I worry abut this every year at Homecoming. This year we technically could have been penalized because the band was about 30 seconds late getting off the field, but either the refs didn't penalize us or the Zips declined.

My goodness these are great stories! Sipping cider 🥃 and reading away!

From the 72' Kent State WRs elite Olympic speed, to "Gary on the Carry" and his amazing sportsmanship against my homestate (says a lot about Coach Hess) on down to the 79' Ultimate Warrior fighters 😂 .


Credit card 1st downs should be used more often today! I wonder back then if they huddled both coaches and explained before doing it?


Love what I'm reading. Truly fascinating!

Harold McElhaney was quoted after the first goalpost incident that students were welcome to tear down the goalposts after every win and the school would pay the costs. That's how desperate we were.


But can anything compare with the infamous "Get your ribs at the Ritz" incident at homecoming, circa 1981 or 82?

Sylvester “thought he had more time”? He didn’t have more time, and it was a 15 yard delay of game penalty on the home team. It’s not on the conference, it’s on the game management, always has been and still is.

I don't know how many young posters have learned enough about Ohio football history to know exactly how dismal the dark age was. I know some are aware and I am too young to remember a lot of it. Hess also went 1–10 in his final year in 1977. He was dying of cancer but I don't think anyone knew yet. Grobe won only two games in 1995. This corresponded almost exactly to "The Paw" on the helmet. I wonder if that has anything to do with why we hadn't used it as a throwback until this year.

1985: 2–9
1986: 1–10 [over 2–9 NIU]
1987: 1–10 [over 1AA (FCS) Marshall
1988: 4–6–1 !!!!
1989: 1–9–1 [over 0–11 Kent State]
1990: 1–9–1 [over 1AA Tennessee Tech]
1991: 2–8–1 [over 1AA Tennessee Tech and 1–10 Kent State]
1992: 1–10 [over 2–9 Kent State]
1993: 4–7 !!!!
1994: 0–11
1995: 2–8–1 [Grobe's first year who would leave Ohio 33–33–1 in 2000]

That 1993 team also won its last two road games. It started 0-6 so if you went to school in that era most of the wins Ohio had in your time in Athens came in the stretch of 29 days. We were giddy. We didn't know what winning was. We thought we might get into MAC contention in 1994. We were wrong.

With your mention of Mike Wren, I’ve always wondered, with his dad a legend (or becoming one) at Ohio, and Mike being a former Bulldog, why he decided to go to Miami to play basketball? Was that his only D1 offer or was there another factor(s)? I can understand perhaps a desire to pave one’s way elsewhere but Miami??? :)

If you or anyone else knows the story I’d love to hear it if you are willing to share it. I can certainly understand if not.

Offense: Scott Mayle’s long TD reception in the 2004 win at Kentucky. Scott was a successful track guy as I recall too. It was no contest, SEC defenders or not, to the goal line once he got free. The gap was widening noticeably. Foster’s 2012 TD pass reception at Penn State is right up there too.

Defense: Jelani Woseley’s INT near the end of the Penn State game, also 2012. Exhale time. That’s when we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that victory was in hand.

Special Teams: Can’t really come up with one that hasn’t already been mentioned.

Didn't Wren get sideways with Charles Ping? Called him naive about intercollegiate athletics.

He's talking, I think, about PaPa Wren, not Mike. I don't know anything about the dustup claimed by SBH.

Mike is a Miami HoF’er as well.

Hmm . . . there were locker rooms in Peden in the 1950s and '60s. I actually took a shower in one when a friend and I broke into a locker room over the summer after we had been playing playing toss and catch nearby and felt we need to cool down. Recruits were reached in person, by letter and via that 19th century invention called the telephone. Technology certainly has made recruiting a lot different today, but personal aspects phone calls and face-to-face communication are still very important. And TV had reached great saturation by the mid 1950s. OHIO actually had a regionally televised game on ABC in circa 1960, which was the first time one of our games was televised. It was a game against Kent State. After that we occasionally had other TV games. Northing like the coverage now on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN+. However, your statement painted things with too broad a brush and with absolute statements that weren't literally true.