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Ohio v. Michigan Rivalry Started Before the Football Games A (Michigan Radio) - In 1833, Michigan was still a territory, while Ohio had long been a state. When Michigan started making its pitch for statehood, the surveyors had to figure out exactly where Michigan ended, and Ohio began. They soon discovered they'd gotten it wrong the first time: Toledo was rightly in Michigan.

No big deal, you say? Well, don't forget: at that time, the main thoroughfare between the Northeast and the Midwest was the Erie Canal. And Toledo was a major stop.

When Michigan claimed it, Ohio blocked Michigan's bid for statehood. Former president John Adams wrote, "Never in the course of my life have I known a controversy of which all the right was so clearly on one side and all the power was so overwhelmingly on the other."

So, Michigan was right - but weak. And thus began the War of Toledo. Hundreds of thousands were raised for troops on both sides, they marched into Toledo, and then nothing happened -- except for a few bar fights -- until Monroe County Deputy Sheriff Joseph Wood traveled south to do some arrestin'.

This is where it gets a little murky. Some say he traveled to Perrysburg to arrest Benjamin Franklin Stickney for the treasonous act of voting in an Ohio election. Others say he traveled to a Toledo tavern to arrest one of Stickney's sons - creatively named, I'm not kidding, One Stickney, and Two Stickney. Well, that's one way to keep track of them, I suppose - and to bolster stereotypes.

One thing for sure, though, when Wood stepped forward to arrest a Stickney, Two Stickney stuck em - right in the thigh, with a pen knife. And that marked the only casualty of the great Toledo War.

President Andrew Jackson, tired of the silliness, offered Michigan a deal: Give Toledo back to Ohio, and we'll give you statehood. We'll even throw in the Upper Peninsula. They took it, but one Michigan politician wondered: "I wonder why they didn't give us a slice of the moon? It would have been more valuable."

Their attitude toward the UP changed when they discovered iron and copper - but their attitude toward Ohio did not.

The differences deepened during the migration to both states. Michigan was settled by upstate New York industrialists. Ohio was settled by Virginia farmers -- two distinct groups of people, which only adds to the stereotypes of the schools. Ah, the conceit of small differences.

How do you handle such hostility? With a good old-fashioned football game, that's how. Michigan started playing Ohio State in 1897 - but it didn't count for much. Michigan won or tied the first 14 games, and Ohio State wasn't even in the Big Ten anyway.

But things started getting interesting in 1907 - the year Michigan left the Big Ten over a rules dispute. Ohio State took Michigan's place in 1912, so when Michigan returned to the league in 1918, the rivalry was really on.

Since then, the Wolverines have beaten Ohio State 45 times, and the Buckeyes have returned the favor 42 times - about as close as you can get.

No matter who wins tomorrow, there will be blood, sweat and tears - but it still beats taking a pen knife in your thigh.
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