Chris Solari

Lansing State Journal

Thirty seconds felt like a lifetime, the next hour like an eternity in purgatory.

Forty years later, it all seems like yesterday to the men who were in the middle of one of the most stunning and surreal scenes in Spartan Stadium history.

Michigan State players jumped for joy as the scoreboard light bulbs flashed to zero. Moments later, Ohio State's guys were doing the same.

One referee signaled a touchdown. Another waved his arms, determining the game had ended. Woody Hayes' volatile temper boiled over as he back-handed an MSU fan who had rushed the field.

All Pat McClowry knew was he and the rest of the Spartans' defense had stopped Harold "Champ'' Henson at the goal line when it mattered most. And in the process, they had just pulled off perhaps the greatest upset in school history.

Final score: Michigan State 16, No. 1 Ohio State 13.

Or was it? It would take 46 minutes to find out for sure.

One phrase from Sports Illustrated summed up what happened that afternoon, Nov. 9, 1974, in East Lansing: "The Bizarre Bowl." MSU's victory over the top-ranked Buckeyes proved to be theater of the absurd, all right. Confirmation of the outcome wouldn't be known until then-Big Ten Commissioner Wayne Duke made his ruling after consulting with officials, who had quickly fled the stadium.

"It was chaos," former running back Levi Jackson, who scored MSU's winning touchdown, recalled this week. "I was thinking, 'I know they can't beat us. Out of all the things in the world, they can't take this from us.'"

They didn't. But all of the controversy assured that this game — for both teams — would be ingrained in the players' minds forever.

BUZZ TO BATTLE

Former Michigan football star Gerald Ford had taken over as President three months earlier. Troops the players' ages were finally returning home from Vietnam. And the week leading up to that MSU-OSU game in 1974 generated an immense anticipation around East Lansing, even though the Spartans were just 4-3-1 and a four-touchdown underdog.

"I think much of the hype had to do with them being undefeated and No. 1 in the country," said MSU offensive lineman Charlie Wilson, now an associated professor at Olivet College.

For Ohio State, averaging 45 points in its first eight victories that season, it was just another ho-hum week and opponent that it planned to steamroll. The Buckeyes had won 19 consecutive regular-season games at that point. Their last Big Ten loss was in 1972 to the Spartans in East Lansing, which was running back Brian Baschnagel's freshman year.

"My memories, at least up in East Lansing, weren't the best of memories," said Baschnagel, who was a junior in 1974 and now lives and works in the Chicago area. "Woody really hyped it up and tried to emotionally get us prepared for that game."

The buzzing crowd of 78,533 filed into Spartan Stadium for the noon kickoff, which was broadcast on ABC — former MSU coach Duffy Daugherty was the color announcer, alongside play-by-play man Chris Schenkel. It was, as Jackson called it, "a glorious day" for football, with unseasonably warm temperatures climbing into the low 60s by kickoff.

Fans in the stands and the television audience at home watched the two teams slug it out early, trading first-half field goals to go into halftime tied at 3-3 thanks to MSU recovering two Ohio State fumbles. The Buckeyes would take the lead on Tom Klaban's 20-yard kick midway through the third quarter, then made it 13-3 after Henson plowed up the middle for a 1-yard TD with 9:03 to play.

That changed in a hurry.

INTO MSU LORE

The Spartans answered on their next drive, with quarterback Charlie Baggett throwing a 44-yard touchdown pass to Mike Jones. The two-point conversion pass to Jackson failed, making it 13-9 with 5:30 remaining.

MSU's defense rose to the occasion with a quick three-and-out, stopping the Buckeyes a yard short of the first down. Tom Skladany's booming 51-yard punt yielded only a 2-yard return, and the Spartans took over again at their own 12.

The south end zone, 88 yards away, would become a mob scene seconds later.

On the next snap, Jackson took a handoff from Baggett and sprinted into Spartan history. He started moving right, cut to his left and burst through a big hole between center Charlie Ane and right guard Wilson, with another seal block from tackle Greg Croxton. At the 25, Jackson gave a hesitation fake that left OSU safety Bruce Ruhl grasping at air. Jackson, as he described, was "off to the races."

It seemed like the entire crowd swallowed him whole after he scored, with his teammates not far behind.

"I thought I was gonna get killed," Jackson remembered. "Before I could turn around in the end zone, they were there. It was just a sea of people, and then you couldn't see people any more. I thought I was going to end it right there."

With 3:17 remaining, Spartan Stadium had turned into a cauldron of celebration. MSU almost improbably had taken a 16-13 lead.

But Ohio State still had one more chance, setting up one of the most memorable and disputed finishes in the history of both schools.

BUCKEYES MARCH

Daugherty, before the Buckeyes' final drive, announced what was to come next: "Woody won't go for the tie," he predicted, "Woody Hayes will go for the 6 points."

The Buckeyes started with a play that, had current review rules been in effect, would have rendered any argument about the final seconds moot.

After Archie Griffin's kickoff return gave them the ball at their own 29, quarterback Cornelius Greene dropped back to pass on first down and spotted the running back breaking free to his right. MSU's Terry McClowry dove in front and appeared to intercept the pass. As if foreshadowing the ending, two referees signaled interception while one waved it off, claiming the ball hit the turf. It was ruled incomplete.

"I used to see him make that same catch in the street by our house in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, without any protection," said Pat McClowry, Terry's twin brother and fellow linebacker. "He did that a million times. I know he made that (interception)."

On the next play, Griffin — the eventual Heisman Trophy winner — broke free for 31 of his game-high 140 yards, with Pat McClowry dragging him down from behind in MSU territory.

The clocked kept rolling, and so did Ohio State's offense. Henson for 3 yards, Greene back-to-back for 5 and then an elusive 9-yarder on third-and-2 for the first down. MSU's defensive players were gasping for air, hands on hips and tilted over at their waists. Less than two minutes remained, and the Buckeyes already were at the Spartans' 23.

After an incomplete pass, Greene hit David Hazel for 9 yards, down to the 14. In the announcer's booth, Daugherty pointed out that the Buckeyes had just one timeout left with 1:22 left.

Henson picked up 3 yards and a first down, then Griffin ran for 5 more to get to the MSU 6. Hayes called that final timeout. Only 40 seconds remained.

Henson got the call on a draw play and powered his way to the 1. Officials brought out the chains for a measurement, awarding the Buckeyes the first down with 29 seconds remaining. The clock again began to roll once the ball was set.

The final showdown was about to begin.

TICK, TICK, TICK

Greene stepped under center again, with Griffin, Henson and Baschnagel behind him. He handed the ball to Henson, who darted for the line. He was met with a crash. Pat McClowry's helmet slammed into Henson's first. Then Jim Taubert and Kim Rowekamp met him low. Then Terry McClowry joined his brother and others in hitting Henson high.

"I hit Champ Henson right in the head," Pat McClowry recalled, "and my eyeballs fell on the goal line. I knew his head didn't get in."

Henson, now a county commissioner in Ohio, still contends he crossed the plane. "I saw the goal line behind our players. We pushed them back, I went and got what I thought was the touchdown. Evidently not."

Officials didn't signal a touchdown. The ball was marked down at the half-yard line and the clock kept going. OSU players — after an extended unpiling from the Spartans, who were taking their time getting up — looked around confused, trying to hurry to the line for one final play. The ball got snapped with players moving, bounced off Greene's hands and right to Baschnagel. He landed on it in the end zone.

One referee signaled touchdown. Two others said time had expired. Away the zebras darted off into the wilderness, as Spartan Stadium's floor became a jungle of fans.

"The officials waved that they didn't get the last play off and the game was over. There was no question about that," MSU coach Denny Stolz recalled this week. "We left the field, Ohio State left the field. There was total bedlam going on."

What happened next, Stolz said, is "what makes it a legend."

NOT SO FAST

Commissioner Duke had been in the press box and ordered the teams to stick around as he looked for the officials, attempting to figure out what happened in those final frantic seconds in an era before replay. A stadium announcement told fans to stay in their seats.

"He was gonna go talk to the officials — it's the most idiotic thing," Stolz said of Duke. "This ACTUALLY happened by a Big Ten commissioner. The story is he ran over to the Kellogg Center trying to find the officials. Burt Smith was our athletic director then, and when we were in the locker room, I told him, 'They can find all the officials they want. They ruled the game over, we're not coming back — that's for damned sure.'"

Legendary coach Hayes ranted and raved and made his players wait in the tunnel, certain they would go back onto the field for one final play. After they entered the locker room, Duke eventually came and told Hayes that, indeed, MSU had won.

And then …

"Woody went berserk," said Greene, who is now a coach at St. Albans School in his hometown of Washington D.C. "He immediately went after the commissioner verbally and told him that we got hosed. Coach wanted to battle. He told us to put on our helmets, and let's battle them the right way.

"It was just so heartbreaking to find out 46 minutes after a game that you lost. And then you really find out that football really is a game of inches."

Baschnagel admits that he never thought his recovery in the end zone would be ruled a touchdown.

"The reality is, we didn't get the play off in time and we were in motion anyway. As far as that play is concerned, it wouldn't have been a legal play anyway," he said. "The real question was, should the officials should have stopped the clock and let us get set, because the Michigan State players had been holding us down."

THE AFTERMATH

MSU, not permitted to go to a bowl game due to conference rules at the time, finished with five straight wins for a 7-3-1 record. A 21-21 tie against Illinois prevented the Spartans from being part of a three-way split for the Big Ten title. They would have earned the Rose Bowl berth, since Ohio State and Michigan had gone more recently.

The Buckeyes wouldn't lose again until the Rose Bowl, finishing 10-2 after beating Michigan in the season finale to tie U-M for the title and earn the postseason berth. But that blemish against MSU still bothers them, even today.

"It's just one of those crazy things. You can blame the officials all you want¸but in reality, that game never should have been that close," Henson said. "That was the best game that they ever played and the worst game that we ever played. It just happened on the same day."

A number of players from both teams will return to the site of the madness next Saturday, when the current Spartans and Buckeyes again meet in a highly anticipated showdown with Big Ten and national implications. They'll assuredly reminisce over that beautiful November day in 1974 and, as they have for years, continue to sort out the details.

With one thing certain, after 46 minutes and 40 years.

"Beating Ohio State when they were No. 1," Taubert said, "that's the highlight of my career at Michigan State, other than being a Spartan."

Saturday's game

Ohio State at Michigan State

When: 8 p.m.

• TV/Radio: ABC/Spartan Sports Network, including WJIM 1240-AM and WMMQ 94.9-FM