Author: Jeff Cummins

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The fifth and final installment of the look back at The Game takes us to 1973. Change was everywhere in ’73. We had to get used to Roger Moore play the role of James Bond in “Live and Let Die.” The nation watched Watergate proceedings on TV throughout the spring, and in the fall, a confident bunch of Cincinnati Reds roared into Shea Stadium to take on the New York Mets. Pete Rose and Buddy Harrelson started a bench-clearing brawl in Game 3, and when the dust from the series had finally settled, the Mets won the series in five games and landscapers had to work miracles to repair the field at Shea Stadium after fans trampled it and took home souvenirs of live grass.

On the gridiron, both Michigan and Ohio State cruised into The Game with perfect records. Ohio State QB Cornelius Greene played with a bruised thumb, while Michigan QB Dennis Franklin left the game after scoring the tying touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Ohio State owned the first half, sparked by a twisting, turning 38-yard run by Archie Griffin. Michigan roared back in the second half, and when Franklin scored on an option play on 4th down and inches from the 10-yard line, the Wolverines tied the score for good.

By today’s standards, some fans would consider the game almost dull. Both teams eschewed the pass, which irritated both quarterbacks, in spite of the fact that it had rained heavily prior to the game, and temperatures were chilly. Woody Hayes might well have limited the amount of passes that Greene threw because of the injury to his thumb, but Franklin completed a 35-yard pass to rangy, 6-foot-6 tight end Paul Seal, who posed a matchup problem for the Buckeyes due to his height, reliable hands, and ability to slip out of tackles. Despite that, Franklin and Seal didn’t connect often during the game, and it was left up to the left foot of Mike Lantry, twice. Lantry missed a pair of field goals, and the game ended in a 10-10 tie, with the athletic directors voting to send Ohio State to the Rose Bowl in a decision that remains controversial to this day. Ohio State went to the Rose Bowl the previous year, and most expected Michigan to represent the Rose Bowl this time. But with Franklin’s injury late in the game fresh in everyone’s minds, the athletic directors voted to send Ohio State as the Big Ten’s representative, leaving Michigan out of the bowl picture despite a record of 10 wins, no losses and one tie. Due to an archaic rule, the only Big Ten team that was allowed to go to a bowl game was the conference champion, leaving Michigan at home during bowl season while teams with lesser records advanced to the bowl season. Ohio State went on to rout defending national champion USC in the Rose Bowl, but the tie prevented the Buckeyes from winning the national championship, an honor that was split between Alabama and Notre Dame. Alabama captured the UPI National Championship, awarded by the coaches, and Notre Dame won the AP National Championship given by the writers with a record of 11-0. Ohio State’s win over USC left both Ohio State and Michigan with undefeated records at the end of the season. The following season, the Big Ten amended its rule to allow teams other than the conference champion to play in bowl games, which was cold comfort for Michigan fans that had hoped for a shot on the National Championship in 1973.
Thanks to WolverineDeVotee on YouTube and ABC for their wonderful footage of the game.

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We resume the series on The Game with the 1989 game. It was John Cooper’s first trip to Ann Arbor, and Cooper never managed to get a win in Michigan Stadium. From Bo Schembechler to Gary Moeller to Lloyd Carr, Michigan coaches made The Big House invulnerable during Cooper’s tenure. Coaching strategy wasn’t always the same among the three coaches, but under Schembechler, the strategy was very simple: stick to the basics. Carr’s teams lined up in the I-formation sometimes, in a full house backfield at other occasions. One thing is certain, though. They could run the ball, and with authority.

Schembechler believed in fundamentally sound blocking, and in ball security. This stick-to-the-basics philosophy enabled the Wolverines to hone their precision, and to build a rock-solid esprit de corps, similar to that enjoyed by the Packers under Vince Lombardi. Schembechler’s teams didn’t always fare well in bowl games, or against Notre Dame, but in the Big Ten, Schembechler almost always had his teams ready to go.

With a modest lead against the Buckeyes, Schembechler decided to seize control of the line of scrimmage for good. His team did that with a beautifully executed 81-yard drive consisting of 13 consecutive running plays. Period. The touchdown gave Michigan a 14-0 lead, and clearly established that Michigan was the team in charge that day.
Simplicity. Imagine if anyone dared to use 13 consecutive running plays now. They’d risk their own job security. Thanks to expressfan and WolverineHistorian on YouTube, and to ABC. Enjoy!

It’s Thanksgiving morning, time to interrupt the series of memories I’ve posted about past games between Michigan and Ohio State to recall what Thanksgiving should be about. Sure, there are numerous football games I could recall, such as the 1973 classic between Midland Park and Waldwick, with MP rallying from 13 points down to win 18-13, or the 1984 game between Fordham Prep and Xavier, with Xavier rallying in the final minutes for a 12-7 win, or the bitter cold on the hill at Don Bosco in Bosco’s 16-7 win over Paramus Catholic in 2000, but the truth is that football just accompanies the holiday. More than that, it really shouldn’t be a holiday about devouring a ton of food. Sure, food is part of it, but it only serves as window dressing for the occasion.

The core of Thanksgiving Day should always be about gratitude for all the good things we have in life, and about making an effort to make it good for someone else. I’m as guilty as the next person when it comes to pursuing the rat race, but the real opportunity in this holiday isn’t the chance to consume food from a world-class chef who graduated from a culinary school, it’s the chance to stand up and help others. Saturday I interrupted my usual routine to work as a line judge at a charity volleyball tournament in Paterson, N.J., while my wife served as the referee. We, like many others, donated canned goods to be given to needy families. We’re not millionaires by any means, but it was an opportunity to help others. I don’t mean to boast, but I did feel good afterward, as I think everyone involved did. Frankly, I think almost every time you help others, you feel better about life, and your role in it.

There have been a lot of movies involving Thanksgiving over the years, but to me, the most meaningful was “Scent of a Woman.” Two people, a high school prep student dealing with an ethical challenge, and a veteran blinded by an accident, struggle with the circumstances of their lives. Together, they help each other. The ending isn’t the old fashioned, everything-is-ideal Hollywood scenario; instead, it concludes with a flash of semi-realistic optimism. Each character gets through his particular quandary, and makes a friend in the process. There’s something to be said for that. Maybe if we all try to help someone, we can get through tough times in life.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

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For the third installment of the Looking Back series, we’ll go to 1987. The country had enjoyed tremendous prosperity throughout much of the mid-1980s, but there was a brief hiccup on Wall Street in the fall of ’87 that caused substantial losses for many investors. “The Cosby Show” ruled the television world, but not too far behind was “Family Ties,” a show about a family raised by a couple of 1960s liberals with three children, including a conservative son, Alex P. Keaton, masterfully played by Michael J. Fox. Interestingly, the show was set in Columbus, Ohio, the epicenter of Ohio State Buckeye football, yet it seldom, if ever, made any reference to the Buckeyes. The show’s creator, Gary David Goldberg, who died in June, was a native of Brooklyn, N.Y. But I digress.

On the field, 1987 proved to be a frustrating season for both rivals. Michigan had already suffered three losses by the time The Game rolled around, leaving the Wolverines with a nondescript season. Ohio State was in much the same boat, but head coach Earle Bruce was in a tougher spot than Bo Schembechler was at Michigan. Bruce had succeeded Woody Hayes at Ohio State, and endured the inevitable comparisons that come with following a legend. By 1987, the faithful in Columbus were furious with Bruce, a good coach who walked into an impossible situation. But on this day, Bruce would go out on top, literally.

As Ohio State entered Michigan Stadium, Bruce’s fate was already known. Three consecutive losses in the weeks leading up to The Game left the Bucks with a 5-4-1 record, and Bruce was informed earlier in the week that he would not return as the Buckeyes’ coach in 1998, but he would be allowed to finish the season as head coach. As the teams took the field, Ohio State players could be seen with headbands that had “EARLE” scrawled across them in capital letters.

Sure enough, the headbands proved to be a good omen for Bruce and the Bucks. Ohio State played an inspired game, upsetting Michigan 23-20 in one of the underrated games in the series. For one game, the Bucks were revitalized, and one Buck, in particular, was revitalized for quite some time.

As Rob Oller noted in an outstanding story in The Columbus Dispatch (which is linked here), William Moxley, nicknamed “Buck,” was seated in the end zone at Michigan Stadium that day, while his son Tim played on the offensive line for Ohio State. Buck Moxley suffered a heart attack during the game and collapsed in his seat. Fortunately, a cardiologist was sitting nearby, and Moxley was rushed to University Hospital, where doctors used a then-experimental drug that fought strokes to save Moxley’s life. Even with the drug, Moxley had to be resuscitated several times, but he made it, thanks to Dr. Dan Beatty of East Liverpool, Ohio, who saved Moxley’s life at the stadium, and to Dr. Mark Sanz, who saved Moxley’s life at University of Michigan Hospital.

Earle Bruce? He went out a winner, on the shoulders of his players, and became a de facto ambassador for Ohio State football. All in all, not a bad way to go out.

Thanks again to OurHonorDefend on YouTube, ABC, and Rob Oller and The Columbus Dispatch.

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The second installment of the series takes us to 1974. President Richard Nixon was impeached, and was replaced by Vice President Gerald Ford, who played center and linebacker for Michigan and led the Wolverines to consecutive perfect seasons and national championships in 1923 and 1933. On the movie screen, we flocked to theaters to see Al Pacino ascend to the throne as Don Michael Corleone in “The Godfather, Part II’ and country musician Ray Stevens entertained us with “The Streak,” a song about an odd mid-1970s fad. Things were much more conventional on the gridiron, where Ohio State and Michigan engaged in a classic defensive struggle in Columbus.

Once again, Ohio State relied on the legs of star running back Archie Griffin, and with good reason. Griffin was arguably the best player in the 1970s, and giving him the ball was one of the safest, most astute choices a team could make. Griffin rarely fumbled the ball and was rarely tackled for a loss. Just as important as his omnipresent ability to make game-changing plays was his knack for not making critical mistakes, such as fumbles or penalties. Griffin, along with quarterback Cornelius Greene and fellow running backs Brian Baschnagel and Pete Johnson put the Buckeyes in position to win the game, but the Wolverines stuck around like a relative who won’t leave the family picnic without trying the potato salad. As the clock wound down, Michigan quarterback Dennis Franklin completed a 20-yard pass to set up a 33-yard field goal attempt for placekicker Mike Lantry, who had a similar role in the 1973 game. For the second year in a row, Lantry, an Army veteran who had served in the 82nd Airborne Division in Vietnam from February 1968 to December 1970, and entered the University of Michigan as a 23-year-old married freshman. Lantry entered school as a walk-on football player, but he was named to the All-America team in 1973. Lantry never had much success against Ohio State, though, and once again, the Wolverines’ fate rested on the toes of his left foot. He attempted the 33-yard field goal from an awkward angle, and after a fairly long amount of time, referees ruled that his kick was no good. Once again, his kick had sailed just wide, and Ohio State held on for a 12-10 victory.

It wouldn’t be unusual for fans to mock a player who missed a field goal, but that never happened to Lantry, who received an overwhelming amount of support from Michigan fans, students and alumni. Even more impressive was the support from Ohio State head coach Woody Hayes. Hayes wasn’t shy about his desire to beat Michigan, but he was also a staunch supporter of the U.S. Military, and noted his admiration for Lantry’s service to his country. Prior to the ’74 clash, the two actually crossed paths during warm-ups, and Hayes wished Lantry good luck. Hayes was noted for his disdain for all things Michigan, but on this occasion he offered Lantry a quiet, but respectful greeting for his contribution to the nation. Lantry graduated in 1975 and, after playing briefly for the Dallas Cowboys, began a long career as a consultant to the automotive industry. Ohio State went to the Rose Bowl, where the Buckeyes played in another tough defensive struggle, falling to eventual national champion USC, 18-17. Thanks to OurHonorDefend on YouTube, and to ABC.

Michael Corleone? Oh yes, he outwitted Hyman Roth, particularly after Roth’s wife broke her husband’s concentration when she turned down the volume on the broadcast of the 1958 Notre Dame-USC game.