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Ohio State

AJ Hawk recalls earliest memories of 'The Game'

Wade-Peeryby: Wade Peery11/30/24
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Photo by John Konstantaras/Getty Images

There are few rivalries in sports that come with the intensity of the Ohio State-Michigan football game. Known as ‘The Game’, few teams hate each other with the passion and intensity quite like the Buckeyes and Wolverines do. And the stakes have been extremely high with this game over the years. On The Triple Option podcast with Rob Stone, Hawk discussed his earliest memories of the OSU-Michigan game.

“Yeah, I mean, I grew up about an hour and 15 minutes from Columbus, and I grew up definitely an Ohio State fan, but I didn’t end up going to any games until I was in high school when I was being recruited. I was always playing my sports on the weekends really,” Hawk began.

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“And I and watching the games when I could. So, I definitely knew what the week was like, in elementary school we had different themes every day leading up to and all that. but I didn’t really understand it until I got the themes in elementary school. Like each day I think you would dress up as a different, like for your different favorite player on the team on Ohio State or whatever it was. And there was like different themes of Scarlet and Gray and what you would wear throughout the week,” Hawk continued.

“So, I knew I understood it a little bit, but until I got on campus coach Tress will tell us about it and teach us the history of it and the whole week leading up to it. And then actually playing in my first game, like we won to go 13-0 at home. I was a true freshman, we knew we were going to the national championship after we beat Michigan 14-9, like talk about Tressel old school, ball control, defense,” Hawk continued.

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“And I remember the whole the whole everybody empties onto the field, and, you know, you couldn’t even move. It was so chaotic, and I randomly ran into my mom and my brother on the field with 50,000 people roaming the field right there, and I remember like, oh, we’re going to the national championship. I’m like, oh, this is this is, uh, I guess that this is what this game is. So, yeah, I was lucky to have a great start,” Hawk finished.

Michigan and Ohio State prepare to square off this Saturday in The Game, one of the biggest rivalries in all of college athletics. Kickoff is set for noon EST and the game will be nationally televised on FOX from Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.