First and foremost — GO GRIZZLIES!  Who doesn’t love a winning team.  OU basketball is on the map! As my sons Josh and Jack say, “don’t be a bandwagon fan.”  If you don’t know what that means, it suggests that suddenly you’re a big fan of a team that perhaps you never really supported but you’re a fan now because they’re winning.  Some of you faithful Lions fans know exactly what I’m talking about. 

So let me first say that Auburn Hills is the proud home of Oakland University, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, every year!  While we are extraordinarily happy for Coach Kampe and the Team for their most recent success, our claim to be their hometown reaches much further back than this most recent achievement.  So, I’m saying all of this so that you don’t think I’m just jumping on the bandwagon of the winning team.  We have always been a proud supporter of OU and have always been proud to be their hometown.  

I’ve decided to enter the fray and set the record straight about where OU is located because I’ve seen so many news outlets getting it wrong.  The big headline has been, “Where is OU?”  Your speculation ends here.

Oakland University, through tradition, has maintained a Rochester, Michigan address since its inception in the 1950’s.  However, Rochester is actually a few miles east down the road and none of the OU campus is located in that City.  Allow me to say that Rochester is a wonderful community with a thriving downtown and beautiful neighborhoods.  Back when OU was chartered, Rochester was the nearby city with a post office and that is the post office address tied to OU.  However, the land on which the University existed back then was on the east side of the campus, Avon Township, and on the west side, Pontiac Township.  Each of these township’s would subsequently be incorporated to become the City of Auburn Hills (1983) and the City of Rochester Hills (1984). Factually speaking, the university is in these two cities. 

The east side of campus (City of Rochester Hills) is recognized for being the home of two golf courses, alumni relations, the historic Meadow Brook Hall, and Meadow Brook Amphitheatre. On the west side of the campus, essentially all academic, student housing, and administration functions of the university are in Auburn Hills.  For example, the President’s office is in Auburn Hills, as well as the OU Credit Union O’rena, where the basketball team plays.  So, for the record, the campus is physically located in Rochester Hills and Auburn Hills, MI, and the team plays in Auburn Hills. 

I join with my friends and colleagues in Rochester Hills in setting the record straight, although they didn’t ask me to.  As a proud OU alum and City Manager of Auburn Hills, I couldn’t help but write this blog today.  When you know that Oakland University is physically in your city and you stare at it out your window all day, and the national media is saying otherwise, you feel compelled to speak up and set the record straight.  It would be like writing articles about the Great Pyramids and saying that they’re located in the United States. 

Regardless of property lines and misinformation, what matters today is that the OU men’s basketball team has just accomplished a HUGE first.  CONGRATULATIONS from all of us at the City of Auburn Hills! Go Golden Grizzlies!

Thomas A. Tanghe, City Manager