I will tip back one in his memory as you would do for a fallen and honored rival on the field of battle.
For those here who aren't familiar with why this game is viewed with the importance nationally as it is I will include a snippet from an article from Ivan Maisel at ESPN. If you think your favorite teams rivalry compares...you're wrong.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/s ... id=2665659
In the case of the University of Michigan and The Ohio State University, you can dispense with the stories, the plays and the great games that have been as much a part of the Rose Bowl as the New Year's Day parade. You can dispense with the 1 vs. 2 rankings, the unblemished records for only the third time in 103 meetings, even with the prize of a place in the BCS Championship Game that awaits the winner.
"I'll tell you how big this game is," former Ohio State coach John Cooper said Wednesday on a Master Coaches Survey teleconference. "The loser is going to the Rose Bowl."
All well and good, but all you need to know is this: Everything you have ever heard about the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry is true.
• It is true that the late Ohio State coach Woody Hayes, who did more to pump up the negative feelings in the rivalry than any man, refused to fill up his car in the state of Michigan.
"I'll tell you why we don't," Hayes said, according to the seminal book, "Woody Hayes and the 100-Yard War." "It's because I don't buy one goddam drop of gas in the state of Michigan. We'll coast and push this goddam car to the Ohio line before I give this state a nickel of my money!"
• It is true that Michigan, leading 55-0 late in the 1946 game, lined up and kicked a field goal.
• It is true that in 1950, the teams played through a blizzard with 29 inches of snow and more than 50,000 fans sat through it. Michigan's Chuck Ortmann punted 24 times, and the Wolverines won 9-3, despite failing to make a first down. Buckeyes coach Wes Fesler quit a few days later. Ohio State hired the little-known Hayes away from Miami (Ohio).
• It is true that in 1970, a local judge in Columbus dismissed a charge of obscenity against a defendant arrested for wearing a T-shirt that said, "F--- Michigan" because the message "accurately expressed" local feelings about the university and the state.
• It is true that Hayes sometimes bunked his team in Toledo on the night before a game in Ann Arbor so the Buckeyes could sleep on Ohio ground.
• It is true that, by state law, the Franklin County (Ohio) Board of Elections is supposed to begin counting the provisional ballots cast in this month's 15th Congressional District race on Nov. 18. Rep. Deborah Pryce leads challenger Mary Jo Kilroy by 3,536 votes. However, the board will not begin to count the votes until Nov. 19 so that the counters may watch the Ohio State-Michigan game.
• It is true that the lowest-priced ticket available on StubHub on Thursday, for a seat on the corner of the end zone, on the 41st row of the upper deck, would have set you back $530. Binoculars extra.
So I hope you will all take time to watch this game...I know that Windshieldbug and I will.....we just might be dressed in different colors.
1929 - 2006
