It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when “Little Brother” evolved into the ultimate dig in our sports lexicon, but it has become the defining phrase for the Michigan State vs. Michigan football rivalry the past two decades.
On Nov. 3, 2007, MSU took a 24-14 lead against Michigan with 7:40 left in the game. Michigan came back to win 28-24.
After the game, Michigan running back Michael Hart described the moment: “Sometimes you get your little brother excited when you’re playing basketball, and you let him get the lead, and then you just come back and take it back.”
A reporter asked Hart if he thought of MSU as a little brother.
“Yep,” Hart said before breaking out in a laugh.
Ironically, after “Little Brother” was coined, MSU went on to win eight of the next 10 games against the Wolverines.
But it didn’t matter. MSU was now forever the Little Brother.
ESPN College Football even did a segment on the phrase three years ago.
To Spartans, the phrase has been elevated to almost a level of hate speech.
“It diminishes everything,” said MSU fan Shane O’Donohue, also a big brother, about why the term stuck. “You can’t age past the older brother. ‘Whatever you do, I’m the older brother. I’m still first.’ It says, ‘We own the state.'”
Kathy Hoekstra is a diehard Michigan football fan married to Ken Braun, a diehard MSU fan. She says MSU’s thin skin is a reason the term has such lasting power.
“They brought it on themselves. Lil Bro became so powerful because Sharties get so triggered when you say it,” Hoekstra said.
Buddy Moorehouse, a contributor to Michigan Enjoyer and hardcore Michigan football fan, said Little Brother is “the perfect put down in so many ways.”
“Mike Hart obviously had no idea he had come up with such a long-lasting and legendary put down when he called Michigan State our ‘Little Brother’ back in 2007, but I think it’s had such staying power because it illustrates the relationship so simply and so well,” Moorehouse said. “It’s insulting and dismissive all at the same time. It perfectly captures Michigan’s arrogance and Michigan State’s insecurity.”
Hart, the man credited with coining the phrase, has tried to disassociate himself from it. He now works with the Eastern Michigan University football program and politely declined comment on the term. EMU referenced a 2015 story in which Hart told the Detroit News he now regrets saying it.
But Hart didn’t actually coin the phrase.
MSU running back Javon Ringer said on Nov. 2 (the Friday before the game): “A lot of people look at us as the little brother to Michigan. Obviously, no competitor is really going to enjoy that.”
Detroit Free Press sports columnist Michael Rosenberg believed in 2007 that Hart read Ringer’s comments and was referring to them in his post-game comments a day later.
By Nov. 18, 2007—just two weeks after Hart’s press conference—”Little Brother” was already in newspaper headlines.
Consider other famous attempts to insult bitter rivals. At Ohio State, legendary football coach Woody Hayes refused to call Michigan by its name and referred to the Wolverines as “That Team Up North.” Now, Ohio State University officially refers to Michigan on its website as TTUN.
But how biting is that? A swipe at Ann Arbor for being nearly 200 miles north of Columbus? That doesn’t sting like “Little Brother.”
What do you expect from a fan base whose most popular cheer (O-H followed by I-O) is to impress upon others that they can, indeed, correctly spell the four-letter name of their state as long as you spot them the first two letters.
That Team Up North is the red-headed step child to Little Brother.
In the end, the subservient role of the Little Brother goes back to our nation’s colonial roots. You didn’t get to sit on the English throne until your older brother died. Little Brother was forever the prince, rarely the king.
The Wolverines started playing football a decade before the Spartans. Wins and losses can’t change that fact.
Tom Gantert is a contributing writer for Michigan Enjoyer.
