberal fanbase in the NFL, trailing only San Francisco: 19.5 percent more liberal than conservative.
The Lions never had cheerleaders until 2016. Their mascot is Roary the Lion (a play on the name "Rory"). The Lions have a fight song that dates to their founding days, the 1930s:
Forward down the field,
A charging team that will not yield.
And when the Blue and Silver wave,
Stand and cheer the brave.
Rah, Rah, Rah.
Go hard, win the game.
With honor you will keep your fame.
Down the field and gain,
A Lion victory!
After the Game. With Detroit's rough reputation, I would recommend not hanging around downtown after a night game. If you want a postgame drink or meal, you're better off sticking to your hotel.
You may have heard of Detroit's classic sports bar, the Lindell Athletic Club, better known as the Lindell AC. USA Today once called it the Number 1 sports bar in America. The late Lions star and actor Alex Karras had a part-ownership, and it got him in trouble with gambling that led to his suspension for the 1963 season. Shortly thereafter, it moved from its original 1949 location to its more familiar one, at Cass & Michigan Avenues. The owners gave out free drinks the night the Tigers clinched the 1968 Pennant.
In 1969, former Yankee player and future Yankee manager Billy Martin, then managing the Minnesota Twins, saw his pitcher Dave Boswell sucker-punch 3rd baseman Bob Allison there, and Martin knocked Boswell out, leading to his own firing. Ironically, Martin's next managing job was with the Tigers. It was Lindell owner James "Jimmy B" Butsicaris who recommended to Billy that he sign speedy center fielder Ron LeFlore, then doing time for armed robbery at Michigan's infamous Jackson State Penitentiary. (LeVar Burton starred in the film One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story, and Billy played himself.)
Sadly, it's gone. But the move of the Tigers out of Tiger Stadium hurt the bar, and it closed in 2002. The Stanley Cup, which the Wings had won a few months earlier, was a guest of honor at the closing ceremony. Another famous Tiger Stadium bar is still open: Nemo's, at 1384 Michigan Avenue at 8th Street. By all means, visit the Tiger Stadium site in daylight -- but not at night.
Giants gather at the Town Pump Tavern, 100 W. Montcalm Street at Park Avenue, 2 blocks from Comerica Park. Harry's Detroit Bar is also said to be a Giants' fan haven. It's right over the Fisher Freeway overpass from Comerica and the Town Pump, at 2482 Clifford Street, near the famous Cass Tech High School. Be warned, though, that over the freeway is not an area to traverse at night.
Expatriate Jet fans are said to gather at Cobo Joe's Smokehouse BBQ & Sports Bar, 422 W. Congress Street at Cass Avenue, across from the Joe Louis Arena/Cobo Hall complex. Cheli's Chili Bar is owned by hockey legend and Detroit native Chris Chelios, at 47 E. Adams Avenue, across Witherell from Comerica and thus a short walk from Ford Field.
If your visit to Detroit is during the European soccer season, which is now in full gear, most of the better choices to watch games are in the suburbs. Thomas Magee's is the home pub of the Detroit branch of the U.S. national team fan group, the American Outlaws. 1408 East Fisher Service Drive, in the Lafayette Park neighborhood, a 5-minute walk from Comerica Park and Ford Field. SMART Bus 34 to Gratiot and Russell.
Another possibility is the Red Fox English Pub. Definitely not to be confused with the now-defunct Machus Red Fox restaurant, where Jimmy Hoffa was last publicly seen. This one is at 100 S. Main Street in Royal Oak, about 14 miles northwest of downtown. Bus 498 to Woodward & 11 Mile.
Sidelights. For all its problems, Detroit is a great city, not just a great football city or even a great sports city.
On February 3, 2017, Thrillist made a list ranking the 30 NFL cities (New York and Los Angeles each having 2 teams), and Detroit came in 19th, in the bottom half. They wrote:
Detroit has character, dammit. Many of the people who would bash it have never experienced the wonders of one of America'smost underrated pizza styles, taken in the tranquil beauty of Belle Isle, or emerged as an improbable hero at a rap battle hosted by Mekhi Phifer. Indeed, Detroit is an underdog all of America can get behind. If only the same could be said for the Lions.
UPDATE: On November 30, 2018, Thrillist published a list of "America's 25 Most Fun Cities," and Detroit, for all its problems, came in 20th.
At any rate, check out the following – but do it in daylight:
* Site of Tiger Stadium. The first ballpark on the site was called Bennett Park, after Charlie Bennett, a catcher for the NL's Detroit Wolverines, who didn't play there. Bennett Park opened in 1896, for the Detroit team in the Western League, which became the American League in 1901. However, the team we know as the Tigers (so named because the orange stripes on their socks evoked not just tigers but the teams at New Jersey's Princeton University, also called the Tigers) are officially dated from 1901.
After the 1911 season, the wooden Bennett Park was demolished, and replaced with a concrete and steel structure, opening on April 20, 1912 (the same day as Fenway Park in Boston) and named Navin Field, after Tiger owner Frank Navin. He died in 1935, and his co-owner, Walter Briggs, expanded the place to its more familiar configuration in 1938, renaming it Briggs Stadium. In 1961, new owner John Fetzer renamed it Tiger Stadium.
The Tigers played there from 1912 to 1999, and the NFL's Lions did so from 1938 to 1974. The Tigers won the World Series while playing there in 1935, 1945, 1968 and 1984; the Lions won the NFL Championship while playing there in 1952, 1953 and 1957. (The '52 Championship Game was played in Cleveland against the Browns; the '53 and '57 editions, also against the Browns, at Tiger Stadum.)
In addition, early NFL teams the Detroit Heralds played there in 1920 and '21, and the Detroit Panthers in 1926. Detroit's own Joe Louis defended the Heavyweight Championship of the World at Tiger (then Briggs) Stadium on September 20, 1939, knocking Bob Pastor out. The Three Tenors -- Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and José Carreras -- sang at Tiger Stadium on July 17, 1999.
* Comerica Park. Home to the Tigers since 2000, the team has seen the good (Pennants in 2006 and '12), the bad (a nosedive that cost them the American League Central Division title in 2008), and the ugly (losing an AL record 119 games in 2003). The official address is 2100 Woodward Avenue, but Woodward does not border the park; Witherell, Montcalm and Brush Streets, and Adams Avenue, do.
The Red Wings have come a long way from the building's early days, when they were nicknamed the Dead Things, winning 4 Stanley Cups in 6 trips to the Finals between 1995 and 2009. It's considered one of the loudest arenas in the NHL: In 1992, a writer for Hockey Digest compared it to Chicago Stadium, the now-demolished home of their arch-rivals, the Chicago Blackhawks, and said that, if the visiting team scores 2 early goals, the Chicago fans quiet down, but Detroit fans stay loud throughout the game.
The Joe hosted college hockey, including the Great Lakes Invitational, in the week between Christmas and New Year's. Michigan Tech is the host, with Michigan and Michigan State usually participating, and a 4th team in rotation -- this year, it's Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. (Comerica Park hosted it in 2013, since the NHL Winter Classic of January 1, 2014 was being held there between the Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs.)
The Joe was built next-door to Cobo Center, which was named for Albert E. Cobo, Mayor from 1950 to 1957. Its centerpiece, a building originally known as Cobo Hall, has been Detroit's major convention center since its opening in 1960, and, following the rejection of a plan to demolish it and put a new Pistons-Red Wings arena on the site, it recently underwent a renovation and expansion.
It includes a 12,000-seat arena that was home to the Pistons from 1961 to 1978, the Michigan Stags of the World Hockey Association in the 1974-75 season, and a convention complex that includes the city's famed annual auto show. It is known for some legendary rock concerts, including the KISS album Alive! and area native Bob Seger's Live Bullet. Unfortunately, it may be best known for the January 6, 1994 attack on Nancy Kerrigan during a practice session for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
Cobo Hall hosted a fight for the Heavyweight Championship of the World on November 18, 1970, with Joe Frazier remaining Champion by knocking out Light Heavyweight Champion Bob Foster. As you might guess, Joe Louis Arena also hosted one, on June 12, 1981, just 2 months after Louis died: Larry Holmes remained Champion by knocking out former Champion Leon Spinks.
600 Civic Center Drive at Jefferson Avenue. Each arena has its own station on the Detroit People Mover.
* Site of Olympia Stadium. From the outside, it looked more like a big brick movie theater, complete with the Art Deco marquee out front. But "The Old Red Barn" was home to the Red Wings from 1927 to 1979, during which time they won the Stanley Cup in 1936, '37, '43, '50, '52, '54 and '55. In 1950, they hosted Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and Pete Babando's overtime winner defeated the Rangers. In '54, they had another overtime Game 7 winner, as "Tough Tony" Leswick hit a shot that deflected off Doug Harvey, the great defenseman of the Montreal Canadiens. (In hockey, the shooter is still credited; in soccer, this would have been officially listed as an "own goal" on Harvey.)
The Olympia was also home to the Pistons from 1957 to 1961, the Falcons in the NBA's inaugural season of 1946-47, and the site of some great prizefights, including Jake LaMotta's 1942 win over Sugar Ray Robinson – the only fight Robinson would lose in his career until 1952, and the only one of the 6 fights he had with LaMotta that LaMotta won.
Despite Detroit being his adopted hometown, Joe Louis only had 1 fight at the Olympia. On March 21, 1941, he knocked Abe Simon out. It had just 1 other fight for the Heavyweight Championship of the World, on March 7, 1951, the 2nd of 4 fights between Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott, with Charles retaining the title by a unanimous decision.
It was the neighborhood, not the building, that was falling apart: Lincoln Cavalieri, its general manager in its last years, once said, "If an atom bomb landed, I'd want to be in Olympia." It was not a nuclear attack, but an ordinary demolition crew, that took it down in 1987. The Olympia Armory, home of the Michigan National Guard, is now on the site. 5920 Grand River Avenue, corner of McGraw Street, on the Northwest Side. Number 21 bus. If you're a hockey fan, by all means, visit – but do it in daylight.
* University of Detroit Stadium. Also known as Dinan Field and Titan Stadium, this was the Lions' 1st home, from 1934 to 1937, until what became Tiger Stadium was double-decked. The Lions played and won the 1935 NFL Championship Game there, beating the Giants.
* Silverdome. Originally Pontiac Metropolitan Stadium, this stadium was home to the Lions from 1975 to 2001 (after which they moved back downtown to Ford Field), and very nearly became home to the Tigers as well, before owner John Fetzer decided to commit himself to Tiger Stadium.
Heisman-winning running backs Billy Sims and Barry Sanders ran wild for the Lions here, but the closest they got to a Super Bowl was reaching the NFC Championship Game in January 1992 – unless you count hosting Super Bowl XVI, 10 years earlier, the beginning of the San Francisco 49er dynasty led by Bill Walsh and Joe Montana.
In 1994, it hosted 4 World Cup matches, including 1 by the U.S. and 1 by eventual winner Brazil. It hosted 2 games by the U.S. national soccer team, in 1992 win over Russia and the 1994 World Cup draw against Switzerland. Elvis had his biggest crowd ever at the Silverdome, 60,500, on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1975.
In August 2010, the dome hosted a friendly between Italian soccer giant A.C. Milan and leading Greek club Panathinaikos – appropriate, considering the area's ethnic makeup. In January 2011, it hosted a Don-King promoted boxing card. In 2013, the roof was deflated as an energy-saving measure. In 2014, the owners auctioned off the contents of the facility, including seats and fixtures. It was finally demolished on December 4, 2017.
The site is at 1200 Featherstone Road, Pontiac. Getting there by public transportation is a pain: The Number 465 bus takes an hour and 25 minutes, and then you gotta walk a mile down Featherstone from Oakland Community College. So if you didn't drive in (or rent a car at the airport), unless you have to see everything on this list, or if you're a Lions fan living in New York who has to see it one more time, or if you're a soccer nut on a pilgrimage to all World Cup sites, I'd suggest skipping it.
One idea for the Silverdome was to make it the home of a Major League soccer team. Detroit is the largest metropolitan area in North America without a Major League Soccer team. Detroit City FC plays in the 4th tier of American soccer, at Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck, a 7,000-seat high school football stadium, 5 1/2 miles north of downtown. Number 10 bus. The closest MLS team to Detroit is the Columbus Crew, 204 miles away. However, the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry may complicate that. The next-closest team, Toronto FC, may be preferred by Detroiters.
* The Palace. Home to the Pistons since 1988, they won the 1989, 1990 and 2004 NBA Championships here, and almost won another in 2005. The Detroit Shock won 3 WNBA Championships here, and, as a result, every time a title is won, the address changes: Currently, it's "Six Championship Drive, Auburn Hills, MI 48326." However, the Shock moved to Tulsa in 2010, so unless the NBA tries again with a new WNBA team, only the Pistons (theoretically) will be able to change the address to "Seven Championship Drive."
* Little Caesars Arena. The new Detroit arena seats 20,000, and is already being nicknamed "The Baddest Bowl in the NHL." It is home to the Wings, the Pistons, and the Great Lakes Invitational.
"Pizza, pizza."
* Hamtramck Stadium. After Mack Park burned down in 1929, they moved into this nearby facility for the 1930 season. Pronounced "Ham-TRAM-ick," this city is actually completely surrounded by Detroit. But between the Mack Park fire and the start of the Great Depression at the end of the year, the Stars' fate was sealed.
New teams with the name would occasionally be revived. At its peak, Hamtramck Stadium seated over 8,000 people. However, the decline of the Negro Leagues and the "industrial leagues" in the 1950s doomed it to high school use, it hasn't been used at all since 2012, and its sideline wings have been removed, reducing its capacity to 1,500. Nevertheless, it is 1 of 12 Negro League ballparks still standing. 3201 Dan Street.
When the Dodge Brothers (who later sold the car company bearing their name to Chrysler) opened an auto plant in Hamtramck in 1914, it became a hub for Polish immigration. However, the Polish population of the city has dropped from 90 percent in 1970 to 22 percent today. And Arabs and South Asians have moved in, making it Michigan's most internationally diverse city.
Nevertheless, if you want the best kielbasa, kapusta, golumpkis and paczkis this side of the Oder, this is the place to go. Hamtramck Town Shopping Center, Joseph Campau Street and Hewitt Street.
Detroit City FC plays in the 4th tier of American soccer, at Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck, a 7,000-seat high school football stadium, 5 1/2 miles north of downtown. All of these Hamtramck locations can be reached via the Number 10 bus.
Detroit is the largest metropolitan area in North America without a Major League Soccer team, although there is a drive to get an expansion team. The closest MLS team to Detroit is the Columbus Crew, 204 miles away. However, the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry may complicate that. If, as is currently planned, the Crew are moved to Austin for the 2019 season, the closest MLS team will be Toronto FC, across 228 miles of southern Ontario. The next-closest will be the Chicago Fire, 286 miles.
* Holy Redeemer High School. In the 1946-47 basketball season, the Detroit Gems played in the National Basketball League at this school. They may not have been redeemable, going 4-40. The next season, they moved, and became the Minneapolis Lakers. And so, this is where the Los Angeles Lakers franchise began. 5679 Vernor Highway, about 3 miles west of downtown. Bus 1.
* Site of Cadillac Athletic Club. Housed in the Masonic Temple from 1895 to 1935, this auditorium hosted a fight for the Heavyweight Championship of the World on April 6, 1900. Jim Jeffries retained the title by decision over John Finnegan. A bank building is now on the site. 411 W. Lafayette Blvd. Fort/Cass station on the People Mover.
Only one site in Michigan, outside Detroit and its immediate suburbs, has ever hosted a Heavyweight title fight: The Floyd Fitzsimmons Arena hosted Jack Dempsey's defense against Billy Miske on September 6, 1920. Southeast corner of Fair Avenue & Britain Avenue, about 3 miles east of downtown in Benton Harbor. The resort town is all the way across the State, on the shore of Lake Michigan, 186 miles west of Detroit, and 99 miles by road "east" of Chicago (but considerably closer as the crow flies). Amtrak goes to Benton Harbor.
* Henry Ford Museum. The centerpiece of the nation's foremost automotive-themed museum is a replica of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Henry Ford himself established the museum: "I am collecting the history of our people as written into things their hands made and used... When we are through, we shall have reproduced American life as lived, and that, I think, is the best way of preserving at least a part of our history and tradition."
It contains the fascinating, including early cars and bicycles, Henry Ford's first car (his 1896 "Quadricycle"), Igor Sikorsky's prototype for the helicopter, the bus Rosa Parks was riding in when she refused to give up her seat to start the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott, and a Buckminster Fuller "Dymaxion house."
It also contains the macabre, with the chair Abraham Lincoln was supposedly sitting in when he was assassinated at Ford's Theater in Washington (the theater owner was no relation to Henry); and the chair, and the rest of the car as well, that John F. Kennedy was definitely sitting in when he was assassinated, the back seat of in the 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible limousine he was riding in through downtown Dallas.
Next door to the museum is Greenfield Village, which Ford imagined as a kind of historical park, a more modern version of Colonial Williamsburg – that is, celebrating what was, in 1929 when it opened, considered modern American life, including a reconstruction of the Menlo Park, New Jersey laboratory of his good friend Thomas Edison. Ford and Edison were both friends of rubber magnate Henry Firestone (whose tires certainly made Ford's cars easier to make), and Firestone's family farm is reconstructed on the site.
Please note that I am not excusing Henry Ford's control-freak attitude toward his employees' private lives, nor his despicable anti-Semitism, nor his failed union-busting in the 1930s. To be fair, he did give his black auto workers the same pay and benefits as his white ones. But I am recommending the museum. It's a tribute to the role of technology, including the automobile, in American life, not to the man himself. Oakwood Blvd. and Village Road. Number 200 bus to Michigan Avenue and Oakwood Blvd., then a short walk down Oakwood.
* Greektown Historic District. Although Detroit is famed for its Irish (Corktown, including the site of Tiger Stadium) and Italian communities, and has the largest Arab-American community of any major city, its best-known ethnic neighborhoods are Greektown and the Polish community of Hamtramck. New York's Astoria, Queens has nothing on Detroit's Greektown, which not only has some of the country's finest Greek restaurants, but also the Greektown Casino, which is at 555 E. Lafayette Street, at Beaubien Street. Greektown Station on the People Mover.
* Mariners' Church. On my 1999 visit to Detroit, I discovered this church by accident, walking past it without realizing it was there until I saw the historical marker. Every March, it holds a Blessing of the Fleet for every person and ship going to sea. Every November, it holds a Great Lakes Memorial Service for those who have lost their lives at sea within the past year.
The most famous of these ceremonies was for the 29 men lost on the iron ore freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. Built and homeported in Detroit, the Big Fitz was commemorated by Gordon Lightfoot, whose 1976 song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" mistakenly, but poetically, called the church "The Maritime Sailors' Cathedral." (Edmund Fitzgerald himself was the president of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, which invested in the ship's construction, because it was heavily invested in the ore industry.)
170 E. Jefferson Avenue, at Randolph Street, across from the Renaissance Center. If you're going to visit the church, be careful, because Randolph Street empties into the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.
* Spirit of Detroit. In front of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, the city hall named for the 1974-93 Mayor, stands a marble monument with a bronze statue of a kneeling man, the seals of the City of Detroit and Wayne County, and a Biblical inscription, from 2nd Corinthians 3:17: "Now the Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
In his left hand, the 26-foot-high kneeling figure holds a gilt bronze sphere emanating rays, to symbolize God. The people in the figure's right hand are a family group. The statue was dedicated in 1958, 4 years after the Municipal Center opened. In recent years, a large jersey has been placed over it when the Tigers, Pistons or Wings have been in their sport's finals.
As yet, this has never been done for the Lions, who haven't been to an NFL Championship Game since 1957, 9 seasons before they started calling it the Super Bowl. So they do it for Thanksgiving week. 2 Woodward Avenue at Jefferson Avenue.
The Spirit of Detroit, dressed in a Lions jersey
for Thanksgiving week
* Monument to Joe Louis. Erected in 1986, on a traffic island at the intersection of Woodward & Jefferson, it is a 24-foot-long arm with a fisted hand suspended by a 24-foot-high pyramidal framework. Since it is a monument to Louis, the great black heavyweight champion, the arm and fist are black bronze.
The Louis Monument, with the Spirit of Detroit behind it
Gerald Ford (no relation to Henry) was President from August 9, 1974 to January 20, 1977, and was a graduate of (and an All-American football player at) Michigan in the 1930s. His Presidential Library, and a School of Public Policy named for him, are on the Ann Arbor campus, at 1000 Beal Avenue.
However, he is the only President whose Library and Museum are separated, and his Presidential Museum, where he and Betty are buried, is in his hometown of Grand Rapids, at 303 Pearl Street NW, 158 miles northwest of Detroit. You'll need Greyhound if you want to visit Grand Rapids.
Michigan Stadium is at 1201 S. Main Street at Stadium Blvd. "The Big House" has hosted UM football since 1927. Its peak attendance is 115,109 for Michigan's 2013 win over Notre Dame. In 2014, it set new records for highest U.S. attendance for soccer (109,318 for Manchester United beating Real Madrid in the International Champions Cup), and for highest attendance anywhere on the planet for hockey (105,491 for the NHL Winter Classic, the Toronto Maple Leafs beating the Detroit Red Wings). In 2018, it again hosted Man United, but they lost to Liverpool in front of 101,254.
Adjacent is Crisler Arena, named for Herbert "Fritz" Crisler, the UM football coach from 1938 to 1947, who, in another connection between Princeton University sports and the State of Michigan, had previously coached Princeton's Tigers, and brought his "winged" helmet design with him, making Michigan's "maize and blue" helmets among the most famous in college football. Elvis sang at Crisler Arena on April 24, 1977. The other sports facilities, including Yost Arena (hockey) and Fisher Stadium (named for Ray Fisher, who pitched for the Yankees in the 1910s before they got good and then coached at Michigan, including Charlie Gehringer), are adjacent.
Michigan State University is 88 miles northwest of Detroit, in East Lansing, adjacent to Lansing, the State capital. Greyhound runs 4 buses a day from Detroit to East Lansing, at 8:00 AM, 12:10 PM, 2:20 PM and 7:40 PM, and it takes about 2 hours. Two buses go back to Detroit, at 3:40 and 5:55 PM. $38 round-trip.
Spartan Stadium, formerly Macklin Field, is at 325 W. Shaw Lane at Red Cedar Road, which is named for the river that bisects the MSU campus. Jenison Field House (the old basketball arena, where Magic Johnson starred on their 1979 National Champions), Breslin Events Center (their new arena), and Munn Arena (hockey) are a short walk away, at Kalamazoo Street & Birch Road.
According to an October 3, 2014 article in The New York Times, UM has a decided, though not overwhelming, advantage in fans in the Detroit area. Only around the State capital of Lansing do you get an edge for MSU.
The Detroit Wheels of the World Football League played at Rynearson Stadium, on the campus of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, closer to Ann Arbor than to Detroit. This team may have been even worse than the 0-16 2008 Lions: They lost their 1st 10 games before finally winning one, 15-14 -- ironically, away to the team that ended up winning the league title, the Orlando-based Florida Blazers. Then they dropped their next 3 before running out of money and folding, forcing them to cancel their last 6 games.
They ended up playing only 4 home games -- 5, if you count a game in London, Ontario -- and never topped 15,000 in attendance at a stadium that seated 22,000. Opening in 1969, Rynearson Stadium now seats 30,000. 799 N. Hewitt Road, 32 miles west of downtown Detroit. Hard to reach by public transit.
*AAGPBL. From 1943 to 1954, the All-American Girls' Professional Baseball League provided an alternative to Major League Baseball. Michigan had 2 teams in the League. The Grand Rapids Chicks won Pennants in 1947 and 1953. They played at South High School, which closed in 1968. The building still stands, as the Gerald R. Ford Job Corps Center, named for the city's most famous son. 110 Hall Street SE. 161 miles northwest of downtown Detroit.
And the Kalamazoo Lassies won the League's last Pennant, in 1954. They played at Lindstrom Field, at 3100 Portage Street. Stores are on the site now. 139 miles west of downtown Detroit, and 145 miles east of Chicago's Loop.
* Jimmy Hoffa. No, I don't know where Hoffa is buried. All I know for sure is that, when they demolished Giants Stadium in 2010, they found no human remains on or under the premises. Hoffa, who was born in Indiana but lived most of his life in and around Detroit, was last seen alive on July 30, 1975, sitting in his car in the parking lot of Machus' Red Fox.
A fine-dining establishment open from 1965 to 1996, the building is still there, occupied by an Italian restaurant named Andiamo's. 6676 Telegraph Road (U.S. Route 24) at Country Club Drive, Bloomfield, 22 miles northwest of Cadillac Square. As with most sites in Detroit's outer suburbs, getting there by public transportation is a hassle: In this case, you'd need 3 buses.
* Beaches. Michigan's State motto is, "If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look around you." It is surrounded on 3 sides by Great Lakes: Michigan to the west, Huron to the north and northeast, and Erie to the southeast. It has various protrusions into the water, and many islands, leading singer Gordon Lightfoot to say, "The islands and bays are for sportsmen."
Two areas of the State are renowned by beachgoers. South Haven, "the Catskills of the Midwest," is on the shore of Lake Michigan, 181 miles west of Cadillac Square. Mackinac Island (pronounced MACK-in-aw, not MACK-in-ack), over the Mackinac Bridge (the Mighty Mac), is closed to car traffic, and must be reached by ferry from Mackinac City. It is Michigan's Hamptons, its Cape May, its Martha's Vineyard. 289 miles northwest of Cadillac Square.
377 Riverside Drive East. There is bus service available -- less for Michiganders wanting to gamble, more for Windsorites wanting to go to Red Wings games and concerts -- and you can contact Transit Windsor at tw@city.windsor.on.ca.
The Wings' first home was actually in Windsor: They played their first season, 1926-27, at the Border Cities Arena, which still stands, and is now named Windsor Arena. Like a lot of old arenas (this one was built in 1924), it looks like a barn, and so is nicknamed The Barn. It seats only 4,400 people in its current configuration.
Its long-term tenants, the University of Windsor hockey team and the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League, now play elsewhere. The City of Windsor has approved a plan to tear it down and build the new building for Catholic Central High School on the site. 334 Wyandotte Street East, at McDougall Street.
Since 2008, the Spitfires have played at the WFCU Centre. No, that's not named for a radio station: Canadian radio stations' call letters always been with a C. The naming rights are held by the Windsor Family Credit Union. The Spitfires won the Memorial Cup, the championship of Canadian junior hockey, while playing there, in 2009 and '10, and one of the streets bordering is named Memorial Cu Way.
* Home Improvement. The 1991-99 ABC sitcom is easily the best-known TV show to have been set in Detroit, with Tool Time's studio being in the city and the Taylors' house in the suburbs, possibly in Bloomfield Hills. But, as far as I know, there were no location shots, not even in the episode in which the Taylors got to see the Lions' annual Thanksgiving game from a Silverdome skybox. So if you're looking for the Taylors' house, you're not going to find it -- if there was ever a house, not just a studio set, it was likely in or around Los Angeles. Other shows set in or around Detroit have included Martin, Freaks and Geeks, Sister, Sister, and 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.
Several films have been set, but not necessarily filmed, in Detroit. Axel Foley, Eddie Murphy's character in the Beverly Hills Cop films, was a Detroit police detective, but most of the film, including the Detroit scenes, was shot in Los Angeles. While RoboCop was set in Detroit, it was filmed in Dallas. (And you thought "Dallas sucks" was just a sports chant.)
Billy Crystal's movie about the 1961 home run record chase, 61*, used Tiger Stadium as a stand-in (with computer-generated help) for the original Yankee Stadium (since the 1973-76 renovation left it looking very little like it did in 1961). Other recent movies set in Detroit include Eminem's Roman à clef, 8 Mile; and Clint Eastwood's retired autoworker vs. gangs film Gran Torino.
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A visit to Detroit does not have to be a scary experience. These people love football. And, while they don't necessarily like the Yankees, they don't have a problem with Giant or Jet fans. They love football, and their city should be able to show you a good time.
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