Our Honor Defend

This Saturday, the much-maligned Buckeyes will take the field against the USC Trojans with a shot for redemption from… sigh… last year’s 35-3 demolition in Los Angeles.  A little over 35 years ago, the Buckeyes took the field against the Trojans with a similar chance at redeeming themselves from a similarly humiliating loss.  This redemption game? The 1974 Rose Bowl.

This was the early 1970s and, for Big Ten football historians, it was just about the height of the “Big 2, Little 8″ era of the conference.  Only Ohio State and Michigan represented the conference in Pasadena for the entire decade.  Further, it was also a period when neither Ohio State nor Michigan had much success in Pasadena when they got there.  Ohio State had only one Rose Bowl win in 6 tries; Michigan never won.  The nadir of this Rose Bowl futility came in 1972, when the #3-ranked Buckeyes upset an undefeated Michigan team 14-11¹ to earn the right to the Rose Bowl, only to be demolished in the second half by Sam “Bam” Cunningham and the Trojans in a second-half rout.  With it, the Trojans used the shellacking of #3-ranked Big Ten champions to secure their own no. 1 ranking and win the national title.

A year later, fate had conspired the two national powers back to Pasadena for round 2 to culminate the 1973 season.  USC didn’t seem to be in a position to repeat as national champion.  Ranked #7 in the AP, they suffered an important loss to Notre Dame² who was in a position for a national championship, pending the outcome of the Sugar Bowl with Alabama³.  However, they had swept through the Pac 8 to earn the right to defend their Rose Bowl crown.  Ohio State, on the other hand, was in a position to claim a national championship… that is: was.  The #1 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes were only able to draw Michigan, 10-10, in Ann Arbor and fell from their top spot as a result.  That draw actually forced a vote among the conference’s athletic directors on who would represent the conference in the Rose Bowl⁴.  There was no national title talk for the previously #1 ranked Buckeyes because, unlike Notre Dame and Alabama, it wasn’t clear they were even going to a bowl game.  John Hicks, the All-American tackle for Ohio State, recounted that Woody just kind of assumed that the conference’s ADs would vote in Michigan.  In all his paranoia (and for that we love him), Woody worked under the assumption that the conference brass always favored Michigan and would cut them a break wherever possible.  Indeed, there was good reason to believe that was what would happen.  Ohio State had just gone to the Rose Bowl before, and they were actually slighted once in a similar situation where Michigan State got the nod from the conference’s ADs in 1955 over Ohio State because Ohio State had already been to the Rose Bowl.  Further, Michigan was the lesser-ranked team who didn’t lose to the top-ranked Buckeyes (even though they didn’t win).  However, the Big Ten opted to send Ohio State out to Pasadena again in a move for which Bo Schembechler was always bitter⁵.  Now ranked #3, the Buckeyes ostensibly didn’t seem to have a chance at a national championship if they won this game.  Instead, they had a chance at redemption.

If Ohio State was going to slow down a defending national title team that had the likes of Pat Haden, Lynn Swann and Anthony Davis on offense, they were going to rely on their defense heavily this game.  Simply put, the 1973 defense were world-beaters and, certainly, tops in the country.  The starting XI on defense is a veritable who’s who of some of the best ever at their respective positions.  The linebacker corp consisted of Randy Gradishar, Rick Middleton and Vic Koegel.  Van De Cree and Pete Cusick were in the front four, and were joined by Arnie Jones and Jim Cope.  Neal Colzie, probably the best Ohio State CB of the decade, led the back four unit consisting of Steve Luke, Tim Fox and Rick Parsons.  With their powers combined, they were… well… immovable.  The Buckeyes had conceded only 43 points the entire year before meeting USC in the Rose Bowl.  23 of those 43 points came in the final two games against Iowa (a 55-13 victory) and Michigan (10-10 tie).  They pitched 4 shutouts in the season, including 3 straight against Nerdwestern, Illinois and Michigan State.  Texas Christian and Washington State managed to at least get a field goal in their respective 37-3 and 27-3 losses.  Hell, Minnesota and Indiana even managed a touchdown in their games against Ohio State, to bring their respective 56-7 and 37-7 losses to some kind of respectability.  In short, these guys were good… damn good.

The 1974 Rose Bowl began much like the 1973 Rose Bowl before it did.  Both teams seemed to be evenly matched in the first half.  Whereas the defenses held in the first half in the 1973 Rose Bowl, this game featured fireworks from the respective of offenses.  Specifically, it was Cornelius  Greene, “Flam” to his friends, who vexed the Trojans defense with the high-tech sorcery of the day (in the Midwest, at least) known as the “forward pass”.  USC was keenly aware of the fullback tandem of Bruce Elia and true freshman Pete Johnson and, obviously, were aware of Archie Griffin.  The dazzling sophomore, who finished 6th in the Heisman ballot⁶, was 3rd in the nation in rushing an average of 142.8 yards a game.  Further, Corny Greene was obviously billed as a runner, but was thought to be limited in the passing game.  In the first half, Greene passed liberally to march Ohio State down the field.  His favorite target was tight end Fred Pagac (yes, that Fred Pagac), who finished the game with 4 catches for 89 yards in his final outing as a player for the Scarlet and Gray.  Greene also found other targets downfield, such as Dave Hazel and true sophomore Brian Baschnagel, the patron saint of this blog.

Greene finished 6/8 passing with 129 yards and one INT, which came on Ohio State’s first drive of the game.

For as well as Ohio State was moving the ball on the Trojan defense this game, the Trojan offense was up to the task.  This was the John McKay era, so your standard student body lefts and rights and halfback passes were working.  The Trojan attack behind Anthony Davis scored more points on Ohio State’s defense by intermission (14pts) than any other of Ohio State’s opponents had been able to do in a full game.  By this stage, the Buckeyes were about where they were by this time in the 1973 Rose Bowl when the flood gates opened on them in the second half.  To make matters worse? USC scored early into the third quarter to take a 21-14 lead.  Worse yet, they did so after capitalizing on the most inopportune of fumbles for Archie Griffin.  As they did the year earlier with Sam “Bam” Cunningham, the Trojan offense marched out of intermission to take an early second half lead.  This, is where all hell would break loose.

…but this time, USC was going to receive the onslaught.

Randy Gradishar recounted to WBNS-AM about 30 years later that Davis’ TD is when the light came on.

Coach Hayes had a few choice words for us after SC made it 21-14. Then he challenged the offense to go back in and get the touchdown back, which they did.

Corny Greene scrambled for 16 yards on the first snap from the possession and was the beneficiary of a late tackle by USC.  The next play, Greene again found Fred Pagac running free in the secondary to put the Buckeyes in the shadow of USC’s end zone.  A few plays later, Pete Johnson scored his 3rd touchdown of the game.  Really, everything fired on all cylinders after Anthony Davis’ TD.  The running backs were producing, but they went into overdrive.  If Corny Greene passing at will (considering the era) didn’t have John McKay question the foundations upon which he had placed his entire life, he was sure to question what just and loving God would place an 18yr old, 236lb true freshman with speed comparable to Anthony Davis on Ohio State’s roster for this game.  Corny Greene gets game MVP honors for using the newfangled forward pass to open up USC’s defense, but… by God, the Trojans looked as if they had never seen anything like Pete Johnson.  He finished with 21 carries for 97 yards and 3 of Ohio State’s 6 TDs.

The Trojans had managed to block the extra point, and thus held the lead.  Fortunately, their offense stalled deep in their own territory, forcing a punt to the ever-exciting Neal Colzie (RIP).  Colzie nearly took it 65 yards to the house, but was stopped at around the 8.  No matter, Corny Greene soon took it in on the QB follow for a lead Ohio State would not relinquish.  He followed the TD with some dance moves that underscored why he was known as “Flam”(boyant) among his friends on the team.

While the defense had finally clamped USC’s offense⁷, the Buckeyes were still up 6 entering the 4th quarter.  The Buckeyes, however, had the ball.  After finding Brian Baschnagel, patron saint of this blog⁸, 25 yards down field to move the chains into USC territory, Greene handed off to Bruce Elia, the other fullback on the roster, for another TD and a two score lead.  Rather than settle for just a 12pt lead, Woody opted to go for 2 with Corny Greene and Brian Baschnagel on the wingback option.  Greene kept it, converted for 2, and, yep, he danced just a little.  I would too.

The game was essentially in hand for the Buckeyes, especially since the defense had turned into the unstoppable force and the immovable object.  However, Archie Griffin, who had just under 100 yards entering the 4th quarter, still had not gotten into the scoring act.  With about 5 minutes left, though, he peeled off what may have amounted to a pre-Heisman Heisman run.  He was clearly not suffering from a lack of Heisman exposure… he finished 6th as a sophomore, but this run was so gorgeous and broke so many ankles on the Trojan defense that you think it invariably had to set him up for his successful Heisman campaign of 1974 and, later, 1975.  If you’re one of those video-gaming types, you may have seen this run.  It was featured in the NCAA Football 2006 game from EA Sports.  Griffin finished his second Rose Bowl with a 149 yards and a TD on 22 carries.  No run was more beautiful than the 47 yard scamper that served as his Rose Bowl moment.

When the final gun sounded, the Buckeyes had successfully redeemed themselves from the 42-17 laugher against the Trojans in the previous year.  Woody even went so far as to call it his greatest victory yet.  In spite of having better teams in terms of wins and losses, he said he had never had a team perform as well in the Rose Bowl as the Buckeyes did that day.

Fast forward 35 years, and the Buckeyes find themselves in a spiritually similar situation again with the mighty Trojans.  Do we follow the lead of Corny Greene and company this Saturday and redeem ourselves?

I guess we’ll see.

1. Michigan looked to be the better team top to bottom, but Ohio State willed themselves to victory at home. [↩]
2. They also drew Oklahoma, 7-7. [↩]
3. Coincidentally, Alabama and Notre Dame shared a national title this season in spite of Notre Dame beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.  This is one of those “12 national titles” that Alabama claims.  General policy: whatever Alabama fans say, the opposite is true. [↩]
4. Remember, back in the ol’ days, you went to Pasadena or you went home. [↩]
5. The likely explanation for the vote is that Dennis Franklin, Michigan’s starting QB, was injured in the game and the conference wanted to put out its best possible team. [↩]
6. Archie was being generous. [↩]
7. Van De Cree alone was a beast. [↩]
8. Hyperbole aside, he was doing a fantastic job of lead-blocking for Archie or Corny Greene.  Steve Myers, center, also deserves praise too.  He was constantly in the second level. [↩]