Another Buckeye at No Code laments the predictable carnage on High. That was nothing, David. I was there 14-11 1972, sitting beside the Michigan band, a Sousaphone player to be precise, listening to the bass lines of "Hail To Our Conquering Heroes" time after time, my sole solace being a thermos filled with Drambuie. I eventually began sharing it with the Sousaphone player because he was the only person nearby in that Buckeye ticket hell.
At heart, we were both just musicians. He sounded better with loose lips. I developed an arcane appreciation for the Michigan Fight Song. His timing went off a sixteenth or so, but in the right direction it seemed.
Time after time, OSU stopped Michigan drives within the 10 yard line, right in front of me. With only seconds left on the clock, the victory nearly certain, an urgent need to join the throng gathering behind the north goalpost overtook me. We surged onto the field with time still on the clock - but Woody jumped over the sidelines, screaming, waving his arms frantically, shaking his fists, and making 500 rowdy Buckeye fans simultaneously shit themselves out of pure primal fear.
I staggered home.
Next morning, still in a daze, I walked to the corner of Lane and High, where previously there had been a 50-foot gas tank waiting to be buried at the Shell station. It was gone. I followed its path of carnage down the hill, past flattened street signs and dozens of crushed bottles, but only one dislocated fire hydrant. It had come to rest in the High Street cavity, at 15th and High, near Long's Book Store.
The Columbus Dispatch said little, maybe the now forgotten Citizen-Journal said less - too few brain cells, too many competing stimuli to say for sure. These were "high-spirited youths", never to be confused with those "outside agitators" or "student protestors" who, with an assist from the Kent State marksmanship of the Ohio National Guard, had shut down all Ohio campuses a long-forgotten 2 years earlier.
What does it feel like when an entire city has a hangover?
Better than losing.
7:59:18 PM 
|
|
