Ohio State and Michigan played for the Big Ten championship on Nov. 25, 1950, in Columbus. The game was played in a blizzard and is known in the history of that great rivalry as the "Snow Bowl."
There were 45 punts in the game, and Michigan won 9-3. Soon thereafter, Wes Fesler quit as the Buckeyes coach, and then wound up at Minnesota.
This was a stunning career move, since Fesler's Buckeyes had come into Memorial Stadium and clobbered the Gophers 48-0 in October 1950. It was the defeat that created the downhill momentum for a 1-8 season and led to Bernie Bierman being run off as Minnesota's coach.
This put Fesler in the historical position of replacing Bierman, a winner of five national titles, at Minnesota, and being replaced by a legend-to-be, Woody Hayes, at Ohio State.
The schools controlled schedules -- conference and other games -- back then. I'm not sure if Fesler was influential in this, but starting in 1951, the Gophers and the Buckeyes did not play for 14 seasons.
Fesler lasted only three years in Minnesota. Murray Warmath came in from Mississippi State in 1954.
Warmath, 97, was in attendance for the Gophers and Buckeyes on Saturday night. He did not have a precise reason that the Gophers and the Buckeyes went so long without a game.
Dick Larson, a player and then an assistant coach for Warmath, said through an intermediary: "I know that Murray and Woody were very good friends. If we played a team right after Ohio State had played it, Woody would send Murray the film and a playbook with the plays circled that had worked. And Murray would do the same for Woody."