Sure, we are playing for a B1G title, and that's big. But, let's be frank. It's a bonus - even if it's a big fat one, that's all it is. Even if there was no B1G title at stake, this should be a game that means more than anything this season. This is no mere B1G Championship at stake. We are playing Ohio State. Anyone who lived through the years of rape, murder and torture must never forget it.
It's important that everyone, at least on the team, understands what this means. I think there is nothing that captures it better than the following article. Not everyone on today's roster has played against Ohio State in their time here. I hope they read this article to understand what is at stake and what it will take. Of course, we won again in Columbus since 1971, but everything remains 100% relevant to the task at hand this week.
1971: The Wildcats Beat OSU
The following column, describing Northwestern's last win against the Ohio State Buckeyes, was written by The Daily Northwestern staff writer Brian Hamilton and appeared in the October 23, 1998 Gameday edition prior to the '98 OSU game.
Recalling a '71 shocker
THE LEGENDARY WOODY HAYES ROAMED THE BUCKEYES SIDELINE DURING NU'S LAST WIN VS. OSU, AND IT WASN'T BY COINCIDENCE
--by Brian Hamilton: Gameday Staff
Woody Hayes swallowed losses like teaspoons of castor oil. He coached 28 years at Ohio State, about 27 longer than those who dealt with him would've preferred, amassing 205 victories and spewing at least that many expletives at the officials each game. Once, as an opposing player dashed unimpeded toward the end zone, Hayes leapt out from the sideline and tackled him. Ohio State faithful wondered why the player got in coach Hayes' way.
Greg Strunk didn't see who was on his tail, at least not until he got the film. On a November day that would make Robert Frost swoon, Northwestern had just surrendered a touchdown to vaunted Ohio State and Strunk, a Wildcat cornerback, received the ensuing kickoff.
Ever hear 80,000 hosannas suddenly cease? If you're curious, look Greg Strunk up. He's listed in Phoenix, and he's got the original America's Funniest Home Video stashed away. Down a touchdown and a ton of confidence, Strunk cradled the kick and started to his right. He hugged the sideline all the way, for 93 yards, and the only guy close to him was a graying, irascible ball of Buckeye fury named Woody, chugging ever so hard, but failing to record his first career tackle this day.
"I've got the film of it," Strunk says. "Woody Hayes was running down the sidelines after me, throwing his hat. It did get a lot quieter after that."
If there were two things that wouldn't happen under Woody Hayes' watch in Columbus, both of them were losing to NU at home. Hayes might have had his players put their hand on the playbook and swear as much. But for one Saturday in 1971, NU got Woody, a 14-10 win special only because it hasn't happened again since. Which makes keepsakes like Jerry Brown's something of a collector's item. Sitting unobtrusively in his home, still there to this day, is the game ball each and every Ohio-native NU player received after the shocker. Brown is now [1998] NU's co-defensive coordinator, but what he'd get most defensive about in 1971 was the smack his high school buddies laid on thick and heavy during summers back home.
Three of Brown's teammates from Roosevelt High in Kent, Ohio, went to Ohio State. Brown received a polite "Thanks but no thanks" from Hayes and the parting gift of a scholarship to NU. For two years, the Buckeyes got the better of the 'Cats. Brown got the worst of the trash talk.
"Each summer we'd get together and talk, and they had two on me, so I owed them one," Brown says. "They always throw it at me now that they beat me two out of three, but I always say, 'Isn't it the last one that counts?" [ed. note: Notre Dame fans, in particular, should pay attention to that last quote...]
From practices that week in '71, you'd think this was the only one that counted. Countries mobilize for war with less intensity than NU displayed before the Ohio State game. NU was 5-4 heading in, but it might as well have been 5-400, as long as it was Woody Hayes and Ohio State. With 24 players from the Buckeye State on the roster, the term "light practice" meant one in which only smaller bones were broken.
Larry Lilja probably hates Ohio State more than anyone, if only because the assorted nicks from that week haven't healed yet. Lilja, now NU's strength and conditioning coach, was a freshman tight end in 1971. Since freshmen were ineligible to play then by NCAA mandate, Lilja had the envious task of mimicking Ohio State's offense on the scout team. He may have gotten his current job on the merits that he survived the week with four limbs intact.
"I just remember getting the shit beat out of me that week," Lilja says. "Players were just so intense. I remember thinking, 'Geez, I hope they play like this during the game."
Says Strunk: "Kids from Ohio were in the locker room, standing up and giving speeches. The coaches realized the magnitude of the game. They were really grinding on us. They worked real hard, and they made us work real hard."
What Strunk started, fullback Randy Anderson finished with a one-yard dive in the fourth quarter, erasing a 10-7 deficit. While the world's largest funeral procession ensued outside-- the Buckeye's slim Rose Bowl hopes were dashed by the loss-- a virtual Mardi Gras flooded the visitors' locker room at Ohio Stadium, which was sort of like holding a Fourth of July bash at Buckingham Palace.
For all the scarlet and gray in the stands, the prevalent colors on the field were black and blue. "You could hear the hitting," Strunk says.
Although the game soundtrack featured more snaps, crackles and pops than a bowl of Rice Krispies, the visitors' lockers got the worst. Anything that made a loud noise when punched would suffice. Of course, after beating Ohio State on ground more sacred than Jerusalem, it was clearly necessary roughness.
"To be able to do that in front of their fans was a big thrill," says Barry Pearson, the leading receiver for that NU squad, who had three catches on the day. "The guys from Ohio were really going nuts, because they could go home and hold their heads up. I guess it just means so much to get that one, you could just lose all the others as long as you got that one."
Attribution for record keeping of this critical Northwestern lore to: <http://hailtopurple.com/features/history2.html>
It's important that everyone, at least on the team, understands what this means. I think there is nothing that captures it better than the following article. Not everyone on today's roster has played against Ohio State in their time here. I hope they read this article to understand what is at stake and what it will take. Of course, we won again in Columbus since 1971, but everything remains 100% relevant to the task at hand this week.
1971: The Wildcats Beat OSU
The following column, describing Northwestern's last win against the Ohio State Buckeyes, was written by The Daily Northwestern staff writer Brian Hamilton and appeared in the October 23, 1998 Gameday edition prior to the '98 OSU game.
Recalling a '71 shocker
THE LEGENDARY WOODY HAYES ROAMED THE BUCKEYES SIDELINE DURING NU'S LAST WIN VS. OSU, AND IT WASN'T BY COINCIDENCE
--by Brian Hamilton: Gameday Staff
Woody Hayes swallowed losses like teaspoons of castor oil. He coached 28 years at Ohio State, about 27 longer than those who dealt with him would've preferred, amassing 205 victories and spewing at least that many expletives at the officials each game. Once, as an opposing player dashed unimpeded toward the end zone, Hayes leapt out from the sideline and tackled him. Ohio State faithful wondered why the player got in coach Hayes' way.
Greg Strunk didn't see who was on his tail, at least not until he got the film. On a November day that would make Robert Frost swoon, Northwestern had just surrendered a touchdown to vaunted Ohio State and Strunk, a Wildcat cornerback, received the ensuing kickoff.
Ever hear 80,000 hosannas suddenly cease? If you're curious, look Greg Strunk up. He's listed in Phoenix, and he's got the original America's Funniest Home Video stashed away. Down a touchdown and a ton of confidence, Strunk cradled the kick and started to his right. He hugged the sideline all the way, for 93 yards, and the only guy close to him was a graying, irascible ball of Buckeye fury named Woody, chugging ever so hard, but failing to record his first career tackle this day.
"I've got the film of it," Strunk says. "Woody Hayes was running down the sidelines after me, throwing his hat. It did get a lot quieter after that."
If there were two things that wouldn't happen under Woody Hayes' watch in Columbus, both of them were losing to NU at home. Hayes might have had his players put their hand on the playbook and swear as much. But for one Saturday in 1971, NU got Woody, a 14-10 win special only because it hasn't happened again since. Which makes keepsakes like Jerry Brown's something of a collector's item. Sitting unobtrusively in his home, still there to this day, is the game ball each and every Ohio-native NU player received after the shocker. Brown is now [1998] NU's co-defensive coordinator, but what he'd get most defensive about in 1971 was the smack his high school buddies laid on thick and heavy during summers back home.
Three of Brown's teammates from Roosevelt High in Kent, Ohio, went to Ohio State. Brown received a polite "Thanks but no thanks" from Hayes and the parting gift of a scholarship to NU. For two years, the Buckeyes got the better of the 'Cats. Brown got the worst of the trash talk.
"Each summer we'd get together and talk, and they had two on me, so I owed them one," Brown says. "They always throw it at me now that they beat me two out of three, but I always say, 'Isn't it the last one that counts?" [ed. note: Notre Dame fans, in particular, should pay attention to that last quote...]
From practices that week in '71, you'd think this was the only one that counted. Countries mobilize for war with less intensity than NU displayed before the Ohio State game. NU was 5-4 heading in, but it might as well have been 5-400, as long as it was Woody Hayes and Ohio State. With 24 players from the Buckeye State on the roster, the term "light practice" meant one in which only smaller bones were broken.
Larry Lilja probably hates Ohio State more than anyone, if only because the assorted nicks from that week haven't healed yet. Lilja, now NU's strength and conditioning coach, was a freshman tight end in 1971. Since freshmen were ineligible to play then by NCAA mandate, Lilja had the envious task of mimicking Ohio State's offense on the scout team. He may have gotten his current job on the merits that he survived the week with four limbs intact.
"I just remember getting the shit beat out of me that week," Lilja says. "Players were just so intense. I remember thinking, 'Geez, I hope they play like this during the game."
Says Strunk: "Kids from Ohio were in the locker room, standing up and giving speeches. The coaches realized the magnitude of the game. They were really grinding on us. They worked real hard, and they made us work real hard."
What Strunk started, fullback Randy Anderson finished with a one-yard dive in the fourth quarter, erasing a 10-7 deficit. While the world's largest funeral procession ensued outside-- the Buckeye's slim Rose Bowl hopes were dashed by the loss-- a virtual Mardi Gras flooded the visitors' locker room at Ohio Stadium, which was sort of like holding a Fourth of July bash at Buckingham Palace.
For all the scarlet and gray in the stands, the prevalent colors on the field were black and blue. "You could hear the hitting," Strunk says.
Although the game soundtrack featured more snaps, crackles and pops than a bowl of Rice Krispies, the visitors' lockers got the worst. Anything that made a loud noise when punched would suffice. Of course, after beating Ohio State on ground more sacred than Jerusalem, it was clearly necessary roughness.
"To be able to do that in front of their fans was a big thrill," says Barry Pearson, the leading receiver for that NU squad, who had three catches on the day. "The guys from Ohio were really going nuts, because they could go home and hold their heads up. I guess it just means so much to get that one, you could just lose all the others as long as you got that one."
Attribution for record keeping of this critical Northwestern lore to: <http://hailtopurple.com/features/history2.html>
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