Glenn Green, M.D., associate professor of pediatric otolaryngology, and alumnus Dr. Sanjay Gupta welcomed the family of young Kaiba Gionfriddo to the stage to celebrate the groundbreaking procedure that saved his life in 2013. Green and his team used a 3-D printer to create a custom splint they surgically implanted in the child’s airway to expand his bronchus and give it a skeleton to aid proper growth. The splint is made from material that the boy’s body has been absorbing over the years.

Football coach Jim Harbaugh paid tribute to his U-M mentor and late coach Bo Schembechler. Several U-M sports legends also were honored at the event, including former NFL player Desmond Howard (pictured with Harbaugh), Fab Five members Jimmy King and Ray Jackson, former basketball player Diane Dietz, and former softball player Sierra Romero.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta holds two degrees from U-M, but it’s the relationships he formed as a student that are most precious. Dr. Karin Muraszko changed his life and transformed him into the person he is today, Gupta says. Despite being born with spina bifida, Muraszko became the chair of neurosurgery at U-M in 2005, the first woman to hold that position at a U.S. university. U-M’s Department of Neurosurgery will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2018.

Apollo 15 command module pilot and 1963 graduate Al Worden celebrated U-M’s commitment to space exploration. He orbited the moon in the summer of 1971 as fellow Michigan graduate Jim Irwin (who passed away in 1991) and David Scott became the first astronauts to traverse the lunar surface in a rover. Worden calls the science done during that Apollo 15 mission “the best we ever did.”

School of Music, Theatre, and Dance graduate Daniel Passino led members of the Men’s Glee Club in a powerful and moving performance of “Glory” from the film Selma. The original arrangement by Dr. Eugene Rogers, director of the Men’s Glee Club, has become a staple component of a repertoire emphasizing “love, life, and loss,” and “hope in the midst of struggle.” Passino was a 2016 contestant on NBC’s “The Voice.”

Longtime activist James Toy reflected on the history of U-M’s Spectrum Center, which he co-founded in 1971 to create an inclusive and collaborative space that supports LGBTQ members of the University community.

Emcees Jacqueline Toboni and Darren Criss, who graduated in 2014 and 2009, respectively, took a pause from their jobs in entertainment to celebrate the University’s Bicentennial. Toboni was cast on NBC’s “Grimm” before she even graduated. Criss, an alum of the show “Glee,” currently is touring with the live show “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”

Performances paid tribute to such longstanding U-M traditions as kissing beneath the Engineering Arch.

In 2016, Burton Tower’s floodlights were replaced with a new system that illuminates the tower from within, with more than 100 LED bulbs that can be programmed in various colors. The new system will create a subtle white glow from within the tower by highlighting the Baird Carillon bells and the openings at the top. The lights will change to celebrate events and dates related to U-M’s bicentennial, with a focus on special University celebrations, including game days, anniversaries, and memorials.

Nothing gets a Wolverine crowd going like a rousing rendition of “The Victors.” Just ask President Mark Schlissel.