Locals have made their mark on The Game
Area stars have made their marks for Ohio State against Michigan.
From touchdowns to turnovers, players from area schools have played big roles in Buckeye victories over Michigan.
The Miami Valley has certainly left its mark on college football’s most-storied rivalry.
Here is a look at some of the players from our coverage area who have played big roles in Ohio State wins over Michigan, starting with our top six in chronological order.
1. Bob Ferguson, 1961
The halfback from Troy ran 30 times for 152 yards and four touchdowns as Ohio State routed Michigan 50-20 in 1961.
This turned out to be the final game of the season for the Buckeyes, who won the Big Ten but were denied a trip to the Rose Bowl by the faculty council.
Nonetheless, Ohio State was named the national champion by the Football Writers Association of America.
No one-game wonder, Ferguson ran for 80 yards and scored the only touchdown in a 7-0 win over Michigan in 1960.
2. Leo Hayden, 1970
The All-Ohio halfback from Roosevelt High School did not get many opportunities in a raucous Buckeyes’ 50-14 win in 1968 nor a devastating upset loss in Ann Arbor a year later, but he led the charge in 1970 as the eventual national champion Buckeyes gained revenge on Bo Schembechler’s Wolverines for coach Woody Hayes.
Shea ANN ARBOR, MICH. — Patterson’s parents took him out for a sushi dinner and to see the movie “Overlord,” hoping to get Michi- gan’s quarterback away from his relentless preparation for the biggest game of his life.
didn’t talk about foot- ball,” Sean Patterson said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “It was just nice to see him sitting with his mom and eating popcorn. We wanted to give him a break from studying film.”
No. 10 Ohio State has been watching some film, too, watching what Patterson has done with the fourth-ranked Wolverines this season. The Buckeyes see a dual-threat quarterback who looks nothing like the players Jim Harbaugh had under center the previous three years — all Ohio State wins.
“In past years, they haven’t had a running quarterback like him,” Buckeyes defensive tackle Dre’Mont Jones said. “He creates his own new dynamic we have to worry about.” continued from C1
Hayden ran for a gamehigh 117 yards and scored a touchdown in Ohio State’s 20-9 win, the culmination of a yearlong desire for payback over the ’69 game that cost the Buckeyes a second con- secutive national championship and started the 10-Year War between Schembechler and Hayes.
3. Todd Bell, 1979
The safety from Middletown recorded perhaps the biggest special teams play in Ohio State history when he returned a blocked punt 18 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter of the 1979 game.
That was the final score in an 18-15 Ohio State win that preserved an undefeated regular season for Earle Bruce, who was in his first year as coach of the Buckeyes following Hayes’ firing.
Bell also had six tackles in
The Wolverines are favored Saturday in the Horseshoe — where they haven’t won since 2000 — at least in part because of an offseason victory that made Patterson eligible to play right away. He decided to transfer from Ole Miss nearly a year ago to Michigan, but he had to wait until April to find out the NCAA was granting his request to play this season instead of sitting out a year.
“It was a scary and anx- ious time,” Sean Patter- son recalled. “I think going through what he did made him a tougher and stronger person and it makes him appreciate every moment with the winged helmet even more.”
With the help of attorney Tom Mars, the appeal was won for Patterson — and the Wolverines.
“The best part of the expe- rience for me was getting to know Shea and his family,” Mars wrote in a text message. “And, then watching what Shea’s accomplished with his teammates this season — game after game. I haven’t missed any of them, and I’ll be in the stands in Colum- the game, which snapped a three-game Michigan win- ning streak against Ohio State.
4. Keith Byars, 1984
The running back who attended Roth High School and Trotwood Madison scored six touchdowns in four games against Mich- igan with his most significant contribution coming as junior in 1984.
That season he ran for 93 yards and scored all three touchdowns in a 21-6 victory that sent Ohio State to the Rose Bowl.
He had 115 yards and two touchdowns in a 24-21 loss in 1983.
5. Will Allen, 2002
One of two former Wayne High School stars to make our list, the safety had his game-saving play 23 years after Bell’s famous return.
Allen had only two tackles in the 2002 Ohio State-Mich- igan game, but he made one of the biggest plays in school bus on Saturday.”
Patterson, a former five- star recruit from Toledo, decided to transfer from Ole Miss after the NCAA penalized the program with sanctions for violations under former coach Hugh Freeze. The penalties included a bowl ban for the 2018 season. Patterson and other players argued they were misled during their recruitment by Ole Miss coaches and staff- ers about the nature of the NCAA investigation.
Patterson insisted he doesn’t think much about the appeal process these days, but acknowledged being thankful to win it.
“Just was so fortunate to get this opportunity to play for the team,” he said.
Harbaugh was fortunate, too. In his fourth year in charge of college football’s winningest team, he desperately needed a difference-making quarterback.
Patterson has delivered. He is one of five finalists for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award and may be men- tioned as a Heisman Trophy candidate if he can help Michigan beat Ohio State history when he intercepted a pass in the end zone to clinch the 14-9 win over the Wolverines. That sent the Buckeyes to the Fiesta Bowl, where they shocked Miami (Fla.) 35-28 in overtime to win the national champi- onship.
Allen had 14 tackles a year later in a losing effort in Ann Arbor.
6. Braxton 2011-15 Miller,
The Wayne High School legend went 2-1 as a starting quarterback against the Wolverines and picked up another pair of gold pants for his part as a receiver in a win his senior season.
As a freshman in 2011, he nearly led Ohio State to an upset in Ann Arbor when he passed for 235 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 100 yards and another score. He nearly had a third score but overthrew an open DeVier Posey in the wan- ing seconds, missing what could have been the win- for just the second time in 15 years.
Patterson has completed 66 percent of his passes for 2,177 yards with 18 touchdowns and just four interceptions. He can throw from the pocket or on the move, running the play called or one he improvises.
“I can’t say we rehearsed some of the things that come about in a game, especially the times when you see him scramble and make that throw across the body and across the field,” assistant head coach Pep Hamilton said. “I pretty much cringe every time that happens, but he seems to come out on the right side of it.”
Patterson has run for 255 yards and two scores, keep- ing the ball after faking handoffs in read-option plays that have become increasingly more effective.
“You need him to make a play, he makes it,” Harbaugh said. “Whether it’s throw- ing or running or not turning a bad play into a worse play. He’s got a great feel, talent and energy for the game. Love his focus. Love his intensity.” ning score in a wild game Michigan won 40-34.
A year later, Miller threw for 189 yards and a touchdown while running for 57 yards (and absorbing four sacks) in a 26-21 victory that closed out an undefeated season.
(Trotwood Madison grad Roy Roundtree caught a 75-yard touchdown pass for the Wolverines on this day. Roundtree also caught nine passes for 116 yards in the 2009 game.)
In 2013, Miller had 133 yards passing, 153 yards rushing and five total touchdowns as Ohio State won another wild one, this time 42-41 in Ann Arbor.
The final tally: Miller completed 34 of 58 passes for 557 yards with five touchdowns through the air and added another 310 yards rushing and four touchdowns as a quarterback.
Swensons bags CLEVELAND — cluttered the buffet area in the Lakers locker room, and even a skeptical Josh Hart was persuaded to ditch what he was eating and try one of Akron’s famous hamburgers.
“What’s on here?” Hart asked, apparently satisfied with the locals’ response of “special sauce.”
In the corner, LeBron James sat munching on a Galley Boy, what looked like onion rings and sipping on a banana milkshake — “the only kind to get” — as he talked to an old friend in the Cleveland media.
James’ second homecom- ing after leaving the Cavaliers again in free agency was nothing like the first.
There was danger and fear in the air when James came back with the Miami Heat on Dec. 2, 2010, with fans angry and ready to fight after James announced his decision on national television.
When he returned with the Lakers on Wednesday,
liers fans welcomed him with love and adulation after he led the team to the last four NBA Finals and ended the city’s 52-year championship drought in 2016.
The entire day, James cocooned himself in com- fort. He visited his I Prom- ise School. He stopped at his Bath Township home for his pregame meal and nap. He wore a St. Vincent-St. Mary-themed pair of Nike 7 sneakers for the game. He ate Swensons.
“I’m good. I’ve got my hometown food,” he said.
James departed in July after playing 11 of his 15 seasons with the Cavs, choosing Los Angeles because that’s where his wife, Savannah, and three children wanted to live.
For this return, no one was throwing batteries or cheer- ing “Akron Hates You!” like they did in 2010. The Cavs played a classy tribute video during a timeout with 8:09 left in the first quarter, and James received a standing ovation. After it he saluted the crowd, pointing his finger in the air several times.
James didn’t see all of the video because Lakers coach Luke Walton was drawing up a play.
“I had to pay attention slightly. I didn’t want to miss that and mess up the play coming out of timeout. But