Origin of "The Game" ?

A transition was noticeable in the 2000s. I remember early disappointment that the popular chunk was the doubly capitalized "The Game" instead of "Game" or "the Game" versions.

The question is: When did the appelation "The Game" become a thing. We're not talking about when the rivalry became big--it has been big for a loooong time. Remember, OSU dedicated Ohio Stadium against Michigan. Tom Harmon made his Heisman statement there. Woody Hayes loathed Michigan well before Bo came along. 

The nickname is much more recent. I don't have a firm memory of when it started getting called "The Game" regularly; 2006 seems like it might be right. Not only was it a huge game (obviously) but there were weeks of hype leading up to it, as it became clear that Michigan and Ohio State would be the top two at the end of the regular season. 

It's not that important to me. I use the nickname occasionally, but this rivalry needs no nickname to be significant. "Michigan-Ohio State," on its own, is a term that electrifies the conscience and boils the blood. It needs no trophy; a Big Ten title is the trophy that ought to be at stake. And, while I like hype videos, it doesn't need one of those, either: Simply seeing the script Ohio and the block M playing "The Victors" back to back is enough to cause any fan with a pulse to run through a wall. 

But, yeah, probably 2006. 

2004: OSU and UM were going to sell naming rights to SBC, floated the idea, and were shouted down by everyone.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/news/story?id=1910863

"Michigan athletic director Bill Martin said he and university
president Mary Sue Coleman decided that giving a formal title to
what has been known to generations of fans as simply "The Game"
was unacceptable."

Would have been a great question for Jon Falk last week. 

Its been The Game as long as I can remember...but as a kid in the 80s I called it "The Ohio State game"

So where did "The Big House" come from?  Keith Jackson maybe....

I was in school here all through the '70s and it was never referred to as "The Game." I don't think that term gained any kind of currency until some time in the '90s.

And Michigan Stadium was not referred to as "the Big House" during the first part of Bo's tenure either—I think that's a Keith Jacksonism from the late '80s or '90s.

The game is a newer term as others have mentioned.  MAYBE 2006 it started but I'd almost guess it was AFTER that game it was coined (i.e.due to the importance of that '06 edition).  Then for a few years it wasn't really a game thanks to Rich Rod years so I'm not sure it really even took off through the 2008, 2009, 2010 years.

Hmm, I would've guessed the plumbers "talked shit."

It was the Game before 1980 at least.  When I moved to California in 1987 and learned the Stanford Cal game was called the Big Game and it was between two perpetual also rans I could be heard saying there was only one The Game. 

Thank you for your craftsmanship in maintaining and restoring the M. 

"The Game" seems like a Johnny come lately and it doesn't really belong, IMO.  It tries to invoke build up and drama where none is needed.  Michigan - OSU is already big and dramatic.  The biggest and best rivalry of them all.

I feel like the term was first used in 91 or 97 by Keith Jackson

Yeah, I'm sure the ABC teaser marketing BS is only 10 years old but "the Game" references were definitely common through the 80's.

"This is the game that will decide the B1G, .. for all the marbles ......decide who goes to Pasadena." 

"This is the game that matters most...  that we want to win more than any other ... that we look forward to .... circle on the calendar .... remember from last year."

"This is the game that will send a fading coaching legend into the first "Clemsoning".

I know I'm getting on in years and memory is fallible, and mostly an artifice anyway (do you and your SO remember crucial argument facts the same?), but this thread is weirding me out.  I thought it was always the game, but now until someone shows me a reference from pre early oughts, I have to rethink.  Let's just beat the fuckers.

I don't recall any kind of "The Game" branding to represent Michigan - Ohio State even in the '90s.  It's a new thing.

If you went back to 1999 and asked anybody: Who plays in "The Game"?  they would say Harvard and Yale.

If my memory is correct, in the early 1970s the Michigan Daily referred to it as "the game" (in quotes, maybe capitalized). I think it was only one time, and it didn't stick. 

OK, here is where I provide the definitive clarification regarding the Harvard-Yale Rivalry and the term "The Game".  Bona fides:  I got my undergraduate degree from Harvard and my Law Degree in Ann Arbor.  I am a huge fan of both schools' football programs, their histories and their respective rivalries.  

The two rivalry games have similar names, but they are, in usage, very different.

In most of the sporting world, the Ohio State-Michigan game is known as "THE Game".  The key word is "THE".  It is used, and has been used for many decades, to emphasize that THE Game is more important than any other football game.  Sure, there are plenty of other great contests in collegiate football, but this one is THE Game.

At Harvard and Yale, the rivalry is known as "the GAME".  The phrase is used to differentiate the event from all of the other Harvard-Yale events that are going on that weekend, or from anything else that might be going on in the life of the speaker.  Beginning the last Friday before Thanksgiving, every applicable student organization on campus picks up and gets ready to visit its counterpart on the other campus.  The following would be a plausible utterance for someone planning his or her agenda for Harvard-Yale weekend:  "Friday night, I'm going to the Joint Orchestra concert, then I'm meeting up with my roommate after he finishes with the chess match; on Saturday morning, I'm heading over to the fields to watch the field hockey game; and then I'm going to The GAME before the joint a cappella concert."  Another plausible utterance:  "I can't go back for The Game this year, because my grand daughter is getting married".  Whether or not there are other football contests in existence is irrelevant to this world-view.

I honestly think it's just us fans getting lazy and tired of saying "Michigan/ohio state" so much.

We may not be scared to say their names like they are for us, but saying it more than enough times is nauseating.

It's simple, there is only one game for these two schools, and that is The Game.

The book "The 100-Yard War" published in 2004 refers to it as "the Game" in several instances.  So it's at least as early as that.

Also, the book co-authored by Bo and Mitch Albom ("Bo") published in 1989 makes no reference to it as anything other than the Michigan-Ohio State game.  If it was truly called "the Game" at that time, it unquestionably would have been referred to as such in this book.  So, it's clearly somewhere between 1990 and 2004.

This may seem blasphemous to some, but in 1996 when I was at Michigan, no one called it "The Game", that I recall. It may have been mentioned in some media outlets but I have zero recollection of this.

Even more blasphemous, no one ever called Michigan Stadium "the big house" back then, either.  I'm not against either nickname, because I find the origins of college football traditions very interesting.  I do think that "the big house" felt like it was forced upon us at some point in the early 2000s though.  

Interesting thread, nonetheless.

Paging Craig Ross....