The Good Times Roll to 2000
While we don’t take the same delight the Columbus Dispatch does with the prominent counter they’ve displayed for the past few years, the 2,000 days that have elapsed since Michigan’s last victory over the Buckeyes on the football field is worth noting.
If you’re like me and the formative years of your Buckeye fanhood experience occurred in the Cooper era, you probably never thought you’d see the day when Ohio State would reel off five straight over the cretins from the north. Now, it seems like it’s been a decade since we’ve ended November on a downer. Thinking back to that cold November day in Ann Arbor when John Navarre and the Wolverines last beat the Buckeyes (knocking them out of contention for the 2004 Sugar Bowl and a chance to defend their MNC) the world is a much different place.
How different?
Troy Smith was getting reps at kick returner for the Buckeyes while the future at quarterback looked to be in a guy named Justin Zwick. Jim O’Brien was still running the basketball program and Karen Holbrook was still busy trying to dry out Lane Avenue. There was no South Campus Gateway, the old Union was still up and MGoBlog was just an idea floating around in the head of a Michigan engineering grad (idea not confirmed, but suspected).
Emmitt Smith was still doing his thing (albeit not as well) in the League, Terrelle Pryor was two years away from his driver’s license, the Curse of the Bambino was haunting the Red Sox and the Expos were still playing in Montreal.
The Burj Dubai, now easily the world’s tallest building (and growing), was nothing more than a blueprint, Martha Stewart still had a clean record and Saddam Hussein was not only still alive, but still on the loose. There was no Facebook, YouTube or Ubuntu and Evan Williams of Twitter was still preoccupied with a little project called Blogger.
Marlon Brando, Ronald Reagan, Rick James, Rodney Dangerfield, Hunter S. Thompson, Rosa Parks and Richard Pryor were all still gracing the earth and swine flu sounded like a punchline for a fat joke.
So while things haven’t necessarily gone our way in big games out of conference lately, we do have this little streak to fall back on. Our better educated foes might scoff at us for keeping this tally or celebrating it in this way, but make no mistake about it, they’d trade us in a heartbeat if they could.
It’s a great day to be a Buckeye!
I hate to say it,but,scUM has had a streak like that to brag about: 1988-1993(including the 1992 tie). I don’t see OSU falling to scUM anytime soon.
Well Said.
You’re think they’d celebrate 2,000 days since the Buckeye win, not a Buckeye loss. Technically, Michigan was still the “winner” of the rivalry until the Buckeye win. Just a thought.
Also, the current swine flu is a cousin of the 1998 virus, but its now expanded past porcine to humans. That would mean it was around or so I’ve heard.
See above about better educated and scoffing.
Have a happy November!
So, Michigan was the winner for the first 364 days of this 2000 days? And y’all celebrate those days the same? Hell, I’ll celebrate 364 days where Michigan is the winner of the last game… Go Blue!
you should say go blow – don’y you know your fighigan manners. Typical mich fan has to troll our sight because his team is nothing! tell dickrod to get a great site up like this
Mr. Madison, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
I meant Mr Steve. Sorry I cut and pasted my response from one of the greatest movies vere. My point is who cares about the 364 days in between. The fact is it has been 2000 days since Michigan celebrated a victory over the Buckeyes.
yeah, i remember that 2003/2004 season real well….especially when i was down in orlando, florida, at the “espn” zone restaurant watching osu against north carolina state….talk about being surrounded by sec people…..the ENTIRE place (and it wasn’t just sec, it was a mixed bag as well) hated the buckeyes and were cheering furiously for nc state. when the buckeyes won, my family and i left the restaurant (it was pretty heated in there…) and while i was walking out i was doing that thing that athletes do with their jerseys by poking their shirt out (i was wearing an osu shirt)……and a michigan dude was walking by and was like, “see you in ann arbor”. i know, bad story, but i didn’t go to the osu michigan game that year…..all i remember is that osu looked lethargic in that game.
even though 2000 days is special……i would like to see the buckeyes end a couple of streaks of their own……starting with usc.
Luckybuck gets close to the right way to think about “2000+ days” without coming out and saying it: the worm always, ALWAYS, turns.
Maybe it’s just a product of my age – 40 this year – but to me it seems silly to cackle and crow and count days, because the icy finger of the memory of Cooper’s tenure is always there to trace down your spine and make you shudderingly forget whatever it was you were gloating about. 2-10-1!!!!!
It’s hard to explain the dread old guys like me, who came of age during Woody’s decline and Bruce’s tenure, felt during the Cooper years when the third Saturday in November was approaching…we just KNEW that the Buckeyes were going to find a way to fuck things up in The Game – that is, on the rare occasions when we didn’t just lay down or otherwise allow That Biakabutuka Up North to just run roughshod all over us. It’s hard to explain how pitiful it felt to be surprised by a Buckeye win in The Game or to willingly defend E. Gordon Gee’s description of the tie as one of OSU’s greatest victories – but that’s what the crafty Tennessee Reb’s tenure reduced us to.
Now, of course, there’s a new sheriff in town. And there are – so far – a lot of signs that my theory that RichRod = Michigan’s Cooper is going to be validated…but I’m still very leery of relegating the Wolverines to gimme status. Viewed objectively, their next realistic chance for beating us is 2011, and that’s if LiC forgoes his Senior year – but there’s many a slip twixt a cup and a lip, and in the long term the rivalry is bound to regress to the modern mean, as it were. So even if they’re Indiana-style right now we should probably just TCB and keep the yapping to a minimum – you know, Tressel-style.
That said, though: 2000+ days since the last time those effers beat us is indeed sweet. Let’s all lift a glass to another 2K.
Interesting theory. My theory is that DickRod won’t be successful enough to stick around as long as Cooper, or to bring vastly superior teams into The Game only to have championship dreams crushed.
Michigan will beat OSU again. While we should enjoy the success the program is having, it isn’t like Michigan is the new Indiana (well maybe last year). While I’m not hoping for a Michigan victory, I do look forward to the tremendous anticipation that comes with playing them again. The last time I was truly on pins and needles for that game was 2006.
On a similar note, I was in Ann Arbor tailgating for that 2003 game and it sucked hairy balls. Michigan seems to have two classes of fans. People who actually go to or went to Michigan who, while they might talk some smack, have the ability to form sentences and complete thoughts. Then there is the other group who lacks dental insurance or a mastery of the English language and only seem to know two phrases. “Fuck Ohio State.” and “You suck.”
It certainly is cyclical and we’ll get ours from them again some day (I, too, hope they return to greatness soon to make things fun again), but if you can’t cackle, crow and count in sports, where can you?
I get the decorum promoted by some as the way modern sports fans are to behave and for the most part we respect that. You don’t see us calling them scUM in posts or things like that, but sport is really the only place where schadenfreude is not only accepted, but rightfully encouraged.
+1 for knowing what the FA cup is
Love the concept.
I love the concept too. I was talking to my roommate about something like this a few days ago but 64 teams is way too much (6 games for the title?). Although its more similar to wrestlebacks than the FA cup but that’s splitting hairs.
Yeah, I’m not saying it would work for college football (though it is interesting), but I’m just a fan of the FA Cup concept.
I think you could maybe do that in basketball over here. Every club team and college team in one monster tourney with NBA teams getting byes out to round four or whatever. You might not have the Rucker Park All-Stars knocking off the Cavs, but there would certainly be some big upsets.
i’d be down for that as well. i think though to grow the game of basketball more, i think it would be best to include the greek league teams and italian league teams etc. make it a worldwide club tournament type of thing. i suspect it would be a LOT more successful than the WBC.
Soaking it up as much as possible. This does pose an interesting question: what is (how strong is) the relationship between number of consecutive victories and the urge to gargle Drano following the ultimate and inevitable end to said streak? The longer we keep this up, the more unbelievable potent that cocktail must be following the next loss (ether? mescaline?). I know, negative thoughts but hey, I will sip my victory scotch until it solemnly turns to consolation scotch, hopefully sometime in in the 2020’s.
Cheers!
Ive said it before, but the 1995 game at the shoe, some scUM bum ran for 313 yards, and memories of Eddie’s remarkable season were forever stained. That game is replayed in my head everytime we take the field in late November, a harsh reminder to never take a victory over TSUN for granted.
Here’s to 42 more points, this time in their house.