Editor’s note: No. 4 Ohio State (11-1) takes on No. 1 Georgia (13-0) on Saturday night in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in the College Football Playoff semifinals at 8 p.m.
COLUMBUS — Eight national championships, seven Heisman Trophies (including the only player in history to win two of the famous statues), and 39 Big 10 championships.
Those are the exclamation points on a legacy of gridiron greatness that began 132 years ago with a 20-14 win over Ohio Wesleyan University.
That’s Ohio State football. The history includes some of the greatest bowl-game moments in the sport.
As Buckeye Nation gets ready for the showdown against the favored and defending national champion Bulldogs, we have spent a couple of days looking at the Top 5 — joyous and most painful — bowl-game performances in OSU history.
On Thursday, we examined the worst. Today, we look at the best.
And with only five, there are some great victories you won’t see here.
The glorious 1974 Rose Bowl blowout of defending national titlist USC in its home city is my favorite game from the Archie Griffin Era. Yet it didn’t make the cut.
The 1977 Orange Bowl hammering of Big 8 champ Colorado was probably Woody Hayes’ last big win, but it didn’t register here either.
The pulsating 1997 Rose Bowl win over undefeated and No. 2 Arizona State is a keeper in school history. Yet this school’s history is so deep, that isn’t a top-five bowl victory here.
How about beating USC and Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl, Pitt and Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl, Arkansas and Texas A&M in the Sugar Bowl, Washington and Oregon in the Rose Bowl?
Been there, done that.
You’ve got to win it all to make this list, and the teams below did.
This is just my list. You have have your own. Feel free to share if you do. There are no right or wrong answers. These are just mine.
Five Most Joyous Bowl Games in OSU History
No. 5
1958 Rose Bowl, a 10-7 win over Oregon
This was not a pretty game. But like the 2003 Fiesta Bowl, who cares as long as a national championship is attached to it?
Ohio State came into the contest on an eight-game winning streak, having dropped its season opener 18-14 to TCU and then winning the rest of its contests, including a 31-14 runaway at Michigan.
The Buckeyes were ranked first in the UPI Coaches Poll and second in the AP Poll (sportswriters) behind Auburn (on probation due to recruiting violations and was therefore not eligible for a bowl game).
Coach Woody Hayes and the Buckeyes were heavily favored to win the Rose Bowl, by up to three touchdowns. It didn’t come that easy.
The OSU offense was stagnant after a 79-yard drive to open the game. Quarterback Frank Kremblas completed that march with a 1-yard TD dive. Oregon tied it at 7-7 heading to halftime.
Ohio State kicker Don Sutherin, later enshrined as a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, nailed a 34-yard field goal early in the fourth period for the game-winning points.
The Buckeyes’ defense made the lead stand up by forcing a late fumble and surviving a Hail Mary pass at the end.
Oregon quarterback Jack Crabtree was voted Player of the Game, one of only two athletes in Rose Bowl history from a losing team to win the award.
Ohio State’s No. 1 ranking in the final UPI poll earned it a share of the national championship, its third such title. Auburn retained the No. 1 AP ranking despite its probationary status.
Hayes was selected College Football Coach of the Year.
No. 4
1955 Rose Bowl, a 21-7 win over USC
Hayes came into his first Rose Bowl tied for the national championship with Pacific Coast Conference champion UCLA. However, No. 2 UCLA was locked out of the game because of the “no-repeat” rule.
The No. 1 Buckeyes featured a dazzling halfback named Howard “Hopalong” Cassady, who would win the Heisman the following year. He ran for 92 yards in this clash.
But the contest was controlled by OSU quarterback Dave Leggett, who shook off the worst rainstorm in 50 years at the Rose Bowl to throw for one score and run for another while leading Ohio State to a perfect season and Hayes’ first national crown.
Woody showed his irascible nature on this trip to California, and the West Coast media despised him evermore.
The brash OSU boss was unhappy that each school’s marching bands were allowed to perform on the already muddy field. He tried to convince Rose Bowl officials to keep them off it.
Their response? “Mr. Hayes’ request was unthinkable!”
After the game Woody was not delicate in describing the Trojans.
“There are three or four Big Ten teams that could’ve whipped your Rose Bowl club today,” he stated flatly.
Howls of outrage filled the press, and it set off a war between Woody and the West Coast media that lasted throughout his Ohio State tenure and heated up when OSU reached the Rose Bowl — which they did eight times in his 28-year career in Columbus, going 4-4.
At one point that confrontational relationship was punctuated by an assault charge when Hayes busted a West Coast media member for allegedly intruding on the sanctity of the Buckeyes’ locker room. The charge was later dropped.
Ohio State shared the national championship with UCLA for the 1954 season. It was the first “split” title in college football, when the writers selected the Buckeyes and the coaches chose the Bruins.
No. 3
2015 Sugar Bowl, a 42-35 win over Alabama
The first-ever College Football Playoff featured two of the most storied programs in the sport — No. 4 OSU and No. 1 Alabama. The other semifinal featured No. 3 Florida State and No. 2 Oregon.
The Buckeyes dominated this game thanks largely to Ezekiel Elliott’s 230 yards rushing. His 85-yard TD run in the fourth quarter was the clincher and forever known as “85 Yards Through the Heart of the South.”
Defensive end Steve Miller had a crucial 41-yard, pick-6 in the third quarter and Evan Spencer’s 14-yard flea-flicker TD pass to Michael Thomas right before halftime propelled the Buckeyes out of a 21-6 hole.
Safety Tyvis Powell intercepted a “Hail Mary” pass in the end zone on the final play of the game to finish it.
Ohio State hammered Oregon by three TDs in the ensuing national title tilt. But the Buckeyes and the Crimson Tide, led by Urban Meyer and Nick Saban, respectively, were clearly the two best teams in the first college football playoffs.
Two icons going head-to-head, hammer and tong, and the good guys won.
I could easily be swayed to move this game to No. 1.
No. 2
2003 Fiesta Bowl, a 31-24 win over Miami in double overtime
This is not No. 1 on my list, and never will be, mostly because the Buckeyes were an offensive disaster in this game. Actually, I waffle on this with the Sugar Bowl win over Alabama, but this one gets the edge today simply because it was in the title tilt.
Ask me again tomorrow and I might lean the other way.
OSU’s longest scoring drive was 25 yards in both overtimes. QB Craig Krenzel was 7-of-21 passing with 2 INTs and 0 TDs. He had no business whatsoever collecting game MVP honors.
So how did OSU win and give coach Jim Tressel his only national title with the Buckeyes? Ohio State played heroic defense and Miami turned it over five times because of it.
Either OSU defensive end Will Smith or safety Mike Doss would’ve been a far more appropriate MVP choice. Krenzel did run for 81 yards and a couple of 1-yard touchdown plunges. Freshman Maurice Clarett had a pair of short TD blasts, too.
As for the overhyped pass interference call in the first OT, yes, obviously Glenn Sharpe’s handful of Chris Gamble’s jersey was interference. That anyone even debates this is due largely to TV color commentator Dan Fouts screaming “Bad Call! Bad Call!” on the telecast.
Fouts was openly pulling for the Hurricanes and the son of his former teammate, Kellen Winslow Jr.
Frankly, that scenario is not unusual in college football, where Bob Griese called a number of his son Brian’s games at Michigan, and Kirk Herbstreit and Joey Galloway are frequently assigned to Ohio State contests.
Herbstreit was on the call for OSU’s 2014 national title game with Oregon, and will be in the booth again for the upcoming Georgia game.
But what Hurricane fans never mention is if Gamble’s catch near the end of regulation had been ruled inbounds, as replays clearly showed it was, the Buckeyes run out the clock in regulation, Fouts has nothing to pout about, and the faux controversy never exists in the first place.
“We’ve always had the best damn band in the land, now we have the best damn team in the land!” Tressel shouted after the victory.
The undefeated Buckeyes won seven of their 14 games by seven points or less, and their last three victories (Illinois, Michigan and Miami) were each decided on the final play. That’s called a team of destiny.
This was not a great squad, but these Buckeyes were there when the wheel came ’round, and it was long overdue.
No. 1
1969 Rose Bowl, a 27-16 win over USC
It was Coach Woody Hayes and No. 1 OSU (9-0) against Coach John McKay and No. 2 USC (9-0-1).
It was OSU’s “Super Sophomores” against USC Heisman winner O.J. Simpson. It was the Rose Bowl’s dream matchup — and as far as Ohio State was concerned it was a dream come true.
The Buckeyes rallied from a 10-0 first-half deficit, including an 80-yard touchdown run by Simpson.
“Why did O.J. Simpson just go 80 yards?” Hayes allegedly screamed at defensive back coach Lou Holtz.
“Coach, that’s all the farther he had to go,” Holtz deadpanned on the banquet trail.
OSU sophomore quarterback Rex Kern looked at the scoreboard, squatted in the huddle, peered at his teammates and said simply, “Why don’t we quit screwing around and get to work?”
They did exactly that, dominating the remainder of the day by reeling off 27 consecutive points.
Kern led by example, earning MVP honors for his running, passing and ball handling. He had a pair of TD tosses and OSU’s defense forced the Trojans into repeated second-half fumbles.
This was the perfect capper to a national championship season and the most joyous OSU bowl game ever played.
