Glory Days: Beating Ohio State in back-to-back years made for everlasting memories

The Hoosiers had their way with Buckeyes during the late 1980s, winning in routs in 1987 and 1988, but it’s been a complete drought ever since.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — For a brief time — a very brief time — Indiana dominated its football series with Ohio State. In a four-year stretch from 1987 through 1990, the Hoosiers had two wins and a tie over their neighbors to the east — and they loved every minute of it.

“We had all the right pieces in place then,’’ said former Indiana cornerback Derrick Jackson, who’s now a high school football coach in Fort Myers, Fla. “We had the right personnel, the right game plans and, most of all, we just had a bunch of guys who played with a lot of passion. We were a very close groups during those years.

“And, of course, we had Bill Mallory.’’

Yes, they did. Mallory, the best football coach Indiana ever had, was a no-nonsense guy cut from the same cloth as legendary Ohio State coach Woody Hayes. He got guys to play hard and play with confidence, regardless of the opponent. And when he recruited future IU legends like running back Anthony Thompson and others, the Hoosiers were Big Ten contenders for several years in a row — and the big dogs, including Ohio State, paid the price.

It was really a six-year stretch of competitive games back then. The Hoosiers had monumental wins in 1987 and 1988 — more on those in a moment — but they also had great chances to win in 1986, when they lost 24-22 and in 1991, the year after the last tie game in the series.

It was a magical time for IU football, probably the longest stretch of excellence at any time in the 100 years-plus of the program’s often embarrassing history.

“No doubt, that was a great time for Indiana football,’’ said Don Fischer, the brilliant radio voice of the Hoosiers for the past 46 years. “Bill Mallory was an excellent football coach and those teams were fun to watch. That 1987 season was really special, because we beat Ohio State that year for the first time in 36 years and we beat Michigan for the first time in 20 years, and it’s the only time we’ve ever beaten them both in the same season.

“Those wins were really sweet because it erased a lot of years of losing against those two programs. That was 30-something years ago, but I can remember a lot about those games. And beating Ohio State was really special, because there was a lot of bad blood there.’’

There was. Oh yes, there was a lot of bad blood.

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Why Woody Hayes hated Indiana

Woody Hayes was a great football coach at Ohio State for 28 years, but he was also a grumpy old man. Even when he was young, he was a grumpy old man.

Mallory worked for him as an assistant at Ohio State in the 1960s, and he came to Indiana in 1984 after successful stops at Miami of Ohio, Colorado and Northern Illinois. He wanted to beat the hell out of Woody and the Buckeyes when he got here, because he knew from experience that Hayes wanted to beat the hell out of him and the Hoosiers.

Woody Hayes hated Indiana. And that hatred ran deep, right from his first year as a head coach at Ohio State in 1951.

“Bill, of course, worked for Woody at Ohio State and he saw first-hand how much he hated Indiana,’’ Fischer said during a lengthy interview this week. “Bill used to tell the story about how during Woody’s first year, he got beat by Indiana (32-10 to a bad IU team that only won two games that season) and after the game he was so angry that he was frothing at the mouth.

“He was so mad that he swore he would NEVER lose to Indiana ever again. And, of course, he didn’t.’’

Indiana’s history with Ohio State is horrific. Since 1914, Indiana is 7-74-4 against the Buckeyes. Hayes stayed true to his word and never lost to Indiana, going 22-0-1 until he was fired in 1978 for punching a Clemson player in a bowl game.

Hayes died in March of 1987 and, seven months later, Indiana finally did beat Ohio State, winning in Columbus 31-10 against a very good Buckeyes team that was ranked No. 9 in the country at the time.

Hayes almost certainly rolled over in his grave that day. Ohio State coach Earle Bruce called it “the darkest day in Ohio State football history.’’ He was fired a few months later.

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Mallory loved clobbering the Buckeyes

Indiana went into that 1987 game confident they could play with Ohio State because they felt like they should have won a year earlier. They lost 24-22 in Bloomington under some bizarre circumstances.

In 1986, Pete Stoyanovich was Indiana’s kicker, and he was one of the best in the country who went on to a great NFL career. But just prior to the Ohio State game, Stoyanovich’s father killed his mother. A grieving 19-year-old went home to Michigan to be with his brother and sister, and be surrounded by family.

With Stoyanovich gone, Indiana had to rely on a walk-on kicker named Jay Tuttle in the Ohio State game. The name might sound famiiar.

“Jay is Jack Tuttle’s dad,’’ Fischer said of Indiana’s current backup quarterback to transferred to IU from Utah during the offseason. “Well, Jay, he missed two field goal attempts in that game, and certainly, those points would have made a difference. Pete came back the next week and I think those were the only kicks Jay ever tried in an Indiana uniform.

“So when ‘87 rolled around, they were ready and they knew they could beat Ohio State. Indiana was a tough, physical team, and they had more talent that they had had in years. It was 10-10 at the half, but then Indiana just ran away with it from there and won 31-10 in Columbus. They believed they could out-tough them, and that came from Bill. He could make you believe, and that was an amazing trait.’’

The Hoosiers celebrated right there in Columbus like there was no tomorrow. They were thrilled to win — finally — after not beating Ohio State in 36 years. And the players were mostly happy for Mallory, who got his signature win over Ohio State.

Anthony Thompson is the greatest running back in Indiana football history. (Photo courtesy of IU Athletics) 

“He gave us the greatest pep talk ever that day in Columbus,’’ Jackson said. “He kept telling us what we came here to do, not to hang with them but to beat them. We were all on the same page. We had this pure passion to do something special, because we were the doormats before then. But we were well prepared and focused, and we really took it to them.

“There was one play that summed up the whole game. Anthony Thompson hit a hole hard, and out in the open field, he just barreled over a guy. Just ran him right over. He was a great, great player, and he was so tough.’’

Jackson said that Mallory was actually upset after the game when he heard about Earle Bruce’s “darkest day’’ comment.

“It was hilarious,’’ Jackson said. “Coach Mallory had heard about it and he’s like, ‘You tell Earle Bruce to stop his crying and tell him that we just kicked his ass.' We all loved it.’’

The Hoosiers lost by four points in 1989 and tied in 1990, erasing a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter.

The 1988 win might have been Mallory’s finest moment. They simply destroyed Ohio State in Bloomington, winning 41-7 much to the delight of Hoosiers fans. Mallory was carried off the field when the game was over.

“There wasn’t a single guy on that team who didn’t revere and respect Bill,’’ Fischer said of Mallory, who died last year just five days shy of his 83rd birthday. “He was a tough guy, no pushover, but he really cared about his players, on and off the football field.’’

That ‘88 win, of course, was the last one that Indiana has in this series. Since then, they have lost 24 straight games. They have hung around for a while lately, but they haven’t been able to finish them off.

Indiana has recruited better the past couple of years and there’s renewed optimism that the Hoosiers can actually end this losing streak on Saturday. The streak is now 31 years long.

“I can see it coming with team, and with Coach Allen,’’ Jackson said. “They’ve got a lot of talent, and they’ve been recruiting a lot of guys from down here in Florida. They’ve got confident DBs and receivers, and they have a lot of seniors on the offensive line.

“I hope they can end that streak. We had so much fun doing it, and I’m sure they’d love it too.’’