Previously: 1984 Miami, 1985 Notre Dame, 1985 South Carolina, 1985 Minnesota

The Highlights: WolverineHistorian

The Setup: Despite giving up just three offensive touchdowns all season, Michigan entered The Game looking to prevent Ohio State from a chance at the Rose Bowl; a Buckeye win combined with an Iowa loss would send OSU to Pasadena because of M's last-second loss to the Hawkeyes five weeks prior. The Wolverines still had plenty to play for: avenging the previous year's 21-6 defeat to OSU and making another New Year's Day game.

While the leadup to the 1986 edition of The Game would live on in Michigan lore, the week before the 1985 version was pretty eventful, too. Bo Schembechler suspended kicker Mike Gillette and kickoff specialist Rick Sutkiewicz that week for unspecified violations of team rules, leaving redshirt junior Pat Moons, who'd never attempted a field goal in his career, to handle both jobs.

Ohio State had a wheelchair-bound Woody Hayes give a pep talk before the team made the trip up to Ann Arbor. Bo Schembechler one-upped his friend by bringing in... Bo Derek. Seriously, there's an archived LA Times piece with an incredible Harbaugh quote to prove it:

The last few days were particularly enjoyable. The Michigan coach's friend and namesake, Bo Derek, stopped in Michigan to pick up a custom-made Lincoln Continental at a local auto plant. The Schembechlers invited her to their home for dinner, and she also dropped by Thursday's practice.

Derek really didn't do much except pose for Polaroids with the players. Harbaugh taped his to his locker. "To see her was pretty impressive," the quarterback said. "Although she did look kind of nervous around so many big guys. It's probably because she's so short. Oooh. Maybe I'd better not say that."

Maybe not, but then you wouldn't be Jim Harbaugh, and we'd all be worse off.

[Hit THE JUMP.]

The Game: Michigan earned an early 3-0 edge when Moons kicked a 34-yard field goal after Ivan Hicks intercepted a badly underthrown deep ball by Buckeye QB Jim Karsatos. That would comprise all of the first-quarter scoring; Ohio State would even it up early in the second quarter with a 48-yard field goal by Rich Spangler.

After Chris Spielman forced a Jamie Morris fumble, Keith Byars—a preseason Heisman favorite who'd lost much of the season to a broken foot—managed to break through the nearly impenetrable Michigan front, rumbling into the end zone from three yards out.

Then Harbaugh's deep passing took over. A 40-yard strike over the middle to TE Eric Kattus split the Buckeye safeties and put Michigan deep into opponent territory. After Harbaugh set up first-and-goal with a diving finish to a weaving scramble, he hit Gerald White for a four-yard score to tie it up. It wasn't exactly the cleanest touchdown pass of Harbaugh's career...

...but it counted nonetheless. The game would remained deadlocked, 10-10, as the teams ran up the tunnel for halftime.

Harbaugh picked up where he left off in the second half, firing in another bullet to Kattus to set the stage for another Moons field goal, this one from 38 yards out. Michigan's next scoring drive, still in the third quarter, would foreshadow the signature play of this game; Harbaugh found a speedy freshman Ohioan by the name of John Kolesar twice for solid gains before breaking contain and hitting Kattus in the back of the end zone for a five-yard touchdown. A 10-point Michigan lead with that historically great defense appeared insurmountable.

The Buckeyes fall so easily as the fourth quarter opened, however. After Mark Messner chased down Karsatos to force a fourth-and-long from the Michigan 36, Earle Bruce elected to go for it, and go for it they did; Karsatos lobbed one up to Cris Carter—yup, that Cris Carter—at the goal line, and Carter boxed out Doug Mallory to haul it in. Suddenly, it was just a three-point game.

The rest is history. On the very next drive, OSU blitzed off the edge, and just before taking a big hit, Harbaugh lobbed an inch-perfect bomb to Kolesar, who'd beaten William White clean down the left hash. Kolesar didn't stop sprinting until he reached the back of the end zone. Bo may not have been the foremost advocate for the forward pass, to say the least, but with Harbaugh at the helm he knew there'd come a time when they'd hit one over the top:

"That took the starch out of their sails," Michigan coach Bo Schembechler said of the pass that increased Michigan's lead to 10 points after Ohio State had pulled to within 3. "It's dangerous to blitz us like that. We've hit deep the last three weeks."

Although Moons missed a chance to extend the lead further after Messner forced a Karsatos fumble, more points wouldn't be necessary. Ohio State faced a must-have fourth-and-two with 2:30 on the clock. Karsatos audibled to a play-action pass. He never got it off.

With the ball secured in the hands of Gerald White and Bob Perryman, Michigan would run out the clock. The 27-17 victory capped off a 9-1-1 regular season, which earned the Wolverines a spot in the Fiesta Bowl against Nebraska. Ohio State, which had an outside shot at the Big Ten title heading into the afternoon, fell to fourth in the conference and had to settle for a trip to the Citrus Bowl.

The Harbaugh: Harbaugh was, in a word, magnificent. He completed 16 of his 19 passes (including 8-for-9 on third down) for 230 yards (12.1 YPA) with three touchdowns and no picks. His numbers on the ground weren't impressive, but time and again he escaped contain to either pick up a few critical yards or buy time to find an open receiver. After the game, Harbaugh reveled in the turnaround from the ugly 1984 season, of which he missed all but five games—including The Game—after breaking his arm against MSU:

Harbaugh called the win over Ohio State the greatest day of his life and said he had a special feeling about Michigan's success after the abuse the team took concerning last season, when the team had its worst record ever under Schembechler.

"After being 6-6, I'll never forget what it took to get us back to respectability," said Harbaugh, who was a redshirt one season and will return for one more year. "Before this season started, nobody gave us any respect. The Big Ten coaches didn't, the polls didn't and the media certainly didn't. That was kind of our battle cry this year--get Michigan's respect back."

Given the performance and the context, it's not hard to argue this was Harbaugh's greatest performance in a Michigan uniform.

The Most '80s Screencap GIF of the Game: So, that 48-yard field goal by Rich Spangler?

A two-step run-up into a booming toeball. I don't care which team he played on, that's a thing of beauty.