Jeremy Miller’s first taste of the rivalry between The Ohio State University and the University of Michigan came while boarding the school bus in elementary school. Confronted by a horde of rowdy second graders, he was forced to make a choice: Was he an Ohio State or Michigan fan?
“I had to pick a side that day, and I chose Ohio State, because … we live in Ohio,” Miller said.
“As the bus starts picking up more kids, it starts getting a little bit more rowdy, both sides yelling at each other, ‘Ohio State,’ ‘Go Blue,’ ‘Ohio State,’ ‘Go Blue.’”
Jack Mewhort remembers the same pressure.
“Growing up in Toledo, Ohio, the rivalry was a big deal, kind of a split town as far as the game goes,” Mehort said. “I remember going to school when I was younger, and it was like a holiday: Ohio State-Michigan day, kids would wear their jerseys, and it was just a big day.”
But Mewhort remembers gravitating more toward Michigan’s blue and maize than Ohio’s scarlet and gray.
Both boys grew up in Northwest Ohio, and both would end up attending St. John’s Jesuit High School in Toledo. But in defiance of their younger selves’ leanings, Miller would go on to become long snapper for the Wolverines from 1997-2001, and Mewhort the offensive tackle for the Buckeyes from 2009-2013.
But perhaps the side-swap shouldn’t be so surprising, given that the Ohio State-Michigan conflict has deep roots in Northwest Ohio.
The century-long rivalry, sometimes simply referred to as “The Game” by commentators, was especially salient for Miller as he grew up in the boondocks of Fulton County, Ohio. The county’s northern border marks the Ohio-Michigan state line, and before 1836, it made up part of the Toledo Strip, a narrow, 468-square-mile tract of land that stretched from the shore of Lake Erie to the border with Indiana. Both Ohio and Michigan laid claim to the territory due to conflicting geographical legislation.
The dispute culminated in the Toledo War (or perhaps more accurately, the Toledo “War”). After two years of bloodless conflict, the states finally came to an agreement: Ohio would gain control of the Toledo Strip in exchange for Michigan receiving statehood, including the entire Upper Peninsula in its bounds.
While the Toledo War didn’t result in any casualties, it did feature an intense animosity between Ohio and Michigan. Militias were deployed, criminal penalties were assessed and there was some serious trash-talking between the two sides — all of which resurfaced a few decades later
when Ohio State and Michigan played their first game in 1897.
Before Mewhort, Miller coincidentally also attended St. John’s Jesuit High School in Toledo, where he played as a long snapper and spent long hours honing his technique. During a chance meeting, Miller’s highlight tape was shown to University of Michigan coaches, who recruited him with conditional scholarships if he became the starting player.
“I always had a desire to play college sports, but because I didn’t play at a regular position … I just didn’t know if it was a realistic option for me or not,” Miller said. “It wasn’t until Jeff Del Vern presented the opportunity for me to go to Michigan that … I was willing to take out student loans and really kind of bet on myself that, hey, I feel like I’m good enough that I can eventually earn a scholarship. If they’re telling me they’re going to give a scholarship to the starting long snapper, I think I could be that guy.”
Miller had already completed his career with the Wolverines when Mewhort was recruited by Jim Tressel during his junior year of high school.
“I saw it as an opportunity to play in my home state for the Buckeyes, which I thought was really cool,” Mewhort said. “And having grown up around the rivalry, it was special — at the time, Ohio State was winning in that game quite a bit, so it was cool to be wanted by the Buckeyes.”
Miller was on the team for five of the all-important Ohio State-Michigan games, where he witnessed the profound impact of “the greatest North American sports rivalry ever.”
“It’s such a revered rivalry that you just feel fortunate to play in that game, and you don’t want to do anything to tarnish your legacy and tarnish the feeling of that game,” Miller said.
Mewhort shared in the rewarding, physical nature of the rivalry, which also prepared him to play professionally after his time at OSU. He eventually played four seasons in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts.
“It served me very well as a high-pressure environment — always very loud, which is what you run into in a lot of NFL stadiums,” Mewhort said. “So having the opportunity to play at a level like that — our coaches always called it the biggest rivalry in all of sport — certainly served me well when I went to the next level and played in some big-time environments.”
Miller moved back home to put down roots in Toledo after his graduation, where he found that the rivalry never really left him. In what he describes as a “small town in a big city,” he’s formed a close community and is never far away from people who are interested in hearing about his experience.
“In this area, it’s such a big deal because we’re the epicenter of the rivalry with a good blend of fans,” Miller said. “I tell my college buddies, if you really want to experience the rivalry, you need to come to Toledo, because nowhere in America has this divide between Ohio State and Michigan fans.”
Even after playing in the NFL, Mewhort still takes the college rivalry seriously.
“Maybe partially it’s because [the rivalry] has been so ingrained in me since I was young, but it’s tough for me to think of a rivalry that surpasses the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry,” Mewhort said.
The good-natured animosity certainly isn’t going away anytime soon — Mewhort predicts the Buckeyes will make a strong stand in the upcoming match on November 29.
“Obviously, I’m looking at it through scarlet-colored glasses, but I think the Buckeyes are going to show up to play. They realize the magnitude of what they have in front of them.”
Absolutely brilliant. Thank you for this.