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William Shakespeare And The Incredible 1935 Notre Dame vs. Ohio State Comeback · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Sunday, January nineteenth. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, Tom Moore. The National Championship game against Notre
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  Speaker 1: Dame is in one day. The game against Michigan in
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  Speaker 1: three hundred and fourteen days. We have had a ton
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  Speaker 1: of coverage for you all weekend already at bucke huddle
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  Speaker 1: dot com and YouTube dot com slash bucke Huddle. Today's show,
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  Speaker 1: it's gonna be a little bit different if you want
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  Speaker 1: the more traditional. Hey, Tony Gerdaman and I breaking down
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  Speaker 1: some stuff for interview clips with Brian Day. That's all
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  Speaker 1: on our YouTube channel, YouTube dot com slash Bucket Huddle.
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  Speaker 1: Also in the Buckeye Weekly podcast feed, Tony and I
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  Speaker 1: did another extended live show, so you can get that there.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: This is a little bit different. I wanted to take
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  Speaker 1: a look back at the first The nineteen thirty five
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  Speaker 1: game between Ohio State and Notre Dame inside Ohio Stadium
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  Speaker 1: holds a unique place in the series between the Buckeyes
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  Speaker 1: and the Fighting Irish. It was the first time the
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  Speaker 1: two Midwestern powers ever faced off, and it is also
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  Speaker 1: one of the only two times that the Irish have
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  Speaker 1: ever beaten Ohio State. This year marks the ninetieth anniversary
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  Speaker 1: of that first Ohio State versus Notre Dame game, which
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  Speaker 1: is still one of the most remarkable comebacks and dramatic
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  Speaker 1: finishes in either program's history. It's a story with excitement,
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  Speaker 1: twists and turns, and some literal Shakespearean drama at the end,
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  Speaker 1: So let's dig into the archives. Coverage of that nineteen
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  Speaker 1: thirty five game bears some remarkable similarities to modern college
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  Speaker 1: football media. This was one of the first games of
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  Speaker 1: the century, and the hype was incredible. Nearly a month
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  Speaker 1: before the game kicked off, tickets were already gone. Notre
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  Speaker 1: Dame had sold out its allotment of more than twelve
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  Speaker 1: thousand seats, and there were no standing room spots available.
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  Speaker 1: Ohio Stadium would be packed with more than eighty one
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  Speaker 1: thousand fans in a season where no other home game
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  Speaker 1: brought in even sixty thousand people. The game was scheduled
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  Speaker 1: for November second, just two days after Halloween, something the
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  Speaker 1: cartoonists in town had a little bit of fun with.
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State's team was nicknamed the Scarlet Scourge, and Notre
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  Speaker 1: Dame was known as the Ramblers back then because of
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  Speaker 1: their reputation for traveling the country to play whichever top
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  Speaker 1: teams were willing to take them on. They had officially
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  Speaker 1: adopted the fighting Irish nickname eight years earlier, in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: twenty seven, but you saw references to the Ramblers in headlines, cartoons,
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  Speaker 1: and articles. The Irish or Ramblers brought a fearsome passing attack,
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  Speaker 1: at least by the standards of the time, and as
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  Speaker 1: Irvin Shinebeck wrote in the Dispatch quote, trying to analyze
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  Speaker 1: the Ohio State Notre Dame game is as hazardous as
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  Speaker 1: tampering with dynamite. But at the risk of having words
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  Speaker 1: explode back in the face Saturday night, one can go
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  Speaker 1: on record now with the assertion that forward passing, both
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  Speaker 1: pro and con, will have more to do with the
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  Speaker 1: outcome than any other branch of ridirn technique. Three days
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  Speaker 1: before the game, tempo at practice was a big topic
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  Speaker 1: of conversation, and the Buckeyes players were dealing with incredible
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  Speaker 1: demands for both tickets and information about how the upcoming
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  Speaker 1: game would go, and the Ohio State coaching staff was
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  Speaker 1: expressing concerns about the passing connection between Notre Dame's William Shakespeare. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: really his nickname was barred and Wayne Milner nicknamed Tarzan.
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  Speaker 1: Two days before the game, and you can stop me
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  Speaker 1: if you've heard this one before. Traffic was a big
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  Speaker 1: concern around campus. Leaders were encouraging fans to just leave
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  Speaker 1: their cars at home, get to the stadium early, hang
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  Speaker 1: around for a while after to let the traffic clear out.
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  Speaker 1: Notre Dame fans were expected to invade Columbus, with hotels
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  Speaker 1: sold out and extra trains coming into town to serve
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  Speaker 1: all of the additional fans. National sports writers, including grantlet Rice,
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  Speaker 1: came to town to see the game in person, basically
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  Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties version of college game Day. The sports
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  Speaker 1: pages were all focused on how well Ohio State's early
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  Speaker 1: season schedule had prepared the Buckeyes for what they called,
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  Speaker 1: quote unquestionably the major test of the school's entire forty
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  Speaker 1: five years of football history. Meanwhile, in South Bend, Notre
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  Speaker 1: Dame head coach Elmer Laden dished out a handful of
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  Speaker 1: platitudes to a reporter on the phone before hustling back
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  Speaker 1: out to football practice. Yes, it's an important game, he said.
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State has a great team. The game will be
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  Speaker 1: hard fought. Notre Dame will do its best. Notre Dame
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  Speaker 1: will rely on hard blocking and tackling, fast charging. We
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  Speaker 1: plan no new or spectacular offense. And finally, excuse me, please,
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  Speaker 1: no word on how many games at a time the
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  Speaker 1: Irish planned to take it. Michigan's head coach Harry Kipke
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  Speaker 1: couldn't avoid weighing in on the game between two other
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  Speaker 1: Midwestern powers. He picked Ohio State to win, and the
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  Speaker 1: wife of Ohio State head coach Francis Schmidt made it
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  Speaker 1: known that the coach he wasn't nervous about the upcoming game. Francis,
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  Speaker 1: she said, quote, is acting no differently than at any
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  Speaker 1: time since we were married. During the week before a game,
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  Speaker 1: he is apparently perfectly normal, just like today. A big
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  Speaker 1: game for the Buckeyes pretty much dominates the news cycle
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  Speaker 1: around Columbus. The nineteen thirty five election was less than
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  Speaker 1: a week away, but the Columbus Citizen newspaper reported that quote,
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  Speaker 1: Saturday's football game puts a lid on political drive and
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  Speaker 1: that quote candidates for city offices find no one pays
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  Speaker 1: attention with the Irish here. The Irish were in town.
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  Speaker 1: They arrived in Columbus on Friday morning, the city's mayor,
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  Speaker 1: who was yes up for reelection, He met their train
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  Speaker 1: and handed head coach Laden a key to the city.
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  Speaker 1: There was insider content back then, just like there is today.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, back then it consisted of photos of players
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  Speaker 1: getting massage from a trainer or combing their hair, or
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State halfback Joe Williams getting some pointers on speed
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  Speaker 1: from none other and Olympian Jesse Owens. The day of
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  Speaker 1: the game, the evening papers were all about the incredible
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  Speaker 1: traffic around campus. Of course, the game itself kicked off
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  Speaker 1: at two pm and hadn't wrapped up in time for
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  Speaker 1: their printing deadlines for the evening editions. That meant there
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  Speaker 1: was plenty of time for Grandma Athletics to tell Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State fans to enjoy themselves during this much anticipated game
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  Speaker 1: in an editorial cartoon. As for the game itself, Buckeye
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  Speaker 1: fans did enjoy themselves for at least most of the afternoon,
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  Speaker 1: As the next day's coverage in the Dispatch said, quote,
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  Speaker 1: the Lightning Raiders from South Bend were so decisively outclassed
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  Speaker 1: by Ohio State in the first half that they seemed
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  Speaker 1: to have gotten into the wrong stadium. Ohio State jumped
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  Speaker 1: out to a lead just four minutes into the game
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  Speaker 1: when an interception and a lateral on the return led
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  Speaker 1: to a seventy yard touchdown. The term pick six was
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  Speaker 1: not yet in vogue, but that's what it was. The
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  Speaker 1: Buckeyes had an early seven to nothing lead after the
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  Speaker 1: pat was made. Another interception handed the ball to the
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State offense and set up jumping Joe Williams for
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  Speaker 1: a four yard touchdown and thirteen nothing lead after the
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  Speaker 1: extra point went wide. That advice from Jesse Owens obviously
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  Speaker 1: paid off for jumping Joe. That thirteen point lead looked,
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  Speaker 1: as the Dispatch said, like a million dollars heading into
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  Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, but it didn't take long for the
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  Speaker 1: Irish to start chipping away at it. Notre Dame scored
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  Speaker 1: on a one yard run early in the fourth quarter,
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  Speaker 1: but the pat hit the crossbar, leaving the score thirteen
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  Speaker 1: to six Ohio State. The score stayed the same until
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  Speaker 1: the final two minutes, when Notre Dame scored again and
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  Speaker 1: once again missed the extra point to trail thirteen to twelve.
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  Speaker 1: The Irish tried an on side kick, but the Buckeyes
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  Speaker 1: recovered it and were in a position to run out
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  Speaker 1: the clock until Notre Dame's Andy Pilney forced to fumble
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  Speaker 1: by Ohio States Dick Beltz. The Irish fell on it
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  Speaker 1: and they had one more chance. Pilney, playing on both
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  Speaker 1: sides of the ball, took what basically amounted to a
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  Speaker 1: quarterback draw for thirty yards down to the Ohio State nineteen.
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  Speaker 1: He was injured on that play and Shakespeare took over
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  Speaker 1: for him. On the next play, Shakespeare took a hand off,
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  Speaker 1: rolled right and threw it to Milner for the game
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  Speaker 1: winning touchdown, what the Columbus Citizen described as quote a
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  Speaker 1: long slanting pass Shakespeare to Milner. Yes, the same combination
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  Speaker 1: that the Ohio State coaching staff had been worried about
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  Speaker 1: in the days before the game. That Shakespeare always did
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  Speaker 1: great work with omens and foreshadowing, didn't he The game
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  Speaker 1: ended eighteen to thirteen. Notre Dame fans stormed the field,
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  Speaker 1: and despite the efforts of a handful of policemen, the
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  Speaker 1: fighting Irish fans tore down the goalposts and carried them
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  Speaker 1: all the way downtown. The next day's paper compared the
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  Speaker 1: loss to the fall of Humpty Dumpty and said OSU
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  Speaker 1: fans used quote ifs an aspirin to try to patch
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  Speaker 1: things up. The Citizens started its postgame coverage with the
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  Speaker 1: note quote, here's a Monday after a Saturday defeat, and
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  Speaker 1: nobody's trying to fire the football coach. That's refreshing. But
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  Speaker 1: anything farther than that in the face of Notre dames
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  Speaker 1: eighteen to thirteen victory is an alibi. There isn't anything left.
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  Speaker 1: It was the most glorious finish in Ohio State's football history,
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  Speaker 1: even if from an Ohio State angle, the wrong team won.
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  Speaker 1: Notre Dame's luck of the Irish would run out the
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  Speaker 1: following week when they lost to Northwestern fourteen to seven,
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  Speaker 1: and then they tied Army the following week at Yankee Stadium.
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  Speaker 1: They finished ranked eighth in the nation with a seven
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  Speaker 1: to one to one record. That eighteen thirteen lost to
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  Speaker 1: Notre Dame was the only blemish in Ohio States record
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  Speaker 1: that season. They finished the year beating Chicago, Illinois, and Michigan.
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  Speaker 1: That went over the Wolverines was thirty eight nothing and
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  Speaker 1: the most lopsided win the Black Eyes have ever had
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  Speaker 1: in the game. Ohio State finished the year at seven
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  Speaker 1: to one and ranked fifth in the nation. Minnesota, who
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State did not play, finished first in the country
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  Speaker 1: at eight and zero. The nineteen thirty five game featured
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  Speaker 1: all of the hype and stakes and drama of the
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty three matchup in South Bend. The Buckeyes, of course,
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  Speaker 1: won that one with a comfort behind final minute touchdown,
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  Speaker 1: just as Notre Dame did back in nineteen thirty five,
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  Speaker 1: and now the teams are set to face off on
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  Speaker 1: the highest stakes game in their series history, with a
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  Speaker 1: national championship on the line Monday night in Atlanta.