I thought that I would post to call your attention to the fact that this week marks the 120th Anniversary of a very interesting football contest that took place in Athens between OHIO and West Virginia. What made this game so interesting is that it moved a local journalist to put pen to paper and write a poem that commemorated and immortalized that OHIO victory.

Here's just a little background, as well as the poem. The 1897 season, which produced the best record of any of the 19th Century campaigns, started with two straight losses—to Marietta College and Cincinnati. The team then reeled off seven straight with victories over Muskingum College, Dennison College, Ohio Medical University, West Virginia University, Otterbein College, and Marietta College. The home victory over WVU inspired this wonderful poem that appeared in The Athens Messenger and Herald newspaper on Nov. 11, 1897:

“And they came and they were conquer'd
With swift dispatch and ease,
And they felt that twinging sorrow which
In vain they could appease
Thought not that woe awaited them
Across Ohio's stream.
And like the poet found that things
Aren't ever what they seem.

"And they came from fair Virginia
The place of Morgantown.
Where swift Monogahela flows
Past mountains looking down:
Proud and boasting came they hither
To wrestle for the goals
Which they found almost as quickly
As disembodied souls.

"Badly battered left they homeward
In vain could they conceal
The awful havoc of their bucks
'Gainst O.U.'s pointed steel:
And they left here sad but wiser
Of many manly tricks,
For the gridiron here is hot
As Athens politics."

Thanks for posting! I love stuff like this.

Nope. Didn't play Rio Grande or Chillicothe YMCA either.

Since Ohio Medical University ultimately became a branch of Ohio State, does the 1897 win over Ohio Medical University count as a win over Ohio State?