Golf is the most difficult sport to cover because the action is all over the course. It takes a little knack and a lot of luck to be in the right place at the right time, to catch a charging player at the beginning of a string of birdies or to be on the spot for his or her fatal error. For the final round especially, it’s better just to stay home and watch it all on television.
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The idea of watching a game one knows the outcome of might seem ridiculous to some people, but not to me. After all, great plays, books, and music can be enjoyed time after time. Besides, I have to admit to an element of sadism: it’s always a pleasure watching Michigan get beat, and knowing for certain they’re going to be beaten adds an extra sweetness. I remember an NU-Michigan game I saw years back, and the bullying pride those male cheerleaders–the golden blond “Michigan men” in their “maize and blue”–took in the drubbing their team was inflicting, doing pushups to tally the new total every time Michigan scored. If Michigan even bothered sending its band and cheerleaders to this year’s NU game–despite the upstart Wildcats’ 5-1 record in conference play–the ABC telecast never showed them. Yet I imagined the Michigan men doing those pushups all game long, 7 and then 14 and then 21 and 28 and on up to 51–all for naught. Take that, Michigan men.
Northwestern won the coin toss, dismissed the vagaries of the wind and weather, and received. Under second-year coach Randy Walker, the Wildcats have gone to a spread-out attack that’s run up-tempo and without huddles by quarterback Zak Kustok (what a name for a football player!), who takes signs from the sideline (sometimes the coaches seemed to be acting out two maids a-milking) and then relays them to his offense by running up to the line and then back into shotgun formation like a little terrier who scurries along a fence barking at anything that goes by. Michigan was coming off back-to-back shutouts and hadn’t allowed a first-quarter touchdown all season, but Northwestern romped down the field in a series of plays that looked like the Notre Dame box-formation montage in Knute Rockne–All-American, scoring on a quarterback sneak by Kustok to draw first blood.
Northwestern again converted a third down with the help of a penalty–this one a face-mask. They drove on and scored on a scramble by Kustok. The Cats were back within a field goal now at 45-43, and the Wolverines looked rattled; they gave up the ball right away, Dwayne Missouri giving Henson a vicious hit and Javiar Collins recovering the fumble. Northwestern then kicked a field goal, and the Cats were back in front for the first time since they led 7-0. On third and nine, Henson hit Terrell on another square-out to get the first down, and hit him again on a quick-pop pass to put the ball on the goal line (alas, poor Blackmon!). Thomas’s end run put Michigan back in front, 51-46. Blackmon saved some small amount of face by swatting away a pass on a two-point conversion attempt.
Northwestern fans should have known reality would eventually intrude when they tried to tear down the Dyche Stadium (please, not Ryan Field) goalposts after the Michigan game and the posts wouldn’t budge. But anyone who doubted or still doubts the outcome, believing that it might have been some collective dream of Chicago sports fans, can look for the game again as it joins the ranks of immortal contests running to infinity on ESPN Classic. If this wasn’t the greatest college football game of all time it was still one for the ages, and it’s destined to live forever on cable TV.
