Blog Archives
Toledo’s Favorite Sons Go to Battle
“THE Game” is finally upon us.
The Ohio State Buckeyes will play That Team Up North at noon tomorrow in the chilly confines of The Horseshoe in Columbus, OH.
- #2 Ohio State vs. #3 That Team Up North
- Urban Meyer vs. Jim Harbaugh (both 52 years-old and both born in Toledo, OH)
- A spot in the college football playoff
- A (potential) spot in the Big Ten Championship Game
- Gold Pants
- Bragging Rights
- Statewide Pride
All of this will be on the line when these two football powerhouses collide. And this rivalry is not only the best in college football, but it’s the greatest rivalry in sports. Why? The Toledo War.
The Toledo War was a border dispute between the State of Ohio and the
Michigan TerritoryTerritory Up North during the first several decades of the nineteenth century.
–Ohio History Central online
Poetically, Toledo, OH remains divided between Buckeyes and Wolverines loyalties. There’s a sports store that’s literally divided in half for these two fan bases. The animosity and hatred between two neighboring states and universities didn’t begin because of an athletic competition, but from a conflict rooted in something much more profound. In the case of Ohio and That State Up North, the answer is a war.
That’s unrivaled in sports.
The Game of the Century: Volume 2 is at noon tomorrow on ABC.
GO BUCKS!
Happy Monday!
42-28
Awesome, bittersweet, complicated, suspenseful, devastating, resilient and glorious are just a few words that encapsulate the 111th gridiron match-up of The greatest rivalry in all of sports between The Ohio State Buckeyes and That Team Up North. The Buckeyes dominated the first and last two minutes of the first half, while Michigan controlled the other 26 minutes. The result was a 14-14 tie at halftime. The second half was a bit of a back-and-forth battle, before Ohio State pulled ahead by a touchdown.
Then, it happened.
It, for the second time this year, led to the starting Buckeyes quarterback suffering a season-ending injury. For freshman phenom J.T. Barrett, it was a fractured ankle in a cringe-worthy tackle/dirty move by the Wolverine defense. The only positive takeaway from this heartbreaking moment was when rival quarterback Devin Gardner knelt down beside Barrett to console him in a great act of sportsmanship.
Well done Gardner, well done.
Playing their third string quarterback for the duration of the fourth quarter, Cardale Jones and the rest of the Ohio State offense (and defense) held strong and even extended their lead in exciting fashion in front of their anxious home crowd. For Michigan’s head coach Brady Hoke, cognizant of his steady decline of success in Ann Arbor the past few years, it seemed fitting that Ohio State’s third string quarterback effectively signed his walking papers in his final appearance (very likely anyways) in The Game held in the state of his birth.
Brady Hoke always likes to poke at Ohio State by calling us “Ohio.”
Well, “OH-IO,” Mr. Hoke, “OH-IO.”
Then, news of a missing senior walk-on with concussion issues since mid-last week made local and national headlines. Devastatingly, the story did not end well. We don’t need to go into details.
The 111th edition of The Game featured a full-range of emotions. The Buckeyes won their treasured Gold Pants for the 9th time in the last 10 years in the best damn rivalry in the land. Even with the somber news, let’s try to remember the positives from this past Saturday.
Ohio State vs. Michigan really is the greatest rivalry in sports.
Have a Great Week (Especially For All of Us Buckeyes)!
Jimmy's Daily Planet 