Everyone remembers when they learned about the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry.
Whether you don the scarlet and gray, support big blue or remain impartial, there is an excellent chance you have at least some sort of clue how monumental the rivalry between the Buckeyes and Wolverines is with respect to college football.
“We have a big game this week,” Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said on Monday.
The No. 2 Buckeyes host the No. 3 Wolverines on Saturday at noon. College GameDay will be on site for the sixth time in history for The Game and the matchup holds with it massive Big Ten Championship and College Football Playoff implications.
The annual battle between the two rivals usually goes a long way to deciding who wins the conference, though that has been lost over the last decade with Ohio State's string of dominance.
Players and fans always have memories of late November Saturdays when Ohio State and Michigan squared off on the gridiron. But when did Meyer and his current crop of players start to fully understand the importance and respect that came with the rivalry? Let's take a look.
OHIO STATE HEAD COACH URBAN MEYER
“In the '70s, Bo, Woody. My mother, for some reason I still to this day don't know why, grabbed me and said 'we have to go run an errand.' What the hell we talking about? You don't leave [during] that game.
“In Ashtabula, Ohio, outdoor mall walking down, and over the loud speakers I just kept stopping and listening to the game. In the '70s, the Ten Year War. I remember that.”
Was there ever any question as to who Meyer would cheer for while growing up in northeast Ohio?
MEYER: “None.”
For Meyer, his love and respect for Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler blossomed when he became a graduate assistant under Earle Bruce in 1986. How Hayes and Schembechler further established the rivalry's foundation sticks in his brain as a core memory during his formative years.
“This is where I think it's the greatest rivalry in all of sport. You're darn right it was tough, but I know very well that there are two coaches who never respected each other more, and that's the head coach of our rival, Bo Schembechler, because I talked to him about it. I had great conversations with Coach Schembechler.
“And Woody Hayes, unfortunately, I never had those great conversations. I met him a few times. He was here in '86, and we lost him, and I never—I look back, and I wish I would have been able to sit down and talk to him about it.
But I think that's the standard to what rivalries are all about, and, yes, that's what I remember. They go so frickin' hard against it, but there is a mutual respect.
“I didn't say like, but there's a mutual respect. And I learned it from those two, two of the greatest coaches of all time. They handled themselves with incredible class, toughness, demanded of their players, and you got to see that every time those two teams played. So that's my memory, and that's how we go about our business here.”
Not every player on Ohio State's current roster is from the state of Ohio. That is never the case. One of the key parts to Meyer's current team—quarterback J.T. Barrett—is from Wichita Falls, Texas. That is where another top college football rivalry, Texas-Oklahoma, is king.
Barrett learned quickly of the hatred between Ohio State and Michigan, however. It happened before he ever arrived in Columbus.
QUARTERBACK J.T. BARRETT
“I committed April 18 of 2012, so that next week like a player that committed for them burned an Ohio State letter. I mean I got letters from that place. I didn’t decide to burn them.
“I think that was a little much, and I think that was when it really clicked, yeah, these guys don’t care for one another. I threw [the Michigan letters] away but I didn’t record, burn it and take a picture. I think that was a little much.”
OFFENSIVE GUARD BILLY PRICE
“I wasn't an Ohio State fan prior to recruiting. I was actually all Texas. Mack Brown was the man. But as you get educated and get recruited, I went to every Ohio State-TUN game ever since I started getting recruited by Jim Tressel.
“You become part of it and it's a different understanding now that you're in it, do you understand the difference and understand the physicality of it.”
WIDE RECEIVER TERRY MCLAURIN
“Probably my freshman year coming in [from Indianapolis]. You kind of have your ideas from watching on television while you’re in high school, but you don’t understand the magnitude of the game until you get here.
“Listening to former players and being part of the game and being part of the preparation, there’s so much history that goes into this game. I would like to say it’s the biggest rivalry in all of sports. Just all the implications and the history behind the coaches that have coached this game and the players that have played this game.”
For some, like star cornerback Gareon Conley, things get personal. A one-time Michigan commit, Conley remembers vividly when he started to hate the Wolverines.
CORNERBACK GAREON CONLEY
“I really didn’t play football. In high school, I was a basketball player so once there was like a Big Ten school that came across [with an offer] I was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to jump on it because I probably won’t get anything better.’ Then more schools started coming so I wanted to explore my options [away from Michigan].
“I wanted to explore all of my options and they like threatened to pull my scholarship if I did so that’s why I decommitted.”
DEFENSIVE END TYQUAN LEWIS
“Growing up, we heard about it. But I’m from North Carolina. You either pick between North Carolina and Duke. When I got here, you see things like the Mirror Lake jump, the gold pants and things like that and you hear about all these things. You just think about that, man, these people are incredible.
“Once you get here you develop a whole new respect for the rivalry. Former players who have played in the game, they’ll talk about how much they don’t like them and stuff like that. You formulate your own thing that you have in your mind and you just respect it. You have to respect it. It’s a hard-fought game. They come and bring it, we bring it and that’s what you look forward to.”
But those that are born into the rivalry and who grew up in Ohio remember how The Game helped shape their childhood.
LINEBACKER JOE BURGER
“You are trained to [hate them] and that is the way to try to breed people here, that is our opponent and that is what makes or breaks your season. It does not matter if we are 0-11 or 11-0, that is the deciding point of the season.”
CENTER PAT ELFLEIN
“It was like another holiday, I remember that. You had your Thanksgiving Day celebration and then you had another celebration, another party, everyone was always wearing their jerseys, it was always a fun day at school. Everyone would dress up and there would always be that one kid wearing that blue shirt and everyone giving him crap.
“Yeah, it was always like another holiday, such a big game everyone was so excited for. The 1 vs. 2 game, that one will go down in history. It wasn’t just that one. Every Ohio State vs. The Team Up North game was like that and it always will be.”
