December 17, 1984: Brigham Young University, National Champions

Robbie Bosco

December 17, 1984: The football team at Brigham Young University defeats the University of Michigan, 24-17 in the Holiday Bowl at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego -- a game that, under the rules of the time, BYU were locked into as Champions of the Western Athletic Conference.

This was not a particularly strong Michigan team, going in at just 6-5, and probably getting the bowl bid solely because of their history. Nevertheless, the Cougars of coach LaVell Edwards and quarterback Robbie Bosco beat them, leading a 4th-quarter comeback down 17-10 and throwing the winning touchdown pass with 1:23 left, and finished an undefeated 13-0 season.

No other team finished the season undefeated. The University of Washington finished 11-1, beating Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. But their 1 loss, to USC (the University of Southern California), cost them the Pacific-10 Conference title, and if you're not Conference Champions, you shouldn't be crowned National Champions -- a principle that should have been held once the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and later the Playoffs finally did come, but didn't.

Oklahoma, who won the Big 8 Conference, had been Number 2, but this loss eliminated them. Florida had been Number 3, and won the Southeastern Conference title, but were on probation, and were ineligible for a bowl game, costing them the National Championship.

Put it all together, and, voting on January 2, 1985, the Associated Press (AP) in their poll of college football writers, and United Press International (UPI) in their poll of college football coaches both gave BYU got a very dubious national title.

BYU had some unfair advantages. Being in the WAC, they had a rather weak schedule. The only ranked team they beat all season was the University of Pittsburgh, then Number 3, 20-14 in their season opener. They only beat Hawaii 18-13. They only beat Wyoming 41-38. They only beat the Air Force Academy 30-25. Their season was similar to that of the 1972 Miami Dolphins: They rarely looked like a great team, but they went undefeated, and won the Super Bowl.

Another unfair advantage BYU had was missions. As a school run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a.k.a. the Mormons, and named for the man who led the early Church to Salt Lake City -- the University is in Provo, 50 miles to the south -- they send their men on missions, and even "redshirt" their good players, so that their seniors are 23, 24 or 25 years old, playing opponents between 18 and 22 years old.

Then as now, the NCAA usually grants a player 5 years to complete 4 years of eligibility, but allows exceptions for injuries, military service, and, yes, religious missions -- something the 1st Amendment to the Constitution, with its freedom of religion, requires them to allow. Yet other schools famous for being run by religious institutions, such as Catholic schools like Notre Dame and Boston College, don't require missions. Nor do the Protestant schools in Texas that play major college football: Southern Methodist (SMU) in Dallas, Texas Christian (TCU, Disciples of Christ) in Fort Worth, or Baylor (Baptist) in Waco.

The Mormons do require missions, but will grant exceptions in some cases, including that of the man who was their quarterback the 4 previous seasons, and their most famous player ever, who just so happened to be the great-great-great-grandson of the school's namesake: Steve Young. That was seen as a bit hypocritical, because they were viewed as wanted to raise their profile, as well as raise money, off Steve's pro career.

Built in 1964, BYU's Cougar Stadium was renamed for coach Edwards following his retirement after the 2000 season. Under him, they won 19 Conference Championships -- the 1st 18 in the WAC, the last in the new Mountain West Conference -- in a span of 26 seasons. They became known for "mad bomber" quarterbacks, such as Virgil Carter, Gary Sheide, Gifford Nielsen, Marc Wilson, Jim McMahon, Young and Bosco; and, after Bosco, Ty Detmer, John Walsh. (Detmer's brother Koy starred at the University of Colorado.)

LaVell Edwards

Despite finishing 3rd in the Heisman Trophy voting in both 1984 and 1985, and winning a National Championship, Bosco never played a down in the NFL, the USFL or the CFL. Since 1989, he has been employed by BYU. Apparently, they take care of their own. Edwards died in 2016.

*

December 17, 1984 was a Monday. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Miami Dolphins beat the Dallas Cowboys, 28-21 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

Baseball was out of season. No games were played in the NBA. Two were played in the NHL. The St. Louis Blues beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. And the New Jersey Devils beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-2 at the Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands. It had been 7 months since the Oilers, led by Wayne Gretzky, had won their 1st Stanley Cup; and 13 months since Gretzky had called the Devils "a Mickey Mouse organization" following a 13-4 Oilers win over them in Edmonton. Well, Wayne, how did they look after this?

December 11, 2010: Hockey's Biggest Crowd

December 11, 2010: The largest paid attendance ever at a hockey game sees "The Big Chill at the Big House."

The seeds for this epic event had been sowed 9 years earlier. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, outside Detroit, and Michigan State University in East Lansing, outside the State capital of Lansing, are arch-rivals, although UM also claims big rivalries with Ohio State and Notre Dame. Although the rivalry is at its biggest in football, it is also big in basketball and hockey.

Someone at MSU got the idea to play a UM-MSU hockey game outdoors, at MSU's Spartan Stadium. UM liked the idea, and the game was played on October 6, 2001, billed as "The Cold War." The game ended in a 3-3 tie.

The attendance was 74,544, the biggest crowd ever to see a hockey game anywhere. It broke the record set at the 1957 Ice Hockey World Championships at the Lenin (later Luzhniki) Stadium in Moscow, where the Soviet Union beat Sweden in the Final. It also surpassed the largest crowd ever to attend a National Hockey League game, set on October 9, 1993, when the Florida Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning before 27,227 fans at the ThunderDome (now Tropicana Field) in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The Cold War inspired other outdoor hockey games. On November 22, 2003, the Edmonton Oilers hosted the Montreal Canadiens in a "Heritage Classic" at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, with the regular game preceded by an old-timers' game representing the teams. That got 57,167, setting a new NHL record, but was well short of the world record.

The NHL instituted the Winter Classic, to be held every New Year's Day (or on January 2 if January 1 falls on a Sunday, as has happened in 2012 and 2017 -- or not at all in 2013 due to a team owners' lockout, and in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). The 1st was held on January 1, 2008, at Ralph Wilson (now Highmark) Stadium in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York. A new NHL record crowd, but not world record crowd, of 71,217 saw the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres, 2-1 in a shootout.

A new world record crowd of 77,803 came to the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, home of soccer team Schalke 04, to see Germany defeat the U.S. in the Final of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championship on May 7, 2010.

So the U.S. was determined to retake the record. Again, it was the Michigan Wolverines and the Michigan State Spartans, only this time, at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. Due to its immense size, Michigan Stadium is known as "The Big House," so this game was billed as "The Big Chill at the Big House."

The crowd was announced as 113,411, which, at the time, would even have broken the record for a football game at the place. But it was revealed that the actual paid attendance was 104,173. Still, this was far and away a new record, anywhere on Earth, for a hockey game. And the result was no contest: The Wolverines won, 5-0.

On January 1, 2014, Michigan Stadium hosted the NHL Winter Classic, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the "host" Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 in a shootout. The paid attendance was a new record: 105,491. However, UM officials still count the 2010 Big Chill as the record. Regardless, this is the current NHL record. And, since 2010, no hockey game other than this one in 2014 has surpassed 100,000. So, whichever of these games you consider to be the record will remain so, at least for a while.

*

December 11, 2010 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL played the next day. The regular season of college football had only 1 game left, and it was played at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia: Navy beat Army, 31-17.

There were 8 games played in the NBA:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Charlotte Bobcats, 93-62 at what's now named the Spectrum Center in Charlotte. Yes, that's a full 48-minute game, and the Hornets-to-be only scored sixty-two points.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Indiana Pacers, 97-83 at what's now the State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 110-95 at the Toyota Center in Houston. Kevin Martin scored 40 points.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Utah Jazz, 103-97 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Detroit Red Wings, 120-116 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 113-82 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 84-83 at what's now the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

* And the Miami Heat beat the Sacramento Kings, 104-83 at what's now the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento. Dwyane Wade scored 36.

There were 13 games played in the NHL, none of them having an attendance of higher than 23,000:

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1 at the Prudential Center.

* The New York Rangers lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-1 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Atlanta Thrashers, 5-4 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Boston Bruins, 2-1 in overtime at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Washington Capitals, 3-2 at what's now the Capital One Arena in Washington.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2 at what's now the KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

* In the 1st game of CBC's Saturday Hockey Night In Canada doubleheader, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at what's now the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Florida Panthers, 3-0 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-1 in a shootout at what's now the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Dallas Stars, 5-2 at what's now the Desert Diamond Arena in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2 at what's now the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

* The Chicago Blackhawks lost to the San Jose Sharks, 2-1 in overtime at the SAP Center in San Jose.

* In the 2nd Hockey Night In Canada game, the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-4 in overtime at what's now the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

* The Anaheim Ducks, the Calgary Flames, the Edmonton Oilers and the Ottawa Senators were not scheduled.

November 30, 1905: Chicago vs. Michigan, College Football's 1st "Game of the Century"

Walter Eckersall

November 30, 1905: The Championship of college football's Western Conference -- forerunner of the Big Ten -- is decided at Marshall Field in Chicago, named for the department store mogul who funded its construction. It becomes the 1st of many college football games referred to as "The Game of the Century."

The University of Chicago, coached by Amos Alonzo Stagg, came into the game at 10-0. They had allowed only 5 points all season, in a 16-5 win over Indiana. They had scored 44 points against Illinois, 42 each against Iowa and Beloit College, 33 against Lawrence University, and 32 against Northwestern.

They were led by Walter Eckersall, and, while quarterback was a very different position at the time, with the forward pass not legalized until the next season, he was widely regarded as the best player in the country. Stagg, later to be known as "The Grand Old Man of Football," called Eckersall "a selfless performer, marked by complete dedication to victory."

Future Notre Dame star end and coach Knute Rockne grew up in Chicago, and saw Eckersall play in both high school and college. He said of Eckersall, "The first time I learned a football was not only something to kick, but something to think with, was when I saw a great football player in action."

Stagg had recruited Eckersall out of Hyde Park High School, on the city's South Side, not far from the UC campus. Fielding Yost had also tried to recruit him, for the University of Michigan. There, Yost had such a high-powered offense that they were known as "The Point-a-Minute Team." They came in at 12-0: 65-0 over Ohio Wesleyan, 44-0 over Kalamazoo College, 36-0 over Case University, 23-0 over Ohio Northern, 18-0 over Vanderbilt, 31-0 over Nebraska, 70-0 over Albion, 48-0 over Drake, 33-0 over Illinois, 40-0 over Ohio State, 12-0 over Wisconsin, and 75-0 over Oberlin.

Granted, this 495-0 performance wasn't exactly against a modern Football Bowl Subdivision "Power 5 Conference" schedule. And only one of those games, the win over Illinois, was played away from Regents Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It should be noted that Wisconsin came closer than anybody to beating each team, having come within 4-0 of Chicago.

Since the start of the 1902 season, the Chicago Maroons were 46-4-3. But the Michigan Wolverines were 54-0-1 in their last 55 games. Their last loss? November 29, 1900, 15-6 -- against Chicago at Marshall Field. The showdown was set for Thanksgiving Day, and a crowd of 27,000, believed to be the largest in college football history to that point, filed into Marshall Field. (At the time, Thanksgiving Day was the last Thursday in November. It became the 4th Thursday in November in 1941.)

At first, the game was a punting duel between Eckersall and Michigan's John Garrels. It was scoreless early in the 3rd quarter, when a Garrels punt and a penalty pinned Chicago inside its own 10-yard line. On third down, as Eckersall attempted to punt, he encountered a fearsome rush, but evaded the Michigan tacklers, and was able to scramble to the 22-yard line and a 1st down.

After 3 more 1st downs, the drive stalled and Chicago were forced to punt again. Eckersall's booming punt carried into the end zone, where it was caught by Michigan's William Dennison "Denny" Clark, who attempted to run the ball out. He advanced the ball forward to the 1-yard line, but was hit hard by Art Badenoch, and then was brought back inside his own end zone by Mark Catlin.

Under the rules of the time, forward progress was not credited, and a ball carrier could be carried backwards or forwards until he was down. Therefore, Chicago were credited with a safety: 2 points. And that would produce the final score: Chicago 2, Michigan 0. Michigan's streak was over, and Chicago were awarded the Western Conference and National Championships.

Football observers like to say, "Defense wins championships." This is hardly ever true: You can't win if you don't score, and you can't score if you don't have the ball; and, if you have the ball, by definition, you are on offense. This time, defense really did win a Conference and a National Championship. The only other major football championship ever decided on a safety was the 1929 Rose Bowl, the Roy Riegels Game. (I have an entry for that event.)

Clark received the blame for the Michigan loss, and tried to live with it, but couldn't. In 1932, he shot and killed himself. He was 48 years old. In a suicide note to his wife, he reportedly expressed the hope that his "final play" would be of some benefit in atoning for his error at Marshall Field.

Denny Clark

Chicago would see its 14-game winning streak end on November 10, 1906, defeated by Minnesota. Since there was, as yet, no real professional football to speak of, Eckersall became a college football referee, considered the finest of his era. He also became a writer on the game for the Chicago Tribune. At the end of each season, as a counterweight to the Eastern-heavy "All-American" team selected by former Yale coach Walter Camp, Eckersall named an "All-Western" team, and it was considered prestigious in its day.

But "Eckie" was a heavy drinker, and died of cirrhosis of the liver on March 24, 1930. He was only 43 years old, and, to protect his public image, the Tribune reported the cause of death as a heart attack.

In 1949, the Chicago Public Schools constructed a sporting facility on the South Side, at 2423 East 82nd Street, named "Walter Eckersall Stadium." Eckersall, Stagg and Yost would all be charter inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.

*

November 30, 1905 was a Thursday. Among the other notable college football games played that Thanksgiving Day: Alabama beat Tennessee, 29-0; Auburn beat Georgia, 20-0; Georgia Tech beat Clemson, 17-0; Holy Cross beat Fordham, 28-5; Indiana beat Ohio State, 11-0; Iowa beat St. Louis University, 31-0; Iowa State beat cross-State rival Drake, 17-12; Kansas beat arch-rival Missouri, 24-0 in Kansas City; Nebraska beat Illinois, 24-6; North Carolina beat Virginia, 17-0 in Norfolk, Virginia; Penn State beat the University of Pittsburgh, 6-0; the University of Pennsylvania beat Cornell, 6-5; and Utah beat Colorado State, 24-0.

Rutgers, Princeton, Harvard and Yale all completed their seasons the preceding Saturday. Army and Navy had the week off, to prepare for each other: They tied, 6-6, at Princeton's University Field.

November 25, 1950: The Michigan-Ohio State "Snow Bowl"

November 25, 1950: Although they'd been playing each other since 1897, this was the game that set the course for turning the University of Michigan and the Ohio State University into the Midwest's  -- some would even say America's -- greatest college football rivalry.

Despite Ohio State winning a National Championship in 1942, and having another undefeated season in 1944, Michigan had dominated the rivalry. Michigan had won the National Championship in 1947 and 1948.

In 1950, they were set to play each other at Ohio Stadium in Columbus. Ohio State, defending Big Ten Champions, coached by Wes Fesler, came in 6-2, and ranked Number 8 in the country; while Michigan, coached by Bennie Oosterbaan, came in at 4-3-1. Each head coach was a star player for his school in the 1920s, but neither played in the pros.

The Big Ten title was on the line, so the Buckeyes were going for back-to-back titles. However, until 1975, the Big Ten had 2 dumb rules: That the Rose Bowl was the only bowl game to which any of their teams could accept bids; and that no team could go to it in back-to-back years. In other words, if a team won back-to-back titles, in the 2nd year, the 2nd place team could accept the Rose Bowl bid. The Wolverines had to win in order to accept that bid. In the event of their defeat, they would have fallen behind Wisconsin in the league standings, and Wisconsin would have been offered the bid.

Columbus is 185 miles south of Ann Arbor, and as far south as Philadelphia. And it was the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. It was a little early for them to get hit with a snowstorm. But they got hit with one. It remains the worst weather this rivalry has ever had: A temperature of 10 degrees, wind gusts up to 28 miles per hour, and snow falling at 2 inches per hour. The snow was falling so hard, neither set of goalposts could be seen from midfield. 

There was a meeting before the game. Oosterbaan and Fesler agreed that the game should not be played. Oosterbaan's predecessor as Michigan's head coach, now their athletic director, Herbert "Fritz" Crisler, was willing to forfeit and not reschedule the game. But Ohio State A.D. Dick Larkins would not accept the forfeit: He was willing to postpone only, not cancel.

The fans were not willing to postpone: A crowd of 79,868 filled Ohio Stadium to what was then its capacity. Eyewitness reporters said that some fans built small bonfires to keep warm, and others put boxes over the heads as protection from the cold, with eyeholes cut out. This was before fans began wearing paper bags over their heads to show that they didn't want their faces shown at games played by their bad teams. Local Boy Scouts helped the grounds crew remove the snow from the tarp, and then remove the tarp from the field.

It's worth noting that this rivalry wouldn't really be possible if Michigan hadn't spent the last 100+ years recruiting players from Ohio. There have been brothers on both sides, and even fathers and sons. In this game, Bob Momsen played for Ohio State, and his brother Tony Momsen played for Michigan. Good thing for the Momsen household that this game was being played 2 days after, rather than on, Thanksgiving.

In the 1st quarter, Michigan's Chuck Ortmann tried to punt, but Bob Momsen blocked his kick, then recovered the punt on the 8-yard line. Three straight Buckeye run plays lost yardage. Running back Vic Janowicz, soon to be awarded the Heisman Trophy, attempted a 38-yard field goal in the horrible weather, and made it. The Buckeyes led, 3-0, and, at the time, it was easy to believe that the score would hold for the rest of the game.

But Janowicz, the beneficiary of the blocked punt, had his own punt blocked deep in his own territory, by Al Wahl. The ball went through the end zone, and Michigan closed to within 3-2 with the safety. That swung the momentum, and, with 20 seconds left in the 1st half, Janowicz attempted to punt again. But his kick was blocked by Tony Momsen, who fell on the ball as it drifted into the end zone. The extra point was good, and it was 9-3 Wolverines.

That would be the final score. Michigan won without ever getting a first down in the slippery conditions; Ohio State got only 3 first downs. The Buckeyes had 4 out of 21 punts blocked, the Wolverines 1 of 24, punting for 1,408 yards between them. The Buckeyes attempted 9 passes, completing none of them.

This was Ohio State's 4th straight loss to Michigan. Fesler saw the writing on the wall, and resigned. Ohio State hired the head coach at nearby Miami University: Wayne Woodrow "Woody" Hayes. As one of his assistants, he brought one of his Miami players: Glenn Edward "Bo" Schembechler.

Hayes turned Ohio State into one of the top programs in the country, based in part on making beating Michigan -- or, as he called it, "That School Up North" -- a must. Michigan won again in 1951, but, from 1952 to 1968, the Buckeyes went 12-4 against the Wolverines.

After a few years as Hayes' assistant, Schembechler returned to Miami University as their head coach. In 1969, he was hired as head coach at Michigan, and he used Hayes' tactics as well as he did, and made beating Ohio State Michigan Mission Number 1. Ohio State went into the 1969 Michigan game undefeated and defending National Champions, with a 22-game winning streak, but Michigan won, in a game nationally televised by ABC, starting what became known as "The Ten-Year War" between Woody and Bo, and making the rivalry one that takes on national attention every November.

Through the 2021 season, Michigan lead the rivalry, 59-51-6.

*

November 25, 1950 was a Saturday. Among the other college games played this day were the following:

* Not yet a big rivalry, but it would become one: Number 1 Oklahoma beat Number 16 Nebraska, 49-35 at Owen Field in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma were awarded the National Championship, in an era when it was awarded before the bowl games. But they lost the Sugar Bowl to Kentucky.

* Number 2 Army were off. So were their arch-rivals, Navy. The following week, Nayv upset Army at Municipal Stadium (later John F. Kennedy Stadium) in Philadelphia.

* Rivalry: Number 3 Kentucky were upset by Number 9 Tennessee, 7-0 at Shields-Watkins Field (now Neyland Stadium) in Knoxville, Tennessee. Kentucky beat Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl, which, given that Army didn't go to bowl games in those days, should have made Kentucky the National Champions. It would have been the 1st as a head coach for Paul "Bear" Bryant, later to win them at the University of Alabama. Tennessee went on to beat Texas in the Cotton Bowl.

* Rivalry: Number 4 University of California were held to a tie by Stanford, 7-7 at the old California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley. Cal went on to lose the Rose Bowl to Michigan.

* Rivalry: Number 6 Illinois were upset by Northwestern, 14-7 at Dyche Stadium (now Ryan Field) in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois.

* Number 7 Princeton beat Dartmouth, 13-7 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton.

* Number 13 University of Pennsylvania were upset by Cornell, 13-6 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

* Number 15 Southern Methodist University (SMU) were upset by Baylor, 3-0 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

* Number 17 Alabama beat Florida, 41-13 at Florida Field in Gainesville.

* Rivalry: Number 18 Washington beat Washington State, 52-21 at Memorial Stadium (later Joe Albi Stadium) in Spokane, Washington.

* Number 20 Loyola University were upset by Santa Clara, 28-26 at Gilmore Stadium in Los Angeles. Now named Loyola Marymount, the school no longer plays football. This was the only game they lost that season.

* The night before, Number 14 University of Miami beat Iowa, 14-6 at Burdine Stadium (the stadium later known as the Orange Bowl) in Miami. Despite playing it on their home field, Miami ended up losing the Orange Bowl to Clemson.

* Rivalry: Fordham beat New York University, 13-0 at the Polo Grounds.

* Rivalry: Yale beat Harvard, 14-6 at Harvard Stadium in Boston.

* Rivalry: George Washington University beat Georgetown, 7-6 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* Rivalry: Duke beat North Carolina, 7-0 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill.

* Rivalry: Penn State beat Pittsburgh, 21-20 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* Rivalry: Purdue beat Indiana, 13-0 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana.

* Rivalry: Wisconsin beat Minnesota, 14-0 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.

* Rivalry: Colorado beat Colorado A&M (now Colorado State), 31-6 at Colorado Field in Fort Collins.

* Rivalry: Oregon State beat Oregon, 14-2 at Multnomah Stadium (now Providence Park) in Portland.

* Rivalry: UCLA beat USC, 39-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Rutgers had finished its season the week before, losing to Penn State, and finishing 4-4.

Baseball season was over. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The Syracuse Nationals beat the Washington Capitols, 77-67 at the Uline Arena in Washington (now the Washington Coliseum).

* The Rochester Royals beat the Boston Celtics, 90-82 at the Edgerton Park Arena in Rocheter, New York.

* The Indianapolis Olympians beat the Baltimore Bullets, 92-81 at the Butler Fieldhouse (now the Hinkle Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

* And the Tri-Cities Blackhawks beat the Fort Wayne Pistons, 85-71 at the Wheaton Field House in Moline, Illinois.

The NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action. The New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins played to a tie, 3-3 at the Boston Garden. The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

And in English soccer, Arsenal beat West London team Fulham, 5-1 at Highbury in North London. 

November 24, 1973: The Ohio State-Michigan Tie

Glenn Edward Schembechler Jr. (left) and Wayne Woodrow Hayes

November 24, 1973: The football teams of Ohio State University and the University of Michigan play each other at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. This was intended as the 30th time that the winner of this game would win the Big Ten Conference Championship. (And there have been many more since.)

Wayne Woodrow Hayes, known as Woody, had coached at Ohio State since 1951, and had already won the Big 10 title 7 times, and the National Championship in 1954, 1957, 1961 and 1968. Glenn Edward Schembechler Jr., known as Bo, had played for him at Miami University in Ohio, and had coached under him there and at Ohio State, before becoming head coach at Miami and then at Michigan in 1969.

Ohio State was going for back-to-back National Championships in 1969, with a supposedly unbeatable team, but Bo's Wolverines shocked Woody's Buckeyes in Ann Arbor, re-establishing Michigan as a national football power, and beginning what would eventually be known as "The Ten-Year War" between not just the two programs, but between the two men. Ohio State won in 1970, Michigan in 1971 and Ohio State in 1972.

Ohio State came into the game at 9-0, having been ranked Number 1 for most of the season. The closest any team had come to beating them was Wisconsin, and they lost 24-0. The Buckeyes had hung 60 points on Northwestern, 56 on Minnesota, 55 on Iowa, 37 on both Texas Christian and Indiana, and 35 on Michigan State. With sophomore running back Archie Griffin, on his way to becoming the only 2-time Heisman Trophy winner, and future All-Pro linebacker Randy Gradishar, they looked unbeatable -- just as they were in 1968, and just as they looked in 1969.

Michigan came into the game 10-0, and ranked Number 4. They'd had some closer calls, only beating Navy by 14 points and Illinois by 15. But they scored 49 on Indiana, 47 on Stanford, 35 on Wisconsin, and 34 on both Minnesota and Purdue. And they had a strong defense, shutting out Navy, Oregon and Michigan State. Only Stanford and Indiana reached double figures against them. Cornerback Dave Brown, defensive tackle Dave Gallagher, tight end Paul Seal and placekicker Mike Lantry were named All-Americans.

A crowd of 105,223 plowed into the enormous bowl in Ann Arbor, nicknamed The Big House. Millions more watched Chris Schenkel and former Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty call the game on ABC. It was Ohio State vs. Michigan. It was "The Game."

It rained before the game. Coupled with both coaches' distaste for the forward pass -- Hayes famously said, "There are three things that can happen when you throw the football, and two of them are bad," meaning an incompletion and an interception -- this game was destined to remain mostly on the ground. Michigan passed for only 90 yards, and Ohio State attempted only 4 passes.

The game was scoreless after the 1st quarter. Early in the 2nd quarter, Blair Conway kicked a field goal to put Ohio State up 3-0. Michigan struggled, and Ohio State gained a lot on the ground through Griffin. But it was the other big back, Pete Johnson, who ended up scoring the Buckeye touchdown, putting them up 10-0 just before halftime.

Midway through the 3rd quarter, Ohio State got to the Michigan 34-yard line, but on 4th and 2, Hayes, that most conservative of football coaches, refused to gamble on a 51-yard field goal attempt, and went for the 1st down, and couldn't convert it. That gave the Wolverines new life, and they drove 11 plays, and Lantry got them on the board with a field goal.

Midway through the 4th quarter, Michigan was able to drive down to the Ohio State 10-yard line, but the Buckeyes held them, and it was 4th and inches. Hayes put 9 men on the line of scrimmage, making a "goal-line stand" on the 10, because he had predicted that Wolverine quarterback Dennis Franklin would once again hand off to Ed Shuttlesworth.

But Schembechler, unlike Hayes, was willing to gamble: He had Franklin fake the handoff to Shuttlesworth, and got himself through the line for a touchdown. It was 10-10.

With 6 minutes left, Michigan got the ball on their 10. Franklin drove into Buckeye territory, but with 2:23 to go, he was injured and had to leave the game. Schembechler decided to gamble again, and had Lantry try a 58-yard field goal. It had the distance, but was just wide left.

Ohio State couldn't do anything with their opportunity, and quarterback Greg Hare threw an interception that must have driven Hayes up the wall. The Wolverines got the ball to the Buckeye 28, and Lantry attempted a game-winning 45-yard field goal. But he missed, and 10-10 was the final score.

So now, there was a tie not just in the game, but for the Big 10 title. And, at the time, the Big 10 had a rule that now seems ridiculous: Only the league's Champion could go to a bowl game, the Rose Bowl. Until 1971, they had another ridiculous rule: No team could go to the Rose Bowl 2 years in a row. In other words, if a team won back-to-back titles, the 2nd place team would go to the Rose Bowl instead.

With that rule having gone by the wayside, and the title being tied, the Big 10's representative to play the University of Southern California (USC) in the Rose Bowl would be up to a vote the next day, held in a telephone conference call of the league's athletic directors. Since Ohio State had gone to the Rose Bowl the year before, it seemed simple enough: It was Michigan's turn.

Even Hayes agreed. He hated Michigan as much as any coach has ever hated his school's arch-rival. You approached him with great care during "Michigan Week." And he usually referred to them as "that school up north." Ohio State fans began referring to them by the initials of that epithet: "TSUN." But as competitive as Woody was, this time, he admitted, "We had to win this one to go, and we didn't. If they vote Michigan, Michigan deserves to go." And if the vote were a 5-5 split, then the old rule would be observed, and Michigan would go.

The vote was 6-4 for Ohio State. The Buckeyes voted for themselves, of course; and also got the votes of Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin and Michigan State. The Wolverines voted for themselves, and also got the votes of Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota.

Bo blew his stack. He would have blown it again if he had lived long enough to hear a recording released in connection with the 2013 Big Ten Network documentary Tiebreaker, of Michigan State athletic director J. Burt Smith, 4 days after the game and 3 days after the vote, that he had voted for Ohio State, because they "best met the definition of the most representative team."

Another rumor came out that MSU voted for Ohio State in retaliation for Michigan's "No" vote on their admittance to the Big Ten in 1949. (The University of Chicago had dropped out in 1940, and so the league was a Big Nine for a few years.) Granted, Michigan State hates Michigan as much as Ohio State does, but 24 years is a long time to hold a grudge, especially over a move that didn't even work.

In his 1989 memoir, Schembechler said that Illinois coach Bob Blackman was told by his athletic director, Cecil Coleman, that he would vote for Michigan, but that Coleman voted for Ohio State anyway.

Bo also suggested in that memoir that the Big Ten knew that Franklin's injury would make it problematic for Michigan, and they'd already lost the last 4 Rose Bowls to the league then known as the Pacific-Eight, and they thought Ohio State would have a better chance to win. As it turned out, that was correct: Ohio State won the 1974 Rose Bowl, beating USC 42-21.

But the tie ended up hurting Ohio State, if not as much as it hurt Michigan. Notre Dame, ranked Number 3, upset the new Number 1, Alabama, in the Sugar Bowl, and were awarded the National Championship. Ohio State ended up Number 2 in both the Associated Press poll (AP, the football writers) and the United Press International poll (UPI, the football coaches). Michigan finished Number 6 in both polls.

In 1972, '73 and '74 combined, Michigan went 30-2-1, their only non-wins being the '72 loss to Ohio State, 14-11; the '73 tie with Ohio State, 10-10; and the '74 loss to Ohio State, 12-10. Three non-wins, by a combined total of 5 points. And yet, they didn't go to a bowl game in any of those seasons. Even fans of the other 9 schools in the league at the time, used to hating Michigan and wanting them to suffer, had to admit that this was a bit unfair.

Finally, in 1975, the Big Ten voted to open postseason bids to as many as 4 teams, which has since been expanded to 6. Fittingly, Michigan became the 1st team to benefit, going 8-0-2 in 1975 before losing to Ohio State, and then going to the Orange Bowl, where they lost to Oklahoma.

*

November 24, 1973 was a Saturday. And there were other big games in college football that day, some of them rivalries, besides Number 1 Ohio State vs. Number 4 Michigan:

* Number 2 Alabama had already played 2 days earlier, on Thanksgiving, beating Number 7 Louisiana State, 21-7 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

* Number 3 Oklahoma played the day before, the day after Thanksgiving, beating Nebraska, 27-0 at Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma. This clinched them the Big Eight title. However, they were on probation, and couldn't accept the Big Eight Champions' bid to the Orange Bowl.

* Number 5 Notre Dame had also played on Thanksgiving, beating the Air Force Academy, 48-15 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

* Number 6 Penn State beat Number 20 Pittsburgh, 35-13 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania. Led by Heisman Trophy-winning running back John Cappelletti, Joe Paterno's Nittany Lions went on to beat LSU in the Orange Bowl, and finished undefeated. But they only finished Number 5 in the polls, behind fellow undefeated Notre Dame, undefeated-but-one-tie Ohio State, undefeated-but-one-tie Oklahoma, and one-loss Alabama.

* Number 9 USC beat Number 8 UCLA, 23-13 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. This clinched the Pac-8 title. But, as I said, USC lost the Rose Bowl to Ohio State.

* Number 11 Texas played on Thanksgiving, beating Texas A&M, 42-13 at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. That clinched the Southwest Conference title. But they lost the Cotton Bowl to Nebraska.

* In a rare Sunday game for college football in those days, Number 13 Arizona State played arch-rival Arizona the next day, November 25, and won, 55-19 at Sun Devil Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona. This clinched the title of the Western Athletic Conference. In 1978, Arizona and Arizona State left the WAC, and made the Pac-8 a Pac-10.

* Number 16 North Carolina State, then coached by Lou Holtz in his 2nd season of his 1st NCAA Division I-A head coaching job, beat Wake Forest, 52-13 at Carter Stadium in Raleigh. (It's now named Carter-Finley Stadium.) This game won N.C. State the Atlantic Coast Conference title.

* Dartmouth beat Princeton, 42-24 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey, to wrap up the Ivy League title.

* New York City's only remaining major-college football team, Columbia, lost to Brown, 37-14 at Brown Stadium in Providence, Rhode Island.

* And Rutgers got pasted by Colgate, 42-0 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey.

There were 5 games played in the NBA that day:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Golden State Warriors, 107-99 at Madison Square Garden. Walt "Clyde" Frazier scored 34 points, but it wasn't enough.

* The Buffalo Braves beat the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, 143-131 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. Bob McAdoo had 43 points and 17 rebounds for the Braves, who became the San Diego Clippers in 1978 and the Los Angeles Clippers in 1984.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Atlanta Hawks, 112-91 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Detroit Pistons, 114-112 in overtime at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 113-108 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

There were also 5 games played in the ABA:

* The New York Nets beat the Utah Stars, 119-113 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. Julius "Dr. J" Erving scored 38 points for the Long Island club.

* The Virginia Squires beat the Indiana Pacers, 108-102 at The Scope in Norfolk, Virginia.

* The Denver Rockets beat the Carolina Cougars, 127-122 in overtime at the Greensboro Coliseum. The Rockets became the Denver Nuggets in 1974.

* The Kentucky Colonels beat the San Diego Conquistadors, 124-121 at Freedom Hall in Louisville.

* And the San Antonio Spurs beat the Memphis Tams, 121-118 in double overtime at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers played the Los Angeles Kings to a tie, 5-5 at The Garden.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 6-4 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the California Golden Seals, 6-3 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the St. Louis Blues, 1-0 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The Atlanta Flames, the Boston Bruins, the Buffalo Sabres and the Vancouver Canucks were not scheduled.

And there were 2 games played in the World Hockey Association. The Cleveland Crusaders beat the Toronto Toros, 2-1 at the Cleveland Arena. And the Houston Aeros beat the Chicago Cougars, 5-3 at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston. 

November 22, 1969: The Michigan Wolverines Return to Glory

November 22, 1969: The most famous game in the history of the Midwest's greatest college football rivalry is played in front of 103,588 fans at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

Glenn Edward Schembechler Jr. had played for Wayne Woodrow Hayes at Miami University of Ohio, and coached under him at Ohio State, before becoming Miami's head coach, and was now in his 1st year at Michigan. "Bo" had the Wolverines ranked Number 12 in the nation. But "Woody" had won the previous year's National Championship at Ohio State, his Buckeyes had won 22 straight games, and were still ranked Number 1.

Michigan had long been the leading football power in the Big Ten, but the 1950s saw the rise of Woody's Buckeyes, and of Duffy Daugherty's Michigan State University, and the Wolverines fell back. From 1950 to 1968, Big 10 football titles had been won (some of these races ending in ties) by Illinois in 1951, 1953 and 1963; Wisconsin in 1952, 1959 and 1962; Purdue in 1952 and 1967; Michigan State in 1953, 1965 and 1966; Iowa in 1958 and 1960; Minnesota in 1960, 1962 and 1967; Indiana in 1967 (a 3-way tie with Purdue and Minnesota); Ohio State in 1954, 1955, 1957, 1961 and 1968; and Michigan only in 1964. Only Northwestern had failed to win a title.

Chalmers "Bump" Elliott, a former Michigan star, coached them to that 1964 Conference Championship. Over the next 4 years, Michigan went 4-6, 6-4, 4-6 and 8-2. Elliott was fired, and Schembechler was hired away from Miami. Just as Woody had made beating Michigan -- or, refusing to say the name, calling it "That school up north," or TSUN for short -- Bo made beating Ohio State, and Woody, the Wolverines' priority.

The Wolverines came in at 7-2, having lost a non-conference game to then-Number 9 Missouri at home, and away to Michigan State. That was their only Big 10 loss, so this game would be for the title. And the Buckeyes were looking to win another National Championship, with fellow undefeateds Texas, Arkansas and Penn State keeping an eye on them. Which they could do, because it was televised nationally on ABC.

Ohio State had quarterback Rex Kern, running backs Jim Otis and John Brockington, and nose tackle Jim Stillwagon, and safety Jack Tatum. Michigan had offensive tackle Dan Dierdorf, guard Reggie McKenzie, receiver Glenn Doughty and tight end Jim Mandich. In other words, both teams were loaded.

But while Michigan had a great offensive line, it was their defense that told the story. Ohio State scored the 1st touchdown, but missed the extra point. Michigan scored a touchdown, and made their extra point, and the 1st quarter ended with Michigan up, 7-6. Ohio State scored another touchdown, but Michigan stopped him on the two-point conversion attempt. But Michigan came right back, scored another touchdown, then another, and then a field goal. At the half, it was Michigan 24, Ohio State 12.

Bo remembered his defensive coordinator, Jim Young, telling his players that Ohio State would not score in the 2nd half. He bounded the blackboard with the formations written on it with each word: "They! Will! Not! Score! Again!" Young went on to become the head coach at Arizona, Purdue and Army.

He was right: Neither team scored again. Michigan missed a field goal, then ended the next 2 Ohio State drives with interceptions. Woody hated the passing game, saying, "Three things can happen when you throw the football, and two of them are bad," meaning an incompletion and an interception. The Ohio State defense got better in the 4th quarter, but their offense didn't, and it remained 24-12. Michigan forced 6 interceptions and a fumble, and had ended Ohio State's streak, and become the Big Ten Champions.

As the fans rushed onto the field, and the Wolverines carried Bo off their shoulders, ABC announcer Bill Flemming said, "There it is! What has to be the upset of the century!" He had forgotten about Army losing to Carlisle in 1912, Notre Dame in 1913, and Army in 1947; and Centre College beating Harvard in 1921.

Michigan's upset of Ohio State was the 1st of 10 games between Woody and Bo, from Bo's arrival in Ann Arbor in 1969 until Woody had to be fired in 1978, were known as The Ten-Year War, with Bo "winning," 5-4-1. Michigan won in 1969, '71, '76, '77 and '78. Ohio State won in 1970, '72, '74 and '75. The '73 game was a tie.

Bo (left) and Woody

Woody and Bo remained friends until Woody's death in 1987. Bo lived on until 2006, dying the day before that year's game, which became one of college football's periodic "Games of the Century."

*

November 22, 1969 was a Saturday. These other noteworthy games were played that day:

* Number 2 Texas were idle. The next week, they beat arch-rival Texas A&M. Number 3 Arkansas were idle. The next week, they beat Texas Tech, setting up the "Game of the Century" showdown. Texas won it, winning the Southwest Conference title, and its automatic berth in the Cotton Bowl. Arkansas fell to Number 3,

* Rivalry: Number 4 Penn State beat the University of Pittsburgh, 27-7 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh. A win the next week over North Carolina State gave Penn State, an independent with no conference title available to them, an undefeated regular season, and an invitation to the Orange Bowl.

* Rivalry: Number 5 University of Southern California (USC) beat Number 6 University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), 14-12 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC thus won the Pacific-Eight Conference title. They went on to beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

* Rivalry: Number 7 Missouri beat Kansas, 69-921 at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas. This gave "Mizzou" the Big Eight Conference title, and an automatic berth in the Orange Bowl. Penn State beat them, to complete an undefeated season, and make a claim for the National Championship.

* Number 8 Notre Dame beat Air Force, 13-6 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. For the 1st time since their "Four Horsemen" season of 1924, 45 years, the Fighting Irish accepted a bowl berth, taking on Number 1 Texas in the Cotton Bowl. Texas won, and were awarded the National Championship. Penn State fans have whined about being bypassed for that title ever since.

* Rivalry: Number 9 Tennessee beat Kentucky, 31-26 at McLean Stadium in Lexington, Kentucky. The next week, Tennessee beat Vanderbilt, and won the Southeastern Conference title. They had only lost 1 SEC game, to the University of Mississippi, who had lost 2 of them. By rights, the Sugar Bowl should have invited Tennessee, as both SEC Champions and the higher-ranked team. Instead, they invited Arkansas and "Ole Miss," as neighbors with an established inter-conference rivalry.

Ole Miss won the Sugar Bowl, and so, in the span of 64 minutes of football, Arkansas went from a good shot at the National Championship to a 2-loss team with nothing to show for it.

* Rivalry: Number 10 Louisiana State University beat Tulane, 27-0 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Stuck behind Tennessee and Ole Miss in the SEC, LSU were not invited to any bowl game.

* Rivalry: Number 14 Stanford beat the University of California, 29-28 at the old Stanford Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto, California.

* Rivalry: Number 16 Nebraska beat Oklahoma, 44-14 at Owen Field in Norman, Oklahoma.

* Rivalry: Number 17 Purdue beat Indiana, 44-21 at Seventeenth Street Stadium (now Memorial Stadium) in Bloomington, Indiana.

* Rivalry: Boston College beat the University of Massachusetts, 35-30 at Alumni Stadium just outside Boston in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

* Rivalry: Yale beat Harvard, 7-0 at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut. It did not make up for the previous year's famous 29-29 tie.

* Rivalry: Maryland beat Virginia, 17-14 at Byrd Stadium (now SECU Stadium) in the Washington suburb of College Park, Maryland.

* Rivalry: The University of Richmond beat the College of William & Mary, 28-17 at Cary Field in Williamsburg, Virginia.

* Rivalry: Duke beat North Carolina, 17-13 at Duke Stadium (now Wallace Wade Stadium) in Durham, North Carolina.

* Rivalry: South Carolina beat Clemson, 27-13 at Carolina Stadium (now Williams-Brice Stadium) in Columbia, South Carolina.

* Rivalry: Miami University beat the University of Cincinnati, 36-20 at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati.

* Rivalry: Minnesota beat Wisconsin, 35-10 at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis.

* Rivalry: New Mexico beat New Mexico State, 24-21 at Aggie Memorial Stadium in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

* Rivalry: Oregon State beat Oregon, 10-7 at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon.

* Rivalry: Washington beat Washington State, 30-21 at the old Husky Stadium in Seattle.

* And in New Jersey, Rutgers beat Colgate, 48-12 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway; while Princeton beat Dartmouth, 35-7 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton. Earlier in the season, these 2 Jersey teams, who had played in the 1st college football game 100 years earlier, played at Rutgers, and Rutgers won, 29-0. Both teams finished the Centennial season at 6-3.

The other major rivalries were played the next week. On Thursday, November 27, Thanksgiving Day, Texas beat Texas A&M, Virginia Tech beat Virginia Military Institute (VMI -- Virginia were not yet Tech's biggest rival), and Ole Miss beat Mississippi State.

On the Saturday, November 29, Army beat Navy, Georgia Tech beat Georgia, Florida beat the University of Miami, Tennessee beat Vanderbilt, Auburn beat Alabama, Oklahoma beat Oklahoma State, and Arizona State beat Arizona.

Pro football was played the next day. Baseball was out of season. There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Phoenix Suns, 128-114 at Madison Square Garden. Willis Reed scored 37 points.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 132-116 at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum (now the McCamish Pavilion) in Atlanta.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 125-106 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The San Diego Rockets beat the Boston Celtics, 125-116 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena). Elvin Hayes scored 41 points and grabbed 22 rebounds.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the team that was supposed to be their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Warriors, 106-98 at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco in Daly City, California. Jerry West scored 40 points.

There was 1 game in the American Basketball Association: The Los Angeles Stars beat the Carolina Cougars, 120-117 in overtime at the J.S. Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina.

And there were 5 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-0 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Oakland Seals, 4-2 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat their arch-rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-3 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Black Hawks were not scheduled.

November 18, 2006: Ohio State vs. Michigan, "The Game of the Century"

November 18, 2006: Ohio State University hosts its arch-rival, the University of Michigan, in what Midwestern college football fans call "The Game." This time, it was labeled "The Game of the Century" -- even though the previous season's National Championship Game, a Texas win over the University of Southern California (USC), had already been called that.

Michigan had dominated the rivalry in recent years, going 10-2-1 from 1988 to 2000. But when Jim Tressel was hired away from NCAA Division I-AA (now FCS, Football Championship Subdivision) power Youngstown State, also in Ohio, to run the Ohio State program, he vowed to beat Michigan. He did, winning 4 of his 1st 5 games against the school that Woody Hayes, the most successful of all Buckeye coaches, derisively called "That School Up North."

He took his Buckeyes into his 6th game against the Wolverines with an 11-0 record. They had been ranked Number 1 from the start of the season and all the way through it to this point. They didn't come by that record cheaply, either: They had already beaten a team ranked Number 2 that season, beating Texas in Austin. They beat Number 24 Penn State at home, and Number 13 Iowa away.

Quarterback Troy Smith was the favorite for the Heisman Trophy, and did go on to win it. He and his top receiver, Ted Ginn Jr., were considered big NFL prospects. James Laurinaitis would receive the Bronko Nagurski Trophy as the best defensive player in the country.

Michigan, coached by Lloyd Carr, were also 11-0. They began the season ranked Number 14, and had only beaten 1 ranked team, but it was Number 2 Notre Dame, in South Bend. They slowly climbed in the rankings, including beating their other main rival, Michigan State, and then beating Penn State away. By the time they came back from beating Indiana away on November 11, they were the Number 2 team in the country. Their own quarterback, Chad Henne, and top receiver, Mario Manningham, were highly regarded.

There had been many games in which both Ohio State and Michigan were highly ranked going into The Game, but this would be the 1st time it was ever Number 1 vs. Number 2 -- regardless of which one was which. It was the 1st time since the infamous 1973 tie game that both teams came in undefeated.

The game was endlessly hyped, and why not: The winner would win the Big Ten Conference Championship (which has been the case many, many times), and would secure a place in the Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game. And, unlike that 1973 tie, it would be the loser who went to the Rose Bowl -- the bowls' "Granddaddy of Them All" in the increasingly common situation, in this era of definitive National Championship Games, of being a consolation prize.

Woody Hayes arrived in Columbus in 1951, and made beating Michigan a priority. Up until 1968, a season in which he won his 4th National Championship at Ohio State, he usually did. The season before he got there, he coached at Miami University of Ohio, and one of his players was Bo Schembechler. He named Bo one of his assistants at Ohio State. Bo left to become head coach at Miami, and then, in 1969, at Michigan. He made beating Ohio State a priority, and, the 1st time out, did, ruining Woody's chance at back-to-back National Championships and "greatest team ever" status.

That started what is retroactively known as "The Ten-Year War." The men were very much alike, both heavily favoring the running game over passing, and adopting a my-way-or-the-highway approach. In 10 seasons, Bo won 5 games, Woody 4, and there was that tie in 1973. After the 1978 season, Woody was fired for punching an opposing player during a bowl game, and died in 1987. Bo remained Michigan's head coach through the 1989 season.

Through the tenures of his former assistants Gary Moeller and Lloyd Carr, Bo was invited to speak before the Michigan players on the Thursday before the Ohio State game. But in 2006, at age 77, his heart condition had gotten worse, and he'd had a pacemaker installed. The Thursday before the game, he attended the funeral of Tom Slade, his 1971 quarterback, who became his dentist, and who had just died of leukemia at age 54. That night, he talked to the players not about the tradition of the Ohio State game, or about what they could win, but about how they should be like Slade, who, he said, embodied what it meant to be Bo's three favorite words: "A Michigan man."

The next day, Bo was at WXYZ-Channel 7, the ABC affiliate in Detroit, where, as usual, he was going to tape that week's installment of Big Ten Ticket, which discussed Big Ten football, particularly Michigan and Michigan State. But he had another heart attack, and died, just 30 hours before the biggest game in the history of the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry.

A crowd of 105,708 plowed into Ohio Stadium -- or, as the recently-retired ABC college football master Keith Jackson called it, "The Big Horseshoe On the Olentangy" (River). ABC would do the game as usual, with Brent Musberger and Kirk Herbstreit (a former Ohio State quarterback, but one often critical of his Alma Mater) announcing. The Buckeyes were favored by 7 points. Before the game, in recognition of the great mutual respect between the rivals, a video tribute to Schembechler was played on the scoreboard, and received a standing ovation.

Michigan scored first, but Ohio State took charge after that, and led 28-14 at halftime. By the opening minutes of the 4th quarter, the Wolverines had closed to within 28-24. Smith took control of the game, and with 5 minutes left, the Buckeyes led, 42-31. But with 2 minutes left, Henne led the Wolverines to a touchdown and a 2-point conversion. It was 42-39. But the Wolverines were unable to recover the onside kick, and the Buckeyes ran out the clock.

Antonio Pittman rushed for 139 yards for Ohio State. Mike ran for 142 yards and 3 touchdowns for Michigan, but it wasn't enough.

Many fans hoped for a rematch in the BCS National Championship Game. But when the University of Florida beat arch-rival Florida State the following week, and beat Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game the week after that, they became the consensus Number 2 team in the country, setting up the definitive title game with the Buckeyes.

Neither Big Ten team closed their season with a win. Michigan lost the Rose Bowl to USC on New Year's Day 2007, 32-18. Seven days later, at what's now named State Farm Stadium in the Phoenix suburbs, Ohio State were defeated by Florida, 41-14. A season full of bangs for both teams ended with whimpers for both.

Troy Smith played 3 seasons for the Baltimore Ravens, and 1 for the San Francisco 49ers. Ted Ginn Jr. had a much more successful pro career, playing 14 seasons, and reaching Super Bowls (but not winning them) with the San Francisco 49ers and the Carolina Panthers. James Laurinaitis played 8 seasons, and never reached a Super Bowl, but led the NFL in solo tackles with the St. Louis Rams in 2012.

Chad Henne has played 13 seasons in the NFL, but only started 54 games. He won a Super Bowl ring as Patrick Mahomes' backup on the Kansas City Chiefs. Mario Manningham played 6 seasons, winning a Super Bowl with the New York Giants, and was a teammate of Smith on the team that lost a Super Bowl.

*

November 18, 2006 was a Saturday. Among the other college football games played that day were these:

* Number 3 Florida beat Western Carolina, 62-0 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida.

* Number 4 University of Southern California (USC) beat Number 17 University of California, 23-9 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Number 5 Arkansas beat Mississippi State, 28-14 at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Mississippi.

* Number 6 Notre Dame beat Army, 41-9 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

* Number 7 Rutgers were upset by the University of Cincinnati, 30-11, costing the Scarlet Knights the Big East Conference title.

* Two days earlier, in a rivalry game, Number 8 West Virginia beat the University of Pittsburgh, 45-27.

* Number 9 Louisiana State (LSU) beat Mississippi (Ole Miss), 23-20 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

* Number 10 Louisville beat South Florida, 31-8 at Cardinal Stadium in Louisville.

* Number 14 Wake Forest were mildly upset by Number 19 Virginia Tech, 27-6 at Groves Stadium (now Truist Field) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

* Rivalry: Number 15 Auburn beat Alabama, 22-15 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa.

* Number 20 Boston College beat Number 21 Maryland, 38-16 in the Boston suburb of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

* Rivalry: Number 22 Tennessee beat Vanderbilt, 39-10 at Vanderbilt Stadium (now First Bank Stadium) in Nashville.

* Rivalry: Yale beat Harvard, 34-13 at Harvard Stadium in Boston.

* Navy beat Temple, 42-6 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.

* Rivalry: Purdue beat Indiana, 28-19 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana.

* Rivalry: Northwestern beat Illinois, 27-16 at Ryan Field in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois.

* Rivalry: Minnesota beat Iowa, 34-24 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* Rivalry: Kansas beat Kansas State, 39-20 at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas.

* Rivalry: Washington beat Washington State, 35-32 at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Washington.

There were 13 games in the NBA that day:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Boston Celtics, 122-118 at Madison Square Garden. Paul Pierce scored 39 points.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Portland Trail Blazers, 86-68 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Washington Wizards beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 111-99 at the Verizon Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington. Gilbert Arenas led all players on the day with 45 points.

* The Miami Heat beat the Atlanta Hawks, 93-88 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta. Dwyane Wade scored 37 points.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Charlotte Bobcats, 97-83 at the Amway Arena in Orlando.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 89-84 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Houston Rockets, 104-92 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. Yao Ming scored 33 points in defeat.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 102-100 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

* The New Orleans Hornets beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 99-96 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Chris Paul scored 35 points for the Hornets.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Toronto Raptors, 117-109 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver. Carmelo Anthony scored 34 points for the Nuggets.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Phoenix Suns, 120-117 in overtime at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City (then named the EnergySolutions Arena). Shawn Marion scored 35 points in defeat.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 103-97 in overtime at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 107-95 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named the Oracle Arena). Ray Allen scored 34 points in defeat.

There were 12 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-1 at the Mellon Arena (as the Civic Arena was then known) in Pittsburgh.

* The New York Islanders beat the Florida Panthers, 4-1 at the BankAtlantic Center in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 3-1 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Washington Capitals, 3-2 at the TD Banknorth Garden (now just the TD Garden) in Boston. Glenn Murray scored the game-winner with 2:54 left in overtime.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Dallas Stars, 5-4 at the RBC Center (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-2 at the Gaylord Entertainment Center (now the Bridgestone Arena) in Nashville.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-1 at Scotiabank Place (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Minnesota Wild, 2-1 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 in a shootout at Rexall Place (as the Northlands Coliseum was then known).

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 5-3 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* The San Jose Sharks beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-1 at the HP Pavilion at San Jose (now the SAP Center).

* And the Chicago Blackhawks, the St. Louis Blues, the Vancouver Canucks, the Calgary Flames, the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Anaheim Ducks were not scheduled.

And in English soccer, Arsenal played North-East team Newcastle United to a draw, 1-1 at the Emirates Stadium in North London.