The parallels would have been unmistakable.
In 1969, a brash new Michigan coach had arrived on the scene, instilling toughness in his team and bringing new hope to the program. Going into the final game of the season, the Wolverines had two losses, including one to Michigan State in conference play, but had generally exceeded expectations.
That same year, Ohio State was the defending national champions. The Buckeyes brought so many players back from the '68 title squad that many declared them one of the best teams of all time. They had a 22-game winning streak under the most feared coach in the Big Ten.
Michigan pulled off the 24-12 upset, igniting the Ten Year War between Bo Schembechler and Woody Hayes that took the rivalry to new heights.
This week's version of The Game was shaping up as a possible mirror image of the '69 edition -- until Michigan State beat Ohio State 17-14 last week in Columbus, Ohio, snapping the defending champion Buckeyes' 23-game winning streak.
That result was in itself instructive. Since the moment Jim Harbaugh returned to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to resurrect his alma mater, people have been ready to declare the start of a new Ten Year War between Harbaugh and Ohio State's Urban Meyer. But the conditions for combat have changed in the conference.
Start with Michigan State. The Spartans are an elite program now, and they've beaten both the Wolverines and the Buckeyes on the road already this season to gain control of the Big Ten East Division. To assume that Meyer and Harbaugh will simply rotate league titles for the next decade, as Hayes and Schembechler did between 1969 and 1978, would disrespect what Mark Dantonio has done for MSU and ignore current reality.
"It's not like it was back then when Michigan and Ohio State totally dominated," said Jim Brandstatter, the Wolverines' longtime radio voice who played on those 1969 Wolverines. "It would be much more difficult this day and age to have that kind of Ten Year War, because there are five or six teams in this conference that can knock you off on any given Saturday. I don't think that between '69 and '78, you could say the same thing."
Still, it's fun to imagine how intense this rivalry will be with Harbaugh and Meyer on opposite sidelines -- and marvel at the similarities they share with their famous predecessors.
Schembechler worked under Hayes at Ohio State before coming to Michigan, so the two men had a prior relationship. Harbaugh and Meyer don't have much personal history -- except that they were born in the same Toledo, Ohio, hospital, a little more than six months apart (Harbaugh in December 1963, Meyer in July 1964.
That means each got their first real taste of the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry during the Ten Year War.
"I remember almost all the games," Meyer said Tuesday. "I just remember the intensity and how the whole state shut down."
Harbaugh recalled going to his first Ohio State-Michigan game in 1973, sitting in the south end zone of the Big House. That was the infamous 10-10 tie, which led to a controversial vote by the league's athletic directors on which team would go to the Rose Bowl. The Buckeyes won the vote.
"That's still one of the greatest football games I've ever seen," Harbaugh said this week. "After that, I anticipated it every year. It was the best day of the year. Even better than Christmas."
Harbaugh, of course, played for Schembechler and embodies many of his former coach's traits. Dick Caldarazzo, an offensive lineman on Schembechler's first Michigan team, remembers talking with Harbaugh during spring practice earlier this year. He said Harbaugh talked about how he was "creating separation" -- i.e. figuring out which players were tough enough to play for him and which ones were not.
"That's just what Bo did," Caldarazzo said.
Schembechler famously said that he did something every week in that 1969 season to prepare for the Ohio State game. But his players were not aware of it at the time.
"He was so intense all the time," Caldarazzo said. "It didn't matter if we were playing Slippery Rock or if it was the first practice of the week on Tuesday. He had the same intensity.
"That first year, he treated us worse than s---. He made winter practice, spring practice and summer practice unbearable. It was boot camp. He wanted to toughen us up."
Sound like anyone familiar?
Yes, Harbaugh has much in common with his legendary mentor. But Caldarazzo notes that, "I see Bo in Jimmy. But I don't see Woody in Urban."
At first glance, Meyer and Hayes don't seem that much alike. Hayes was a grizzled World War II veteran who was as old-school tough as they came, while Meyer is much smoother in his public appearances.
But they both share the same passion for Ohio State, and Meyer's intensity rages just as strong as Hayes' did. He just internalizes it more than the irascible Hall of Famer whose career ended when he punched a Clemson player during a bowl game. (Some might say Meyer's offense in the Michigan State game resembled Hayes' conservative philosophy -- the Buckeyes averaged exactly three yards per rush, though there was nary a dust cloud in sight on a rainy afternoon).
Meyer and Harbaugh have already clashed on the recruiting trail, and there's little doubt that they are going to bring out the best -- or possibly -- the worst of each other in this rivalry. That's why so many are anxious to watch their first meeting Saturday; even if neither team may reach the Big Ten championship game in Year One, it should be the start of something big. Just as Hayes and Schembechler elevated the series with their clashes.
"I think clearly that was the high point of the rivalry, because of the personalities involved," Brandstatter said of the Ten Year War. "The players changed, the teams changed, but there was always Bo and Woody, always great games and even great controversy. All of that over the years created an almost bigger-than-life rivalry."
Harbaugh and Meyer likely will hog the spotlight because of their personalities, their recruiting acumen and the blue-blood programs which they are leading. Whether either one of them will still be in the same job 10 years from now is a major question, as both of them have burned themselves and/or others out at previous stops.
It's also very difficult to maintain a dynasty in modern college football, as Meyer found out for the second time in his career Saturday. Neither coach has yet to master Michigan State, which Penn State coach James Franklin said Tuesday is "maybe the top program in the conference right now." That's saying nothing about Penn State, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa and others.
"The 'Big Two, Little Eight,' I don't ever see that happening again," Meyer said.
Perhaps we're headed for a future of Big Ten skirmishes involving multiple combatants. The Harbaugh-Meyer will clearly be a headline duel for as long as it lasts. The potential is there for something epic.
"If it does become a Ten Year War, that will speak volumes," Brandstatter said.