The final appearance of a couple of special men in bowl games involving Michigan’s two Big 10 football teams has two county families on the road this week.

MEMBERS OF THE Crocker family will be rooting for Michigan
State when the Spartans play in the Champs Sports Bowl Friday
night. Pictured (from left) are Alex, Michelle, Josh and Alan Crocker.
All but Josh will attend the game, where Jonathan Crocker will
perform for the final time in the MSU marching band.

Alan, Michelle and Alex Crocker of Suttons Bay, and Rob and Linda Shirkey of Northport, will both be in Orlando, Fla., to watch bowl games. County clerk Michelle Crocker and her family will be watching Michigan State play in the Champs Sports Bowl Friday, while the Shirkeys are going to the Capital One Bowl on New Year’s Day to see Michigan play.

The Crockers are making the trip to see their middle son, Jonathan, perform for the last time with the Michigan State University marching band.

“It’s his last year — his last game,” said Michelle Crocker, whose son is a senior and plays alto saxophone. “We’ve been to a lot of home games, but never a bowl game and never this far away.”

The couple and their 12-year-old son, Alex, were scheduled to board a southbound motor coach in Lansing at 11 a.m. yesterday with a plan to arrive by 11 a.m. today. Their eldest son, Josh, will be staying home to rule the roost.

“We hope to get there in time to go to the parade in Winter Park,” she said, adding that the Spartan and Boston College marching bands will be performing in the pregame parade down Park Street in Winter Park.

Then it will be on to a pregame MSU alumni tailgate party, which is also part of their travel package. The couple had been thinking of flying to Florida to also mark their 25th wedding anniversary, but opted to go by bus and let someone else do the driving.

“Some parents follow their kids who are football players. We follow the band,” Crocker said.

While the Crockers were driving, their son Jonathan flew with the Spartan band. All 300 band members’ instruments were sent separately in advance. There are 36 to 40 in Jonathan’s section alone. Kickoff for the Champs Bowl is 5 p.m. Friday. Boston College (10-3) is favored by 3 1/2 points over the Spartans (7-5).

“How often do you get a chance to experience something like this?” Crocker said. “The team is so appreciative of the band and what they add to the game. They put in a lot of work … a lot of hours.”

Just as they begin to head home, the Shirkeys will be arriving in Orlando to witness the final game for the Michigan Wolverines with Lloyd Carr at the helm. The longtime Wolverine coach is retiring after the game, which pits Michigan (8-4) against Florida (9-3) at 1 p.m. on New Year’s Day.

“We are ardent fans,” said Linda Shirkey, who graduated from the University of Michigan with an education degree in 1968. Her husband graduated in 1969 with a degree in architecture.

“Rob and I attend all the Michigan home football games and have since 1965. We drive down from Northport and often stay overnight in Ann Arbor with friends,” she added.

The couple celebrated Christmas in Kalamazoo with family and were scheduled to pick up their daughter Kezia in Nashville, where she is a graduate student at Vanderbilt University. Kezia graduated from Michigan in 2002 with a double major in psychology and religion and was a member of the Wolverine marching band.

“Kezia watches all the games with a U-M spirit group that gathers in front of the television in Nashville,” Shirkey said. “She also comes to Ann Arbor for at least one game each year; this year she attended the U-M vs. Ohio State game.

IT'S BEEN awhile - the University of Michigan flag flew
over the Enterprise all fall, at least partly because the Michigan
State flag had been lost or more probably stolen - but a
contingent of Spartan fans gathered for the switch.
Pictured left to right by the MSU flag are Sheriff Mike
Oltersdorf, county road commissioner Lee Bowen and
Michigan State Police Lt. Bill Elliott. That's co-publisher
Alan Campbell pulling down the Wolverine flag with
respect in the background. Not pictured is co-publisher
Debbie Campbell, a Michigan fan who was not present
for the ceremony.

“Even her dog gets decked out in U-M gear on big game days,” Shirkey said.

The only family member not making it to the Jan. 1 bowl game is the Shirkey’s son, Zachary, who graduated from Michigan in 1999 with a double major in political science and economics. He is an assistant professor at Saint John Fisher College in Rochester, N.Y.

“Zach follows the game on television and usually comes back to Ann Arbor for one game each year,” Shirkey said. “His wife, Erin, is a Penn State grad so this year they came to the U-M/Penn State game.”

This will be the third bowl game the Shirkeys have attended. They traveled to Florida in 1975 when the Wolverines played in the Orange Bowl, and went to Pasadena, Calif., for the Rose Bowl when Michigan won the national championship in 1998.

“That year, Zach made the trip separately with friends and spotted us among all the people in the stands,” Shirkey said. “We had fun.”

While in Florida, the Shirkeys will be staying with Linda Shirkey’s sister, who incidentally, is a Michigan State graduate.

“We’ll both have teams to cheer for,” Linda said.