Any conversation with an Ohio State partisan is only going one way because who won most recently is the only truth in the world. What day is it?/December 10th./No it isn't./Look on a calendar!/Look at the scoreboard!

As much as recent history sucks, history is still so much in Michigan's favor that other college football fans argue it doesn't matter. I take issue with that, yes because my team won the first college football game and more than anyone else since and I'm a biased fanboy, but also because any slicing of dates to create a "modern" period is a repudiation of the process of change, and the normality of more of it.

Take the "Integration Era" since that's a popular one. George Jewett integrated college football when he joined Michigan in 1890, but in 1934 Michigan still had one Black guy, whom they sat when they played Georgia Tech. The Civil Rights Era had landmark moments: Texas Western started five Black players and won the 1966 men's tourney, Florida A&M (an HBCU) beat all-white Tampa in 1969, USC blew out Alabama in 1970, and two Black quarterbacks started the Michigan-Ohio State game in 1973. But it would be another 20 years before D-I rosters were a majority non-white, almost 40 years before Denard Robinson and Braxton Miller followed in the footsteps of Dennis Franklin and Cornelius Greene, and 2019 before Michigan ended a three-year run when not a single Big Ten head basketball coach looked like 75 percent of players have since before the coaching pool played. There is no date in there when past became modern, just an accumulation of decisions that add up to an uneven progress.

The Stone Age Game

That said, jumping from the only modern moment to when the Michigan-Ohio State series began requires some orientation. Teams around 1900 didn't have access to the forward pass, or platoons, or scholarships, or hash marks. Their touchdowns were worth five points instead of six, but their field goals were worth four, and placed at the front of the endzone, not the back. Though their training regimens differed vastly from the average student's, they were nothing like today. The players were much smaller, especially Yost's because he liked them that way. Scheduling was…well it was a lot like 2020: if you were lucky you had a conference organize a bunch of games that might be played, saving room for a surprise at the end. The Big Ten (the "Western Conference" then) was the first such organization, and only a year old when Michigan-Ohio State began.

It wasn't completely foreign. Both schools were also surprisingly modern in their football attitudes. They got up for rivalries. They had blue chip recruiting battles that went on for years. They had massive alumni networks who handled illegal payments to facilitate those recruiting battles. These fans and bagmen would get furious at their coaches when they lost big games, and schools relied so much on these people to fund and promote their school parts that they'd often capitulate, then launch searches as desperately insane as today's.

Specifically, Ohio State at the turn of the century was much more OHIO STATE than they'd like you to believe. Their resources didn't differ that much from Yost's, their fanbase was comparable to most of the schools that were in the original Big Ten, and their football team's interest in academics was as perfunctory as ever. These games counted. They count now. And if you just haven't heard about them, that can be remedied.

[After THE JUMP]

The First

1897: In the second season of the Western Conference, and the first seasons under new head coaches Gustave Ferbert and Charles A. Hickey, Michigan invited the Morrill Act school of Ohio to come play at Regent's Field. Ohio State's program at this point was seven years old, but you could get off the mat quickly in those days by taking the game more seriously. This OSU did, pouring resources into their young program and advertising it as a way to quell a strong anti-educational sentiment across the state. It worked better than they could have hoped; before football Ohio State was constantly in danger of being shut down by state politicians who ran on the idea that tax dollars were going to teach Evolution. In only a few short years of football, those politicians had to shut up, lest they upset the state's best shot at a public interstate power.

Ohio State would become the Boise State of the day, dominating an unofficial mid-major conference of Ohio schools. Michigan had long-running relationships with all of them—Ohio, Oberlin, Miami, Case, Western Reserve (two different schools at that time), Cincinnati, Wittenberg, and Wesleyan, the last coached at the time by rookie Fielding Yost. Ohio State wasn't a power yet, but they were on par with any Indiana or Illinois, and indeed won half of their games versus the big Western Conference teams.

Michigan fans clearly thought of Ohio State as the marquee Ohio school. What didn't exist yet was the hate—Michigan fans were excited about the rivalry, friendly with the school they could reach by train, and hopeful that Ohio State could join their young conference, which was the first of its kind.

The 1897 Ohio State team, in Dantonio-era MSU uniforms for some reason. [Ohio State University Libraries]

The first game, however turned out to be a rote Michigan tuneup against another overwhelmed Ohio mid-major, because Ohio State was injured all to hell. Like the 2020 Wolverines, Ohio State lost two of their stars before the season, and their next best three players unable to make the trip due to injury.

Michigan dispatched the Buckeyes in two short halves—20 and 15 minutes. A strong wind was behind Ohio State in the first half (via the Daily), but what that gained in punt efficiency Michigan just took back by goring the undermanned Buckeyes at a steady 10 yards a play, much of that behind a new starting guard, Colorado transfer William Caley. Michigan then used the wind to their advantage, pinning Ohio State back to run out the clock, but missing a short field goal try to keep the final score just under a point-a-minute: 34-0.

Point-a-Minute One

The Game, 1901 [UM Bentley Library]

1901: Speaking of point-a-minute, the only team other than national power Chicago to hold Yost's first Michigan squad under the mark was, indeed John B. Eckstorm's then-undefeated Buckeyes. It was the third time these teams played—they tied 0-0 in 1900—the first time Michigan traveled to Columbus, and the first time Ohio State was scored upon that season. The game also attracted twice the previous attendance record for Ohio State—4,000 spectators, including about 700 from Ann Arbor. Michigan, as expected, "preserved the sacredness of her goal line"—the team would win all of its games by a combined score of 555-0.

The closest anyone came to this unprecedented juggernaut was, indeed, Ohio State. Eckstorm was well-prepared for Michigan's hurry-up approach. He couldn't win, but holding Michigan to a reasonable score alone would be a huge boon to his rising program, and he had a sound strategy to make this happen: play the shortest game possible. Though the teams had agreed upon 35-minute halves, Eckstorm insisted on 25- and 30-minute halves, until an umpire had to tell him to shut up or take a forfeit. The Ohio State players were coached to slow the game by any means necessary, most especially with fake injuries—the Freep snidely reporting the Buckeyes' doctors and trainer ran for more yards than both teams put together:

The game showed up the superior condition of the Michigan men. On almost every scrimmage some Ohio man would stretch out on the ground and take his full time. This playing for wind was so apparent that the Michigan players finally burlesqued it.

They also hinted Ohio State's eligibility standards were as loose as always:

Their ex-star players, who have been returning to college in such suspicious numbers, failed to puncture Michigan's magnificent defense effectually outside of a short portion of the second half.

The gambit did its job—the game lasted less than 2 hours—but so did Michigan mistakes, missing three extra points and a close field goal, and fumbling away two promising possessions inside the Ohio State five. They also took four offsides penalties—there were no false starts at this point but if you crossed the line of scrimmage before the snap the penalty was a turnover. One of those penalties resulted in the scariest moment all year for the shutout streak, as Ohio State took over on the Michigan 25 and tried a field goal.

Michigan did get in five touchdowns (worth 5 points) and an extra point for a final score of 21-0. The biggest play of the day was, of course, by Michigan's star left halfback Willie Heston, who broke loose out the backside for a 40-yard touchdown.

Point-a-Minute Two

Boss Weeks (dark team) coming through the line for a TFL [Bentley]

1902: Yost was still interested in playing Ohio State every year. I mentioned that Ohio State was good enough back then to go .500 in the Big Ten if they were members, but they were still a mid-major, so Yost was able to strike a deal where they would play two in Ann Arbor for every one in Columbus, but starting with the one in Columbus. So 1902 was the return to Ann Arbor. Again, Michigan was the first team to score on the Buckeyes all season, and the Bucks would later tie Indiana and Illinois (which went 10-2-1 that season)—this no pushover.

It was also starting to take the shape of a rivalry, including calling them simply "Ohio" and inventing uninventive cheers just for them:

In halves of 35 and 25 minutes, in front of the largest crowd ever gathered at Ferry Field (~8,000), Willie Heston returned from injury to put on a clinic. His first carry was 20 yards off the left and and set up Michigan's first score. Ohio State's first possession was quick and hapless, and Michigan got the ball back in short order. It's at this point Yost unveiled his response to the Buckeyes' grind-down-the-game strategy from the previous year; punting on first down! On these downs Ohio State was using two halfbacks half-deep (like a Cover 2) instead of the usual one guy way back to protect for punts. So Michigan punted, pinning Ohio State back, and forcing OSU's much worse punter to continually kick from his own end zone. From there it was a ridiculous NCAA dynasty game, where Michigan would get the ball on the OSU 30 or 40, take a couple of chunk runs, kick off, three-and-out, repeat.

Ohio State ended the game with as many punts blocked (two) as first downs. Final score: 86-0. On the train ride home, inspired by "The Yellow and Blue," and clearly flooded with emotion after supporting his school through that, Ohio State glee club member Fred Cornell wrote "Carmen Ohio" on the back of an envelope.

Point-a-Minute Three

Ohio State managed to move the ball through the middle when Michigan's vaunted center went out with an injury. [Bentley]

1903: By this point in the Yost Era, Michigan was taking a lot of heat from a football establishment that figured Michigan must have been cheating (We were, but so was everybody). Anyway the whole country was pretty much set against us, and went nuts for Minnesota when they tied Michigan 6-6, the game when Michigan left their water jug.

The game after the Jug game was 6-1 Ohio State, who was coming off a huge home win over West Virginia, Yost's alma mater. Yost communicated with his friends to get the skinny on the Bucks, and this of course was considered highly unethical because losing teams I guess weren't supposed to share scouting information? (It wasn't; I'm just pointing out Ohio State fans have always been this way).

Anyway the real cheat code was having Dad Gregory blocking for Herb Graver as Michigan built a 36-0 lead, with five TDs by Graver. The first half was weird as the Ohio referee kept penalizing them for huge yardage, and Michigan kept winning it back. Back then in nonconference play each team supplied an official and the home team recruited an impartial referee, but the one Yost got wasn't overruling the guy Ohio State brought. According to Walter Eckersall, at this time a J.J. McCarthy-level recruit, but later a famous Chicago Tribune football writer, Michigan used to get called on "passes" all the time—forward passes were illegal until 1906, so Yost had his teams perfect lateral swing passes where the RB would catch the ball outside with his momentum going downfield, and these tended to get whistled by referees who believed the play to be illegal. By now offsides was a 20-yard penalty instead of a turnover, and Michigan could get 20 yards whenever they wanted.

But OSU tightened up their defense later in the half when Gregory went out for a knee injury, and even went on a drive, getting to the Michigan 10 before time ran out on the first half.

In the second half Ohio State changed their tactics to force everything inside, and Michigan's offense stalled, fumbling away two drives as well. Even inserting Willie Heston, who was being kept in reserve for the big game against Wisconsin next week, didn't change the formula. A drive to the one yard line ended in a fumble, and another fumble forced Michigan end Curtis Redden (later a famous WWI war hero) to run down a potential fat guy touchdown at the 20. The second half of 25 minutes ran out with the halftime score of 36-0 standing.

Point-a-Minute Four

The 1900s version of BEAT RIVAL buttons. That's not a winged helmet by the way; it's supposed to be a coonskin cap in reference to old Ohio stereotypes of Michigan as this wild, untamed, long-haired country bumpkin state. [Ohio State University Libraries]

1904: It was now Ohio State's turn to host again, and the first time the two schools would actually play all of 60 minutes. This Ohio State team again came in undefeated and unscored-upon, blasting Otterbein, Miami, Muskingum, and Denison by a combined 184-0. Denison (where Woody Hayes would later get his coaching start) was a mid-major punching above its weight, and the 24-0 shutout was considered a major victory.

Michigan too had dominated the warmups, pounding Case, Ohio Northern, Kalamazoo College, and Physicians & Surgeons Chicago (a good mid-major back then which later merged with Illinois), by a combined 248-0. The Daily, with no snark at all, billed it as the "Greatest game ever played in Ohio" and remarked "O.S.U. has always had the best rooting of any team that has played in Ann Arbor."

Michigan fans bought up more seats from Meyers's news stand for the road game than they'd purchased for any home game up to this point. For their part, many Ohio schools canceled their own games or moved them to the morning so they could get to Columbus for The Game.

Once again the coaches haggled over the halves, with Yost demanding the agreed-upon 35-minute halves and new Ohio State HC Edwin Sweetland asking for 30, but this time Sweetland got his way.

The subead here tells the story, as well as serving as a biased-headline-for-the-ages:

After a few punt exchanges Michigan had a sustained TD drive, missing the extra point. Another slow drive stalled out and the half ended with Michigan up 5-0 in one of those "We're way better than this other team and the score doesn't reflect it and now we're late enough in the game that I'm concerned something weird can screw this up." Like a Maryland special teams touchdown kind of thing. Except in this case it was a fumble in a pileup on Michigan's first drive that squirted out into the hands of Ohio State's fastest player. Suddenly it's Ohio State 6, Michigan 5.

Michigan was awoken, but kept botching field goals, and also fumbled on the OSU to the same guy. But OSU's offense was basically shot at this point and the short fields piled up for a comfortable 31-6 final score. The Daily consoled the Michigan partisans upset that their goal line had been penetrated, and give away the fact that they considered their vanquished foe something less than a Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Chicago:

The fact that Michigan was scored on at Columbus yesterday should not in any way dishearten Wolverine football enthusiasts. The team perhaps needed such an accident to prepare for the hard games of the next few weeks. At any rate the six points that Ohio State secured against Yost's men are no discredit to the players who fought so valiantly for the 'Yellow and the Blue' yesterday. The splendid record of the Michigan tam in the latter part of the second half was evidence enough that the Wolverines will make an enviable record for the University this season.

Also the Buckeyes wouldn't score on Michigan again until 1908. Every point since, of course, has been a fluke.