Momma Loves Poppa

To the casual observer, the roaring bedlam in Ohio Stadium a fortnight ago was just another football game. To the Hearst papers' Bill Corum, it was a sociological phenomenon. Columnist Corum easily saw through the trickery of the T, the brute power of the single wing, and discovered the real difference between Michigan and Ohio State. Buckeye superiority, he decided, rested on an institution a good deal older than football: marriage.

After that, it came as no surprise that an unnamed Michigan "undergraduate" wrote a conveniently column-length letter to Corum explaining why Michigan lost. "This was a game between the Married Men, Ohio State, and the Single Men, us," wrote Corum's correspondent. "Of course, we have some married men, too. but we just didn't have enough of 'em. [There are only four married men on the Michigan squad, twelve on Ohio State's.] . . .

"The score was tied 7-7 at half time. In the second half the Buckeye fans started singing the Ohio State song, which is Momma Loves Poppa. This haunting old college song sure did stir up those Ohio State players. Right away you could see them stiffen their backs and begin to bow their necks. I guess those State players got to .thinking that they didn't want to be hearing all winter how the Little Women had missed a trip to Los Angeles just because they weren't men enough to beat us Wolverines.

"They might also have been thinking that if they didn't beat us, they might wind up with a can of beans and franks for Thanksgiving dinner. A thing like that can bring out the college spirit in a man mighty fast. Anyhow, the Buckeyes settled down like steady-going married men checking over the monthly bills on the first of the month and [in the second half] they took charge and beat us pretty handily."

They did indeed. In just ten minutes the married Buckeyes scored two touchdowns and made sure that their wives would get that trip to the Rose Bowl.

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