chigan's fight song, "The Victors," was written by student Louis Elbel in 1898 following the last-minute football victory over the University of Chicago that won a league championship. The son

 Schembechler. U of M has fierce rivalries with many teams, including Michigan State, Notre Dame, and Ohio State; ESPN has referred to the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry as the greatest rivalry in American sports.[154] U-M has all-time winning records against Michigan State University, University of Notre Dame, and The Ohio State University.[155]


Ray Fisher baseball stadium
The men's ice hockey team, which plays at Yost Ice Arena, has won nine national championships,[156] while the men's basketball team, which plays at the Crisler Center, has appeared in five Final Fours and won the national championship in 1989. However, the program became involved in a scandal involving payments from a booster during the 1990s. This led to the program being placed on probation for a four-year period. The program also voluntarily vacated victories from its 1992–1993 and 1995–1999 seasons in which the payments took place, as well as its 1992 and 1993 Final Four appearances.[157]
Through the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, 178 U-M students and coaches had participated in the Olympics, winning medals in every Summer Olympics except 1896, and winning gold medals in all but four Olympiads. U of M students have won a total of 133 Olympic medals: 65 gold, 30 silver, and 38 bronze.[158]
School songs[edit]
The University of Michigan's fight song, "The Victors," was written by student Louis Elbel in 1898 following the last-minute football victory over the University of Chicago that won a league championship. The song was declared by John Philip Sousa as "the greatest college fight song ever written."[159] The song refers to the university as being "the Champions of the West." At the time, U-M was part of the Western Conference, which would later become the Big Ten Conference. Michigan was considered to be on the Western Frontier when it was founded in the old Northwest Territory. Although mainly used at sporting events, the fight song can be heard at other events. President Gerald Ford had it played by the United States Marine Band as his entrance anthem during his term as president from 1974 to 1977, in preference over the more traditional "Hail to the Chief"[160] and the Michigan Marching Band performed a slow-tempo variation on the fight song at his funeral.[161] The fight song is also sung during graduation commencement ceremonies. The university's alma mater song is "The Yellow and Blue." A common rally cry is "Let's Go Blue!," had a complementary short musical arrangement written by former students Joseph Carl, a sousaphonist, and Albert Ahronheim, a drum major.[162]
Before "The Victors" was officially the University's fight song, the song "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" was considered to be the school song.[163] After Michigan temporarily withdrew from the Western Conference in 1907, a new Michigan fight song "Varsity" was written in 1911 because the line "champions of the West" was no longer appropriate.[164] In 2011, the Band Pop Evil wrote and recorded a rock and roll anthem for the Wolverines called "In the Big House."[165]
Alumni[edit]

Main article: List of University of Michigan alumni
In addition to the late U.S. president Gerald Ford, the university has produced twenty-six Rhodes Scholars. As of 2012, the university has almost 500,000 living alumni.[166]