ROBERT N. LUPTON

I grew up in the small (now considerably larger) town of Howell, Michigan, and I attended college at the University of Michigan before embarking on my journey at Michigan State.  Outside of conducting political science research and reading, I enjoy spending a lot of time with my family, especially my nieces and nephews.

 

I also love to travel.  I now count Austria, Bahamas, Canada (only across the river from home), Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, the United Kingdom (England and Northern Ireland) and Turkey among foreign countries that I have visited.  The shores of Lake Michigan and virtually anywhere along the saltwater ocean are among my favorite domestic destinations, as are cool college towns and wherever my favorite sports teams happen to be playing.

 

Indeed, watching and attending live sporting events is my favorite hobby.  I am a partisan of Detroit sports teams—especially the Lions, Red Wings and Tigers—and the Michigan Wolverines (ambivalence scholars should take note of my complete and total lack of attitudinal conflict regarding collegiate sports loyalty).  

 

I regularly attend home and away Michigan football games, and my family held Detroit Lions season tickets for twenty-three years!  Among more notable contests, I have attended three Rose Bowls (2004-05, 2007), three Stanley Cup Finals (1995, 2008-09), the World Series (2006), the NCAA Men's Final Four (2018), four NHL Western Conference Finals (2002, 2007-09), four American League Championship Series (2006, 2011-13), one B1G Championship game (2021), two Orange Bowls (2017 and 2021)—including the College Football Playoff Semifinal (2021)—the Sugar Bowl (2012), NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games (2014), the Outback Bowl (2013), the NBA Eastern Conference Finals (2004), the U.S. Open (tennis, 2016, 2017 and 2019), the French Open (2014) and 15 editions of The Game between the Michigan and Ohio State football teams (2003-09, 2011, 2013, 2015-19 and 2021).  I have also attended a single NFL playoff game (1994), the small number owing to my aforementioned Lions fandom.

 

I also watch and follow closely all aspects of collegiate football, the NFL, collegiate basketball, the NHL and NBA.  As such, I am interested in discussing current and historical sports figures, moments and issues at virtually any time.

 

Although I rarely actually play sports (outside of bar games and dominating the traditional family Thanksgiving Day Classic amid frigid Northern conditions), I do enjoy running.  I adopted the sport as an official hobby rather recently, and I completed the Detroit International Half-Marathon in 2013.

 

I am also somewhat of a cinephile.  My favorite genre is drama.