Our Honor Defend

It’s Ohio State day on the BTN, and a friend of mine was gracious enough to invite me over to his house¹ to watch the Big Ten Network today to watch the festivities associated with the Ohio State-themed day.

Right now, the Big Ten Network is showing the 1974 Ohio State v. michigan game, which stands out for a variety of reasons.  First, it features Keith Jackson as play-by-play man with Joe Paterno serving as color commentator.  Second, it’s also the famous Mike Lantry game.  For the second straight year, Mike Lantry rose to the occasion and, with his revered foot, sent the Buckeyes to the Rose Bowl.  He’d probably feel better about it if he didn’t play for michigan.  To this day, michigan fans still object that the final FG try of the game was good.  It sure looked good, but them’s the breaks, son.

Not many people know this, but pay attention to Ohio State’s field goal kicker this game.  His name is Tom Klaban.  He’s an emigre from Czechoslovakia, settling into the United States (in Cincinnati) around 1964 or 1965.  He’s a soccer player (naturally), but never played football until Woody Hayes gave him a tryout.  His 47 yard field goal was Ohio State’s first of the day.  They obviously needed him to win the game, since Ohio State didn’t score a touchdown against michigan this game.

That, and his holder is Brian Baschnagel.  As we’ve discussed, Brian Baschnagel is just better than you.

You wish you were Brian Baschnagel

Expect a more thorough write-up of this game from me during Beat michigan Week, which will coincide with the 35 year anniversary of one of the defining moments in the Ohio State-michigan enmity.

At 3pm ET, the Big Ten Network is showing the Elite Eight game from the 1999 NCAA tournament.  Here, the Buckeyes, led by Scoonie Penn and Michael Redd, were able to best Ron Artest’s St. John’s team.  However, because of some shenanigans, we’re not allowed to talk about this game.  Apparently the NCAA is the arbiter of what happened and what didn’t happen.  This is strange, because I clearly remember this happening.  I remember Ohio State going to the Final Four in 1999.  The NCAA says it didn’t happen.  Hmm.

At 8pm ET, the Big Ten Network will show the spring game.  This will be followed an hour later by the 3 OT game against North Carolina State in 2003.  In the first overtime game in Ohio Stadium history, the Buckeyes were able to stop the offensive machine of Phillip Rivers and TA McLendon by Will Allen dropping McLendon on the seat of his pants inches away from the goalline.

I kind of feel a little jipped, mostly because I already have these games.  The Big Ten Network showed the famous Schlichter-Elway showdown from 1981 last time around.  I guess the 1974 game is supposed to be that token vintage game, and it’s a good choice, but I was hoping for something I hadn’t seen before.

Whatever the case, there’s no excuse for showing tennis during this day.  None.  After the 1974 michigan game, BTN is showing the Big Ten championship tennis tournament.

If you’re interested, I also uploaded two games from the 2002 season for your consideration.  First up, the Buckeyes run over Texas Tech in the Pigskin Classic and stuff Washington State in one of the premiere nonconference matchups from that season.

Yeah, I know it’s a lousy excuse for a post, done just to bump up my blog in the Big Ten Bloggers feed.  Hey, it’s my blog; I can do that.

1. …not his, he’s housesitting for someone with DirectTV, but he’s still a good friend for it. [↩]