The Victors
(№ 17) Michigan 40-34 Ohio State
10-2, Big Ten 6-2

I was an emotional wreck throughout, careening 'twixt exultation & desolation during the second half after doing a reasonably good job of keeping myself in check for much of the first. I am an unsociable brute during big games, swearing like a sailor & raving like a madman. The ice-thin veneer of my reserve was cracked by my mother's infuriating, plaintive cries of "Oh, no" whenever anything would go the way of the hated Buckeyes. I love her dearly, but in my fragile state her attempt at partisanship was a provocation I could resist for only so long; having no wish to hurl invective at the poor woman, I decamped from the family room, where I'd been watching alongside her & my father, to the splendid isolation of the living room. I lived & died with the valiant Wolverines' rising & falling fortunes, 'til at last a savage bellow of triumph escaped my lips when the hated Buckeyes' last chance ended in an interception. Victory!

Rightly or wrongly, today's game has exorcized many of the ghosts that have haunted the Maize & Blue soul since the death of our great hero, Coach Glenn "Bo" Schembechler, on the eve of the '06 game. The '11 valiant Wolverines are probably the worst ten-win Michigan team I've seen, but they are a ten-win team all the same; let's us not allow the better to be the enemy of the good. The true mark of the champion is not whether they win pretty or win ugly, but that they win, that they carry the day whatever the circumstances. The valiant Wolverines are not yet champions, but of them Schbechler's immortal words can rightly be uttered, "Those who stay will be champions."

There is surely more to say, but for the nonce let this suffice: Go Blue!

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
The University of Michigan Marching Band, "Temptation" from Hurrah for the Yellow and Blue (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: "You can't have one without the other. Ladies & gentlemen, the 'Hawaiian War Chant.'"

The University of Michigan Marching Band, "Hawaiian War Chant" from Hurrah for the Yellow and Blue (T.L.A.M.)