Snow Bowl (1950)
| The Snow Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | November 25, 1950 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1950 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Ohio Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Columbus, Ohio | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 79,868 | ||||||||||||||||||
The Snow Bowl was a college football game played on November 25, 1950 between the teams of the University of Michigan and the Ohio State University. The Michigan Wolverines defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes, 9–3, earning the Big Ten Conference championship and a berth in the 1951 Rose Bowl. The game was one of the most noted in the storied history of the Michigan–Ohio State football rivalry.
The Big Ten Conference football championship in the 1950 college football season was on the line. The Wolverines were playing also for a berth in the 1951 Rose Bowl game. Ohio State had gone the previous year; the Big Ten Conference had a no-repeat rule regarding the Rose Bowl representative at that time. If Michigan had lost this game, the likely Rose Bowl representative would have been second place Wisconsin, which finished with a 5–2 record. If the game had not been played, which was a proposal put forth at game time, Ohio State would have been the Big Ten champion.
The game was played at Ohio Stadium, in Columbus, Ohio under severe weather that altered the normal playing of the game dramatically. The conditions were deplorable with the temperature at 10 degrees, winds gusting to 28 miles per hour out of the northwest and snow falling at two inches per hour. Snow banks lined the field, yard lines were obliterated and at times so, too, were the goal posts.
Before the game, Ohio State coach Wes Fesler and OSU athletic director Dick Larkins went to talk to Michigan athletic director Fritz Crisler and coach Bennie Oosterbaan about whether or not to play the game. Neither Fesler nor Oosterbaan wanted to play the game and Crisler indicated that Michigan would forfeit but would not reschedule the game. Larkins would not accept the forfeit and the game proceeded as scheduled.
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