Thirty Years Ago Against Michigan – Ohio State Buckeyes
11/19/1998 12:00:00 AM | Football
November 19, 1998
COLUMBUS, Ohio –
Ohio State ’68
All The Way To The Top
by Steve Greenberg and Larry Zelina
“Ohio State ’68: All the Way to the Top” will be released in mid-September. Reserve your copy now by calling 1-800-327-5557.
November 23, 1968
Ohio State 50, Michigan 14
Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio
In his first season as a varsity player, sophomore starting safety Mike Sensibaugh was so driven by all that was at stake for this, the annual showdown with That Team From Up North, that he composed the following hand-written note.
Need it be said? This is probably the biggest week of your life. How can one game have more at stake than Saturday’s? The only way the Rose Bowl can live up to its reputation (which hasn’t been the best in recent years, because the best teams haven’t played) is by having OSU represent the Big Ten.
A game between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams-both undefeated-would be perhaps the greatest college game of “all time.”
There is one game between you and that.
When the 85,000 fans watch you playing Saturday, they will be seeing you play at the most famous football school, down through the years, in America.
There have been many big games played here … many great players … but none any bigger than Saturday’s.
Why? Look at what’s at stake:
1. The Big Ten championship.
2. The Rose Bowl trip.
3. OSU’s winning streak.
4. The chance of a perfect record while at OSU. And last, but not least:
5. Just the thrill of beating Michigan.
For three hours Saturday you will get an opportunity that everyone thinks about, few get anywhere close to and only one percent of one percent of all college football jocks receive: “Going to Pasadena.”
This is a chance to earn more than you could expect in all your OSU playing days.
But the challenge is great, even immense for the best team-and you again are demanded to prove your capabilities-does not always WIN.
Mistakes could be fatal-and never forget that. Remember how bitter defeat is because if you don’t you might let up for one second and lose. This will not be an ordinary game, so no matter what occurs, always be psyched, never let your head beat you. You will have enough opposition from the Wolves. Ahead or behind, play with the greatest of your skill, for one minute’s break can turn into the next minute’s disaster. So don’t give them anything extra … but if you do, and even you, yes you, are human … try not to let it happen again. Play with the pride you know you have and you’ve worked so hard to get.
The game of your life is here, so “dream the impossible dream” because it’s not out of reach … for Saturday at 4:30 “there will only be one.”
THERE IS NO GLORY LIKE VICTORY.
Bring on Southern Cal!
With everything on the line, Ohio State fairly took the ball and rammed it down Michigan’s collective throat in the second half en route to as convincing a victory as Ohio Stadium had seen in years.
The defense all but contained Wolverines halfback Ron Johnson, who had run for 347 yards the previous week against Wisconsin. He managed 91 yards on 21 carries and scored both Michigan touchdowns.
With rolls of toilet paper streaming down from C Deck seemingly in answer to every big play and the record crowd of 85,371 rocking the Horseshoe, the Buckeyes pounded Michigan’s defensive front relentlessly after taking a 21-14 halftime lead. It was about to become “lights out” for That Team From Up North.
After fullback Jim Otis banged in from the 2-yard line to double the difference, this one was all but over. Still, the scoring onslaught continued. Larry Zelina contributed a 6-yard run from wingback, Jim Roman nailed a 32-yard field goal, quarterback Rex Kern scrambled in from the 3-yard line, Otis added another 2-yard burst and then capped the magnificent barrage with a 1-yard score. For those of you counting at home, that’s thirty-six unanswered points against the No. 4-rated team in the nation.
Coach Woody Hayes, calling it “the best victory we ever had,” admitted after the game that he truly believed his team was a year away. With thirteen sophomores in the starting units, could this have been expected?
“(The sophomores) could have become fat-headed after a win like they had over Purdue, but they didn’t do it,” Hayes said, adding, “our offense and defense was superb. We stopped a guy who had 347 yards last week. He only had one good run today (a 39-yarder to set up one of his two 1-yard TD runs). It was a heck of a football game, I thought.
” … All our kids played real good football. What has happened before was that the offense would have a good day and the defense would stutter around some. Then, another game, it would be the other way around.
“We said that if they ever put it together, both played well the same day, we would have something. This was it.”
With tackles Rufus Mayes and Dave Foley clearing the way, it was a runner’s paradise on the Ohio Stadium turf. Otis led the way with 143 yards on 34 carries, the bootlegging Kern 96 on 19, Zelina 92 on eight and Ray Gillian 66 on five as OSU piled up 421 yards and 24 first downs on rushing plays.
The OSU coaching staff wanted the Buckeyes to run the ball, because, as Hayes said, “We are all pragmatists and always go for the hole in the fence.”
The defense, while perhaps not as perfect as it was in the victory against Purdue, earned additional stripes with its effort. Cornerback Jack Tatum and linebackers Doug Adams and Art Burton each had an interception, and Mark Debevc recovered a fumble, to choke away any hopes Michigan had of an upset. Michigan quarterback Dennis Brown, despite his three interceptions, managed a 14-of-24 outing for 171 yards, but did little if any damage. He was hounded constantly by the swarming Buckeye defense; he carried the ball 10 times for minus-6 yards.
Hayes, who said after the game he wanted to score fifty points, actually put Otis back in the game to do the honors. “He said, ‘I can get it for you’ when we were bogged down going for the last touchdown,” Hayes said. “We did want to get fifty points … not exactly running the score up, but I don’t feel comfortable these days without fifty points. Teams are so explosive on offense anymore. It’s unbelievable how they can come back.”
After Otis’ final touchdown, his sixteenth of the season which broke by one the record set in 1955 by Hopalong Cassady, Hayes elected to go for two points. When questioned about it after the game, he said center John Muhlbach was hurt and kicker Jim Roman had to play center. Other accounts have Hayes responding to the question of why he went for two points thusly: “Because the SOBs wouldn’t let me go for three!”
Michigan coach Bump Elliott took no exception to the try for two.
“I didn’t think he poured it on,” he said. “In a ball game like that, he’s playing to win. No, I don’t think he poured it on.”
Elliott expected the Wolverines to face a challenge from the Buckeyes’ defense, but it was the offense that had him talking. “Take a look at their offensive line and you’ve got to respect them. They’re awfully strong,” he said.
This monumental victory was punctuated by fans swarming the field and ripping down the goal posts – “I didn’t think they’d ever get them out of there,” Hayes said – for an impromptu parade down High Street to the State Capitol. After nearly eight hours of constant partying, Hayes showed up with Columbus Mayor Jack Sensenbrenner at the Statehouse. It was midnight. The band was there. The cheerleaders were there. Six thousand fans, among them some celebrating Columbus police officers, refused to let the celebration end.
Said Hayes: “That really was a great victory, wasn’t it?”
“There’s only one thing bigger than this,” said Zelina, “and that’s the Rose Bowl.”
Goodnight, O.J.
The post-game huddle
Foley: In the Michigan game, uh …
Nick Roman: Woody put you and Rufus side by side …
Foley: Woody comes up with this unbalanced line for the Michigan game, with Rufus Mayes and myself side by side. Jan White’s a heckuva blocker and we got this strong-side attack, and I’m telling you we’re knocking Michigan off the ball! … We knew we could kick their butts, and let me tell you that second half was the butt-kicking of all time. It was like true Ohio State football. … If you go back to innovation, the things that we did that year were completely different than football was nationally. Defensively and offensively. I don’t think Woody got enough credit for the innovation that year. It really was a complete turnaround.
Polaski: That year, we were not three yards and a cloud of dust.
Strickland: No, we weren’t.
Polaski: Jankowski caught thirty-something passes …
Strickland (deepening his voice): Three things can happen when you throw the freaking ball …
Long: I know it … . If you had played on the line in 1966 and then played on the line in 1968, you’d have felt the difference.
Foley: The game plan was different and the personnel was different, too …
Strickland: I’ll tell you what was different about the personnel! I came from an all-black high school in Cincinnati, and when I got to Ohio State, I had never seen so many white people (Strickland makes his eyebrows dance.) … in one place. Really, I think we had more blacks on a scholarship basis than ever before at that time.
Tatum: Well, for me it was probably different than for anyone else on the team. I had strep throat all week and didn’t practice a day. I wasn’t even sure I was going to play. Got better Friday and played Saturday.
Zelina: Hey, you pulled a Zelina, didn’t you?
Tatum:Let me tell you something else funny. Every year we played Michigan, the two years we beat them I had strep throat. I still had my tonsils and I’d get sick every fall. I didn’t get to practice all week but that was the first time, since I was from Jersey, I wasn’t really into the big game, you know, the Michigan-Ohio thing as much as some of the other guys who grew up knowing about it. That’s the first time I got a sense of how big the game was. Because The Woods took us out of the dorms during the week. There were, like, thousands of students running around our dorm and he came and put us in a hotel to get away from all the hoopla.
Zelina: What a game, and that’s one of those where you did something, Tate, that wasn’t supposed to be possible. Remember?
Tatum: Oh, yeah, on Ron Johnson. He said that he had never been caught from behind. On this play, I shot the gap on a blitz and Johnson split me and Whitfield, he went inside of us. I was in Michigan’s backfield and I was scared because I thought I had screwed up so I thought I’d better go get him.
Zelina: Well, that play was one of your trademarks, Jack, and that was the spark for us.
Tatum: Well, that’s what we were talking about before. Me and Whit had talked about it, and we both felt like there was no way anyone was supposed to run that side of the field. And when (Johnson) broke through there, we felt like we had let down because that was our territory-and you’re not supposed to run it.
Zelina: You were the kind of player that was as quick as you had to be to make the play-and that was a gift.
Tatum: By this time of the season I was just happy to make plays because people started to run away, and toward the end of the season I was only making a couple of tackles a game. I started feeling like a twelfth man out there sometimes.
Zelina: Johnson had a huge game the week before he played us. I remember it being intense.
Polaski: When we went into the game, we were No. 1 and they were No. 4. So obviously you’re looking at two real good teams that were going to be matched up. And if they beat us, they’re going to jump way up in the polls. And they had Ron Johnson who was being touted in the same breath as Leroy Keyes and O.J. Simpson as being the great running backs in the country that year. So this game had a lot of potential … the Big Ten championship, a trip to the Rose Bowl and a high national ranking.
Zelina: It was unexpected. I remember I was numb after the game. I just couldn’t believe what had just happened. I couldn’t believe it happened.
Nick Roman: It was a tight game for awhile.
Zelina: But as far as it being as perfect a game as we could possibly play … I just think everything went right for us that game. I don’t think we were thirty-six points better than they were.
Smith: We sure were with the coaches.
Stillwagon: To me it was just another game. I didn’t know Michigan from friggin’ Iowa. It wasn’t that kind of game for me. I was amazed by how people celebrated. I thought Purdue was a bigger game, you know, than that game would ever be. No offense, but I didn’t really know Michigan-Ohio State was that big of a rivalry. … I think our team was really groomed. In those years, that was the reward, to win. I mean, our team was so beat to snot from practice that you liked playing the game. I think the Purdue game was more hyped, though, than this game. The Rose Bowl and Purdue were really bigger.
Muhlbach: I remember when we were juniors and we played up at Michigan. Heck, there were only fifty-thousand people in the stands. … You know, I always thought that Michigan State, for some reason-and maybe it stems from our sophomore year when they were so highly rated, and those guys were like gods-and we darn near beat ’em back then. They were more about a better kind of rivalry; the kind of game you really had to get yourself pumped up for.
Nick Roman: Michigan had had losing seasons for a couple years.
Muhlbach: It’s amazing how when you’re not in the sport, or you’re not participating or you’re outside, how the media just builds this hype up.
Nick Roman: I’ve been very lucky … that we came up in an environment where we had a rivalry, Massillon, McKinley, and we knew what big games were about and how people on the outside reacted to them. I can’t tell you how fortunate I really was to be able to come here and play Michigan. And then to play for Paul Brown (at Cincinnati) when they played Cleveland, and Pittsburgh, too. But that didn’t even come close to McKinley or Michigan.
Polaski: I don’t remember how much the press even talked to us, but (we weren’t) nearly as accessible as kids are today.
Nick Roman: Heh-heh-heh.
Jim Roman: We were just happy to be there and having fun.
Nick Roman: We didn’t need the media. … The Old Man used to say, “Let the scoreboard do your talking.” And that’s what we did.
Zelina: Yeah. We ran the 28 and 29 and the counter-8 and counter-9. I remember it because it was the first time all year I got to carry the ball. What we’d do is run the 28 and 29 to the strong side of the unbalanced line, and we ran the counter to the short side and had Brian and (Tom) Backhus and the other guards … remember you pulled to the weak side? And that’s what we were busting them with.
Polaski: The ones you were busting up the sidelines?
Zelina: Yes.
Nick Roman: Did their defense react to it?
Donovan: They didn’t know what to do the first time we came out with it. Then, when they shifted over to adjust, that’s when we came back with the counter to the short side.
Zelina: That was the key to what we did offensively. Do you guys remember on the defensive side of the ball what you did to prepare?
Polaski: The only thing that I remember was we were going to feature the Fire game. We were coming from the wide side with Whitfield and Tate trying to collapse that side of the line of scrimmage because we didn’t want them to run that …
Stillwagon: Sprint draw.
Polaski: Yeah, the sprint draw with Ron Johnson.
Nick Roman: On the short side, we’d bring the short-side end and have the linebacker move outside. We’d have a short-side Fire game, but we had the linebacker there to contain them.
Polaski: We were looking for penetration. What we didn’t want was for them to get the ball five to seven yards deep behind the line of scrimmage and start looking for holes. We wanted to make the decision for them.
Zelina: Was the secondary in man-to-man (coverage) that game or zone, or was it that combination that you had?
Polaski: That all depended on the down and distance and formation. Whatever they showed us, whatever the down and distance was, we were programmed for whatever we thought they were going to give us out of that set, and we’d call the coverage accordingly. Then if they came out of the huddle and lined up in a formation that dictated a change, then we would make a change call.
Zelina: What was McCullough like that week, do you remember?
Polaski: You couldn’t have put Vaseline on a needle and gotten it up his butt!
Bartley: The shelf in his locker was nothing but Maalox …
Stillwagon: I remember coming back from the movie (Friday, the night before the game) and the bus was real dark and you couldn’t see anything and Lou said (imitating McCullough), “Hey, Andy, they’s more press pay-ses, they’s fahty-five more press pay-ses fah thee-us game; they a-gonna be watchin’ thee-us game in Brah-zeel! Thee-us is gone be the bee-gest game they ev-uh was!” Man, I can still hear that.
Zelina: Schmids, how about your emotions? How did you feel?
Schmidlin: I’ve been thinking about that. Looking at the whole thing, there was a regular pattern of preparation for every game in the sense that on Sunday you went in and watched film and after the film you got some additional information about the team. And then you’d be ready for your test on-what?-Thursday before the team meeting. And I’m amazed. I don’t remember ever reading the paper other than the results of our game, but as far as worrying about anyone else, the focus was on do the fundamentals and playing the game. For me personally, I know I had my best games against Michigan. At least I thought I did.
Zelina: You’re from Toledo?
Schmidlin: And because of being from Toledo, I would hear it all summer long about Michigan. I spent my summers there …
Stillwagon: You shouldn’t have stayed that long!
Zelina: I kind of felt one of the unique things about the team was that the coaches, I mean they’d work really hard to get us up for the game. But the problem I’ve had with some of current OSU coach John Cooper’s teams is that everybody says, “Well, he didn’t have the boys ready.” But I think in a game like the Michigan game if you’re not ready to play, you shouldn’t be on the field. I think the coaches had to be careful to make sure that we weren’t ready to play too soon.
Jim Roman: Remember Woody used to say you can’t make a fist too tight? You start clenching your fist, you get fatigued. You have to stay loose.
Zelina: That’s why I was curious how McCullough was. Because if the coaches get too tight, it can transfer to the team. Woody seemed to be under control that week.
Schmidlin: Looking at the films from the previous year, that’s one thing I remember for the Michigan game. I kind of remember shaking my head, just kind of saying, “You’ve learned a lot since last year, haven’t you?”
Polaski: I always liked Lou McCullough, because I always thought he was funny. Now he did a lot of mean, crazy things sometimes but that was probably more motivational than anything. He would get started on me, and he hadn’t been north of the Mason-Dixon Line for thirty-five years, you know, and he’d get started with that sarcastic drawl.
Zelina: Brian Boy, do you remember anything about getting ready that week? What was Earle like?
Donovan: He was kind of rah-rah. “C’mon, c’mon, we can do it!” He was nervous. I remember he came and saw me sitting in class one day.
Zelina: He was just making sure you were in class!
Donovan: He told me, “This is a big game. We’ve got this opportunity, we’ll never have this opportunity again.” You know, from the standpoint that it was to everyone’s benefit. It would be a feather in the coaches’ hats as well as the players’. You know, if we could pull this off … But he was extremely nervous about it, but he never screamed or hollered about it. He was more motivating than anything.
Zelina: Did you guys go to Earle’s that week?
Donovan: Yeah, I think we did.
Polaski: We did it all year long. All the defensive backs went to Holtz’s house. On Thursday nights, we all went to his house. It wasn’t any big deal. We had pop and chips and sat around and talked. I will say this: He prepared us. We played hard, and he wanted us to play well and he wanted us to win. But he always made it fun. We never went to practice and didn’t have fun. We busted our butts. There was no way with his triple-butt (drill). But sometime during that practice we always ended up laughing.
Zelina: What’s the triple-butt?
Polaski: It was a tackling drill that Holtz had. You had two sets of pylons set ten yards apart. And you’d start a ball carrier and a tackler. The ball carrier’s going half-go and the tackler’s going half-go the first butt. When he says, “Go,” the ball carrier runs standing up, offering his numbers. The tackler comes up and form fits; butt’s supposed to be down, your back’s supposed to be straight, your head’s supposed to be in the numbers. You shoot your arms out and get a stick. You peel around the pylons and come back and get a second stick, the same thing. Another form fit. Then you peel back off that for a third hit. The third hit is live for the tackler. The ball carrier still has to offer up the target. But on the third hit, when you hit him, you were supposed to drive your face mask through his chest, arm-grasp him, pull his legs into you, and bury him into the turf. I got the pleasure of doing this with Tatum, Anderson, Sensibaugh and Provost. (Laughter.) Man, at a hundred and fifty-eight pounds, this was a joy for me. I remember one situation where Tate was the ball carrier and T.A. was the tackler. And Timmy could uncork. Well, he fired on Tate, he hit him so hard that he snapped Tate’s black leather belt we used to wear in our practice pants. Just broke it right in two in the back.
Smith: Those were great drills. You could kill somebody.
Jim Roman: Some things never change. I’m still using that drill (as a football coach)!
Stillwagon: You know what’s amazing-I used to laugh-is if you could motivate people like they (coaches) did for orange drink. Wouldn’t that be something! You remember the orange drink? (The equipment managers used to pass out ice-cold cartons of orange drink after practices.)
Everyone: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Stillwagon: And if you could get a frozen juice, you’d just kill for it.
Donovan: Oh, those juices were valuable ’cause we didn’t get any water at practice.
Stillwagon (mimicking McCullough): “Wa-tah? You git that stuff outta heah!”
Nick Roman: Do you remember someone put tape remover in the hot tub?
Stillwagon: I remember Leo (Hayden) was in the hot tub once and he was putting his head down in the water going, “Vrooooom!” Everyone goes, “Leo! What are you doing?” He said, “I’m just playing.” We said, “Do you know what’s been in that tub?!?”
Zelina: John, do you remember the quarterback sneak play?
Muhlbach: Yes, I do. Rex would tap me with his hand and I’d snap the ball then rather than waiting for the voice signals. We caught them off guard twice and Rex scored.
Otis: We had a bonfire on Friday night. And I had a kid come up to me at that bonfire and give me Bob Ferguson’s chin strap.
Zelina: I think I remember that, Jim.
Otis: I showed Ernie Biggs (the late trainer) and told him that Bob Ferguson was supposed to have worn this chin strap against Michigan when he scored four touchdowns. So we taped it to the inside of my helmet because it didn’t have a snap on it. The kid’s name was Scooter, I think.
Zelina: I remember that now that you mention it because I was standing right next to you at the time.
Otis: You know that was a pretty tough game in the first half.
Zelina: I don’t think we were thirty-six points better than they were.
Otis: Oh, no. Everything just gelled that game. I think it was 21-14 at the half and we had just scored just before the half. I think that this game was just a real, real tough hard hitting, great defensive ball game. Well, we had a great offensive game, too. … You know, we had three backs in that game that out-rushed Ron Johnson, Rex, you, and me. Again another great tailback that our defense stopped that year. You’re talking about three top-notch (opponents), just as good as you could be in the country. … That was probably, as I look back at that game, the most exciting time that I’ve ever had in my life as a football player. Just being there in that stadium, and they don’t leave many seats for the Michigan people. … You know the story about my last TD? You talked about Ray Gillian, he had a 50-yard run on the last drive. And by that time everyone’s really out of the game. It’s 44-14, and Ray takes the ball inside the 5. We’re trying to score and, all of a sudden its fourth-and-2. And I’m standing behind the Old Man and I said to him, “Do you want this TD?” He said, “Go on in.” I said, “What play do you want?” He said, “You call it.” So I get into the huddle and Dave Cheney is at left tackle. And I look right at Dave and said, “Cheney, Woody wants this going right over you and he expects us to get it. We ran the 27 and I go into the end zone. Bedlam broke loose. After all these years people still talk about us going for two points after the last TD. And it really wasn’t Woody’s fault. … Doing something like that, being in line to be the national champion, does so much for the school and really a heck of a lot for the people living in the state. That’s why it just kills me why these kids can’t do it against Michigan.
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SCORING
Michigan 7 7 0 0 – 14 Ohio State 7 14 6 23 – 50 MICH – Johnson, 1-yard run (Killian kick). OSU – Otis, 5-yard run (Roman kick). OSU – Kern, 5-yard run (Roman kick). MICH – Johnson, 1-yard run (Killian kick). OSU – Otis, 2-yard run (Roman kick). OSU – Zelina, 6-yard run (kick failed). OSU – Roman, 32-yard field goal. OSU – Kern, 3-yard run (Roman kick). OSU – Otis, 2-yard run (Roman kick). OSU – Otis, 1-yard run (pass failed). Attendance – 85,371
TEAM STATISTICS
MICH OSU First downs 17 28 Rushing 41-140 79-421 Passing 14-24-171-3 9-6-46-1 Total yards 311 467 Punts-avg. 5-39.8 2-30.5 Punt returns 1-15 3-17 Kickoff returns 9-145 2-100 Int. returns 1-0 3-51 Fumbles-lost 5-1 4-2 Penalties-yards 4-43 4-37
