Lake Leelanau St. Mary principal Megan Glynn will be representing her alma mater proudly tonight at 7:30 p.m. when the Indiana Hoosiers take on the University of Miami for the College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championship at Hard Rock Stadium.
Glynn’s son, Jack, a St. Mary graduate of 2023, is currently a junior at Miami, rooting for his Hurricanes.
“At the beginning of the season, it was Miami versus Notre Dame that was supposed to be the big football story of my college career since my My dad went to Notre Dame, ” Jack said. “We were looking forward to that game, and I can always count on my mom for being on my side because she's not going to pick my dad and Notre Dame. She is going to pick Miami. But now that it's me versus her, it's completely different, and we are kind of enemies this week in a way.”
The football family will be taking in the once-in-a-lifetime event from Hard Rock Stadium.
No. 1-ranked Indiana is going for its first national championship in school history and is the favored team.
Miami, which controversially made it into the playoffs despite a 10-2 record, defeated
Texas A&M (10-3), Ohio State (24-14), and Ole Miss (31-27) en route to the national championship game appearance.
Jack admits he thought the season was over when the Canes lost their second game of the season in mid-October against Louisville (24-21).
“My friends and I were watching (the selection show), and we got our national championship tickets for free. But most students didn't know that, or didn't think to open the student website right away. So they got stuck trying to get $500 tickets. And most of them ended up waiting in the queue and not even getting any,” he said.
Jack is enjoying his time on campus in Coral Gables after graduating from Lake Leelanau in 2023 and pursuing a degree in Broadcast Journalism and Sports Administration.
During his sophomore year, he worked as a student manager for the Hurricanes football team, traveling with the team and assisting with home and road games.
As a junior, he is involved with the university’s campus television station, UMTV.
“Originally, I didn't really know what I wanted to major in … I just really want to make a career out of things that I like doing, and that way it will never feel like a job,” Jack said. “I thought to myself, sports is that thing ... I wanted to move to a big city where they have professional sports teams and opportunities to get into that field, and Miami was at school,” Jack said.
Megan graduated from IU in 1991 with a BS in elementary education.
She was on campus during the Bill Mallory era when the Hoosiers had an exciting 1987 season, upsetting then No. 9 Ohio State for the first time since 1951, 31-10.
In the same year, the Hoosiers defeated Michigan in Bloomington for the first time since 1967, 14-10, a streak that wouldn’t end until 2020.
Megan was at that game.
“It was exciting to be a part of the small-student fan section running on the field in celebration after the victory against the Wolverines,” Megan said. “This football season has been especially exciting, following the Hurricanes and Hoosiers. As a family, it has been great to cheer on both teams since the CFP seeding put them in different brackets, destined only to meet up in the final game.”
Megan grew up in Flushing, Michigan, but was born in Indiana until she moved at 4-years-old.
Megan admits she selected the school because of the beauty of Bloomington’s campus in southern Indiana.
“I've sat in my car, listening to some games on the radio when Indiana wasn’t on the broadcast. I had to sneak away to a different TV in the house because Brian and Jack were watching better football games. But there’s a spark of interest now for the Hoosiers,” Megan said. “There are a lot of people wearing their Hoosier logo wear. You can see them all over. And there are quite a few University of Miami people since we are in their town.”
Read more Thursday in the print edition featuring their experiences at the game!
