Michigan Wolverine Football: The Frozen, Forgotten 1964 UM-OSU Game

Posted at 4:00pm — 11/27/2014

Michigan Wolverine Football: The Frozen, Forgotten 1964 UM-OSU Game

From the archives — The Frozen, Forgotten 1964 UM-OSU Game

Perhaps to provide some positive emotions, below is an article from several years ago under our history group. GBMWolverine History 2011 – A Moment Frozen in Time – The 1964 Michigan – Ohio State Game

The game could be called the freeze bowl. It really is a moment forgotten in time, but an interesting read. The game was for the Big Ten Championship, a not that common event in the 1960’s as Michigan football for the better part of the decade suffered from a lack of support from the Michigan community. The day and age brought about the specter of bashing athletics at big institutions, and this was the in thing to do for the academic elites. For some it is still a pastime.

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Ohio State ran into such faculty opposition in 1961, when in a shocker the faculty reps voted not to send one of the best Ohio State teams ever to the Rose Bowl. The stated reasons were that the game was not of educational value, cost the university money, took money away from other programs, and served as a vacation for football families and selected dignitaries. The underlying reason is that faculty resented the image of Ohio State as a football factory. Today, no university, sans a scandal or major disciplinary reason, could turn down the millions now guaranteed for a major bowl. Such an event never has occurred at Ohio State since. This led to a dry period in Ohio State history from 1962 to 1968.

Michigan had a similar dry spell in the 1960’s with a down time and attendance dwindled to the 60,000 range at the Big House. Michigan was rescued by the late and truly great athletic director, Don Canham, who used his guile to market as no one had beforehand. His first important decision was to hire a guy named Bo.

But the year 1964 broke that string of tough times in the mid 1960’s as Michigan and Ohio State played for the Big Ten title in Columbus, Ohio. It was cold, and that is why I call it the freeze bowl. How cold was it? I know how cold it was as I was there.

There had been snow and an arctic freeze hit Columbus. The sky was clear and it was sunny, but the wind was 25 miles per hour at gust peaks. First-aid personnel reported the temperature at 6 degrees when I first arrived at the stadium.

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I worked the first aid area for years as a scout. Ohio State allowed a group of scouts to usher in those days, days long gone as urchins like me did not pay an admission fee. After ushering for two hours before the game, my assignment was to work first aid assisting the doctors and nurses for the first quarter. Then, I was allowed to go anywhere in the stadium and sit in an empty seat or in the aisle. The first-aid insignia armband gave me this privilege. It was assumed I would be smart enough not to irritate the patrons. As only about eight scouts had this clearance out of a few hundred, I behaved.

That day was a tough choice, go or stay at home. People smarter than me stayed home. The bus left promptly at 9:30 and I made the choice to honor my responsibilities and board the bus. I put on everything I owned practically and thought I would be well protected and ready for the game. But I was stopped by Grandma who put a scarf on me, as well as a full face hat, as well as thermal socks, as well as two pairs of gloves. I protested the scarf and left it at home.

It did not take long to realize that the day would be one of survival, literal survival. There was no wind chill factor back then, but people could make the clear determination that it was cold. The estimate was about -30 wind chill by today’s measurement.

I watched both teams warm-up, dressed as well as possible. I could not wait for my favorite part of working first aid: hot chocolate. And so I was finished with ushering and went to the first aid room, but no hot chocolate, the patrons had finished it off in minutes and no one had the foresight to figure out a ton of people would want to stay warm on a 6 degree day. Even the concessions ran out of hot chocolate in a flash.

In the first aid room it was cold. There were no plug in heaters or other help and the concrete and steel of Ohio Stadium has always been cold.

The second quarter started and I went straight to the back of B deck and hid behind a beam behind a corner that cut the swilling wind. Still, it was cold, cold by the second. But on the sideline stood a smiling Woody Hayes in a short sleeve white shirt and his famous tie.

Bob Timberlake was the Michigan quarterback and he was clearly the best player on the team and on the field that day. He was the difference in the game as Michigan won 10-0. There was not much of note: running plays were basic and passing plays were short, guys stopped on the whistle, and defenses wanted to get off the field to get warm. At least on the Michigan side players could stay warm.

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The attendance was announced in the 50,000 range, maybe 55,000 at the most, the lowest attendance at Ohio Stadium for the last few decades. This rivaled the attendance at the famous snow bowl of 1950. Things were honest back then and only the attending patrons were counted in the attendance figure. Well, almost honest as I entered through a gate where scouts, ushers, and venders were counted one by one. The old shoe held about 78,000 but the attendance was usually 80 or 81 thousand. Later, the south stands were increased time and again until about 90,000 could be put in the shoe.

Wiki-wacky pedia lists the crowd at over 100,000 for the 1964 game, an impossible number since the old shoe held 80,000.

Timberlake was a great Wolverine, but his glory passed quickly, like the game, into obscurity. He did not play pro football but became a minister. I thought it was kind of neat to have a quarterback who threw the ball, regardless of the teachings of Coach Hayes.

I enjoyed the game but by the fourth quarter had to go back to the first aid room to be treated for frostbite, mainly the face and toes. But that is the first time I took away from the game a great respect for Michigan football.

To this day some maintain that day in 1964 is the root cause of my cerebral difficulties. Me, I thought, therefore I did., go to the game that is.

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Written by GBMWolverine Staff — Doc4Blu

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