Our Honor Defend

Yeah, so there’s about 2 hours left in the weekend, but it’s my blog and my rules.

I finally got into looking at the 1975 Penn State game, a game that featured a head-to-head matchup between Joe Paterno and Woody Hayes back when Joe Paterno was barely turning senile.  The game was actually just the fifth in the series to that point, but it turned out to be a big one for the Buckeyes.  Ohio State had lost its four previous encounters with the Nittany Lions (1912, 1956, 1963, 1964), with more than a few of those coming as brutal humiliations.  The Buckeyes were heavy favorites in 1956, 1963 and 1964 and lost each time.  In 1964 in particular, the Buckeyes were ranked no. 2 in the country and were blanked 27-0.  The Buckeyes were also 3 touchdown favorites in 1956 before losing 7-6.

In 1912, however, the Buckeyes were certainly not favorites.  In fact, the Buckeyes were expected to lose by about 3 touchdowns.  However, this game is infamous in Ohio State lore for the way it ended.  Trailing 37-0 in the second half, OSU coach John Richards pulled his team off the field, complaining about excessive roughness from the Nittany Lions that resulted in an on-field skirmish between the two sides.  Richards refused to bring his team back on the field, sending the Nittany Lions back to Happy Valley with a registered 1-0 victory over the Buckeyes.  Oddsmakers were predictably outraged.

Making matters worse: all four games previous to the 1975 match were played in Columbus. Ouch.

1975 proved to the Buckeyes year as the third ranked Buckeyes used a punishing ground attack to run over the Nittany Lions, all the while holding the seventh ranked Nittany Lions to zero touchdowns.  The Buckeyes got production from all their star players, including 23 carries and 111 yards for Pete Johnson, whose very use in a collegiate football game was declared a war crime.  The defending Heisman trophy-winner, Archie Griffin, chimed in with 24 carries and 128 yards, also adding in a pivotal 23 yard catch with Penn State threatening with momentum.  The catch from Archie led to the Buckeyes’ second touchdown, which sealed the game.  I hope to get around to uploading it, but the game also featured Pete Johnson trucking a Penn State linebacker (resulting in said linebacker being carted off the field) and Corny Greene juking a Penn State defender out of his cleats.

In this play, however, Brian Baschnagel, whose middle name was legally changed to “F’n” during his sophomore year¹, gets the ball on an end-around in the Buckeyes’ first drive of the game.  On 3rd and 3 on the Buckeyes’ own 47 yard line, Baschnagel takes the end-around down to the Nitts’ 4 yard line, resulting in the inevitable: Pete Johnson barreling forward for a touchdown.  The score puts the Buckeyes up 7-0 with under 12 minutes to play in the first quarter.

Oh, and for those unfamiliar: Pete Johnson clocked in at 248 pounds as a junior. That’s a big fullback now. That was enormous and unfair then. Watch him play if you get the chance. You knew when Pete Johnson was coming at you; you knew where he was coming at you. And still: there was not a damn thing you could do about it.

On Baschnagel, though, he graduated from Ohio State after the 1975 season and spent eight years with the Chicago Bears. He retired after the 1984 season and now works for North American Corp in Glenview, IL. His son currently attends Ohio State. He’s still way cooler than you are.

1. not really, but it should have been [↩]