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In In 2000, ESPN compiled a list of the ten greatest sporting rivalries of the twentieth century. The list covered baseball, basketball and football – academic and professional – as well as boxing, golf and hockey. Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, the Red Sox and Yankees, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, the Maple Leafs and the Canadiens, basketball champions Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell were among the competitors. At the top of the list, ESPN however, was the rivalry between college football, dating back to 1897 and prior to the creation of the National Football League by a quarter of a century, between the University of Michigan and the State of Ohio . It was a wise choice. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, this annual confrontation remains so great, so bitter, so famous and so intense that it is known in sport as The Game.
"It's an environment as hostile as any sport, anywhere," said Dan Dierdorf, an Ohio native who dared to cross the border and become a football star in Michigan. . He played for thirteen seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, and then broadcast professional football games for over a quarter of a century. (He was inducted into the University and Professional Football Hall of Fame.) "From the player's point of view, nothing beats the victory over Ohio State. Part of the reason you go to Michigan as a football player is to win a spot on a team that would allow you to play against Ohio State. "
John U. Bacon, author of "Endzone: The Rise, Fall, and Return of Football in Michigan," confided that the passions that surround The Game are more powerful than in any sport American. "If you leave New York or Washington, you risk not following the Giants or the Redskins closely," he said. "But if you've ever lived in Ann Arbor and left, you'd still follow Michigan football." The same goes for fans of the Ohio State.
The game has produced ridiculous traditions on both sides. Since 2013, the Ohio Governor issued the "Scarlet Letter Saturday" proclamation outlawing, across the state, the use of the "Unfortunate Thirteenth Letter" from the US government. alphabet "- the" Mr. ". For good measure, all the "M's" in the proclamation are also barred. For decades, coaches in the state of Ohio have even refused to pronounce the word "Michigan", speaking rather of "this northern team", often abbreviated in their press conferences and their schedules at T.T.U.N. One of the many stories, perhaps apocryphal, about the legendary coach of the state of Ohio, Woody Hayes, broke down gasoline during A recruiting trip to Michigan. He refused to buy gasoline for fear that the portion of the tax paid into the state coffers would end up at the University of Michigan, a state-funded school. According to legend, Hayes chose to let his assistant coach push the car on the last mile across the state border while he was flying. In the past, Ohio State fans routinely joked about visiting Michigan: unleashing drug-sniffing dogs, stealing TTUN's helmets, setting off fire alarms, and shutting off hot water at the hotel. Michigan.
Michigan has its own traditions. None of the players or coaches wear red – the color of the Ohio State – for any reason at Schembechler Hall, where the team practices. Bo Schembechler – who started with Hayes – was a legendary coach from Michigan. "Before, Schembechler himself could snatch the red shirt," said Bacon. "Today, wearing a red tie can cut it in half." Michigan's traditions, he said, include the "Grave Walk" on Tuesday night before the game, when fans and often a few players go to the local cemetery to pay homage to Schembechler's tombs. former coach Fielding Yost and longtime football broadcaster Bob Ufer. For Michigan, which has a better academic score, it is also attitude. "Everyone in Ohio thinks everyone at the University of Michigan is arrogant or snobbish," Dierdorf told me. "But it's not arrogant to realize that we're just better than they are."
The match will be resumed Saturday at noon, of course, when the Wolverines take on the Buckeyes in Columbus. At one level, the fight is about physical talent and trickery, with huge stakes for both teams. Michigan, now ranked fourth in the country, aims to qualify for the playoffs of college football, where the top four teams will face the national championship. It is the best defense of the country. he gave less yards than any other university team. The Ohio State, which ranked better than Michigan earlier in the season, wants a big win to climb the ladder, starting in tenth place, and eventually qualify for the playoffs. Last year, Ohio State participated in the playoffs. This year, it is the second best offense in the country, known for its flamboyant scores. Both teams have ten wins and one loss. Historically, Michigan leads the competition with eight wins. But he has lost thirteen of his last fourteen games against Ohio State.
Michigan defensive lineman Chase Winovich has dubbed the Revenge Tour this season. Winovich is famous for the long blonde locks that spring from his helmet and for hitting President Trump on a golf course, as for his bags of opponents on the football field. The goal of the Revenge Tour is to defeat the teams that humbled Michigan last year. Until now, Michigan has taken its revenge and beat all the teams that beat it in 2017.
Rival coaches have overlapping stories that add yet another layer to the competition. Jim Harbaugh of Michigan and Urban Meyer of the State of Ohio were born in the same hospital (Mercy), in the same city (Toledo), six months apart (in December 1963 and July 1964 ). Few top coaches have such a long history in their schools. Harbaugh, who grew up in Ann Arbor when his father was Michigan's assistant coach, became Michigan's star quarterback under Schembechler's leadership. When Harbaugh coached Stanford in a winning season in 2010, he won the Woody Hayes Award, which he described as the highest distinction he's ever received. As a professional coach, he took the San Francisco Forty-Niners to the Super Bowl, where he faced his brother John, the Baltimore Ravens head coach. In 2015, he left professional football, an unusual move, to return to Ann Arbor and resurrect Michigan football. But Harbaugh has not yet beaten the Ohio State during his four years of training.
A graduate of the state of Ohio, Meyer began his coaching career at Ohio State under the legendary Earle Bruce. Bruce's grandson, Zach Smith, was Meyer's assistant until last summer, when he was fired after his wife was granted a domestic violence protection order. Meyer, who took no action until the allegations of abuse became public, said his judgment was troubled by his background with the Bruce family. He was suspended for the first games of this season. Beat Michigan is important for its public redemption.
Michigan is a four-point favorite. "No Michigan player has ever defeated the Ohio State and no Ohio State player has lost to Michigan," Dierdorf told me. "So, there is more pressure on Michigan to win than on Ohio State not to lose.Harbaugh is now in his fourth year.If he does not win, his detractors are about to break loose" he added hastily, "the Harbaugh fan base is not even close to giving it up."
Tom Brady, the former Michigan quarterback who won four Super Bowls for the New England Patriots, said this week on Boston's WEEI radio: "It's our year, baby." He added, "I think we're going to kick our ass." As a young player, Harbaugh, known for his eccentricities, is said to have "guaranteed" that Michigan would defeat the state of Ohio – and has This week, as a coach, he praised a Michigan team, especially his quarterback, Shea Patterson, who was not expected. at that she ends up fighting for a place for the national championship. "He has a good feeling, talent and energy for the game. I love his concentration, his intensity," he said. Harbaugh at a press conference in Ann Arbor on Monday. "For us, it's as big as it gets," he said, but he avoided the predictions.
Urban Meyer was exceptionally defensive at his press conference. "It is not who is favored and who is not," he insisted. But he has this advantage tacit at home, notoriously hostile to visiting teams.
On another level, The Game this year is not just about entertainment or athletics, Mark Killingsworth, former editor-in-chief of Michigan Daily and a Rhodes scholar who is now a Rutgers economist, told me. The Michigan-Ohio State match, along with other major academic rivalries, is diverting attention from the growing political divide in the United States. It offers a happier form of competition. it evokes youth and a period of less than national vitriol.
"It's a tribal celebration, a nostalgic evocation of a college long after graduation, and perhaps also a futile hope of coming back in simpler times," said Killingsworth. "The idea that such a step back is possible is absurd, but it's comforting!"
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