To note the passing on May 7 of Ohio State fullback Bob White, who in 1958 became the first Buckeye to win first-team All-America honors as a player and first-team Academic All-America honors, we are reprinting his Michigan Memories, originally published in the Nov. 19, 1994, edition of Buckeye Sports Bulletin.
Forgive former Ohio State fullback Bob White and the rest of the Buckeyes if Michigan was not the only game on their minds in 1957.
That’s because Ohio State, owner of a 7-1 record entering the annual clash with the Wolverines, was in the hunt for a national championship and already had clinched a Rose Bowl appearance by beating powerhouse Iowa a week earlier.
“That year, the big thing with Michigan was, if we win that one, we have a shot at the national title,” White said. “That gives us a little extra incentive in the game, as if that game ever needs it.”
But the Buckeyes might have gotten too emotionally high, and it was that kind of thinking that might have spoiled their championship season. Michigan, a team that finished the season in sixth place in the Big Ten standings, took a surprising 14-10 lead at halftime.
Not until Ohio State head coach Woody Hayes gave a sermon-like speech at halftime, White said, did the Buckeyes resurrect themselves for three second-half touchdowns behind White’s 163 rushing yards and a 31-14 win.
That victory, combined with a 10-7 win over Oregon in the Rose Bowl, gave Ohio State a share of the 1957 national title with Auburn. The Buckeyes finished first in the United Press International poll, while the Tigers were the first-place team in The Associated Press final poll.
Yet even with the big win over the Wolverines, White admits that version of “The Game” was not as big as it later became.
“It was on the verge of becoming big back then,” he said. “During my sophomore and junior years, we had relatively easy time with Michigan. But before that, we had a lot of problems with them. In fact, I guess you could say that it was a lot like it is now.”
Ohio State had trouble defeating Michigan from 1944 to 1950. During that span the Buckeyes went through three coaches, beating the Wolverines only twice, and became well-known as “The Graveyard of Coaches.”
So when Hayes was hired as head coach in 1951, he knew wins over Michigan were imperative so that his tombstone wasn’t the next one in the “graveyard.”
“We were well aware of the emotional conflicts Woody had during the Michigan games,” White said. “He never wanted to lose anytime, but it was just magnified the week of the Michigan game.
“Then, when (former Michigan coach) Bo (Schembechler) got there and was coaching against Woody, it became an intensity far above what we even experienced. I think it got to be the top game in college football.”
Not that it wasn’t always an important rivalry. When White was a junior in 1958, each team entered the contest going in a different direction.
Ohio State had a 5-1-2 record and was ranked seventh in the country while Michigan had just two victories all season. On paper, it looked like a laugher was imminent in Columbus.
That was hardly the case.
The Wolverines scored first for a 6-0 lead after the opening period, and they held a 14-12 lead at halftime. But the Buckeyes marched 80 yards in 11 plays in the third quarter with White scoring on a six-yard touchdown run. The two-point conversion was good to give the Buckeyes a 20-14 lead.
That lead looked like it would hold up until late in the game when, with 40 seconds left, Michigan had the ball on OSU’s four-yard line with a fourth-and-one play pending.
On the play, Michigan’s Brad Myers fumbled the ball, and it was recovered by OSU’s Jerry Fields, thus preserving the six-point win.
During White’s senior year in 1959, the OSU-Michigan game was a disappointing one. Both teams were average at best with the Buckeyes holding a 3-4-1 record and Michigan at 3-5.
Ohio State had been dealt several serious injuries during the season, including an almost unbelievable 17 during a 17-0 loss early in the season to Southern California.
White was one of those who was injured, but he continued to play the rest of the season until he simply couldn’t go any longer. That Michigan game was the only one in three years that he missed due to injury. However, he will never forget what Hayes did for him as the team traveled to Ann Arbor for the game.
“Woody kept me on the traveling squad even though I didn’t dress for the game,” White said. “I appreciated that, I really did. I thought it was one of the great acts of kindness a man ever did.”
Although his playing days might not have brought out the best games during this rivalry, White has witnessed the intensity OSU-Michigan has exemplified over the years.
“Woody and Bo were a rivalry themselbes,” White said. “Those two really reflected the whole bitterness of the game and that was carried through even when Woody left.”
However, he has also witnessed Ohio State struggle through recent seasons and wonders if the game still retains the substance it once did.
“I just wonder if the intensity of it is dying,” White said. “I don’t think it’s what it used to be.”
He also admits he wonders how much stock is given to the Michigan game since OSU head coach John Cooper has been in Columbus. He cited the fact that no coach before Cooper had ever survived three straight losses to the team from up north without getting fired.
“You know, if the coach is playing for survival, the Michigan game’s one thing,” White said. “But if it doesn’t matter whether he wins or loses, I think that takes a big part of the edge off it.”
