Hitchhiking past big game 40 years ago

That Ohio State visits Michigan in their annual Big Ten grudge match, brings back fond memories.

One in particular.

It was 1971, yours truly was a few months out of college at Bowling Green State University, working construction and feeling fancy free.

So that Saturday morning, I got on nearby I-75 and began hitchhiking north to see a buddy in Pontiac, Mich.

Hitchhiking then wasn't as dangerous as it is now.

Time was I thumbed rides across New Jersey, where I grew up, from Jersey to Florida and from Jersey to Ohio when I missed my ride back to school.

Bumming a ride that Saturday morning almost 40 years ago was easy.

It was only a 90-mile jaunt and it seemed like half the Buckeye state was heading to Ann Arbor.

This was the fourth game in the "Ten-Year War" between Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler, a series during which Ohio State and Michigan were both ranked in the AP's top five before their matchup between 1970 and 1975.

Anyway, I got close enough to Ann Arbor before I was dropped off.

But there were so much traffic heading into Ann Arbor, I l had to stand literally in the middle of I-75 to thumb my next ride because the two right hand lanes of the interstate were backed up as far as the eye could see.

But I made it to my pal's place in time to watch the rest of the game.

Michigan won, 10-7.

But the game is probably best remembered for Woody ripping apart a downmarker after Wolverine All-America running back Billy Taylor scored the winning TD in the final two minutes.

Oh, yeah, those were the days.