Arizona’s season opener against NAU at Arizona Stadium on Sept. 2 is 20 days away. To go along with the countdown to kickoff, this site will publish the Top 50 games in Wildcat football history.
NO. 20
SCORE: Arizona Wildcats 14, Ohio State Buckeyes 7
DATE: Sept. 30, 1967
SITE: Columbus, Ohio, 77,468 in attendance (largest crowd to attend an Arizona game at that time)
WHY IT MADE THE LIST: This was a benchmark game for the program in that it showed Arizona could compete on a national basis against a team from a power conference — the Big Ten. The Wildcats, from the WAC, were coming off a humbling 36-17 loss to Wyoming two weeks previously in Tucson. Ohio State, coached by the legendary Woody Hayes, had not lost a home opener to an unranked opponent in the program’s history. All indications pointed to a potential rout by the Buckeyes, even though Ohio State was coming off a 4-5 season in 1966. They entered the game as 13-point favorites over the Wildcats.
Arizona Daily Star clipping from when Arizona upset Ohio State and Woody Hayes in the Buckeyes’ 1967 season opener.
In a story published by ArizonaWildcats.com in 2007, former Arizona linebacker Olden Lee recalled the motivation the Wildcats drew from watching a television interview with Hayes the day before the game was played at the famous horseshoe-shaped stadium in Columbus.
“We came in to Columbus on Friday evening before the game,” Lee told ArizonaWildcats.com. “And it isn’t hard to remember the thing that sticks out the most from that trip. We were sitting around the hotel watching television and pretty soon they were interviewing Woody. He was talking about the tradition Ohio State had, of winning its first game each season.
“The interviewer said something like, ‘Well, Coach, do you tend to schedule a weaker opponent for the opener?’ And Woody didn’t necessarily confirm it — but he didn’t do a lot to dispel it, either.”
The front page of the Arizona Republic the day after Arizona upset Ohio State in Columbus in 1967
Ohio State, it appeared, did not get motivated from some fighting words from Arizona coach Darrell Mudra before the game.
“If I were Woody Hayes, I wouldn’t be too excited about playing us,” Mudra was quoted as saying by Sports Illustrated.
With the score tied at 7, Mudra sent in a power play to the right side, with Wayne Edmonds, who had scored the first Arizona touchdown, carrying the ball. But after breaking the huddle, reserve quarterback Bruce Lee — substituting for ineffective starter Marc Reed in the second quarter — whispered “bootleg” to Edmonds.
Lee took the snap, faked to Edmonds and put the ball on his hip. Split end Tim DeWan blocked the only Ohio State player between Lee and the goal line, and Lee darted into the end zone. Arizona led 14-7 and the Wildcats were on their way to victory as the defense stifled Ohio State following a first-quarter score by the Buckeyes.
“We did not run well at all,” Hayes was quoted as saying by The Arizona Republic. “Our inability to run the ball against their defense is what beat us … the middle of the Arizona defense was darned good. They outplayed us and deserved to win.”
Mudra, in the Arizona Republic article, said: “Our guys blitzed a good deal. We watched last year’s films of Ohio State’s games and ran the same way Washington did (in a 38-22 win at Columbus). We expected to win here.”
The game was played in front of the biggest crowd (77,468) to see a Wildcat game as well as providing the school with its biggest paycheck ($62,000 after expenses).
Former Tucson Citizen sports columnist Corky Simpson wrote in 1997 about an episode with Hayes and a member of the media after the game.
The game program of Ohio State’s home opener in 1967, spoiled by the Arizona Wildcats
Fuming from the defeat, Hayes was asked a question by Citizen sports editor Carl Porter that drew the coach’s ire.
Simpson wrote: ”What kind of (bleeping) question is that?” roared the Ohio State coach, drawing back a fist (probably similar to what he showed in the accompanying YouTube video in the 1978 Gator Bowl, which led to his firing).
Porter braced himself “but scrawny little (UA sports information director) Frank Soltys jumped in between us and calmed Woody down,” Porter said. ”That typified Frank. He wasn’t afraid of his own athletic department, and he darn sure wasn’t afraid of Woody Hayes.”
Hayes was feeling the heat from Buckeye fans. Following the losing season in 1966, the season-opening loss to Arizona and 2-3 start in 1967 created some restlessness in Columbus. Ohio State media to this day compare the loss to Arizona as something similar to Michigan losing its season opener to Appalachian State in 2007 because the Wildcats were in the WAC.
The Buckeyes won their last four games in 1967 to finish 6-3 while Arizona stumbled with only two more wins and inexplicably finished 3-6-1 under Mudra in his first season.
“You know, you remember a lot of things from your college days,” Olden Lee told ArizonaWildcats.com, “and most of them are good. But what bothered me the most from the time I was at UA was, we didn’t have a winning season.
“So the Ohio State win was big, but it’s hard to say you did something special when you didn’t have a winning football season. Great as that victory was, we’d rather have won it in the Western Athletic Conference.”
Arizona’s win over Ohio State is significant when factoring the Wildcats’ lack of success against teams from the Big Ten region before that game. Furthermore, the Buckeyes, with many of the same players, went undefeated the following season and were crowned national champions.
The Wildcats ventured to Notre Dame, Marquette and Big Ten locales 10 times before 1967 and were 0-9-1. They were outscored 322-61 in games against Marquette (four times), Notre Dame, Michigan State (twice), Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa. Those games were the easternmost Arizona had traveled to that point. Michigan State also played Arizona in Tucson in 1949 and dealt the Wildcats their worst loss in school history 75-0.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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