THE rivalry gets its due in hourlong HBO documentary
With the third Saturday in November only a week away, HBO Sports gets a jump on what every college football fan knows is coming with "Michigan vs. Ohio State: The Rivalry," debuting at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Pause for a minute and notice the subtle humility of the title. The order of the clauses could easily be reversed, because Michigan-Ohio State is THE rivalry in college football, and it would take a partisan alum of some other university to argue otherwise.
Harvard-Yale? Don't make me laugh; you might as well try something as antiquated as Army-Navy. Nebraska? The Cornhuskers haven't been able to decide whether Oklahoma or Colorado was their biggest rival. Ditto for Texas and its various enemies. Alabama-Auburn? I might as well return to the '30s and insist Tulane-LSU was a bigger grudge match. USC-UCLA? Golden boys fighting over bragging rights to the beach. Florida-Florida State? Miami and whomever? Relative newcomers.
Hear that crescendo of silence? That's the Notre Dame fans, because right now the Fighting Irish aren't a serious rival to a Pop Warner team.
That point made, give HBO's hourlong documentary credit, because it doesn't waste time comparing this rivalry with others. It simply concentrates on this one, and it makes the case for its greatness self-evident.
Michigan put together one of the top early football programs under Fielding Yost. Ohio State challenged for equality under coach Francis Schmidt. (His admonition, "Those fellows put their pants on one leg at a time, the same as everyone else," has led the team to issue gold-pants charms to all OSU victors in the rivalry.) Michigan pushed back ahead with the adoption of its distinctive maize and blue helmets and behind Tom Harmon in the 1940s, then Woody Hayes brought Ohio State to prominence in the '50s and '60s.
That's where "The Rivalry" excels, of course, in the "10-year war" between Hayes and his former player and aide Bo Schembechler begun in 1969. One Buckeye quotes Hayes as saying, "Show me a gracious loser and I'll show you a busboy," while Schembechler supposedly introduced himself to the Wolverines by saying, "I will treat you all the same -- like dogs."
They were Neanderthal-like coaches preaching "three yards and a cloud of dust," but they put on great games.
In recent years, "The Rivalry" concentrates more on Ohio State's coaching changes than Michigan's. Earl Bruce beat Michigan but couldn't win other big games. Vice versa for John Cooper. Over the last six years, Jim Tressel has managed both -- five out of six against the Wolverines. As for Michigan, Gary Moeller and Lloyd Carr barely merit a mention. (And why should they?)
These two programs have not only sustained a bitter hatred over a century, but they've both been consistent national-title contenders for more than 50 years. Now that's a rivalry.
That said, the documentary takes pains to undercut the self-importance. Michigan alum Mike Wallace and Ohio State's R.L. Stine, among others, get a chance to talk trash. The Michigans call the Buckeyes unsophisticated rubes, while the Ohioans calls the Michigans smug elitists.
As the product of another Big Ten university ("Oskee-Wow-Wow!"), let me just say they're both right.
Yes, "The Rivalry" gets a little high-tone and smarmy (such as when Schembechler eulogizes Hayes). But this is college football, where a little sentimental traditionalism is expected. "The Rivalry" is highly recommended as a warmup for next weekend's showdown in Ann Arbor.
Like the Michigan-Ohio State feud, it's about as good as it gets of its chosen kind.