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Yup. Woody and Bo. What most people don't know is while they were rivals on the field, they were actually good friends.

Think Woody Hayes passed in 1987. I was barely out of high school.

Still remember when I was at a game in The Shoe in 2006 and they announced Glenn Edward "Bo" Schembechler Jr. died. The announcer asked for a moment of silence. The Shoe was completely quiet for a few minutes.

And Buckeye Stadium (The Shoe) being quiet just is not normal. Only other time I saw that was before in 2001 after 9/11.

Woody Hayes actually taught an American History class at Ohio State, while he was the football coach. And he was a die-hard Conservative, so you know it certainly wasn’t woke.

That was also a time when many of the coaches were WWII Vets, like Bear Bryant.

To follow op: The noise in The Shoe (Ohio State) and The Big House (Michigan) is insane. Been in both more times than I can count.

Decibel readings on the field are equivalent to being near a jet airplane.

So to be there and see that place go silent was kind of amazing.

Hey, it's sports. I love watching my football. But they are also still people. And even our rivals have good people and good mentors. So, I give them respect.

BTW, Ohio State please crush Michigan next week. LOL

There was great respect between these two coaches. We had been living in Cbus for 7 years by the time Bo passed, so I had become acquainted with the rivalry much closer than I had growing up in Florida. I remember watching that game on tv, and the silence was definitely longer than a minute. Do you remember the band called “The Schembechlers”? There was a piece about them on a news segment right about that time. If I’m not mistaken, wasn’t Bo an assistant under Woody?

It took me a couple of years to understand that Columbus thought of itself as a college town. I grew up in Gainesville, so my version of college town was different. Besides that, Columbus is the state capital, so it surprised me to see Buckeye coverage on the front page of the paper every day, all year long. The Browns and the Bengals stories were in the sports section, but anything Ohio State was always on the front page.

Once I realized the college town identity, I understood how to try to fit in there. So I learned to cheer for both teams, even when they played each other! I was in a no lose situation. I was happy when either team won.

Last night, both the Gators and the Buckeyes won again, so I am a happy camper. Next Saturday looms ahead of us though. Any given day.