The enduring appeal of Michigan vs. Ohio State

I and millions of other people in these two cold post-industrial states would not miss The Game for anything this side of heaven

Jim Harbaugh and Urban Meyer.
(Image credit: AP Photo/File)

The Game, as we blithely insist on calling it, has been going on for 121 years now, a not-quite-bloodless re-enactment of a conflict that dates back to 1835.

This historical allusion is not spurious. The first time the Michigan Wolverines met the Ohio State Buckeyes the Toledo War, a very minor civil war that your high-school history might not have taught you about if you grew up in the 48 states that did not participate in it, was very much alive for the men who met in Ann Arbor in 1897. Ohio may have been granted the Toledo Strip in 1836, but Michigan, in addition to receiving her beautiful Upper Peninsula, won the rematch 36-0.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.