The Big Game......
Nov. 23rd, 2002 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poltr1This is it.......the mother of all college football rivalries. Ohio State vs. Michigan. They meet for the 99th time today at "the Shoe" -- the horseshoe-shaped Ohio State University Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.
There's been lots of talk and buzz about this game for the past week. (And if you live in Columbus, they've been talking about this game for the past few months!) I've heard talk that tickets are going for hundreds of dollars -- more if you buy 'em from a scalper.
In Columbus, college football is not just a game. It's a passion, a religion, a way of life! The whole town shuts down when OSU plays a home game. It's gridlock for miles around the stadium. (So stay off the 315 today if you can.) And woe to the coach who wins every game and loses this one. Ask John Cooper.
Even though I live and work in Ohio, I don't bleed scarlet and gray, like some people I know. But then again, I didn't go to OSU as an undergrad. Nor did I go to Michigan. I went to SUNY/Buffalo, which was, at the time, a division III sports school. Only in the last several years have hey gone to Division I sports. For ous, our "big game" was playing either cross-town rival Buffalo State (aka SUNY College at Buffalo), or Canisius
(the private, Jesuit-run school in town).
So how did this rivalry start? The legend I know is that Bo Schembechler worked as an assistant coach to Woody Hayes before quitting and taking the head coach job at Michigan. I've also heard that the rivalry predates that.
It was entertaining to watch the antics of some of the folks I used to work with a few years ago. One of the department managers went to U of M for one of his degrees. A few of his employees went to OSU. One year they hung the manager's trash can (colored maize and blue) in his office....with a noose.
Will I watch the game on TV? Maybe. Do I care who wins? Not really. If OSU wins (Go Bucks!), great. If Michigan wins (Go Blue!), no big deal for me. Life goes on. The OSU band will still be TBDBITL, and continue to do the famous "Script Ohio" formation, although there may be no joy in Columbus tonight if OSU loses.
I suspect that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
maedbh7 is going to sequester herself at home today, and not venture out for any reason.
There's been lots of talk and buzz about this game for the past week. (And if you live in Columbus, they've been talking about this game for the past few months!) I've heard talk that tickets are going for hundreds of dollars -- more if you buy 'em from a scalper.
In Columbus, college football is not just a game. It's a passion, a religion, a way of life! The whole town shuts down when OSU plays a home game. It's gridlock for miles around the stadium. (So stay off the 315 today if you can.) And woe to the coach who wins every game and loses this one. Ask John Cooper.
Even though I live and work in Ohio, I don't bleed scarlet and gray, like some people I know. But then again, I didn't go to OSU as an undergrad. Nor did I go to Michigan. I went to SUNY/Buffalo, which was, at the time, a division III sports school. Only in the last several years have hey gone to Division I sports. For ous, our "big game" was playing either cross-town rival Buffalo State (aka SUNY College at Buffalo), or Canisius
(the private, Jesuit-run school in town).
So how did this rivalry start? The legend I know is that Bo Schembechler worked as an assistant coach to Woody Hayes before quitting and taking the head coach job at Michigan. I've also heard that the rivalry predates that.
It was entertaining to watch the antics of some of the folks I used to work with a few years ago. One of the department managers went to U of M for one of his degrees. A few of his employees went to OSU. One year they hung the manager's trash can (colored maize and blue) in his office....with a noose.
Will I watch the game on TV? Maybe. Do I care who wins? Not really. If OSU wins (Go Bucks!), great. If Michigan wins (Go Blue!), no big deal for me. Life goes on. The OSU band will still be TBDBITL, and continue to do the famous "Script Ohio" formation, although there may be no joy in Columbus tonight if OSU loses.
I suspect that
maedbh7 is going to sequester herself at home today, and not venture out for any reason.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2002-11-23 02:31 pm (UTC)And like a good alumn mom I've been explaining the whole "The OSU Buckeyes in Scarlet and Grey are the Good Guys (we want them to win); the Michigan Wolverines in the Maize and Blue are the Bad Guys (we want them to lose). No, that's not stars on their helmets; it's pot leaves...er, I mean, buckeye leaves. Yes honey, the game is finally over. Now let's go do something fun." -H...