PHOTO: Michigan’s Bo Schembechler (L) and Woody Hayes gathered before their annual Michigan-Ohio State showdown for the Big Ten title. Nine times out of 10 in the 1970s, the winner of their showdown went on to lose in the Rose Bowl.

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Visit my homepage: TomShanahan.Report

— Click here for review and purchase link: THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s and here for a purchase link to RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans.

— Watch a three-minute video to learn about our documentary at the fundraising stage, GAME CHANGERS OF THE CENTURY, and the Investment Deck.

— Documentary synopsis: Duffy documentary snynopsis.pdf – Google Drive

— How Duffy Daugherty and the MSU Team Changed College Football History

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By TOM SHANAHAN

Somewhere in the heavens, Michigan’s Bo Schembechler and Ohio State’s Woody Hayes gathered in the private suite they like to reserve for lunch at the Bombastic Coaches Club. They chuckled and slapped each other on the back.

Years earlier, Michigan State’s Duffy Daugherty strolled by the club intending to enter, but he was so busy telling jokes while thoroughly entertaining Hank Bullough and other assistant coaches with him, he didn’t notice “Bombastic” on the sign above the door. He only saw Coaches Club.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Daugherty,” said the doorman, turning away Duffy. “We can’t admit you. This is for bombastic coaches only.”

Bo and Woody, exalted members given red-carpet treatment, sat together and discussed the NCAA ruling against Michigan State football announced on Wednesday.

The Spartans were given three years of probation, recruiting restrictions and forced to vacate 14 wins in 2022, 2023 and 2024. The staff of former Michigan State coach Mel Tucker provided $10,764 in recruiting inducements. The vacated wins were for the players on the roster in those 14 wins, even though Jonathan Smith was the coach in 2024.

“Get this,” Bo said to Woody. “Among the wins Michigan State has to vacate is its 2023 game against Central Michigan at Spartan Stadium.”

“Yeah?” Woody replied, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s the game when Michigan assistant coach Connor Stallions was dressed as a Central Michigan coach on CMU’s sideline so he could study signs to steal. Remember, Woody, the NCAA didn’t vacate any Michigan wins – not to mention our 2023 national title. My boy Jim Harbaugh admitted nothing and failed to cooperate with the NCAA. Woody, you’d love Harbaugh’s style.”

Woody, with a left-handed swing at air that was similar to his infamous roundhouse punches at players, bellowed:

“This is 1975 all over again!”

“Yes, yes,” said Bo, Michigan’s coach from 1969 to 1989. “After Michigan State upset your No 1-ranked team in 1974 with talented players from Ohio, I fed the NCAA information on Michigan State recruiting violations. We didn’t want Michigan State reclaiming its Biggie Munn and Duffy Daugherty golden days.”

The NCAA launched an investigation of Michigan State in the spring of 1975. The Spartans were victims of David Berst, the NCAA Director of Enforcement. He was a hanging judge. In 1987, he handed Southern Methodist the death penalty, shutting down the Mustangs’ program.

In 1976, Berst slapped the Spartans with three-year bans from bowl games and TV. When Michigan State beat Michigan in 1978 and tied Michigan for the Big Ten title, the bowl ban sent Michigan to the Rose Bowl. Bo’s team suffered his fifth Rose Bowl loss and his third in a row for the decade.

“As Mark Twain said, ‘History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes,” said Woody, Ohio State’s coach from 1951 until connecting on a roundhouse punch at a Clemson linebacker at the 1978 Gator Bowl.

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Watch Woody Hayes punch Clemson linebacker Charlie Bauman on the Ohio State sideline at the 1978 Gator Bowl.

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Bo smiled as he chomped on a cigar. It was the same smug smile photographed after Bo and Michigan finally won a Rose Bowl, beating Washington in the 1981 New Year’s Day game. He acted as if he never lost his previous five Rose Bowl trips.

“This reminds me of what UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian said when he was always fighting with the NCAA and citing different levels of punishment for schools. He said, “The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky, it’s going to give Cleveland State another year of probation.”

“We got away with it,” said Woody, nodding his head satisfactorily. “The damage was done to Michigan State with those NCAA penalties. And then Spartans compounded their problems, hiring Muddy Waters, in 1980.”

Woody continued while ignoring he was long gone by 1980 and that George Perles revived the Spartans in the decade, including ending the Big Ten’s six-year Rose Bowl losing streak to the Pac-10. The 1987 Spartans beat USC in the 1988 Pasadena game.

“You did the dirty work, Bo, and I stood up at the 1977 Big Ten media day and lectured everyone about how we do things the right way in the Big Ten. I waved my arms and then curled them — as if I was pulling something to my chest – and said, ‘When one of our members gets out of line, we pull them back in.’

“And then I left, saying I had to visit a sick friend. That way I didn’t have to answer questions.”

A year earlier at Big Ten media day, Hayes sparred with two reporters who covered Michigan State about the NCAA probation.

“I remember the 1977 Big Ten media day, Woody. We were at the Palmer House in Chicago. All the coaches sat with us on a dais. We were the Big Two and the other coaches — whose schools weren’t keeping up with the times by investing in football like Michigan and Ohio State — were the Little Eight. Michigan State coach Darryl Rogers had to sit silently, squirming in his chair, while you pontificated and went on and on sanctimoniously.”

Woody didn’t like Bo saying “pontificated” and “sanctimoniously.” General George S. Patton was Woody’s hero. Patton didn’t pontificate, Woody believed. General Patton was right when he slapped that soldier with battle fatigue.

Woody gripped a chair near him. His temper was rising to the level when Bo was an Ohio State assistant coach on Woody’s staff. One day they argued in a staff meeting. Woody threw a chair at Bo. Bo threw it back.

Woody glared at Bo. He was thinking about the Big Ten’s 1-9 Rose Bowl record in the 1970s.

“You’re the one who lost five Rose Bowls and three straight in the 1970s. That’s when the national media started the national trend of ‘Big Ten Bashing.’ I won a Rose Bowl and only lost four.”

“Wait a minute, Woody. I suckered the Detroit media into labeling our annual Big Ten title showdowns as ‘The Ten Year War.’ They didn’t write about the 1-9 Rose Bowl record.

“Besides, none of my Michigan teams were ranked No. 1 when we lost a 1970s Rose Bowl. Ohio State was No 1 in 1975 and lost to No. 11 UCLA, 23-10, and you were No. 1 in 1979 and lost to No. 3 USC, 17-16.”

Bo added one more dig at Woody.

“Yeah, I never won a national title in 21 seasons, but at least I never cost my school a national title while fans coast to coast watched the Granddaddy of Them All. It was always the highest rated college game of the year in those days. Big Ten Bashing is your fault, Woody. Everybody was watching.”

Woody threw a chair at Bo.

Bo threw it back.

Both of their throws were incomplete. Then they picked up their chairs, sat down and finished lunch. They remembered they were there to delight over Michigan State’s NCAA punishment. They dismissed anyone bringing up the hypocrisy.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Michigan has a statue on campus of Bo Schembechler. Ohio State has a statue on campus of Woody Hayes.

It’s a disgrace in 2025 Michigan State doesn’t have a statue on campus of Duffy Daugherty, a two-time national championship coach whose 1960s teams led college football integration. Also, the Big Ten Coach of the Year Award is named for Schembechler and Hayes but there is no Big Ten award recognizing Daugherty changing the face of college football. Why?

Allow me to add a couple of notes … When I wrote for the State News, David Berst hung up on me, saying our paper wasn’t truthful. I considered Berst hanging up on me as a badge of honor. I was at the 1977 Big Ten media day at the Palmer House witnessing Woody pontificating.

Like everybody else with their college experience, sometimes it seems like yesterday. And other times you wonder how time went by so fast.

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I invite you to follow me on Twitter @shanny4055

I’ll put my facts on the true pioneers of college football integration versus Bear Bryant fairytales against anybody, anytime, anywhere. Watch here.

Click here for my story on the 1962 Rose Bowl and Segregation and Alabama.

— Tom Shanahan is an award-winning sportswriter with two books on college football integration, “RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans,” and “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s.” They are the most accurate accounts of college football integration in the 1950s and 1960s. They also debunk myths about the 1970 USC-Alabama game. The false narrative co-opted the stories of the true pioneers who stood up to Jim Crow and the KKK.

— Two children’s books also explain Michigan State College Football Hall of Fame coach Duffy Daugherty’s impact on integration through the Underground Railroad and the Hawaiian Pipeline: “DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD” and “HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP.”

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PURCHASE LINKS, non-fiction books

— RAYE OF LIGHT, August Publications or on Amazon.

— THE RIGHT THING TO DO, August Publications or on Amazon.

PURCHASE LINKS, children’s books

— DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, Order from Barnes and Noble here and Amazon here. 

— HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP, coming soon on Barnes and Noble and Amazon.