The View from Ann Arbor and Columbus
Despite the hoopla surrounding the Michigan - Ohio State rivalry -- the pre-game build-up, pep-rallies, insults hurled by opposing fans -- coaches and players tell us that ultimately "the game is decided on the field." That is certainly true, but how the game is viewed and remembered by Wolverine and Buckeye fans has a lot to do with how the game is reported -- and the view is often markedly different in Ann Arbor and Columbus.
The game accounts in the student newspapers and alumni magazines of the rival schools demonstrate that there are two sides to every story. What is seen as brilliant strategy on one campus might be viewed as costly errors on the other. From the Columbus vantage point it was a spontaneous outburst of enthusiasm that led the OSU players to carry coach Woody Hayes off the field following the Buckeyes' drubbing of Michigan in 1961. To the Michigan Alumnus Magazine writer, however, it appeared that Woody "stood on the field after the game and motioned until some of his players got the idea he wanted to be carried off the field on their shoulders."
In pairing Ohio and Michigan accounts of games from each decade of the rivalry's history, this site is interested as much in how the game was reported to each school's fans as in the results on the field. Our selections are based not so much on the importance of the game as on the possibility of widely divergent interpretations of the result. So, we have included the first game in 1897, OSU's first win in 1919, the games with the biggest winning and losing margins for both schools, a couple down-to-the-wire cliffhangers, and games in which the sportswriters' styles were especially florid. These rival reports from the Michigan Daily, The Lantern, the Michigan Alumnus Magazine and the Ohio State University Monthly provide a flavor of the intensity of the rivalry through the years and how each school's official press shaped the accounts for its most passionate fans - its students and alumni.
