Greg Emmanuel - The 100-Yard War: Inside the 100-Year-Old Michigan-Ohio State Football Rivalry

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Table of Contents

HATE: THE EARLY YEARS

It wouldnt be Ann Arbor if it werent so freaking cold.

The calendar says November 21, 2003. Thanksgiving hasnt even arrived, but the late-night wind is making a February-like assault on any flesh thats foolishly been left exposed. Its a good night to be indoors, which works out well because thats where all the action is, anyway.

About halfway down a quiet street called Maynard, a bit off the beaten path and just behind the main drag, the tranquil mood changes as you approach a red brick building. It houses a bar called Scorekeepers. Even standing outside, you can hear a dull din, a hint of whats behind the wooden door.

Inside, Scorekeepers is a familiar-looking bar, with neon beer signs, watery drafts, and big TVs. In other wordsif the name didnt already give it awayits a sports bar. Just past the bouncer checking IDs up front is a large room that looks like a cross between a German beer garden and a ski lodge, with, of course, all the sports bar trappings. To the right is a bunch of small tables, and a long wooden bar abuts the wall on the left. In the back, a set of stairs leads to a second floor that has another bar and a pool table.

But youd be hard-pressed to make it that far. The place is packed and its damn loud, thanks to the Slippery When Wet-era Bon Jovi thats being played at arena-level volume and all the sports fans trying to talk over the music. This is really nothing unusual. After all, its Friday night, and this bar is usually crowded and noisy on Friday nights.

Yet tonight Scorekeepers feels different. It feels significant. For proof, you need look no farther than the man standing about 10 feet from the door. You cant miss him: beneath a warm, beer-fueled flush, his taut neck muscles bulge grotesquely, almost threatening to rupture. On any other night, this might indicate that something is terribly wrong. Tonight, given the circumstances, its perfectly normal. This is what a person looks like when he is yelling, very loudly.

His rage is directed at another man standing directly in front of him. You cant miss this guy either. His lips are tightly pursed together, as if hes trying to inflate a balloon or worse, prevent his own head from exploding. The men stand just inches apart, the gap between them bridged by flying spittle and incoherent obscenities.

They look remarkably similar, though, almost as if they could be best friends or even brothers. Both are white, in their early twenties, with short-cropped, light-colored hair and muscular, athletic builds. Both are wearing blue jeansand sweatshirts.

And in the sweatshirts lies all the difference either manor anyone in this bar, town, and stateneeds.

The neck is wearing a blue sweatshirt with yellow letters, and Mr. Lips is wearing a red sweatshirt with gray letters.

Although theyd never met before this evening, their sweatshirts alone were enough to drive a permanent wedge between them. They knew when they first laid eyes on each other that they hated what the other man stood foror, more precisely, who he rooted for.

One man is a fan of the University of Michigan Wolverines. And the other loves the Ohio State University Buckeyes.

In a little over 12 hours, these two football teams will run onto a field and, for all intents and purposes, settle the argument going on between these two fans, the gist of which is: whose team is better?

Tomorrows contest is a regular season college football game, but the stakes are enormously high. A conference championship, a possible invitation to the national championship game andmost importantlybragging rights are all on the line. Thats why both of these men are so worked up. Thats what makes one grown man get in another mans face. And thats ultimately what makes those neck muscles strain and twitch and those lips press together so severely.

But thats not even the half of it.

Arguments about sports occur every second of every day. Guys in bars yell at each other all the time. Opposing fans tell each other how much they suck and how their own team will kick the other teams ass. This is why sports bars exist in the first placeto be a venue for such behavior. And if you think about it, thats pretty much the driving force behind all spectator sports.

But there is another reason why tomorrow is not just any other game. Theres history here. Lots and lots of history.

When the rivalry between the Buckeyes and the Wolverines began, the game of basketball was only six years old. The first World Series wouldnt be played until six years later. Any whisper of the NHL was still 20 years away, and the mighty NFL wouldnt come on the scene for another 24 seasons. In other words, their rivalry began in the sporting world-equivalent of the Jurassic period, and it would culminate when the teams meet tomorrow for the 100th time in 106 years. It will be the final piece in a century-sized collection of college football games, played between two perennially powerful opponents, and the renewal of the greatest rivalry in the world of sports.

How can this game make such a bold claim? Easily.

No other regularly scheduled game between any two teams in any sport is as consequential, as often. Since 1935, the year that Michigan and Ohio State moved their annual contest to the final week of the conference schedule, the Wolverines and the Buckeyes have decided the Big Ten championship between themselveswinner take all19 times. Twenty-one other times, one of the teams going into the game had a shot for at least a share of the conference title. This means that on average, for two out of every three times that Ohio State and Michigan have faced off, the result has been huge. (Even the Yankees and the Red Sox have played some meaningless duds over the years.) And in the rare instance that one of the teams wasnt having a great season, that team relished playing the spoiler. In the last decade alone, one school has wrecked the others championship hopes four different times.

And its not just regional. Today the spotlight is on the Bowl Championship Series, and the OSU-UM game almost always shakes up the national standings. Since 1987, at least one (usually, both) of the teams has been ranked in the Top 15 of all Division I-A football teams in the country, when coming into their annual grudge match.

The best rivalry is one that is evenly matched, and this rivalry pretty much defines it. In the last 50 years, the Michigan-Ohio State series has been deadlocked at 24-24-2. Thats 24 wins by each team and 2 ties. You dont have to be a statistician to understand that this is not just evenly matched, its an unambiguous dead heat.

While these statistics pertain to the outcome of the game, the rivalry has come to mean much more to both the players and the fans. Thanks to countless remarkable football games between these two huge schools, drawing hundreds of thousands of alumni and followers, the rivalry is now an enormous cultural event. Traditions have evolved specifically around this annual game. It is treated like a holiday, a family reunion, and the biggest party of the year, all rolled into one. Its so colossal, it doesnt even have to be mentioned specifically by name. Just say the Game in the Midwest or to either schools alumni or fansor to any college football fan, for that matterand everyone will know exactly what youre talking about.

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