NORTHWESTERN 21, OHIO STATE 0
| November 1, 1958 |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F |
| Ohio State | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Northwestern | 0 | 0 | 7 | 14 | 21 |
The world was topsy-turvy in 1958.
Eisenhower sent the U.S. Marines into Lebanon. Mao Tse-tung launched
China's "Great Leap Forward." France's Fourth Republic fell in a
military coup d'etat. Richard Nixon was jostled and spat upon
by an angry crowd while riding in an Edsel in Peru. The United States
were numbered as 48.
Cadillacs had fins. Gas was 30 cents a gallon. The U.S. answered the
Soviet Union's launching of Sputnik with the Explorer satellite.
Sheb Worley's Flying Purple People Eater hit the airwaves. The hula hoop craze spread across the land. Moviegoers saw Gigi and The Fly.
And for the fifth and very last time, the Buckeyes lost in Evanston.
Ara Parseghian with Mike Stock, Ron Burton, Jim Andreotti and Gene Gossage
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The Ohio State Buckeyes had won the 1958 Rose
bowl and were ranked #3 when they came into Evanston to meet a young
Wildcat team, winless in its previous season and looking for a
Homecoming win.
It was a game that the Buckeyes head coach Woody Hayes would never forget.
Northwestern head coach Ara Parseghian, like Woody Hayes before him,
had been the head coach at Miami University of Oxford, Ohio. Their
successes, and those of others, led to the use of the moniker "Cradle
of Coaches" for Miami.
Ara had inherited a football program in shambles. No better measure
could be found than the fact that the Wildcats had not beaten the
Buckeyes since their glorious Rose bowl year of 1948. Ara was
rebuilding with his hand picked recruits, and in 1958 they were coming
into their own. He had only 2 seniors in his starting lineup, alongside
6 juniors and 3 sophomores (the equivalent of today's freshmen)
including his starting quarterback. Leather helmets were gone, but the
starters still played both ways.
A sellout crowd of 51,102 watched from the stands of Dyche Stadium
as the Wildcats stunned the Buckeyes and the football world by handing
Ohio State its first loss in 15 games. The loss did more than break a
streak – it broke the hitherto unbeaten dogma of Woody Hayes that ball
control and offensive rushing power were the keys to gridiron victory.
The game certainly began as a battle of ball control. Neither team
was able to score, but the Buckeyes were in trouble as they fought the
superior Northwestern defense. They were never able to get two
consecutive first downs by rushing.
Late in the third quarter, the Wildcats went to work from their
34-yard line. Sophomore quarterback Dick Thornton threw a forward pass
to Irv Cross that was incomplete. On the following play, junior
halfback Ron Burton streaked down the center of the field and caught
Thornton's pass in stride at the Buckeyes' 35-yard line, cut to his
right and out ran his pursuit down the west sideline to the end zone.
Burton's speed, not power, had broken the dam. The PAT was good.
The Buckeyes responded and drove to the Wildcats' 18-yard line.
Resorting to the forward pass, quarterback Frank Kremblas came up empty
and the 'Cats took over on downs.
The Wildcats later gained possession on downs at the Ohio State
44-yard line. "The Unstoppable" Buckeyes fullback Bob White had needed
but a yard for a first down, but the 'Cats defensive line held him to
no gain. Four plays later, from the Buckeyes 33, Dick Thornton faked an
inside run and turned the right corner. He was caught from behind by
Ohio State's Jim Houston at the 1. On the next play, Thornton ran
through the Buckeyes' defensive right guard for the score. The PAT
failed and the Wildcats led 13-0.
With only 6:25 left to play, time was running out on Woody Hayes and
he had to abandon his game plan. In desperation, he resorted to the
forward pass. He had always said that when you throw a forward pass
only three things can happen, and two of them are bad. He got hit with
the worst of the two.
Dick Thornton intercepted Frank Kremblas' forward pass at the
Buckeyes 47 and returned it to the 20. On third down, Thornton ran to
the 5. On third and goal from the 3, Thornton tossed his second
touchdown pass of the day to sophomore Elbert Kimbrough, who had
slipped behind his coverage. The 'Cats lined up for the 2 point
conversion, and Thornton found Burton in the end zone. Wildcats 21,
Buckeyes 0.
The team carried Ara from the field on their shoulders. The jubilant
crowd stormed the turf and headed for the north goal post, only to be
stopped by the Evanston police. They turned and ran in a melee to the
south goal post, and tore part of it off.
The 'Cats were full of praise for each other and their superior
conditioning in their postgame comments. There was a lot of talk about
the desire to win – and the insistence of the injured center Jim
Andreotti and fullback Mike Stock to play.
"We wanted to win it so bad", said Thornton, "partly because of last
year, and because Ohio was ranked third and everybody expected them to
beat us. Ohio is a very good ball club but with our desire and
determination we didn't care who we were playing."
Woody Hayes
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Ron Burton echoed the sentiment. "This is one
we wanted. We're a good solid team, with some good linemen, and some
backs who can run. We made some mistakes, but I think we'll do alright
the rest of the year because these boys want to win."
Jim Andreotti said that one big reason they wanted the win was "for
Ara, who is from Ohio, and because so many (18) of the boys are from
Ohio."
In the visitors' locker, Woody Hayes opened the 1958 vintage of
Buckeye Whine. It was key Ohio boys – all of whom had said "no" to
Woody – that made the difference. Ron Burton, Willmer Fowler, Ray
Purdin, Gene Gossage, Andy Cvercko, Dewitt Hoopes and Mike Stock – "How
do they get away?" moaned Woody. "There wasn't a single Ohio boy that
played for N.U. that we didn't want. We wanted Burton as bad as we ever
wanted anyone."
"It was the kind of a game that was made for one play," Hayes added.
"They got it when Thornton hit Burton with that touchdown pass. If we
had scored first, we'd have won. Scored first," he reflected, "we
didn't score at all, did we?"
"And don't forget," wagged Woody, "Ara Parseghian is a transplanted Buckeye."
Woody would go on to many Big Ten titles, Rose Bowls and a national
championship. He could never deal with losing and forever held a
special hatred of losing to Northwestern. In the end his inability to
handle losing would cause him to go out as a disgrace to the sport, his
school and above all, himself.
The "Era of Ara" had begun for Northwestern, and the 'Cats would
rise to a brief stint as the top team in the nation. Ara would move on
to Notre Dame, a national championship and a special place in the
pantheon of its coaching greats. A title would elude the Wildcats for
decades.
But on that crisp first day of November, when the old and the new
cultures of football would collide, when the two Ohio hands would meet,
it was the Wildcats who were the winners.
Scoring
Third Quarter
NU Burton, 66-yard touchdown pass from Thornton. (Thornton kick)
Fourth Quarter
NU Thornton, 1-yard run. (PAT failed)
NU Kimbrough, 3-yard pass from Thornton. (Burton, pass from Thornton)
Statistics
Ohio State Northwestern
First Downs 9 14
Rushing 7 11
Passing 2 3
YARDS GAINED 207 356
Rushing 136 234
Passing 51 122
FORW PASS ATT 14 10
Completed 2 5
Had intercepted 1 0
Interception return against 27 0
PUNTS 7 6
Average 37.3 37.3
KICK RETURN YARDS 90 35
FUMBLES 1 5
Lost 0 2
PENALTIES 1 5
Yards 15 35
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