Michigan versus Ohio State: Just another football game? It’s a game And Then Some!

by Richard L. Weaver II

In the sports section of The (Toledo) Blade, under the title “College Football,” the headline read, “For the 65th time, OSU or UM will be Big Ten champ.” Ever since 1952 — for 55 years — I have come under the spell of this rivalry. And now, with just a week left in the season, it’s the Big Two and little else.

When my wife and I attended the University of Michigan their primary rival was Michigan State. It was Bo Schembechler’s presence at Michigan, beginning in 1969, that helped ignite the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry. You have to remember that Schembechler was as much Ohio as Michigan. Born in Barberton, Ohio, he earned a master’s degree in 1952 at Ohio State and served as a graduate assistant football coach there under Woody Hayes. It was Bo Schembechler who elevated OSU to the status of primary rival of the UofM and he who raised the Hayes-Schembecler rivalry to a level that would allow Schembechler’s victories over that coach down south the kind of notoriety he desired. Bo would be defeating his teacher and mentor.

Both my wife and I grew up knowing about and appreciating college football but not just any college football: Big Ten college football. We found out how unique such an appreciation is while traveling in Europe. The program guide on our Great Rivers of Europe cruise, Martin Payrhuber, an Austrian, told us that people in Europe have no understanding of our fascination with young 18-19 year-old kids running around a field with no professional training, without being paid, and with no professional contracts. He said he understands it because he was a teaching assistant at the University of Minnesota for three terms and attended a Gophers game in their covered arena, but others in Europe (and Australia as well, I might add) just don’t get it.

My wife’s and my interest in Big Ten football run far deeper than Payrhuber’s both having fathers who were University of Michigan professors, both possessing degrees from there, and both having brothers or sisters with degrees from there as well. We not only grew up in homes where Saturday football was a standard fixture, where families were caught up in the importance of wins and losses, but where the display of emotion was not just accepted but expected. Such examples create codes of behavior—habits deeply etched on the psyche, expectations lodged in the brain’s synapses, and, physiologically, a color of blood about which Michigan fans are embarrassed over at least once a year.

The year 2006 revealed a glimpse of the depth of our concern, because it was different from any other. You might say, how can any single year be that much different from nearly sixty years of games we have witnessed? Ohio State and Michigan had actually met 102 times before the stars aligned in such a manner that they found themselves ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the country—not just in the Big Ten. That might be sufficient had not that fact coincided with the death of Bo Schembechler the Friday night before the game, giving “the game” an almost surreal amount of hype — elevating it to what must be considered mythical proportions.

In the week leading up to “the game” the overriding questions were, would it live up to expectations, and should the teams meet again for the national championship? Short answers could easily be: “Great game,” and “Been there; done that.” As much as we hoped that Michigan would storm into Columbus and take a berth in the Bowl Championship Series title game just because Lloyd Carr deserved it, the problem was simply that in sports, happy endings cannot be scripted; they have to be earned.

My wife and I watched the game with 27 others. There was an overabundance of food, and as a metaphor for the game itself, there was more than enough for everyone — food to satisfy any taste. Our group was separated into two areas. When one team would score, a portion of those in one room would storm into the other loudly cheering and shouting, and when the score went the other way, those from the already stormed room would just as vehemently romp into the other one hollering and rejoicing — like schoolchildren playing one-upmanship. With a final score of 42-39, there were many opportunities for rabble rousing. (OSU won.)

The game, just as our spread of delicious food, had all the trimmings of a classic. There were the sterling performances from two Heisman Trophy candidates, a key penalty (when a UofM linebacker, Shawn Crable, chased a scrambling Troy Smith and knocked him out of bounds with a helmet-to-helmet hit in front of the Buckeye bench) that swung momentum late, and an unknown player (Chris Wells, a freshman, scampering for a 52-yard touchdown in the first half ) rising to steal the show.

The No. 1 quarterback, OSUs Troy Smith, a senior, showed enough talent and ability against stellar competition to win the Heisman Trophy. He was the first quarterback to beat Michigan three times since 1936. Smith, too, was involved in three turnovers in the second half that allowed the Wolverines to keep the score close. Mike Hart, a junior, finished the game with 23 carries for 142 yards and 3 touchdowns and, as a result, could not be counted out in the race for the Heisman. Along with Smith, the two teams proved once again that they had a rivalry for the ages.

The pre-game hype was unbelievable. There was talk, for example, that Buckeyes-Wolverines were college football’s Armageddon. It was touted, too, as the latest incarnation of the “Game of the Century” — words, of course, that happily assuage a Big Ten college football fan’s inner sense of well being yet pump adrenaline into an already-stimulated physiology.

When the BCS rankings were issued on Sunday evening following the game, OSU was ranked first and Michigan second. Because of other games by other teams there was no OSU-Michigan rematch.

In retrospect, there was the build up, the thrill of “the game,” the joy of being with friends, the aroma of food (an in-door tailgating experience), the ambiance of watching college football on five or six television sets, but, in the end, it was being healthy, happy, and free to appreciate it all. Too bad at least one of those TV sets couldn’t have broadcast a Michigan victory in 2006.

For all the 2006 hype, we’re here again in 2007. No, there is no national championship at stake — at least not for Michigan with an opening day loss to Appalachian State followed by a second loss to Oregon — but when they meet in Ann Arbor November 17, one champion will walk off that field. The Buckeyes have won 31, the Wolverines 42; some they have shared. For Michigan in 2007, the Big Ten title is the primary remaining goal, a title they have not won since 2004 when they shared it with Iowa. So the hype continues, the adrenaline pumps, and the expectations rise. Just another football game? Not a chance.

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